Keep Proclaiming the Truth
One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid, but keep on speaking, and do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one will lay a hand on you to harm you, because I have many people in this city.” (Acts 18:9–10)
When Paul was in Corinth, he tried to teach the Jews that lived there about Jesus. He went into the synagogue and showed them how Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies. But the Jews refused to believe it. They slandered Paul and opposed him on his teaching. They attempted to argue with Paul that Jesus was not the Christ. And they made it very clear that Paul was not welcome among them.
In many of the other places that Paul had preached, when the Jews did not accept his message, Paul was often beaten and left for dead, or hidden so that they could not kill him. But in this case, God appeared to Paul and assured him that no one would harm him. God had more work for Paul to do. And there were many believers in Corinth who needed to continue to hear about Jesus.
While we may not have to face beatings and possible death for proclaiming our faith, we still face discouragement from proclaiming the truth. And yet God tells us not to stop and not to be silent as well. He promises us that he is with us as we proclaim his Word. So we proclaim Christ crucified, even when were are told that God does not exist. We call out sin as sin, even when we are told that to do so is not loving. We proclaim the forgiveness of sins, even when we are criticized for judging others. And we bring the comfort that comes from the relationship we have with God to this hurting world, even when they don’t want to hear it. We do not need to be afraid to share the peace that comes from knowing Jesus. Amen.
The song for today is “You are with me” by Seth & Nirva