Opus 2011-241, Monday Pulpit: Paul Broke the Rules

Sunday the theme was witnessing.  The pastor was working through the different methods that Paul used to spread the gospel.  The title was “Paul Broke the Rules!”  How did Paul break the rules?  One way that stood out to me emerged from this verse:

(Acts 16:37 NAS77)  But Paul said to them, "They have beaten us in public without trial, men who are Romans, and have thrown us into prison; and now are they sending us away secretly? No indeed! But let them come themselves and bring us out."

We are taught to be meek and mild.  We are taught not to stand up for our rights.  We are to turn the other cheek and so forth.  Following that paradigm, Paul would have quietly disappeared into the shadows when they turned him loose from prison.  That is not what he did. 

Paul was a Roman citizen.  He had been mistreated.  He demanded that the Roman officials come and humble themselves after they had mistreated him.

It is possible that this could be taken too far but I think the present situation has gone the opposite direction.  We have certain rights.  We have rights guaranteed in the Constitution and yet when we are told to take off our crosses or hide our Bibles we meekly comply as if we lived in some banana republic run by a tin pot dictator.  Not that there is anything wrong with bananas or tin pots.

There is a time to turn the other cheek.  Jesus told us to do so.  We are to be servants and have attitudes of forgiveness and patience.  We also need to understand that there are times to stand up and be counted even if it makes other people uncomfortable.  There are times to be aggressive.

Pray that we will not avoid confrontation out of fear and not seek it out of pride.

homo unius libri