persuasive

Dawn and I have frequently discussed the fact that scripture always seems to address what's happening currently. When life changes, I see different things than before.

Right now, I’m struggling with how to be an effective witness in drastically polarized nation. People of no faith and people who claim my faith all have become antagonistic and adversarial, so that it’s difficult to know what to do.

But Paul showed me one possibility in my reading this morning, from Acts 19:3-10: “Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord.”

I noticed three things Paul didn’t do. He didn’t go right back at the people who mocked and ridiculed the message he was trying to bring. And he didn’t force his message on them. In fact, he left the synagogue to the opposition and went his way.

But the third thing he didn’t do was he didn’t stop bringing the Gospel. He found a new place, the lecture hall, and worked daily for two years. And I guess there’s a fourth thing he didn’t do: he didn’t lecture or command. He discussed and argued, not in the way we do it now, but in the way arguments are supposed to happen, with an exchange of ideas that wasn’t loud or confrontational, but persuasive.

If Paul were here today, he might say something like, “Greg, we don’t have enough time to fight with people who have made up their minds, and who will make things up to make us look bad. Let’s just move down the road and spend our time with people who seem interested.”

Maybe I’m misreading things, but I’m reminded of the time Jesus sent his disciples out to evangelize, but told them simply to shake off of their feet any dust from a village that didn’t want to hear. In other words, don’t insist, just go on somewhere else.

I’m reminded of something wise I was once told: “Conversations are something you have, not something you win.” Even conversations about Jesus. If the Spirit doesn’t persuade, I never will.