“1 The same thing happened in Iconium; they entered the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed. 2 But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up and poisoned the minds of the Gentiles against the brothers. 3 So they stayed there for some time and spoke boldly in reliance on the Lord, who testified to the message of His grace by granting that signs and wonders be performed through them. 4 But the people of the city were divided, some siding with the Jews and some with the apostles. 5 When an attempt was made by both the Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to assault and stone them, 6 they found out about it and fled to the Lycaonian towns called Lystra and Derbe, and to the surrounding countryside. 7 And there they kept evangelizing.”

Acts 14:1-7

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The Gospel is a powerful force. The truth, spoken with boldness, will stand in the face of what most people believe. It will challenge and convict. It is going to be offensive. 

Some people try to make it less offensive. They are concerned more with “solidarity,” pleasing people and looking right in the eyes of the world even when Scripture clearly says that the Gospel is veild to those who are perishing. It is a light in the darkness to them, something that obscures thier vision and is difficult to look at. For those Jews & Gentiles alike in Iconium who stood in opposition to its message, it was worth killing men over to silence it. It didn’t matter that signs ans wonders from heaven were being performed and that other people were catching a hold of it. It didn’t matter that the Holy Spirit was using the Apostles in a mighty way. They were offended by it, and the only way to move on in life was to beat the Gospel into submission. 

This is happening still today. Look at how the secular culture in the West responds to the Gospel: activists, policticians, judges, lobbyists and countless groups do everything they can to silence the Gospel message. It offends them and stands opposed to their worldview. So they mock, degrade and try to set up laws and judgments in every way imagineable to discredit it, to assault it and to stand against what God is saying. Christians are mocked and villified. Their livliehoods are being threatened and there are individuals who are being made an example of to try to scare us into submission. We are told to stay quiet.

Nothing has changed in the last 2000 years. The same gods and attitudes are worshipped, they just have different names and slick ad campaigns. Molech is simply disguised as “Abortion: because this child doesn’t fit my lifestyle choices.” Baal and Ashtoreth are simply disguised as, “Power and Sensuality.” It’s incredibly easy to look back through the ‘old’ ways and see them reflected with these new names today. The same old ideas, mostly based in pride and dedicated to furthering human passions, are given new labels. People are still fighting tooth and nail to preserve those ways of self-worship rather than listen to what God says, to the Gospel of peace and freedom in Christ Jesus. The message has offended them. In their eyes, it demands too much, and they simply won’t have it. And so they do whatever is necessary to block that voice that exposes their sin & shame.

We are still called to GoLove, even in the face of opposition, and we must do it with boldness. We cannot play house with the world. Neither side can afford it. It wounds the Kingdom and it leaves the captives in shackles. We must stand for the truth of the Gospel in its fullness, boldly dedicated to seeing the work of God lived out in us, living the love that has been poured out in us. Pretending that it doesn’t affect us, that we can live quiet lives, not ‘bothering’ anybody is not an option. That is a delusion from the enemy, set against the truth and meant to silence the Gospel, just like every other method he employs. We cannot listen to him or the world. We cannot acquiesce. We should not fear. Instead, we trust God, with bold hearts, to do amazing things in us and through us, making our lives and livilihoods available to the Gospel and the hope that it brings, knowing that the powers of this world just aren’t going to like it.