Jealousy Breeds Turmoil

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

JEALOUSY BREEDS TURMOIL

Acts 17:5-9

5 But the Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason's house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd.   6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials, shouting: "These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, 7 and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar's decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus." 8 When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil. 9 Then they made Jason and the others post bond and let them go.

NIV

What an interesting turn of events. Here are God-fearing Jews who lived in Thessalonica who had heard Paul over the period of three Sabbaths explaining through the Scrolls, which were the Torah and the words of the prophets that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah and that he was God incarnate and came to die on the cross for the forgiveness of sins, and that he rose from the dead and ascended back to heaven. They heard all the good news and yet although some of them did believe and joined Paul and Silas, as well as a sufficient number of prominent women. We are not sure why we are told about these women, unless because they were great women of substance, they might have been supporting the synagogue in the same way some of the prominent women supported the ministry of Jesus and his apostles. This might have been the cause why the Jews, which would be the ones who rejected the reasoning of Paul, were jealous. This might just be supposition, but it seems to give a reason for their jealously, for if their faith in their present belief in the law was strong enough, then no jealousy would have occurred. They also could be of the mind that those who joined Paul and Silas would no longer be members of the synagogue, thus their numbers had dwindled. It would be like being in a smaller church with not too many members and then a number of them leave to join another larger church, leaving the small band of believers to struggle on their own. So, what did they do? They went into the marketplace and found some seedy characters who were most likely Gentiles who were either residents of Thessalonica or from the surrounding area that had come into the marketplace to either sell their wares or buy supplies. Whichever, these men were of bad reputation and so easily turned into this mob mentality. Paul and Silas had not turned the city into turmoil, but it seems lies are believed better than the truth. For Jews to use the belief that Caesar was the ruling king and his decrees were law, is troubling for their Torah, which included the Ten Commandments stating that the Jews were to have no other gods before them. However, in order to satisfy their jealousy, they acted in concert with men of bad character to cause chaos or turmoil in the streets, the very thing they accused Paul and Silas of doing. Jealousy is at the core of their actions, and we know there should be no quarter given to jealousy in the church today. It stands to reason that jealousy will throw today’s church into turmoil, or at the very least, jealousy will throw a person’s heart into turmoil. Jealousy can cause trouble within and can be the motivation to create a mob mentality through the use of gossip or lies that usher in dissension and division. It goes back to the very center of thinking more highly of oneself than one should, as well as not being content with God’s plan for one’s life and rejoicing with those God uses in other ways. The fact is that one cannot rejoice always and again Paul said it, rejoice if there is any hint of jealousy within. We can be sure that jealousy will always breed turmoil.