Sharing Truth: Acts 19:35-40

We can learn several things from the town clerk’s message as he tried to quiet the mob in Ephesus, which were inciting violence against the Christians, especially against Paul. The clerk, once he quieted the rioters, made 6 main points about the accusations against the Christians. Basically he said that the assembled citizens of Ephesus were creating a riot over nothing and that the rioters were in danger of breaking the Roman laws.

I want to specifically look at one of the things the clerk said because it tells us about Paul and the other Christians in Ephesus. Acts 19:37 records one part of the clerk’s message: “For you have brought these men here who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of our goddess . . .” The point the clerk was trying to make was point number four: “The persons accused were not guilty of breaking the civil laws.” What does this tell us about Paul and the other disciples who were preaching the Messiah message throughout Ephesus?

It tells us that Paul did not go about offending the inhabitants of Ephesus by forcibly destroying their goddess’s temple (Ephesus was the main place where the worship of Artemis was strongest) or ridiculing the people for their beliefs. What Paul and the others preached was the truth about Jesus Christ. And the truth was changing the people’s hearts. It wasn’t by force that the exorcists and evil-doers repented of their sins (see Acts 19:17-20 where it says that the “word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing.”) It was the message, the truth, and the God-ordained miracles Paul was espousing. No one was forcing them or directly confronting their goddesses and gods. They were just reasoning and speaking the truth to the people and those people responded favorably to the message.

(One statement made by Paul may have been directly aimed at the concept of multiple gods and goddesses. In verse 26, one of the rabble-rousers gave an example of Paul’s examples to the people: “. . . this Paul has persuaded and turned away a considerable number of people, saying, ‘that gods made with hands are no gods at all . . .” So Paul was questioning the reality of man-made gods, but he didn’t directly attack Artemis.)

This passage impressed upon me the idea that we need not be destructive or confrontational with unbelievers as we try to reason with them and show them the truth. We do not have to become aggressive and harsh. We do not need to ridicule sinners to get them to see the error of their ways. We can speak boldly with love and compassion. And, most importantly, we can speak the truth of Jesus’ death on the cross, His resurrection, and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers. None of those key truths attack anyone else. It’s just the sharing of the truth. It’s up to God’s Holy Spirit to convict and change people’s hearts.