Passage of the Day - January 25, 2011

Acts 21:27-30

²⁷When the seven days were almost over, the Jews from Asia, upon seeing him in the temple, began to stir up all the crowd and laid hands on him,

 ²⁸crying out, "Men of Israel, come to our aid! This is the man who preaches to all men everywhere against our people and the Law and this place; and besides he has even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place."

 ²⁹For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple.

 ³⁰Then all the city was provoked, and the people rushed together, and taking hold of Paul they dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the doors were shut.

As we have seen in recent days, quite often the seriousness of the crime tends to outweigh the preponderance of the evidence.  Paul was being misconstrued and accused of things that he had no part in.  The victimhood of Paul and all Christians is evident in this passage, but my question is, how quickly do we jump to conclusions about others and believe the lies and half-truths lobbed against them.  We ought to defend the falsely accused.  How do we go about that?  Encourage truth, and not innuendo, to reign.  Encourage patience when seeking justice.  Encourage justice and mercy, not vilification and vengeance.  In other words, do what God does.

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®,
© Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Used by permission." (http://www.lockman.org/)