Verse 20 That is, while they were held excused from positive acts of conformity with the Jewish ceremonial law, they were bound to abstain from all those practices of paganism, which were either immoral in themselves, or were held in peculiar abhorrence by Jews. Thus the Jews were not to impose the burdens of their ceremonial law upon the Gentile converts, nor were the Gentile converts to do any thing which should countenance idolatry, or shock the feelings of their Jewish brethren.