Could They Accuse You Like This?

When we see the way that the lost in the book of Acts accused the Christians, we see some true things about believers. I wonder if we could be thought guilty of the same things today.

Take a look at the words of the people of Thessalonica against the Christians there.

Acts 17:6-86 when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, 7 and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.”

The people of Thessalonica wanted to capture Paul, but they could not. So they took some of his friends in and accused them. And there are two things that grab my attention.

First, the accusers suggest that the Christians have turned the world upside down. The Christians have been so clear in their evangelism and in their changed lives that lost people say that they have changed the world. There is no doubt that, through history, the church has changed the world. But I wonder how much changing of the world we are doing today. So many churches are so worried about making their communities feel a liking for them that they begin to behave like the world around them. One wonders if the lost world even sees that these groups are actually different from them. Or, would the lost world today look at most of our churches and assume that we are just like them with the exception that we do a religious thing on Sunday mornings when our schedules permit?

The second thing that I see here is that the lost accuse the Christians of being bad citizens of the empire because they have a different king, Jesus. Again, I wonder if this is an accusation that would catch many Christians today. Do we live in such a way that the world around us, our neighbors, our bosses, our friends, see that we have a loyalty to our King so that the Lord and no other authority is indeed our master? Would people look at the average person claiming Christ and recognize that they are devoted to someone who is beyond any temporal authority?

Christians, take this to heart. Look at the two accusations against the Christians in Thessalonica. Would people say those things of you? Do you change your world? Are you so loyal to the Lord and his word that people would think you live under a fully different government? If not, what is missing?