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“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.” – Mother Teresa
My wife, Charlotte, can verify that I
can be a bit contrary sometimes—actually,at
times, more than a bit. My contrariness was
triggered recently by a devotional written by
retired missionary Rev. Stan Kruis about
theearly apostle Apollos (https://todaydevotional.com/devotions/priscilla-and-aquila).
Apollos (Acts 18:24-28) was a Jew who had accepted the Gospel ofChrist. He was well versed in the Hebrew scriptures and an eloquent orator. He arrived in Ephesus and began teaching others about Jesus.Buthe had only heard about the baptism of John the Baptist. Most English Bible translations say something to the effect that Paul’s friends,Priscilla and Aquila, “. . . took him aside, and explained to him the way of God more accurately.” (18:26 ESV). But Ilike the way the Complete Jewish Bible expresses it: “. . . they took him aside and explained to him theWayof God in fuller detail.” But Rev. Kruis wrote that “. . . his teaching about Jesus needed somecorrection.So Priscilla and Aquila invited him to their home and helped him get on track.” Perhaps it’s just me but this seemed somewhat unfair to Apollos. Therewas nothing wrong with what he was preaching. He wasn’t saying anything contrary to the Gospel. Acts says “. . . he spoke andtaught accurately the things concerning Jesus,” (vs. 25b ESV, emphasis added). He just needed to go further, needed a small nudge,andPriscilla and Aquila were there to fill in the missing details of his knowledge. The Expositor’s Greek Testament suggests that Christian baptism was fundamentally different from that practiced by John. While John hadbaptized “‘forrepentance’” (Matt. 3:11), Jesus instructed his disciples to “‘. . . make disciples of all nations,baptizing them inthe name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,’” (28:19 ESV). However, this doesn’t suggest that Apollos was terribly wrong. Heneeded further education, but who among us doesn’t? That doesn’t necessarily mean we’re any more or less wrong than anyone else.Apollos went on to be an effective apostle. Paul mentioned him several times in his first letter to the Corinthians (1:12, 3:4-6, 3:22, 4:6,16:12) and again to his friend Titus (3:13). But there’s a human tendency to regard someone who doesn’t knowsomething we do as “wrong,” “uninformed,” or worse. A prominent presidential advisor recently called someone who corrected him“retarded,” a far cry from Lincoln’s “. . . malice toward none with charity for all . . .” For my part, maybe I simply identify with Apollos. Maybe it seemed Rev. Kruis was selling him short or judging him unfairly, aposition in which I’ve found myself more than once. And maybe I need to be more aware of times when I unfairly judge other Christians whodisagree with me. Or maybe Rev. Kruis was wrong. Nobody deliberately sets out to be wrong. My wife, Charlotte, can verify thatI can be wrong without trying. When we see or interact with others who believe differently than we do,let’s remember that not everyone makes the same assumptions we do. Yet I also firmly believe there are people and ideas that are simply wrong.And while we don’t necessarily need to attack them, neither can we afford to let them go unchallenged. Instead, as Paul told theCorinthians, “. . . the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.” (2 Cor.10:4ESV). Ours is a battle of worldviews, as much as a battle for souls. “And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind toeveryone,able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.” (2 Tim. 2:24-25a ESV.) |
