"Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, 'These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.' She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit. 'In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!' At that moment the spirit left her." ~Acts 16:16-18
If the spirit was telling the truth, why did they cast it out? This shouting by a well-known fortune teller was sure to attract attention, but it probably wasn't exactly the attention they were looking for. Paul took action to drive out the demon because he did not want people thinking the demon was speaking for them or that they were in league with the evil spirit possessing this girl. Jesus did the same thing in Mark 1:25. In that case, a man possessed by an evil spirit also told the truth, crying out, "You are-the Holy One of God!" but Jesus silenced the spirit and drove him out.
The lesson is that the truth loses its effectiveness if it comes from the wrong source or is delivered in an inappropriate way. This is a lesson that some Christians today need to take to heart. Rob Bell, in his Nooma series of videos, has a name for one example of people who may be telling the truth, but are delivering it in an inappropriate way. He calls them "Bullhorn Guy". Watch a preview of the video here. (Local note: You can check these DVDs out from the Reformed Church of America office in Orange City).
You may have witnessed this scene: a crazy man standing on the street corners with a bullhorn, condemns everyone who passes by and spouts out scripture meant to instill fear and shame into the hearts of all who hear. What he is saying may be altogether true and based on scripture, but the way he is delivering it is inappropriate and ineffective. Many Christians do not want to associate themselves with people like this. In the same way, Paul did not want others to link the evil (and apparently vocal) spirit with him or His God.
It's the means, not the message, that he is silencing.
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2 comments:
I removed the previously posted comment because it contained no constructive critisim, just general insult, and included a link that I do not encourage people to follow. What I found at the site this person linked to basically said that faith in Jesus is not enough and that those who think you can be saved by Jesus' grace alone are not really Christians. I am deeply sorry that the person who posted the comment and the content of their website is devoted to making people think they have to perfectly follow the law in order to be real Christians. They will never succeed. It is impossible. All hope is lost if you think you need to do enough works to earn salvation. It is arrogant to think that what we do can get us into heaven--it's what God does in His grace and Jesus did in His death that saves us.
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