Acts 15:5

"But": Not everyone is thrilled with such news. While many Christians were rejoicing, some in Jerusalem were only filled with criticism. "Some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed": They had become Christians but it is clear that they had not abandoned all their old Jewish beliefs. "They may believe Jesus is indeed the Messiah; but they picture Him as the Messiah only for. glorified Judaism from which Gentiles are to be excluded, unless they conform rigidly to the Law of Moses" (Reese p. 533). McGarvey feels that "we ascertain that when they despaired of destroying the church by persecution from without, they deliberately confessed Christ and came into the church for the purpose of controlling it from within" (pp. 58-59). Paul will call them "false brethren", who had sneaked into the church (Galatians 2:4), for the purpose of trying to bring the church back into the bondage of Judaism.