Acts 17:16-34
Paul is alone in Athens and is provoked in his spirit by the sight of all the idols. As he went about the city, everywhere he looked, he saw idols to the false gods. There were demonic powers behind the idols that controlled Athens, its people, and its influence in the Greco-Roman world. Paul was provoked in spirit at the site. The word “provoke” is an uncommon compound word. The first word is “alongside”; the second word is “sharpen.”. The picture of the word is to jab or stab someone in his or her side. This has a profoundly disturbing effect on a person. Consider the contrast between Paul and us. How often do we look at the degrading circumstances of man, reflected by society and have no emotion whatsoever? There is a tidal wave of the slavery to sin all about us, and we are not stabbed in the side by it. We have a blind spot so that certain sins do not bother us in any way. There are some for whom no sin bothers.
More than being affected by the manifestation of sin, by the apparent action or life, are we concerned for the person who is the slave to sin? Do we look at the idolatry of greed, or gluttony, or pride, or sensuality in a world and feel the stab in the side? We all have our list of vices that we will rail against, but we also have a much longer list of sins that we can easily ignore and some we even coddle. We may harangue against a person who is a drunk and make a hero of the arrogant, self-absorbed celebrity. We hold in derision the flamboyant homosexual while at the same time exulting the false teacher that would pervert the gospel into a money making Ponzi scheme.
There is no evidence that Paul was provoked by some idols and not by others. Rather, Paul was stabbed in the side by any and everything enslaving men to sin and robbing them of the life of the resurrection that is Jesus Christ. By God’s help may we have a conscience and a holiness that is provoked by anything that would keep anyone from their Creator. May we in that stabbing find the prompting to lead men to Christ.
“Lord, break my heart for what breaks Yours. AMEN”
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