Tuesday, August 1, 2017
Acts 13:44-45 On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of God. When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began contradicting what Paul was saying, and blaspheming.
IMPORTANT DIFFERENCES
It was a diverse group to which Paul spoke in the synagogue of Antioch in Pisidia. But Paul's presentation did not discuss the material differences between them. He did not discuss cultural differences: food, medicine, housing, educational systems. There was no political discussion about Roman authority.
Instead, Paul dealt with the things that are central to all humanity: God, life, and what separates people from them, sin. It was not that Paul held material things in contempt. He himself was not ashamed to work at a trade. But he was not there to show them how to make tents. The Savior that he proclaimed went beyond the incidentals by which people differ from one another.
That is why both Jews and non-Jews could be interested in the Jewish history that Paul presented, and why the next Sabbath most of the town was gathered to hear Paul and Barnabas. That's when the Jews began to show their jealousy, and some important differences appeared. The Jewish contingent began contradicting to the point of reviling the Savior and the grace of God. They were jealous, but the Gentiles were glad to hear the good news.
There are many material differences between people that are really immaterial. But there are some differences which can come between us and the God who gives us life. As we consider the lives that we have been given and that still lie before us, God grant us the wisdom to discern the importance of the eternal blessings, and to "continue in the grace of God."
