Acts 15:30
So when they were dismissed, they came to Antioch: and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the epistle: So when they were dismissed, they came to Antioch: and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the epistle:
This verse belongs to the settlement of the dispute over whether Gentile believers and converts must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses, the entire ceremonial law, in order to be saved. Jewish believers from Judea promoted that requirement, while Paul and Barnabas opposed imposing it on Gentiles. The dispute was settled as the apostles and elders counseled together and made room for the Holy Spirit to guide rather than by imposing church authority. After hearing Paul's account of his conversion and God's work among the Gentiles, with the Spirit bearing witness to his testimony, the council set aside its prejudice and agreed with Paul's position.
Antioch in Syria was the place from which Paul and Barnabas had been sent forth on their mission, to which they now returned to assemble the believers there. Its church was large and growing, a center of missionary activity and one of the most important groups of Christian believers, made up of many classes of people from among both Jews and Gentiles. After the council's decision, its letter, address, and epistle expressing that agreement was sent to the churches and brought and delivered to the multitude of believers gathered together at Antioch. It was delivered by Paul, Barnabas, Judas, and Silas.
The letter ended the controversy over circumcision and the ceremonial law for Gentile converts. It instructed them to abstain from food offered to idols, from blood, from strangled meat, and from sexual immorality, and to live holy lives. The decision brought consolation and lasting unity. The chapter presents the simple church organization and order seen here as ordained for the unity and perfection of the church. The council's decision concerning Gentile converts and the ceremonial law remained in force and had been sanctioned by the Holy Spirit, while the later advice to Paul to observe ceremonial requirements was inconsistent with it and was prompted by fear of persecution, not by the Spirit.