Serving Who

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

SERVING WHO

Acts 16:19-24

19 When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. 20 They brought them before the magistrates and said, "These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar 21 by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice." 22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. 23 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24 Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

NIV

It would have been a nicer story if the owners of the slave girl had any compassion or at the least concern for her, then they would have been happy for her to have been released from the control of some evil spirit. However, quite the opposite happened, as they became enraged against Paul and Silas for interfering in their way of using this evil spirit for profit. This brings us to the question of whether the owners of the slave girl knew that it was not her gift, but that she was possessed by an evil spirit, or were they thinking she just had a gift. Either way, their major concern was about their income. Money was at the core of the issue, not any concern for the girl. It is interesting how everything was fine and Paul and Silas were accepted by the people and they listened to their message without any resistance. Then this happened and it was easy enough for the owners of the slave girl to turn the city against Paul and Silas. These Jews, which seems to be meant in a derogatory sense, are messing with our income. Well, that was true, but this is not their accusation, as they said the Jews are messing with the way of life, they are throwing the city in an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for Romans to accept or practice. We wonder if Paul had mentioned that he too was a Roman citizen or whether that would have made any difference. Anger turned to hatred and the owners of the slave girl wanted them punished. Why is it that money was more important than a freed soul from evil? It would seem that as long as evil is lining their pockets with gold, that makes no room for Jesus in their hearts. So, the narrative continues, and Paul and Silas are flogged and put in prison and in stocks in the innermost cell. That was extreme punishment for messing with these men’s source of income. We do wonder why they didn’t have jobs, or worked for their money, rather than use a slave girl. Nevertheless, this is a story about how God keeps Paul and Silas in the palm of his hand. This is about the power of God at work in people who believe like Paul and Silas. What we know is that Jesus must come first above all else in our lives. Our priority should follow an order of God first and all else comes second, but in reality, we may miss that mark. It seems we have other interests or at least we engage in many other things which we focus on more than Jesus. Oh Sure, we talk about the Lord, and we attend church and even get involved in serving the church somehow. But can serving the church be different than serving the Lord? Then again is serving the church or serving the Lord more about what we like to do, or what we think is a good activity that people enjoy. It seems churches simply develop programs for the sake of having programs. We have to be careful what our priorities are. These owners had money as their priority and we believers of today must be watchful that we do not get sidetracked from following Jesus by looking at money or something else as our source for security. Sure, we need money to live in this world, but it should not be our focus. At the same time, we may also miss out by not being as bold as Paul and Silas were. Such boldness caused them pain and suffering. We doubt that we would be flogged and thrown in prison if we called on the name of the Lord, and either healed someone or cast out an evil presence in a person’s life. Maybe we have gotten distracted by this life, this material world, and all its offerings. Maybe we should be bolder and call evil out when we encounter it, which will always be when we are with non-believers, for everyone serves somebody, either the Lord or Satan, as Bob Dylan once said in a song, “you gotta serve somebody”. Jesus made that clear enough when he taught that we cannot have two masters. These men who owned the slave girl served money, and not God. We must always serve the Lord over all else.