When the seven days were nearly over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him, shouting, “Fellow Israelites, help us! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people and our law and this place. And besides, he has brought Greeks into the temple and defiled this holy place.” (They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with Paul and assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple.) The whole city was aroused, and the people came running from all directions. Seizing Paul, they dragged him from the temple, and immediately the gates were shut. While they were trying to kill him, news reached the commander of the Roman troops that the whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar. He at once took some officers and soldiers and ran down to the crowd. When the rioters saw the commander and his soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. The commander came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains. Then he asked who he was and what he had done. Some in the crowd shouted one thing and some another, and since the commander could not get at the truth because of the uproar, he ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks. When Paul reached the steps, the violence of the mob was so great he had to be carried by the soldiers. The crowd that followed kept shouting, “Get rid of him!”
Why was the crowd so mad at Paul? What had he really done to them? What caused them to forgo a normal trial and just believe these Jews from the province of Asia?
As I think about the motives behind the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem and the Jews from Asia, it reminds me of the Apostle John’s words here: “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.” (John 3:19-21) The Jewish leaders were caught in darkness, focused on their positions, power, and legalistic righteousness. And the people were willingly brainwashed into following their sinful ways.
This is what sin does, it entices us and entraps our minds to be slaves to it. Then when the truth is presented, when the light shines in the darkness, the sin in us wants badly to be kept hidden. It wants this so much that it will try to exterminate the light, in this case the Holy Spirit shining through Paul’s truthful and loving preaching. Today this may look a little different, but really it's the same. Instead of Jewish legalism, today’s sinful attack on the truth may be the demands of “tolerance”, which is really a demand to only follow politically correct thinking.
This temptation to falsely accuse others to protect ourselves and our sinful ways is almost as old as the sun. We must realize that only God has a corner on the truth. We must study his word instead of the popular positions of the day.
He is truth and his word is truth. “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” (John 14:6)
Lord, help me to seek you and your ways first. Jesus is the truth. I need to follow him instead of anyone in this world. And to follow him I must know the Bible well. Keep me on this straight and narrow path, I pray.
