"yet He has not let left Himself without testimony"having seen paul heal the man lame from birth through the power of Christ Jesus, the crowds proclaim paul and barnabas to be gods. i think this is a common occurrence in the church--many "worship" the charisma and the speaking ability of the pastor rather than the Lord Himself. they care nothing for the truth of God, but are only impressed by the success and power that the ministry demonstrates.
the success and power of the gospel often brings about an ill-desired effect--the slavish loyalty to the speaker rather than faithful obedience to the God whom the speaker proclaims. as we have all seen, misplaced loyalty and undiscerning devotion to a particular ministry rather than to God have created untold mischief in the church in the form of divisions, factions, gossip, and slander.
God's judgment will most certainly fall on those who "worship the servant rather than the King", for paul makes clear that God "has not left Himself without testimony". in other words, God has left abundant and unmistakeable evidence about who He is in bestowing His "kindness", His common grace, which Paul describes as the "giving of rain from heaven and crops in their season", on believers and unbelievers alike. God is bound and determined that no one should ever mistake the pouring out of these blessings as coming from some mere mortal rather than from Himself.
3 comments:
Thank you Dulla for the insightful words. I think Paul and Barnabas certainly didn't take that opportunity to gain their selfish fame and ambition. However, they knew for whom they were working and living and they were sadden by the fact that people couldn't see the miracle as God's work. We, too time to time miss the opportunities the see the work of God rather we praise and give a credit to servants of God. All Glory and Honor be to God!!!!
thanks for your reflection smn :)
i totally agree that worshiping the servant rather than the King is a common issue in many churches. we start to depend and pay our loyalties to the servant when we should be doing so to our King.
i have to often remind myself that everything i do for our church should not be for man but for God. everything in my life is provided and belongs to God and God alone.
Thanks Dulla smn!
I'm doing some major catch up here. I think this passage really reminds us to examine the heart of service that we give. Do we want the credit or do we give it to God. We all know that it's the latter but you have to admit that we enjoy the receiving compliments and praises. It's bad, I know, but that's just our nature. I admire Paul's and Barnabas's humility and wish that I could be like that.
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