Called To Candlelighting

“These men you’ve dragged in here have done nothing to harm either our temple or our goddess.” (Acts 19:37, The Message)

Food For Thought: Paul and his companions had come to the city of Ephesus, which housed the magnificent temple of Diana, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Diana, or Artemis as she was also known, was the goddess, of among other things, fertility. The carved image of the many-breasted Diana that resided in the temple was said to have come down from heaven. The festivals in her honor in-volved wanton sexual immorality. Much of the city’s commerce (from the selling of silver shrines and icons) and culture centered around the worship of Diana.

So when the message of Christ that Paul and his associates brought to Ephesus began to disrupt the god-making economy and the reputation of Diana, the town-folk were obviously upset. A couple of Paul’s people were dragged into the city arena before a hostile crowed where near riot conditions carried on for a couple of hours. Finally, the mayor of the city calmed everybody down with these words in Acts 19:37,

“You have brought these men here, though they have neither
robbed temples nor blasphemed our goddess.”

I think there is a great deal we can learn from Paul’s evangelistic approach in Ephesus for our day. We live in a culture that is increasingly hostile to Christianity, and is increasingly immoral and outright disgusting to those of us who follow Christ. There has never been a time in America when our values are colliding with our culture’s values like today. But the response of some believers has been to become hostile, aggressive, shrill and obnoxious in their defense of Christ, and increasingly mean-spirited in their attacks on falsehood.

Did you notice that Paul never once attacked the Ephesians’ way of worship or put down their goddess in order to build up Christ? His enemies could accuse Paul of any number of things, but not that! Paul and his team simply told the truth by exalting Christ and Christ alone. And as they did, the light of Christ exposed the darkness and made the distinction between truth and falsehood, between wisdom and foolishness, between life and death plainly and painfully obvious to the people of Ephesus.

There is a profound proverb attributed to the Chinese that says, “It is better to light a candle that to curse the darkness.” Perhaps the world we’re trying to win to Jesus these days would not think we’re so mean-spirited, angry, intolerant, and close-minded (and those are the nicer things they have to say about us), if we were to simply hold up the Real Deal rather than spending so much time and energy trying to destroy all the foolish things people believe—things that are built on garbage anyway, and are likely to crumble under their own weight in the presence of the Truth.

I’ve been told that when U.S. treasury agents are trained to spot counterfeit money, they don’t spend their time looking at phony bills. They study the real deal. They become so familiar with the truth that the lie becomes readily apparent.

That’s a great example for believers. Hold up the Truth. Speak of the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Let your life—your thoughts, your words and your actions—be proof of the Real Deal, Jesus Christ. Don’t spend too much time and expend too much energy trying to destroy that which is false; just lift up Jesus and his light will penetrate the darkness.

Light the candle—that’s your calling anyway. It’s far better than cursing the darkness.

Prayer: Lord, you’ve called me to be salt and light…to be living proof of a loving God…to lift up the name of Jesus so that all will see the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. It is such a temptation to get caught up in the angry, contentious voices that think they win if they can out shout their opponents. Lord, keep me from that. Help me to be one of those who lights the candle instead of curses the darkness. God, make me an effective defender of the faith in a time when my faith in you is under fire in a way that brings honor to you and attracts people who deep inside are desperately crying out for someone to show them the way to you. Amen.

One More Thing… Francis of Assisi reminds us, “Preach the Gospel always, and if necessary, use words.”

Great Cloud of Witnesses: On June 29, 1757, hymn-writer John Newton wrote, “Whatever we may undertake with a sincere desire to promote His glory, we may comfortably pursue. Nothing is trivial that is done for Him.”