Tuesday, February 24th

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February 24

Unity in the Midst of Opposition

Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders.

—Acts 14:3

In 1996, Eric Daniel Harris, a pastor at Kentucky Missionary Baptist Church in Saline City, Arkansas, pled guilty to a startling crime: he set fire to his own church. But perhaps the most surprising part of the arson wasn’t that he did it but why he did it. It wasn’t to get insurance money; it wasn’t out of spite. No, his actions were a misguided attempt to create unity in his congregation. He said, “There was a division among church members, and they needed a project to unite them.”

Clearly Pastor Harris was wrong to commit a crime to achieve this goal. But he may have been on to something with the underlying premise. The truth is, although opposition and hardship can be painful, God can also redeem those trials and bring something good out of them.

We know from Scripture that God has the power to prevent us from facing opposition and going through trials. He parted the Red Sea to enable the Israelites to escape slavery at the hands of the Egyptians. He took the prophet Elijah to heaven in a chariot of fire, meaning Elijah never had to experience death. When Jesus walked the earth, he healed the lame and sick and brought sight to the blind.

But there have also been times in history when God allowed his followers to face opposition. Instead of going directly to the Promised Land, the Israelites had to wander in the wilderness for forty years. Joseph was sold by his brothers and thrown in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Jesus allowed his friend Lazarus to die even though Lazarus’s sisters asked Jesus to heal him.

None of these circumstances meant that God wasn’t blessing these people or that he had withdrawn his presence from them. Instead, he allowed those times of opposition so he could fulfill his purposes in ways more powerful than what could be accomplished through harmony and ease.

God allowed Paul and Barnabas to face significant opposition on their missionary journey too. But that didn’t mean they were doing something wrong or that God was withholding his blessings from them. The reality is that Jesus is a dividing line. The apostle Peter described Jesus as a rock that will be either a stumbling block or a cornerstone (1 Peter 2:4-10). It’s impossible to remain neutral about Jesus. So when people oppose Jesus, it’s natural that they’ll oppose us too.

Have you ever faced opposition because of your faith? How would you respond if you were criticized or faced negative consequences for following Jesus?

—Stephanie Rische