Who Are We Associating With? Acts 16:16-18

In the story of Acts, we follow Paul to Europe. In Philippi, he has several encounters that lead to people coming to be followers of Jesus Christ. However, there’s one story told about a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination and “was bringing her masters much profit by fortunetelling.” (Verse 16)

“Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, ‘These men are bond-servant of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.’” (Verse 17) She was broadcasting the truth. How could a demon possessed person be shouting out the truth? Why would the demon(s) possessing her want her to cry out about the truth? She had been doing this for many days.

However, “Paul became greatly annoyed and turned and said to the spirit [not to the girl], ‘I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!’ And it came out at that very moment.” (Verse 18) Again I ask the question, Why did Paul want the slave-girl to stop professing the truth about them? What was the harm?

There was great harm. The demon wanted to be associated with the apostles. This would discredit them from being of God, because they would be linked to the known demon in possession of the slave-girl. People can be professing truth and still not be followers of Jesus. They may do this to hopefully gain the respect of others and to give credence to their other messages (which are often false). Or they could be doing it, as in this case, to say essentially that the men of the Most High God are no different than them. Either way, it discredits the true gospel message.

If we are honest, we can see examples of this telling the truth to further evil plans in our world today. Politicians proclaim messages that sound good and will bring them followers. Marketing people do this all the time, too. Even some “pastors” of some “churches” employ this tactic. They say just enough of the truth to confuse people, to draw them into their camps, and to deceive for their own personal gain. The truth may come out later, but the “disciples” of the false teachers are already hooked and refuse to see the truth.

As a true follower of Christ, we need to scrutinize the statements of those in positions of authority, making sure they are not just taking bits and pieces of the gospel and using those pieces to try to gain an association with Christ. I know there have been times when I have been fooled by good sounding words. However, upon further study of the Word of God, the Holy Spirit has corrected me. I’ve had to publicly denounce my old beliefs and affirm the truth of Scripture. I have also had to evaluate the totality of another’s professions of telling the truth in the light of Scripture to determine what the truth really is. Sometimes my findings were that the proclamation agreed with the Word. However, there have been times when the proclamations and assertions were contrary to the Word and I’ve had to challenge those falsehoods, in my own heart and in public.

Let’s be careful to examine every claim (especially as they might relate to Jesus Christ and the truth of Scripture) by the measure of God’s Word. I think if we honestly did that today we would find that many of our leaders have false ideas and are trying to relate to Christ for their own evil uses.