Chapters 21-23 focus on Paul's journey to Jerusalem and the events that will eventually lead to his imprisonment and travel to Rome. Along the way Christ followers worry for Paul, and he is confronted with prophecies that he will be jailed. Yet, Paul will not back down and continues on to Rome.
Paul had begun his ministry to Jews, but he soon discovered that his greater calling most often was to Gentiles. He had seen many Gentiles come to faith in Jesus Christ. And following the instructions from the earlier Jerusalem council (Acts 15), he had not required these Gentile converts to take on any of the religious requirements of Jews. This would have turned salvation by grace through faith into salvation by doing the right works, and this was not what Jesus or the apostles taught. Yet, this angered many Jews who thought he was subverting Judaism. So, they badgered him, beat him, ran him out towns, and even tried to stone him to death.
Now in Jerusalem, Paul was trying to demonstrate, as a Jewish follower of Christ, that he still fulfilled the Jewish Law, when Jews from what is modern-day Turkey arrived and stirred up a mob against him with lies. Paul is eventually arrested by the Roman authorities. When it is discovered that more than forty Jews had taken an oath to kill Paul, the Roman commander sent Paul west to the Roman city of Caesarea on the Mediterranean Sea. There, Governor Felix would hear Paul's case, alongside the complaints of the Jews.
It's interesting to me just how zealous these Jews were, yet how little love they show. I'm not saying false teaching should ever be completely ignored, for several places in the New Testament are warnings against false teachers. But, in the early church there was no sense of killing these false teachers - turn them out, absolutely, but don't harm them, for they were still called to love them. Sometimes making too much of false teachers actually gives them a platform to advance their cause.
The great Jewish teacher and Pharisee Gamaliel had cautioned against these very actions regarding the early Christians in Acts 5:38-39 (NLT): "'So my advice is, leave these men alone. Let them go. If they are planning and doing these things merely on their own, it will be overthrown. But if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You may even find yourselves fighting against God.'"
And now the Jews really were fighting God, though they didn't realize it. I've found it wise to never rush to quick decisions regarding the faith of others. God doesn't just work in and through me, and His ways are not my ways. The Bible calls Christ followers to unity, but not uniformity. I don't want to major on the minors. That doesn't mean there aren't beliefs and doctrines worth fighting for, but too often we try to make mountains out of molehills. Doctrines establish the foul lines - what's inbounds and what's out-of-bounds - but they leave a fair amount of room for discussion and even disagreement that don't compromise overall unity. Love is still the underlying motive in everything.
I read this week about a church in Virginia that planned to burn translations of the Bible that weren't the King James Version (KJV), as well as works by Billy Graham and Rick Warren, for this church believed these two men had strayed from the Bible. I don't know about you, but I'd love to have just a smidgen of the faith and love of these two great men of God. This church's narrow approach to the Gospel only serves the enemy. When Christians fight among ourselves, we hurt our witness to those outside the faith. Actions like this burning make us look like buffoons. I'm ok if you want to disagree, but can't we disagree agreeably, in the spirit of Christ and his love? Paul would talk about this with the Corinthians:
"If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing." (1 Corinthians 13:1-3 NLT2)
Jesus hung on the cross, but he did not revile his tormentors - instead he asked the Father to forgive them. He always loved, and if we can't love, we aren't followers of Christ. That doesn't mean it's easy, and we definitely require the work of the Holy Spirit in us to move in this direction. And love doesn't mean anything goes. But, the attitude of love should undergird all our actions and attitudes. If the Jews had lived this love, they might have still disagreed with Paul, they might even have banished him from the Temple and synagogues, but no one would be taking a vow to kill him.
Likewise, today Christ followers are still called to love. We may disagree and even believe that another person's beliefs and teachings are beyond the bounds of Christianity, but that doesn't give us permission to stop loving them. In fact, when it's hardest to love another, when they put us down and seek our harm is the very time we must most love. The kind of love Jesus calls us to is a choice, a decision, not a feeling, and as a choice, it requires action on our part. We're called to choose love and act on it even when we fundamentally disagree with another, even when they have hurt us, or we find ourselves in the same boat with the Jews who badgered and threatened Paul.
The witness of love has never been overcome. Paul never stopped loving. Jesus never stopped loving. And neither can we! It's radical - I know! But it's also right!
