Tag: Paul

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Acts Devotionals

In all good conscience (2)

clean conscience

I always strive to have a clear conscience toward God and men. (Acts 24:16)

This is the second time in two chapters that Paul talks about keeping a clear conscience before God. (Acts 23:1)

Why was that important to him?

I think there were three reasons.

First, he knew there was a resurrection and that he would stand before God’s judgment seat someday. (15)

He once told the Corinthians,

Therefore, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to him.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. (2 Corinthians 5:9-10)

But as much as he knew the fear of the Lord, he also knew the love of the Lord, and that also drove him. He said,

For the love of Christ compels us, since we have reached this conclusion, that one died for all, and therefore all died.

And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised. (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)

But I think a final reason is that he knew keeping a clear conscience had an effect on his testimony.

When Paul talked to Felix about judgment, it scared Felix to death. (Acts 24:25)

I half-wonder if one reason Felix was hoping for a bribe from Paul was to diminish his testimony. After all, if Paul accepted a bribe, how afraid of judgment could Paul really be?

But Paul kept a clean conscience, and his testimony stood.

How important is keeping a clear conscience to us?

Father, help me to always keep a clear conscience before you. For fear of you. For love of you. And for an unstained witness that might draw the people I love to you.

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Acts Devotionals

The God who stands with us

The following night, the Lord stood by him and said, “Have courage! (Acts 23:11)

Those words struck me this morning.

“The Lord stood by him.”

No matter what we go through, whether we see him or not, God stands by us. And he whispers to us, “Have courage. I am with you.”

It reminds me of two other passages.

Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold on to you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10, though verses 11-14 continue the thought.)

And David’s words in Psalm 16.

I will bless the Lord who counsels me— even at night when my thoughts trouble me.

I always let the Lord guide me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. (Psalm 16:7-8)

So take some time and think on this truth today: “The Lord stands by me.”

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James

How true faith expresses itself (Part 3)

Works vs. Faith

We said yesterday that it’s not simply enough to say, “I believe in God,” in order to be saved.

Nor, for that matter, is it enough to say “I believe that Jesus died for my sin and rose again” in order to be saved.

True faith always leads to a changed life, and that first and foremost expresses itself in love: love for God and love for others.

A “faith” that never grows to express itself in that way is not true faith at all. It’s merely empty words. As empty as saying to a needy person, “I hurt for you. God bless you,” and then walking away without doing anything to help them.

James then says,

But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds and I will show you my faith by what I do. (James 2:18)

It’s difficult to know how to take this verse, especially since we don’t know where the quotation marks should be. (There are no quotation marks in Greek.)

One way this could be read is that the “someone” mentioned is an outsider, a non-Christian, who looks at the so-called Christian who claims he believes in God but shows no love or compassion to those around.

And this someone is saying, “Why should I follow your God? You have your faith, but I’m a much better person than you.”

The other way it could be read is that James is that “someone” and that all those words should be in quotes.

Either way, James is saying, “Do you really have faith? Prove it. Talk’s cheap. You say that you really believe in God, but how do I know? I can’t see your heart. All I can see is your deeds.

“And your deeds, particularly your lack of love for God and others, make me seriously doubt that you really have faith in God at all. Because if you really knew God’s love, it would eventually start to flow out from your life.”

And this, I think, is how we deal with the seeming contradiction between James and Paul.

Paul says we are justified by faith apart from works (Romans 3:28). James says we are justified by faith and works. (2:24)

We are justified by God by faith alone, but we are justified (or “proven”) as true believers before people by what we do. Why? Because God can see the heart. People can’t.

The interesting thing is that James and Paul use the same person and passage to prove their points. James says,

Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?

You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. (21-22)

The question is, who was he considered righteous by? By God?

To an extent, yes. But more importantly, his outward actions proved to the people around him that he truly believed in God. They couldn’t see his heart. For all they knew, he was a total hypocrite.

In fact, his previous actions may have made them think just that.

After all, he had had so little faith earlier that he slept with his wife’s slave (with his wife’s permission) in order to have an heir.

Why? Because he had started having serious doubts that God would give him an heir through Sarah like He had promised.

But when Abraham later was willing to sacrifice Isaac on the altar, even though Isaac was the one through whom God had promised Abraham’s family line would continue, it showed everyone around that Abraham really did have true faith.

He had grown from the man who wavered and sometimes acted hypocritically into a man who truly lived out his faith.

That’s what James meant when he said,

And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called God’s friend. (James 2:23)

When did Abraham believe God and have it credited him as righteousness. Before the sacrifice of Isaac? Or after? Well before. In fact, it was before Isaac was even born. (Genesis 15:6)

God knew his heart right then and there. He knew Abraham believed him, and so he justified him on the basis of that faith.

But that faith came to maturity and completion when Abraham put Isaac on that altar.

Like I said yesterday, maturity and completion of faith may take time. It may be a struggle, and it may be painful at times.

But where there is true faith, there will always be progress, and eventually people will be able to see it.

What kind of faith do you have?

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Acts

A beacon in the storm

Acts

Jesus once said to let our light shine before men, and you really see Paul’s light shining through in this passage.

At a time when everyone on the ship he was sailing on had lost hope because of the storm, Paul brought hope. He told them,

But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed.

Last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’

So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. (Acts 27:22-25)

Later, with things still dark, and the men still discouraged, he told them,

For the last fourteen days…you have been in constant suspense and have gone without food–you haven’t eaten anything.

Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head. (Acts 27:33-34)

He then broke bread, gave thanks to God, and ate. By doing so, he gave the men in the boat hope, and they ate too.

That’s part of what it means to be light. To give hope to the hopeless.

So many people in this world are without hope because of their circumstances. But in Jesus, we have the source of hope, and as he shines through us, it gives hope to those around us.

But Paul was light in another way. By his words and his life, he encouraged people to do what was right.

We see this first when some of the sailors were planning to sneak off of the ship without the prisoners and leave them all to die.

But Paul warned them,

Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved. (Acts 27:31)

And so they let the lifeboat go.

Then, after the ship had run aground, the soldiers planned to kill the prisoners lest they escape.

But because of the light that Paul had been, the centurion in charge refused to give them permission to do so, and in the end, all were saved.

In the same way, being light means showing people what it means to live right, both through our words and through our lives.

And as people see our lives, it should inspire them to do what is right as well.

How about you? Are you light to those around you?