Fulfilling Our Duty

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

FULFILLING OUR DUTY

Acts 23:1-11

23:1 Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, "My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day." 2 At this the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. 3 Then Paul said to him, "God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!" 4 Those who were standing near Paul said, "You dare to insult God's high priest?" 5 Paul replied, "Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest; for it is written: 'Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people.'" 6 Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, "My brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. I stand on trial because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead." 7 When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. 8(The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, and that there are neither angels nor spirits, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.) 9 There was a great uproar, and some of the teachers of the law who were Pharisees stood up and argued vigorously. "We find nothing wrong with this man," they said. "What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?" 10 The dispute became so violent that the commander was afraid Paul would be torn to pieces by them. He ordered the troops to go down and take him away from them by force and bring him into the barracks. 11 The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, "Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome." 

NIV

Should not that be our desire, to fulfill our duty to God in all good conscience to this day? Then the question is, what is our duty to God? That could be seen in two ways. First, our duty, generally speaking, as Christians or believers. Second, what is our duty as individual members of the community of faith or the body of Christ? As believers, do we fulfill the command of Jesus to love the Lord our God with all, which means not some, but all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and do we love everyone else as we love ourselves? We know we can all get tied up with so many other rules and regulations about what we are not supposed to do, that we might be too distracted from what we are supposed to do, to fulfill our duty.  As individuals, we need to listen to the voice of the Spirit, or His inspiration. We might use the term "our calling" to describe how we fit into the temple of God as living stones. What is our particular function in the body of Christ? How do we serve others? What benefit do we have to the other members of the body of Christ? When we make that parallel between our bodies, the feet take us places, but the eyes allow us to see where we are going. The mouth tastes the goodness of food, but the hands are needed to bring the food to the mouth. On and on, we could see how each member of our body benefits the other members, and that is how we should be as one member of the body of Christ. This also bears out as the high priest ordered that Paul be struck on the mouth. They must have thought that the only way to fulfill their duty to God was to obey the law, which they were not doing. This should also serve as a lesson for us that we must not stand in judgment of others or how they are or are not fulfilling their duty to God. One thing we know is that we are to encourage each other. Because the Greek word parakaleoo, used as "encourage," has a deeper meaning of calling to one's side, inviting, exhorting, and admonishing, it can also be seen as comforting or encouraging in the sense of building another up and telling them about the benefit they have to others. It is more than the good deeds, but if, and that is a big word, we can love one another, then we would be fulfilling our duty to God.