Growth Is The Story

Paul went first to Derbe and then to Lystra, where there was a young disciple named Timothy. His mother was a Jewish believer, but his father was a Greek. Timothy was well thought of by the believers in Lystra and Iconium, so Paul wanted him to join them on their journey. In deference to the Jews of the area, he arranged for Timothy to be circumcised before they left, for everyone knew that his father was a Greek. Then they went from town to town, instructing the believers to follow the decisions made by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in their faith and grew larger every day. [Acts 16.1-5]

Once again today I see that not every action made by early believers was accurate to what they were teaching.

For one thing, Paul and Barnabas had an argument over John Mark. Someone was wrong in that issue. At the very least, one of them was not following the Spirit of God because the Spirit of God is not conflicted and certainly does not argue with Himself.

Then, we see in the verses posted above that Paul delivered the instructions of the leaders in Jerusalem for the Gentile believers that absolutely did not include circumcision, but before making that journey, he first had Timothy circumcised. This action was made even more hypocritical by Paul's letter to the Galatians where he made the following statement:

I just wish that those troublemakers who want to mutilate you by circumcision would mutilate themselves. [Galatians 5.12]

Yes indeed, the spiritual climate during the introduction of faith in Christ alone for salvation was turbulent to say the least. It not be appalling that leaders (like Paul) had to find their way in adopting Christianity for themselves and then promoting it to the world. It was not then (or now) all clean and neat as some would think! It was however, growth.

I don't know a single Christian soul who has said they "got saved" then "never made a single mistake" afterwards.

The beauty of God's Story is that, even with obvious mistakes made by the early Church leaders, the Gospel has survived all these centuries and people are still being changed by Jesus Christ today!

Growth is the story.

Father, help us to understand that Christian growth is not always clean and neat. Help us to see that the Gospel survived even blatant hypocrisy early on and still offers hope and change to the world today.