Honey or Vinegar?
Opening Prayer
Gracious Lord, deliver me from the slumber of comfort and the desire for security. I need a new passion for You.
Read Acts 7:35–53
35 “This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 He led them out of Egypt and performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the wilderness.
37 “This is the Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people.’ 38 He was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors; and he received living words to pass on to us.
39 “But our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. 40 They told Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!’ 41 That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and reveled in what their own hands had made. 42 But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the sun, moon and stars. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets:
“‘Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings
forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel?
43 You have taken up the tabernacle of Molek
and the star of your god Rephan,
the idols you made to worship.
Therefore I will send you into exile’ beyond Babylon.
44 “Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the covenant law with them in the wilderness. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen. 45 After receiving the tabernacle, our ancestors under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David, 46 who enjoyed God’s favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. 47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him.
48 “However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says:
49 “‘Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me?
says the Lord.
Or where will my resting place be?
50 Has not my hand made all these things?’
51 “You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! 52 Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him— 53 you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.”
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
Get prepared to follow the example of Jesus and go beyond mere polite conversation in fighting “the good fight” (1 Tim. 6:12).
Think Further
Evidently, Stephen was filled with the Holy Spirit as he waxed more and more eloquent in his defense of the Gospel. His narration of its historical and theological basis is inspired, and he demonstrates acute intelligence and assiduous learning, with facts and figures at his fingertips. Then we come to verse 51! Few of us, surely, would recommend or even commend his turn of phrase here or in the next two verses. You catch more flies, as they say, with honey than with vinegar.
However, our Lord himself was not always polite in his dealings with these same leaders. In open confrontation, he denounced them as hypocrites, blind leaders of the blind and whitewashed tombs (Matt. 15:7,14; 23:27). He charged them with greed and wickedness and called down numerous woes on them (Matt. 23:13–32). “Brood of vipers” (Luke 3:7; cf. Matt. 23:33) was how John the Baptist addressed them (at which, surprisingly, they did not take particular umbrage).
For our part, insofar as human nature has not changed over the centuries, we cannot deny that we encounter such highly placed wrongdoers among us today. It would seem that there are people who are past responding to gentle admonition and that there are instances which call for shock tactics and very strong language. Is it more because of cowardice than etiquette that we are loath to put the fear of God into them with such robust confrontations born out of holy anger? It would be necessary to be really, really sure that this is what is needed in any particular situation, but should we not be willing to trust God to give us the requisite discernment?
Apply
How do you decide when to speak and when to be quiet before opposition? What has been your experience with people who seem overly concerned with religious arguments?
Closing prayer
Father, I pray for those who represent Christ in the public arena. Give them clarity of thought, the courage of their convictions and the persuasive powers of the Holy Spirit.
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