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Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Truth or Consequences

Acts 16:16-17 (MSG)
One day, on our way to the place of prayer, a slave girl ran into us. She was a psychic and, with her fortunetelling, made a lot of money for the people who owned her.
She started following Paul around, calling everyone's attention to us by yelling out, "These men are working for the Most High God. They're laying out the road of salvation for you!"


This poor slave girl, as if she didn’t have enough going against her already. She was known among the people as ‘crazy’, filled with abilities most did not possess. She was presented to the public as a fortuneteller by her owners and she made lots of money for them. But, she wasn’t psychic at all, but possessed by a demon.

The story goes on to tell how she tormented Paul by following him around shouting that Paul was telling about Jesus and salvation. Now we might wonder why this bothered Paul so much, wasn’t she helping his cause, giving him free advertising? But the fact is, evil and truth cannot co-exist; they do not mix.

After a number of days, Paul finally turned to the girl and demanded the spirit leave her. It was gone, just like that! Who knows how long she had been plagued with this evil spirit. This release must have been dramatic for the girl, the freedom she must have felt when the evil was gone from her.

We know that her owner was furious he had lost his source of income, for she could no longer tell the future. Her heartless owner was only concerned for his economic loss. It is this loss that brought all the parties to court where the magistrates and the crowd ganged up on Paul and Silas. They were beaten and flogged and then put in prison.

The lesson in these verses is about evil and truth not being compatible. It is like a white lie. We fabricate the truth, maybe even with pure motive, but the fact is, a lie is a lie no matter how you color it. Our words may be meant as a kindness to save someone from hurt, but in the end their good feelings have their basis in untruth.

Had Paul and Silas acknowledged the ranting of the slave girl and used it to their advantage, they would have been using evil to herald the truth and compromised the Gospel. Instead they took the beating and preserved their faith. That is just what you and I are called to do; take the beating…

Acts 16:16-24

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