Good morning. Many of the people of Berea believed; but when
the Jews of Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been proclaimed by
Paul there, they came also, agitating and stirring up the crowds. They weren’t
content keeping their city “safe“ from what they considered to be heresy, they
went to a town nearby to also “protect” it. The brethren sent Paul to the sea
while Silas and Timothy remained there. We haven’t heard anything about Timothy
since he joined Paul and Silas a number of verses ago. Those who were with Paul
took him to Athens, where he gave them a command for Silas and Timothy to come
to him as soon as possible. While Paul was waiting for them, he was agitated
within as he observed all of the idols. He was reasoning in the synagogue with
the Jews and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be
present. Paul did not let all of the conflict he had endured in the other
cities deter him from proclaiming the gospel wherever he was. While Athens was
no longer at the height of its glory in art and other areas, it was still a
bastion of philosophical debate. Some thought he was a proclaimer of strange
deities because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. They brought him
to a popular venue to listen to what he had to say, because that is what they
like to do – discuss new and different philosophies. We will find out next time
what he had to say to them. Father help the reader to follow after You with all
of his/her heart. Help him/her to discover Your will.
Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me
Good morning. Paul then gives a list of a lot of things that he has gone through as an apostle. I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. There could be many people that you listen to either in church or through the Internet or other means; but there was only one person (as a general rule it was a person) that lead you to Christ. Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. He was saying that just like a child imitates his or her father, they were to imitate him. He says that again seven chapters later. Since it is easy to forget some things about people we have not seen in a while, Paul says that he sent Timothy to them to remind them of his ways which are in Christ, just as he taught everywhere in every church. Some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. I shall find ou...
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