daily java

Daily Java: 

Each Sabbath found Paul at the synagogue, trying to convince the Jews and Greeks alike. And after Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul spent all his time preaching the word. He testified to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. But when they opposed and insulted him, Paul shook the dust from his clothes and said, “Your blood is upon your own heads—I am innocent. From now on I will go preach to the Gentiles.” (Acts 18:4-6)

There are people you want to reach for Jesus and it hurts that you cannot. Some of them are people you were acquainted with and maybe even loved, who had been a part of your church, but turned away. It could even be hat they became adversarial in their relationship with your church and begin to try to tear it up. And it hurts you when that happens.

What can you do?

Many times, you can do nothing. You have told them you love them and have reached out to them. But they are not going to come back and they continue in their destructive ways.

All you can do in this instance is say okay. If that is how you want it, then that is how it will be.

It is not your fault they are doing what they are doing and you have honestly tried to reach out to them. They have decided to be this way and there is nothing you can do.

You finally, and it may be in tears and sorrow, have to shake their “dust” off your feet.

The apostle Paul loved his fellow countrymen, the Jews. That was natural. He was raised Jewish, he had all his education in the Jewish faith, he was Jewish. But they had repudiated the gospel of Jesus Christ to the point of physically hurting him badly. They had followed him around, trying to undo what he had done and had even tried to kill him.

What could he do? He could do nothing. So he told them okay. That is the way you want it and I will have to allow it to be that way. After all, he could do nothing to change it.

You may love someone, and they may have loved you in the past. They may have been a vital part of the church where you are. But something happened. You may not even know what it was. But it changed them. And now they have placed themselves in the position of enemies.

You did nothing to put them there and you can do nothing to change them.

There comes a time when you have to say that is the way it is going to be and accept it. Paul did, and had done everything he knew how to do, accomplishing nothing. As far as Jesus was concerned, the Jews were rabidly against him. He brought fundamental change that they did not want.

Since the change had to be, there was nothing Paul could do short of compromising his ethic to make them come over to his side and he had to accept it. It hurt, but he did. He even said, in Romans 9, that he would accept eternal punishment himself if he could change his people.

But he couldn’t.

You cannot change some denominations, you cannot change some groups, you cannot change some people no matter how hard you try. And all you usually get is hurt in the process.

If you didn’t cause it by some action of yours – and sometimes even if you did – you cannot change their attitude. If you caused it and asked forgiveness and they refused, then you are not bound. If you didn’t cause it, you have no reason to be held guilty.

Sometimes you grow in a direction they do not like, or change your mind and it makes them mad, or try something new and they do not want anything new. Sometimes the reason they are mad is small and petty. Sometimes it is large. But whatever it is, you cannot change it.

What you can do is, as Paul said, Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us (Philippians 3:13-14).

You have to move on, whether they do or not. Even though it hurts.