Acts 21:22

Acts 21:22 says, What is it therefore? the multitude must needs come together: for they will hear that thou art come.  The elders asked Paul to do as they said, stating that the multitude needed to come together, but under the law.  If anyone ask us to give up our believe that salvation comes through anything other than Christ alone, we best never give up our belief for the sake of unity.  Verse twenty-three adds, Do therefore this that we say to thee: We have four men which have a vow on them;  Verse twenty-four continues, Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law.  Verse twenty-five concludes, As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication.  The elders said there were four men that had a vow, so Paul was to take them and purify them and himself.  I do not see where they told Paul that this was what God had instructed them to do. They had a plan to placate the Jewish Christians.  Notice also that Paul had not made this vow, whatever it was, but he was being asked to act as though he had.  I believe that if this were what God wanted Paul to do, then the Holy Spirit would have already led him to this decision.  We can never let others dictate what actions we are to take for God.  They did not say that there was a problem with the Jewish Christians, and they needed Paul to pray with them for a solution. Verse twenty-six says, Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification, until that an offering should be offered for every one of them.  Paul agreed to the purification ritual.  He took the men the next day and purifying himself with them entered the temple, signifying the days of purification until an offering could be giving for each of them.  We must realize that we cannot purify ourselves before God. The only purification of sin is faith in Jesus Christ.  Neither can we buy purification from sin, for ourselves or for others. Verse twenty-seven adds, And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him,  Then, when the seven days were nearly ended, the Jews saw Paul in the temple and laid hands on him.  The plan of the elders was to make Paul more acceptable to the Jewish Christians. How they figured this would make him acceptable to the non-Christian Jews is hard to understand. As Christians, we cannot just go through meaningless rituals to appease others.