Under the Knife

Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, "The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses."

God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are." Acts 15: 5, 8-11

Today’s Reading: Job 34-35; Acts 15:1-21

A few thoughts here…

I’m lightweight feeling the ex Pharisees here. It’s pretty funny to me actually. They’re like, “wait a minute… I had to go under the knife and these jokers don’t have to?? oh no… that is NOT the business!”

Hahahaha

Ok, I’m kinda mean to laugh but that’s what I see here. Sure I know they are riding for Moses, but I think that most of all they are salty that they had to get circumcised and the gentiles don’t. I mean really, who would volunteer for that?

But all joking aside, Peter’s response is a key point. You remember the laws of Moses. It is impossible to follow them perfectly. That was the whole point of Jesus coming right; to free us from the laws, to provide a way of connecting to God even though we cannot measure up on our own.

I had a conversation with a friend about this recently. We were talking about marriage and fidelity and he asked me if I thought it was possible in a lifetime of marriage. And I responded to him by saying that that was one of the interesting philosophical points of Christianity. Whether you believe it in it or not, it is quite interesting to understand what Peter is saying here. We are not capable of a perfect standard on our own. But with God’s help we can do all things that He has set out for us to do.

We are not alone in this difficult and perilous journey that life can be at times. We have help when we struggle. We will be lifted up when we stumble.

What is our responsibility? To believe and try our best so that everyday we get closer to being who we are capable of being.

Humility Gives Us Power

When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have come down to us in human form!" Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker…

But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting: "Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them. – Excerpt from Acts 14: 11-15

Today’s Reading: Job 32-33; Acts 14

It’s interesting that this comes so quickly after the episode with Herod. When Herod was worshipped by the people he received their praise. As a result he was eaten by worms.

Yuck.

When Paul and Barnabas saw that they were being worshipped for healing a paralytic they were horrified and begged and pleaded with the crowd to see them for what they were.

Regular people just like them…

The juxtaposition here is interesting. The first thing I thought was wow… with great humility comes great power. But how does one stay humble when they possess such power? How did Paul fight off the urge to start feelin’ himself a bit too much?

I’m sure that the occasional stoning helped… but seriously… how does that work.

These were regular dudes with an irregular level of faith. But in the end they were regular folks. They had the same weaknesses that we all have to the human vices.

I imagine that the key to their walk was understanding that they were not the center of their own universe.

Here’s what I mean.

When Paul and Barnabas saw the paralyzed man they “saw that he had faith to be healed”.

It’s really hard to see others when you are looking at yourself.

The gifts that Paul was given to heal and to teach functioned through his humility. If he lost focus on God and others and started focusing on himself he wouldn’t have been able to see these opportunities that he had to work miracles.

When we place ourselves at the center of our worlds, that world has a funny way of collapsing in on us. We aren’t strong enough to support it.

But when we recognize that we don’t have to be that foundation, but rather, that we are standing on infinitely stronger shoulders; then there is no limit to what we can do.

Giving up control gives us power.