During times of battle, believers commonly find themselves to be underdogs. Faith, however, refuses to retreat and trusts God to overcome superior foes.
In every way, God is greater than man. A man would have to be a thief to claim equality with God. Yet, Christ thought it not robbery to be equal with God.
The thief does not care for the well-being of those he victimizes. He cares for himself and only himself. He hurts and has no trouble hurting others.
On the day Stephen was martyred, a young man named Saul stood by and gave his consent to Stephen’s death. Apparently, that day greatly affected Saul.
A martyr is one who is killed for his faith. Only two individuals are specifically named as martyrs in scripture: Stephen and Antipas.
A man’s conscience resides within, yet its expression can be witnessed by others. Because of the testimony of his conscience, Paul rejoiced. According to scripture, that testimony was manifest to the world but especially among the people of God. Those who knew Paul knew that he served the Lord “in simplicity and godly sincerity.” He did not do everything right, but he exhibited a passion of heart to do right in all that he did. No doubt, this was a wonderful example to other believers who looked to Paul for guidance. They saw a man who sincerely loved the Lord and others and also gave every effort possible not to offend either.
Sin within a person’s life messes with man’s conscience. It begins by attacking man’s knowledge of God with the end goal of causing a complete rejection of God. Sinful man turns to many different devices in hopes of taking care of his sin-tainted conscience. He may seek to pacify his conscience by doing religious works. He also may try to forget that his conscience has been corrupted by a further turning toward the pleasures of sin. In both cases, he is left with a conscience in need of purging. Where can man turn to find the purging he so strongly desires? According to the Bible, only the blood of Jesus Christ can purge a man’s conscience from dead works to serve the living God (Hebrews 9:14).
Many people are quite zealous of following the traditions of men. For instance, the apostle Paul was so exceedingly zealous of the traditions of his fathers that he “persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women” (Acts 22:4). This same act has been true throughout church history. History reveals that many saints of God were severely punished and even put to death for rejecting unscriptural traditions such as infant baptism. In some cases, babies were ripped from the arms of their mothers and cast into lakes and rivers. Others were tossed into arenas with lions for rejecting traditions choosing to hold up scripture. Why? Because men are zealous of their traditions and will persecute to keep their ways intact!
Man does not change in order to be saved, but true salvation always brings about an evident change in the life of the new believer. Perhaps the change is less noticeable in some new believers and more noticeable in others; however, no change means no salvation. The change is not always an immediate outward change because it involves a change of the inward nature. A person who trusts Christ for salvation becomes a new creature (Galatians 6:15). It might be best to consider how this could be likened to a dog (Matthew 15:26-27) becoming a sheep (John 10:16). A new man now dwells within the new Christian to help combat and defeat the old sinful nature (Ephesians 4:22-24). Salvation is not merely the turning over of a new leaf; it is a new birth (John 3:3) where one is passed from spiritual death to spiritual life (John 5:24).
Man can, at times, readily recognize problems that arise, but often initially reacts with solutions to remove the problem out of sight. As the disciples looked out over the multitude in today’s passage, they saw thousands in a desert place with a lack of provisions. They quickly viewed what seemed to them as an insurmountable problem. As evening approached, they came to the Lord and suggested that He send the people away. The disciples were more comfortable with the problem if it was out of sight, out of mind, and not theirs to face. Their suggestion was an unacceptable solution. For this reason, the Lord put the problem back upon the disciples when He said to them, “Give ye them to eat” (Mark 6:37). In other words, the problem would not go away or solve itself. The Lord directed the disciples to find a solution and their turning a blind eye was completely unacceptable.
