Views Explained

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

VIEWS EXPLAINED

Acts 28:23-25

23 They arranged to meet Paul on a certain day, and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying. From morning till evening he explained and declared to them the kingdom of God and tried to convince them about Jesus from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets. 24 Some were convinced by what he said, but others would not believe. 25 They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement:

NIV

Although we have stopped short of including Paul's final statement, which we will deal with next, we have enough here to learn a life lesson. Remembering the leaders of the Jews asked to hear Paul’s views in light of the fact they had heard about this sect and wanted to know more. Again we are not certain as to their curiosity, but as he invited them to return, they came and even brought more leaders we assume, rather than just normal Jews. Because they had asked for Paul’s views they were at least willing to listen to him explain his views from morning till evening. Here in lies our first life lesson in the passage. We should be able to explain our views fully, with complete reasons as declared by the word of God. Paul used the scriptures, the Law of Moses and from the Prophets which these Jews professed to believe in. In our society many people profess they believe the bible is God’s word, but like those Jews they only believe that which they want to and ignore the rest. Because they professed to believe in the law of Moses and the Prophets Paul was able to use those very words to show them the truth about Jesus Christ and he was able to speak all day long about this truth. How long can we talk about Jesus, proving the truth of salvation using the scriptures that people say they believe is the word of God? We should limit our conversation to that which is contained in the word of God and not include any denominational bias or interpretations. Once again Paul was invited to express his views so his audience was attentive to his words. If we are invited to express our views by some question, perhaps we should suggest some time when we could sit together when we could speak freely, openly and without interruptions, rather than simply make a quick comment, especially if we are in a work setting or a casual meeting with other people around. The other lesson we must remember is that some will be convinced and others will not. Some will believe and others will not believe. Paul had no control over who would believe and who would not, but he declared the truth, fulfilling his calling, his duty. This is all we can do when the occasion presents itself, declare the truth, the whole truth, all the truth and we will see some believe and some not believe, but in doing so we will have fulfilled what we have been called to do. We will have explained our views.