Paul, the apostle, would visit a new town and immediately visit a local Jewish gathering. He would begin to explain their Scriptures in a new way. He would say that every interpretation you have been taught that has been handed down from teacher to student for hundreds of years (much longer than Europeans have been on North America) is wrong. And he would then try to teach them a new way to look at them.
It would be as if someone came to America and told Americans, “You know all those things you have been taught about the founding and purpose of America is wrong. Actually, ….” They’d be thrown out of the gathering.
No wonder Paul had such a difficult time of it. Some of his teaching undermined the credibility of Jewish leadership in the Temple. No wonder they wanted to kill him (after they killed Jesus, Stephen and others). Try to convince your boss she’s wrong! Take that thought up a few notches in intensity when you’re trying to completely change the structure of a religion. (Think, “Out, out, you Bishops.”)
Paul would win over some of the Jews to the new Way. But not that many, evidently. And he stirred up so much hatred in the establishment, that he wound up in prison–OK, sort of a gentleman’s prison, but still not free to go.
This shows the limits of using intellectual persuasion to convince someone to change. The growth of the church is really explained in the first few chapters of Acts–especially Acts 2. It was through the lives of those who had been changed. Kind of like that famous scene in the movie “When Harry Met Sally” where the two older women looked at Meg Ryan and told the waitress, “I want what she’s having.”
Take a lesson from Acts, then. It is through how you live that people will be open to coming to Jesus. Then you can explain why. And teach the background. And help them develop intellectually as well as spiritually. Just as your children learn more by watching you than listening, so your example by how you live teaches more than your words.
Faith Venture 
January 12, 2012 at 7:37 am |
Totally agree. You may be the only “Jesus” that people see. People will be influenced to change when they see the change in you.