Passage of the Day - November 29, 2010

Acts 9:28-31

 ²⁸And he was with them, moving about freely in Jerusalem, speaking out boldly in the name of the Lord.

 ²⁹And he was talking and arguing with the Hellenistic Jews; but they were attempting to put him to death.

 ³⁰But when the brethren learned of it, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him away to Tarsus.

 ³¹So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase.

Saul (later Paul) was newly converted and used his mastery of the Scripture to argue with the Hellenistic Jews (Jews who embraced Greek culture) about Christ.  Fire and passion coupled with mastery of the Scriptures doesn’t, on its own, accomplish anything for Christ’s kingdom.  There is no mention of love or the Holy Spirit in his dealings.  His arguing only brought attempts on his life.  The brethren decided that it would be best to remove Saul from the situation and then the church flourished.  Knowing how to do something and having the will to do it sometimes isn’t as important as the way we carry it out.  When dealing with others, we must be focused on doing things right more so than being right.