Sent

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

SENT

Acts 22:12-22

12 "A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there. 13 He stood beside me and said, 'Brother Saul, receive your sight!' And at that very moment I was able to see him. 14 "Then he said: 'The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. 15 You will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.' 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

After Paul finished his testimony about how Jesus intervened in his life and how he turned from persecuting the people of the Way to becoming one of them, he told the crowd, who had been very silent up to then, that God sent him to the Gentiles. That is when their hatred boiled up once again, shouting, "Rid the earth of him! He's not fit to live!" Something like this would never happen today, as we believers hold no hatred for the Gentiles, who in our day would be the non-believers, for in the truest sense of the word, we are all Gentiles, or non-Jews. However, in another sense, we are true Israel because we have circumcised hearts. In our world today, there are only two types of people: those with circumcised hearts and those with uncircumcised hearts. The Jews held such a hatred for the Gentiles because they thought God was only for them. He was the God of Abraham, Jacob, and Issac, their forefathers, and He performed miracles only for the Jews. He was their God and no one else's. Of course, we do not think that God is only on the side of us believers and that he would not do anything for those dreaded unbelievers. However, we were once among those dreaded unbelievers until Jesus intervened in our lives, as he did for Paul, changing us. We wonder why we do not show the love of Jesus to those whose hearts need to be changed, as much as we love other believers. We wonder why we only keep to ourselves, almost as if we lock ourselves inside the church, keeping the sinners locked out. Have we not been sent out to be a witness to the mighty acts of God and His free gift of salvation through Jesus? The Jews hated the Gentiles to the point that they considered them enemies, even enemies of God, just as they were told to drive them out of their lands. We are told to love our enemies, even those who have chosen to be enemies of God. He loves them just as much as he loves us, and he sent Jesus for them as he sent him for us. We are all the same, the creation of God. Let us be his servant, his witness to whoever he opens the door to. We need to be proclaiming his free gift, his grace, Jesus. We have been sent.