No Stirring

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

NO STIRRING

Acts 21:26-29

26 The next day Paul took the men and purified himself along with them. Then he went to the temple to give notice of the date when the days of purification would end and the offering would be made for each of them. 27 When the seven days were nearly over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him, 28 shouting, "Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against our people and our law and this place. And besides, he has brought Greeks into the temple area and defiled this holy place." 29(They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with Paul and assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple area.)

NIV

There goes the assumptions. People are always assuming as well as thinking the worse of people. But again it is back to someone threatening their traditional ideas about religion. And it is not bad enough they are upset about Paul, they have to attempt to stir up others over their issue with him. This is where it gets crazy. It is one thing to have hard feelings about a person, even if they are unfounded. But it is entirely a different situation when an attempt is made to bring others into the mix, others who really had nothing to do with our being upset about what someone has done. If we have a problem with a person, a problem with something either they have said, or done, or are doing, we should keep that problem between ourselves and them. We need to go directly to them and solve the controversy between us. But if we move about church trying to gain others to our cause for the sake of numbers, stirring up others against the one we have a problem with, we have done something bad. We certainly are not encouraging and building up others, as in all reality we are tearing them down, causing them to dislike a situation or a person, as well as anything we might tell about someone is nothing but pure gossip anyway and it could be nothing but an assumption on our part to start with.  We might even try to cloak our gossip or our attempts to gain support against a situation or a person, by making it a prayer request. We have to always be on guard against any conversation that would tear anyone down. We need to always be looking for ways to encourage and to build each other up. These men could not stand Paul because they did not like his message about Jesus being the Messiah. So they plotted to tear him down, to destroy his character and ultimately him. We need to be aware of what we say and do in regards to others, and specifically about those who we may disagree with. It is imperative we are not a person who stirs up others.