Loved or Hated

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

LOVED OR HATED

Acts 7:57-60

57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep.

NIV

The Sanhedrin were exceptionally closed minded to anything which departed from their own concepts of religion and the law. They could not tolerate anyone who they thought was more spiritual then they thought they were. It seems they did not deliberate on the words of Stephen to determine if there was any validity in what he said. They surely did not do any self-examination but instead starting yelling and rushed at him dragging him out of the city and began stoning him. We are not sure how far they had to drag him to get out of the city, but we can be sure it was more then a couple of steps. We can also be sure that it was not an organized judgment and procession to the place to stoning. This was a mob of upset angry religious leaders, out of control of their own emotions, physically dragging a man through the streets, yelling and screaming at him all the way to the place they could, according to their law, stone him to death. What sort of life lesson, life application can we make from this? Certainly no one is going to drag us through the streets in order to stone us because of our faith, at least not here in our country. It appears elsewhere in the world that is exactly what is happening. Convert the way they believe or die. Maybe someday that will be the case in our country, but for now we are tolerated, maybe even liked by those who oppose our faith, of course we are not accusing them of the things Stephen accused the members of the Sanhedrin. Perhaps if we did accuse them of always resisting the Holy Spirit, perhaps they would not be so tolerate of us. Maybe we are just to accepting of their lifestyle, hoping they will come to Christ because we are nice people who go to church on Sunday morning. Yes, we should not be judgmental, but Stephen called it as he say it. Was he judging them, or just trying to convince them of their wrong lifestyle and need to see the truth about God and about Jesus being the Messiah, the Anointed One? Isn’t that what we are supposed to do, tell people about God, and about Jesus being the Messiah, the Anointed One, and the Savior? How can we tell people they need to repent to be saved if we do not tell them their ways are wrong? How are they going to know there sin has condemned them, if they are not told? It seems we the church in general have moved into this mood of thinking we can love them into the kingdom, yet they need to hear the message Stephan proclaimed to those of the Sanhedrin. Messages about Christian living are great from the pulpit for believers, but we need to be proclaiming the message of salvation to the world, outside the walls of the church building. The question is, how do we do that? What does that look like? Where do we do that? When do we do it and to who do we speak to? Is it necessary to establish a relationship with them before we tell them they are lost without Christ? What kind of relationship existed between Stephan and the members of the Sanhedrin? Stephen was a man full of faith, full of the Holy Spirit, full of the influence of God on his heart, and full of God’s power and wisdom. He did great things among the people and because he was living his faith out loud, those like the members of the Sanhedrin could not tolerate him and needed to put him to death, so they could continue living their own concept of religion. It would seem we might be hated more than loved or tolerated if we were a little more like Stephan rather than like those who would be like the members of the Sanhedrin, convinced their way of resisting the Holy Spirit is alright. So are we loved or hated?