Pride in Religious Possessions

From: The Christian Shepherd: 2000

By: William Kelly

• 1 min. read • grade level: 7

“The Jews which believed not . . . set all the city on an uproar. . . . When the . . . word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came . . . and stirred up the people” (Acts 17:5, 13⁵But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. (Acts 17:5)
¹³But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also, and stirred up the people. (Acts 17:13)).

Knowledge of old revelation gives no security for receiving the truth God is sending or using most at any given time. If there be pride in what is already possessed, it will act powerfully in rejecting what is meant of God to test the heart, especially if grace is opening the door of faith to those who had no religious standing. The gospel is of all things most repulsive to the ancient people of God, who madly refused the mercy which waited on them first of all, before it was preached to the Gentiles.

W. Kelly (excerpted from An Exposition of Acts)

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