Paul had been eagerly anticipating his return to
What did Paul find waiting for him when he arrived in
They have been informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs.
Yep, people had been talking. And what "they" were saying was that Paul had been teaching Jews to give up Jewish practices and traditions. What "they" were saying was that Paul was on a mission to completely eradicate their Jewish heritage. That is what they were saying. But that was definitely NOT what Paul had been saying at all! He taught Gentiles that they did not have to follow Jewish customs or proselyte to Jewish faith. He taught Jews that they were not to judge Gentiles as inferior because they were not Jews nor kept Jewish law. Not only did Paul not try to inhibit Jewish Christians from continuing Jewish practices, he himself participated in those practices (see Acts 18:18). The entire Jewish church was suspicious of Paul because of all the things that "they" were saying. His entire "peace mission" to the Jewish church was compromised because of what they were saying.
Historian George Bancroft once said, “Truth is not exciting enough to those who depend on the characters and lives of their neighbors for all their amusement.” Unfortunately, far too many of us seem to depend on our neighbors for amusement. How many people have, like Paul, been hurt because the rest of us mindless listen to and pass on what they are saying. Besides being a sin against God (see Rom. 1:29, 2 Cor. 12:20), gossip undermines the work God is able to do through and among his church. The reason that many refuse to seek help at church with their struggles is because they fear the rumor mill. Many suffer in silence, choosing to keep their pain hidden, because they don't want to be the subject of gossip. If Paul was derailed by the rumor mill, how much damage can it do to us? The next time sometimes begins to tell you something that “they” are saying, why not remind them about what God says?
2 comments:
Its so difficult to recognize that gossip doesn’t have to arise to a slanderous nature to be gossip and to be harmful. Just remember that the close friend or sister or brother to whom we are just mentioning a slight “unpleasantry” about someone else, may be looking for that one person to confide a problem they are suffering with, in hope for confidence and help. Yet they fear that you will judge them, however so innocently, just as you are currently judging the one whom you speak about. As the brother preached on Wednesday night, we are all “deadbeats”. It would do us good to remember what is written in Romans 3:9-11
9 What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. 10 As it is written:
"There is no one righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands,
no one who seeks God.
Recognizing who we are and are not, we’d know that we “are no better than anyone else”. In the last few versus of Romans 4 about our father Abraham: “22 This is why "it was credited to him as righteousness." 23 The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone, 24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness — for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” We are all worms without His death and His justification.
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