Confrontation

Were Paul and Barnabas deliberately picking a fight with those who refused to believe their message? They had followed their usual practice when entering a new city of going first to the synagogue to share their message with the Jews. This hadn’t gone down well, and considerable opposition had been stirred up. People across the city were divided over their legitimacy; a plot was hatched involving Jews, Gentiles and their leaders; and the threat to kill the apostles by stoning led to them eventually having to flee the city. As this situation built, Paul and Barnabas appeared to carry on regardless. They spoke publicly about Jesus and his grace, with signs and wonders from God that authenticated their message (3).

This wasn’t about being confrontational for the sake of it. The key is in v. 3. They had a message of grace, about a relentlessly grace-full God, and they didn’t just stick with words. Their actions and the tangible results in people’s lives spoke volumes about that grace. In an age where we are seeing Christian “rights” eroded against a backdrop of increasing secularism and skepticism about the role of faith in the public marketplace, we are faced with some tough choices. How confrontational should we be? It can be easy to adopt a martyr’s attitude, expecting persecution, rather than finding ways of living grace-full lives and speaking grace-full words.

It’s not about merely being nice people. It is being full of grace and truth in the manner of Jesus (John 1:14c) and trusting in God’s power to bring transformation. The challenge to us is to be those whose lives demonstrate the truth of our words and so provoke reaction from others. Some will be attracted, some won’t–but they won’t be able to deny there’s something different about us!

Think of people you know personally, or know of, who are strongly opposed to the Christian faith. Pray for and seek transformational grace and truth encounters for them!