Day 30: Acts 19:23–20:6

Our reading today starts out talking about “no small stir.” We discover that the “stir” referred to was caused because of the love of money. Regardless of what was said, the love of money was the root cause! Listen to what Scripture teaches about this.

People who want to be rich bring temptations to themselves. They are caught in a trap. They begin to want many foolish things that will hurt them. These things ruin and destroy people. The love of money causes all kinds of evil. Some people have turned away from what we believe because they want to get more and more money. But they have caused themselves a lot of pain and sorrow. But you belong to God. So you should stay away from all those things. Always try to do what is right, to be devoted to God, and to have faith, love, patience, and gentleness. (1Timothy 6:9:-11)

I want to be clear here. There is nothing evil about having money. The problem comes when the desire for money perverts our judgment from doing right, to doing whatever is necessary to acquire financial gain.

We examine the stir and discover that a silversmith is offended because former idolaters are turning to Christ, and destroying their idols. This is putting a crimp in his prosperous trade. His solution is to rile up his fellow “craftsmen” who would also suffer financial loss if people turned from idolatry. They then transferred their dismay at financial loss into a “righteous indignation” that the Goddess Diana and her temple would suffer loss of popularity. Now this is possibly a cause that they can rally support for, and get rid of those religious fanatics who were causing a downturn in their business in the first place.

It is not uncommon for the enemy to use subtle means to attempt to bring discredit to those who would promote the gospel. It is also not uncommon for people to fall for these deceptions.

We read on to discover that the resulting riot brought widespread confusion into the city of Ephesus. Please note 1 Corinthians 14:33:  “God is not the author of confusion, but of peace.” Whenever we see confusion, we should recognize that Satan or his agents are at work to bring discredit to an authentic work of the Spirit of God.

This confusion, and riot in Ephesus was settled only when the city clerk began to calmly address the issues of the day. He pointed out the realities, the truth. Accusations levied against the disciples of Christ were untrue. No law of Ephesus had been violated. He brought the focus back to the disgruntled craftsmen who had experienced a downturn in business. Let them, if they have a just matter, bring it through the proper channels, and address it there. Meanwhile, we are in danger of being held to account for our own actions this day. Then he dismissed the assembly.

How lovely if we all could address false accusation and injustice in such a simple manner! My friends, it is incumbent upon each of us to view the “causes” brought to our attention, the requests and demands for action, and to examine the legitimacy of the matter.  Fortunately we have an advocate. He is Holy Spirit, known as the Spirit of Truth, and He has promised to guide us in all truth and to teach us all things. Jesus said in John 16:13 that “when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.” In John 14:26 we are told He will teach us all things.

We need to know truth. My prayer is that we would not respond to “causes”, but we would respond to truth. As we learn the truth, it has the power to set us free from the bondage of deception.