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Context No. 1558 of 4322 · Acts

Context · Reflection

Acts 16:19-24: in context

19But when her masters saw that the hope of their gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. 20When they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, “These men, being Jews, are agitating our city 21and advocate customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans.” 22The multitude rose up together against them and the magistrates tore their clothes from them, then commanded them to be beaten with rods. 23When they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely. 24Having received such a command, he threw them into the inner prison and secured their feet in the stocks.

In Philippi, Paul has freed a slave girl from a spirit that let her tell fortunes, and her owners, seeing that their source of profit is gone, are enraged. They seize Paul and Silas, drag them before the magistrates, and accuse them: these men are Jews, disturbing our city and advocating customs unlawful for us Romans. The crowd joins in; the magistrates have Paul and Silas stripped and beaten with rods, then thrown into the inner prison with their feet fastened in the stocks.

The passage lets us see the real motive behind the persecution, and it is worth noticing. The girl's owners did not attack Paul out of concern for law, custom, or the good of the city; they attacked him because their hope of profit was gone. Paul's freeing of the girl had cost them their income, and that, not any principle, was the true reason for their rage. But notice how they dressed it up. Before the magistrates they said nothing about their lost money; they framed it as a matter of civic order and Roman custom, these men are disturbing our city, advocating unlawful customs. Their real motive was greed; the reason they gave was principle. This is a common and revealing pattern. Opposition to what is good is often driven by self-interest, threatened profit, lost advantage, wounded pride, while the reasons given are high-sounding ones, concern for order, law, tradition, the common good. The true motive is hidden behind a respectable justification. It is worth being alert to this, both in others and in ourselves. When we find ourselves opposing something, it is worth asking honestly whether the reason we give is the real reason, or whether some threatened self-interest is the actual driver, dressed up in principled language. The slave girl's owners cloaked their greed in concern for the city; and the human heart is skilled at giving noble reasons for what is really self-interest. The honest question is always what is actually driving us, beneath the reasons we announce.

When I oppose something, or when others do, can I ask honestly whether the high-sounding reasons given are the real ones, or whether some threatened self-interest, like the slave-owners' lost profit, is the actual driver, cloaked in the language of principle?

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