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While the leadership of the Jewish-Christian community rejoices over Paul’s ministry to Gentiles (vv.19-20), they are more concerned that Christian Jews, who are zealous for the law (their means of peaceful coexistence with Judaism), believe Paul teaches Jews who become Christians to renounce their Judaism (vv.20-21). The solution is for Paul to join four Christian Jews who have undertaken the Nazirite vow (Nu 6; cf. Ac 18:18). As one of the strictest Jewish vows of holiness under the law, this would prove to everyone the depth of Paul’s Judaism.
By his reiteration of the action of the Jerusalem council (v.25), James emphasizes that while Gentiles do not have to become Jews to be Christians, Jews do remain Jews, and, by implication, he seems to indicate that they still live under the Law of Moses. The hardening of this position led Jewish Christians to subordinate faith in Christ to observance of the law, a position attacked by the writer of Hebrews. Often when God does something new, his people attempt to domesticate it under the old, familiar structures, retaining the form of godliness but avoiding its radical transformation.