The Truth Will Set You Free

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE

Acts 22:17-22

17 "When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance 18 and saw the Lord speaking. 'Quick!' he said to me. 'Leave Jerusalem immediately, because they will not accept your testimony about me.'  19 "'Lord,' I replied, 'these men know that I went from one synagogue to another to imprison and beat those who believe in you.   20 And when the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.' 21 "Then the Lord said to me, 'Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.'" 22 The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. Then they raised their voices and shouted, "Rid the earth of him! He's not fit to live!"

NIV

Paul is still giving his testimony to the mob of Jews who wanted him gone, in fact, that wanted him dead. But they are listening, paying attention until Paul told them the Lord appeared to him again and told him that Jerusalem would not accept Paul’s testimony about Jesus. In essence, Paul was telling them they are a stiffed-neck people as far as Jesus is concerned, or as far as the Jews would think with Paul using the term “Lord” he is speaking about God, who they profess to believe in. They felt Paul was talking about Yahweh, although he did not mention Him, because Paul said he was in the temple and that is where the presence of Yahweh resides, within the holy of holies. So, it would be natural they thought Paul was spoken to by Yahweh, who told him the Jews of Jerusalem would not accept Paul’s testimony about him. Then when they thought that Yahweh would send Paul to the Gentiles, all hell broke loose. Once again, we see the importance of hearing the truth and not our perception of the truth. It is easy to get into the mindset of believing what we want to believe and seeing the scripture through the lens of our preconceived notions, or through the traditional lens that has been passed down to us from past believers. Nothing supersedes our independent study of the word, with an open mind, or rather it would be better to say with an open spirit, allowing the Spirit to lead us into all truth. It is true that we should also listen to those shepherds that God has called and charged with overseeing the spiritual welfare of those God has put under their care, it still behooves us to listen with the gift of discernment, testing everything we hear against the word of God, which can only be done because of our independent study and knowledge of the truth. If we merely listen without discernment, it could be possible to be led astray, as so many have already been led by those silver-tongued perverters of the truth. The Jews were not willing to hear the truth, because they had already accepted the traditional system set up by the law. They had believed this way all their lives and followed their fathers and their fathers followed their fathers and so on for thousands of years, this system was the only truth they knew and were unable to hear anything else. We cannot take that view but must always be in the process of being transformed into his likeness, and that can only be done by looking into the truth of God, hearing from the Spirit, and forgetting what is behind and straining forward toward the prize. That is forgetting the traditional ways of thinking about God, about Jesus, and finding the truth through searching the scriptures with the help of the Spirit. Paul lived that type of life, the Jews did not. Let us not be like the Jews, but more like how Paul lived. When we leave are perceived notices beyond, then the truth can truly set us free.