By every appearance, the very thing Paul dreaded was happening. How many times had gangs of angry men surrounded him and dragged him to the police. In one situation after another government officials had conveniently sided with the mob. And here he was again being taken through the streets of Corinth to stand in front of the new Roman proconsul. It all felt horribly familiar. Would he be stripped and beaten publicly and then thrown into a filthy jail cell as he had in Philippi (Ac 16:19-24)? Or would...
By every appearance, the very thing Paul dreaded was happening. How many times had gangs of angry men surrounded him and dragged him to the police. In one situation after another government officials had conveniently sided with the mob. And here he was again being taken through the streets of Corinth to stand in front of the new Roman proconsul. It all felt horribly familiar. Would he be stripped and beaten publicly and then thrown into a filthy jail cell as he had in Philippi (Ac 16:19-24)? Or would the mob be allowed to take him out and stone him as they had in Lystra (Ac 14:19, 20)? But there was one thing that made this moment different from all the others. A year and a half earlier Paul had seen a vision of Jesus who told him not to be afraid, so when fear tried to surge up within Paul, he had a promise he could cling to.
The real enemy
The real enemy is fear. Most of the bad decisions we make are made in an effort to protect ourselves from something we fear. Fear weakens us, it breaks down our defenses, and actually seems to draw to us the very thing we’re trying to flee. You might say fear is a form of faith in reverse. When we’re afraid, we’re actively believing that bad things will happen. Fear’s almost like an odor or a magnetic field. If left unchallenged, sooner or later we tend to get the very thing we feared.
The culture we live in is full of fear. If you listen to the way people talk you’ll hear it. They say, “You know what worries me is…,” or “I’m really frightened for…” Our news is full of horrible scenarios about what might happen. Books, films and music constantly envision coming catastrophes, and for that matter, so do religious materials. The effect all this has on us is to make us want to withdraw and hide. We can’t dream of great things or step out into bold, new ventures because we’re waiting for something bad to happen. And living in fear leaves people tired, sad and angry. Frightened people build walls. We limit our own possibilities, we reduce our own potential, because in our mind what we fear is as real as if it had already happened. It’s as real as if we had already seen it. So, we think of ourselves as being realistic, not fearful; as wise, not reactionary. And fearful thinking becomes a habit which gets more deeply ingrained in us as the years go by, until we’re not even aware it’s there.
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