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Context No. 2730 of 4322 · Acts

Context · Reflection

Acts 14:14-19: in context

14But when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of it, they tore their clothes and sprang into the multitude, crying out, 15“Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men of the same nature as you, and bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to the living God, who made the sky, the earth, the sea, and all that is in them; 16who in the generations gone by allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. 17Yet he didn’t leave himself without witness, in that he did good and gave you rains from the sky and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.” 18Even saying these things, they hardly stopped the multitudes from making a sacrifice to them. 19But some Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there, and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.

When the crowd at Lystra tries to offer sacrifice to them as gods, Paul and Barnabas are horrified. They tear their clothes and rush into the mob shouting, we are men of the same nature as you. Turn from these empty things to the living God who made heaven and earth and has never left himself without witness, giving you rain and harvest and gladness.

Then the scene flips hard. Hostile visitors from other cities sway the same crowd, and Paul is stoned and dragged out of town for dead. Watch how quickly worship curdles into violence. The people who would have killed oxen in Paul's honor are, a few verses later, throwing the stones. Paul refuses the false glory in both directions. He will not accept the crowd's praise, and he will not be destroyed by its rejection, because he knows he is only a man pointing past himself to God.

Do I hold praise and rejection loosely, knowing both can come from the same fickle crowd, or does my footing rise and fall with them?

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