Reflection on Acts (Chapters 17-20)

by Elizabeth Etta

Acts 17-20:

Paul and his companions continue to travel, preaching and spreading the good news throughout Thessalonica, Berea, Corinth and Athens. Surprisingly, there are still people who do not believe this good news message.

This is still the same in our world today where some people might hear about the bible, about Jesus and to them it is a fairytale. But as for those of us who believe the truth of Jesus, we are assured salvation.

Acts 17:11 mentions that the Bereans were of noble character for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.

This passage stood out to me as to why it is mentioned in the bible. You see a lot of people today are where they are due to ignorance and when it comes to our eternal life, there is no excuse for ignorance. Some of us as Catholics have walked in ignorance for so long, myself included, that reading this verse was like a lightbulb moment in my brain. We have traditions, when someone asks us about them, we don't know why we follow them, we just go with the motions? When someone asks us something about our faith, we don't have reference from scriptures to back it up, to explain Why? Or worst still, not every message we hear or receive into our spirits is true. We must test this according to the bible and this is what the Bereans did. They did not just accept Paul's message, it was wise of them to stay guarded. And once they realized that Paul's preaching was in line with the scriptures, did they believe.

While reading this verse, I thought about our brothers and sisters who have not yet known Christ Jesus as their saviour, e.g. The Hindus, The Muslims, what about them? Acts 4:12 says Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved. They do not believe in Jesus, does this mean they are not saved? I struggled with these thoughts, because they are some of the nicest, genuine people I know. I have had interesting conversations with my Muslim friends about My God, Your God, My Jesus, Their Prophet. This often is interesting but yet at the end of the day we all still believe what we believe, because especially when you are raised a certain way, it leads you to believe that is the right way.

Anyway my point here is that we cannot wait for the truth to come to us, we have to actively search for truth as is the case of the Bereans. Our eternal life depends on the seeking of who God is, who Christ really is. What is amazing is that God's grace is sufficient, He wants us to know who He is. He wants us to have that relationship with Him, but you cannot stay comfortable where you are, because to be a follower of Christ comes with a risk and perhaps that is a risk most people are not willing to take and so they prefer to stay where they are. This is why especially in our Christian walk we must actively want to know the truth, which has been revealed to us through the bible and through prayer which is an amazing gift for God to be able to reveal Himself to us. As long as we want to pursue righteousness, our God who is full of Grace and Mercy will reveal Himself to us, for He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.