Strengthened Faith

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

STRENGTHENED FAITH

Acts 16:1-5

16:1 He came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was a Jewess and a believer, but whose father was a Greek. 2 The brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. 3 Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. 4 As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey. 5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.

NIV

We are now introduced to Timothy, who was a disciple before Paul met him. However, because he was not fully Jewish, having a Greek father, he would not have been circumcised as an 8-day-old infant. However, there was a connection between Paul and Timothy, as we are told that Paul wanted to take him along on the journey. But the question is, why did Timothy need to be circumcised? This was not to mean that he would need to follow the ritual Jewish laws, or come under the law of Moses. Because Timothy would be accompanying Paul, and it was usually that Paul first went into the synagogue when coming into a city, wanting to bring the gospel message to the Jews, if his companion was uncircumcised, the Jews would not listen, as Timothy would be unclean. Because Paul associated with him, he would be considered unclean. Timothy's circumcision was rendered necessary by the circumstances in which they would be placed. We know that sometime later, Paul entrusted the affairs of the church at Ephesus to Timothy's leadership. The point of this narrative is not the act of circumcision, but that Paul continued to preach the good news and inform the Gentile believers of the decision of the apostles and elders reached regarding their responsibilities as believers. As we have considered before, most of those do nots are not meaningful in our culture, except for sexual immorality. Nevertheless, it reveals that believers should live differently from unbelievers. There are some things we are not supposed to do or have certain attitudes about. We are to rid ourselves of pride, jealousy, envy, gossip, anger, unforgiveness, and bitterness, just to name a few. However, the list of what we are to do does not get as much attention as it should, such as encouraging one another, speaking to each other in Hymns, Psalms, and making music in our hearts to God. We are also supposed to build each other up. We see Paul does all this in his relationship with Timothy, encouraging him, building him up, and speaking the good things of God with him. Their focus was on Jesus, spreading the good news to both Jews and Gentiles, so that the believers were strengthened in the faith and grew in numbers daily. Was the increase in numbers all due to Paul and Timothy, or was it more about the believers in the church sharing their faith with others, because they had been strengthened in their faith?