Wednesday 19 Nov 2014

November 19: Acts 23:1-5

Key Verse: Acts 23:3
Then Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! For you sit to judge me according to the law, and do you command me to be struck contrary to the law?”

Devotion:
Paul obviously was a man who stuck to his principles; they may have been the wrong principles to stick to in the beginning as he followed religious ways instead of God’s ways, but he still stuck to what he believed was right. We can take a good long look at our lives and ask the question: do we actually stand up for what we believe? Do we stick to what we see as the truth and tell others about it? Or do we keep it to ourselves and hope that nobody disturbs us?

Paul was not afraid to stand up and say what he believed, even in from of the council. He was not shy at letting everyone know what he thought, but even in that way he still obeyed the law. When he got to know God’s real intentions through Christ, he stuck to those laws even more ardently; so much so that he spoke out toward the high priest (unknowingly). We the mistake was pointed out he apologised, but carried on trying to get them to understand they were following religion now and not following God!

I wonder what we would do if we were placed in a crowd of people of authority and knew that they were doing things wrong. Would we keep quiet and hope that they do change their ways? Would we speak out and tell people they need to change their ways without naming names? Would we speak directly to the people and tell them what they were doing wrong? We think we know the answer, but when placed in that position, the reaction we show is often quite different!

God wants us to be able to uphold the truth at all times. He wants us to be able to share the gospel to everyone. He wants us to be able to make friends and influence people. What we do may often be the wrong thing but by doing something (or nothing) we learn what we have done and we move on from there. When we realise what we should be doing we need to ask God for strength and protection so we can be bold and speak for Him!

Points to Ponder:
Do you keep quiet in crowds?

Do people know you as a Christian?