Poison

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

POISON

Acts 14:1-7

14:1 At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed. 2 But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. 3 So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders. 4 The people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews, others with the apostles. 5 There was a plot afoot among the Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders, to mistreat them and stone them. 6 But they found out about it and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding country, 7 where they continued to preach the good news.

NIV

There is always going to be people divided about the message of Jesus Christ. There is always going to be those who believe it, and those who refuse to believe it. Here we see those who chose or refuse to believe the message poisoning the minds of those who chose to believe it. Even as God enabled Paul and Barnabas to do miraculous signs and wonders, there were still those who continued to refuse to believe and they even plotted to do harm to Paul and Barnabas in order to rid themselves of having to hear that message any more. Why do people have to lash out at those they disagree with? What is wrong with honest debate without anger and becoming or plotting violence against the other person? Paul and Barnabas were only telling the truth about Jesus Christ, explaining who he was and what he came for. It was alright if some people refused to believe, Paul and Barnabas were not demanding that all within the sound of their voice must accept Jesus Christ or they would be punished or killed. They merely told the people and each one had the right to choose to believe or not believe. That is all we can do as well. We can share the message of Jesus Christ and allow people to make their choice to believe or not. At least today if they choose to disbelieve they do not attempt to run us out of town. But they may attempt to poison the minds of people who do believe, which would include us. This is a forever problem. The world will always try to poison our minds against the truth. The thinking of the world will always try to infiltrate our thinking. The world and its philosophies represent the plot of Lucifer to rebel against God, to think they are as good as God, with all their humanitarian works. They attempt to convince us they are better than we are. They try to convince us the word of God is not all true, that it was just written by men, and that we should not believe everything in it. But they are wrong, and we are right and the argument cannot be broken, God is and will forever be. Every word is God breathed and remains forever true. Do we allow the thinking of the world’s view on life to influence us or do we remain true to our faith, our trust in Jesus? If we ingest enough poison it will kill us. If we ingest enough of the ways of the world what will the result be? Death by poison.