August 27
It was on his second missionary journey. He and Silas had asked Timothy to come with them since Timothy’s Father was Greek. They started off walking north, around the edge of what is now Turkey. After Paul had a vision of a man pleading them to come to Macedonia and help them, they boarded a boat and sailed straightway to Neapolis.
A couple of things really struck me about these verses. The first one is that before they left, he had Timothy circumcised. At first glance that didn’t seem like a big deal, but...he and Peter have several on-record discussions about that kind of thing—whether or not you need to keep those old laws of the Jewish faith. Paul was a firm believer that we had been made free in Christ. But here he was, asking Timothy to go back under the law, so-to-speak.
“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.” Acts 16:2-3
I think it’s clear that Paul was making sure they didn’t offend anyone and since the “Jewishness” was inherited from the mother, Timothy would have been considered a Jew. It’s a good lesson for us. Even things we don’t consider as wrong, when we are aware that a brother or sister who could be offended, we need to be very careful.
““Then they went from town to town, instructing the believers to follow the decisions made by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem...That night Paul had a vision: A man from Macedonia in northern Greece was standing there, pleading with him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” So we decided to leave for Macedonia at once, having concluded that God was calling us to preach the Good News there.” Acts 16:4,9-10 NLT
And secondly that they just took off walking, until Paul had that vision. Then, they got on a boat to get there quickly. I wonder how many times do we do that? We aren’t sure exactly what God wants us to do but we know He wants us to do something, so we just get started walking. And we start walking by reading, and praying and serving and sharing. Isn’t it a great picture for what our lives in Christ should be? And when our calling happens, we are in the position to get serious and get on that boat.
Lord Jesus thank you for preparing the Apostle Paul to call run the gospel to his world. And thank you for giving us such a clear picture of what our lives in you should be. It is amazing to us how he was able to just give his life to traveling from town to town to tell them about you, but yet, not so amazing considering the miracle that completely transformed his life. And yet Lord, that same transformation happened in us! Help us Lord to learn from this amazing man how we can share the great good news of how you defeated the grave because of your overwhelming love for us. Teach us to live our lives so that others might see you living in us. We praise you today for you are good and you are holy. Amen and amen.
Love you dear one,
Pam
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