Consider

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

CONSIDER

Acts 17:22-23

22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.

NIV

So now Paul begins his presentation of the gospel to all the thinking people who gather to hear and discuss thoughtful ideas. That seems like a reasonable way to approach life, open to hearing others ideas, even if those ideas are rejected. Of course Paul had a great opportunity here because they had an altar to an unknown god, just to cover their bases so to speak. Today we do not have people who make altars to unknown gods, and for the most part, we do not have people willing to listen to new ideas. So what can we learn here? Is it us who should be like those men of Athens, willing to hear other ideas? Are we open-minded about the scriptures enough to learn a truth we formally did not understand or even see for the matter? Are we so dogmatic in our personal interpretation of the scriptures that we refuse to discuss the possible of another view? It would seem there is one singular truth as to how we are saved, but even that has some alternative views. It would seem no matter what the word of God says, some will see something different than others. So how much should we be willing to discuss or be open to hearing? Is it a matter of one is right and the other is wrong, or can both be right? There is only one truth so someone has to be wrong. Can we say that we are the only ones who have the Spirit to discern the truth? What if both of us have the Spirit and still have differing views? One of us has to be falsely claiming the presence of the Spirit in our lives. It would have to seem that way unless God reveals different truth for different people, which seems highly unlikely, but yet maybe it is possible. But then why would he do that? There can be only one truth, there has to be. So why are there so many different denominations with different views, and all seem to be closed-minded about differing views? If we are seekers of the truth we must be like those men of Athens, at least willing to sit and listen to new ideas about God. As they did, we can either accept or reject what we hear, but we should at least hear and consider, thoughtfully. It does seem easier to simply stand staunchly to our singular belief and denounce other views as just wrong. But why do we believe what we believe? Is it because this is the way we were raised to believe, or did we search the scriptures to find the truth for ourselves, with an open mind so the Spirit could reveal the truth. Yes, this is the answer to all those questions. The Spirit is the ultimate teacher of the truth, and we must sit and listen to him explain it all to us. But at the same time we should not close off the views of others as not from the Spirit. We can always decide to accept or reject, but we can at least consider.