Proverb 20:27 The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly.

Truth is revealed literally, allegorically or metaphorically. I do not care how this shall happen as long as truth is revealed. In the literal sense, you have the word candle which is a picture of the spirit of man. What picture is in your mind? A candle wick and wax, shaped like a stick, tapered, to be set on a stand? I would agree that this is the first and most familiar image one has of a candle. I would remind you that the candle of the time of this writing in proverbs was not of that design. It was a lamp.

This lamp was of a design to hold oil, which was the source of illumination. It was not illumination, only the fuel for the fire. The oil was not and is not a part of the lamp design. You can have a lamp without oil. This is verified in scripture in the telling of with wide virgins.

Matthew 25:3 They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:

They were instructed to go and purchase oil for their lamps. So the oil is placed in the vessel and is not a part of the original design but had a place in the function of the lamp. The lamp was designed to contain the oil, but the oil is not the lamp.

Exodus 31:3 And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship,

The oil is a representation of the spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. This lamp oil is the Holy Spirit. Spirit is of God, we are but a vessel, but there is one thing missing, ignition. Can a lamp with oil lite itself? No.

Psalm 119:154 Plead my cause, and deliver me: quicken me according to thy word.

John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

The Word is the ignition source. No lamp is lite without it.

Acts 15:27-29 (NASB) “Therefore we have sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will also report the same things by word of mouth. “For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials:  that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication; if you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well. Farewell.”

Recently I have been having discussions over foundational doctrines. It seemed to me that the next step in this progression would be to identify the essentials. Obvious foundational doctrines are firm ground, our firm foundation, truths that are immutable. So what defines essentials?

Here in Acts 15 we discover essential language used in the NASB version of the bible. The KJV identifies them as “most excellent”. This is nothing to quibble over if we can discover what it is that these essential or most excellent instructions do for us. In that we discover the answer.

Adherence to essential instructions keep us from becoming entangled in things which will bind us, put or liberties at risk, and effect our witness. I say witness because of the last bit of passage here that say “you will do well”. The lost observing our behavior is our witness.

Many of these instructions are contained within the Old Testament and identified as law. It is the New Testament in which we live and the law has completed its good work in us and now that our relationship with the God Triune is established in Christ Jesus, these instructions take on a new language. They have been transitioned from law to essentials. Our noncompliance no longer puts us at risk of losing salvation.

Noncompliance does however put us at risk of slow growth, dangerous entanglements, and a failing witness performance.

Romans 2:17-21 But if you bear the name “Jew” and rely upon the Law and boast in God, and know His will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth,  you, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal?