November 18, 2019 Bible Study

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Acts 17-18

Luke intentionally contrasts the reception Paul and Silas received in Berea with that which they received in Thessalonica.  In both cities, Paul used Old Testament scripture to make the case that Jesus was the Messiah.  In Thessalonica, some of the Jews, and many of the God-fearing Gentiles accepted his arguments and became believers.  However, a large fraction of the Jews did not accept his interpretation of the Scripture, and became upset that so many of the Gentiles did.  On the other hand, in Berea the Jews actually read the Scriptures which Paul used in context and even those who  did not agree with him appear to have accepted that his was a valid interpretation.  It was only when the Jews who opposed Paul in Thessalonica got word that he was preaching in Berea that trouble started there.  Trouble and violence seemed to follow Paul around, but this shows that it came from those who would not accept Paul’s arguments but were unable to counter them and felt threatened by those who did accept Paul’s teaching.  We can expect a similar response today.

It was in Athens that Paul realized the limits of using logic to convince people to come to God.  In Athens, Paul tried to start from basic assumptions to make the case for Christ, but, while a small number became believers, most people thought that faith in Jesus was foolishness because they were unwilling to accept that the dead could rise again.  As a result, when he went to Corinth he used a much more experiential approach (some of this understanding comes from what Paul wrote in his letters to the Corinthians).  Instead of spending so much time arguing that the logic of Scripture showed that Jesus was the Messiah, he preached, and demonstrated, that faith in Jesus would bring about a change for the better in our lives.  As a result, those who opposed him were unable to gain any traction with the people or with the authorities.