Willing to hurt in order to hide

In Acts 5, the apostles continued to preach the gospel — against the wishes of the high priest. They get thrown in prison then an angel of the Lord opens all the prison doors and tells them to keep sharing the gospel inside the temple courts.

The jailers and officials were not too happy about this and wanted to kill them. Their issue with the Gospel was that they end up looking like the bad guys for not having believed in Jesus and having him crucified. 😬 So, they wanted to keep this under wraps. But let’s talk about this! Admitting we are wrong is not easy — for anyone! It can be quite painful for some, actually. These guys couldn’t do it so they kept trying to kill people who knew the truth. Take a lesson learned here. You might not be at the point of being willing to murder someone… But what are you doing in order to keep your own secrets? To make sure you don’t look like the bad guy? Who are you willing to hurt in order to hide?

A teacher of the law named Gamaliel decided to call a little pow-wow with the officials. Gamaliel’s advice to the officials was this: “In the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.” (Acts‬ ‭5:38–39‬)

This verse — in no way — says, “If you hit roadblocks- it must not be of God.” These guys were put in prison. I’d say that was a roadblock. They were then released after Gamaliel’s plan….but still flogged. I’d say that’s a roadblock. In my opinion, instead, the verse is asking of us: what are you fighting against? People? A political party? Those are bad answers. Those are just distractions.

Our real fight is against an enemy that has come to steal, kill, and destroy. Stand firm against the enemy.