In Acts 18, Paul is
following his customary approach of teaching in the synagogue about Jesus as
the Christ. Even after Silas and Timothy
arrive allowing him to solely focus on preaching; he runs into a brick wall in
form of the stubborn Jews. He’s so fed up he shakes off his garment and vows to
go to Gentiles instead and let their “blood
be on your own heads”!
So instead of
preaching in the Jewish synagogue, he moves next door to the house of a man
named Titius Justus, who is described as a worshiper of God. We don’t know much about him but we can assume
from his name he was a Roman and he was wealthy enough to own a home that could
serve as a place of assembly.
Now here is where it
gets interesting. After this we read that Crispus, a leader of the synagogue, believes
and is baptized along with entire household.
Right after Paul vows to go to the Gentiles, one of the most prominent
Jews is converted. It seems an odd time
for him to make that decision. Even after Paul leaves the synagogue, there remain an considerable opposition to his efforts (vs. 12-13). It must have been a difficult
decision for Crispus to make.
Unless it maybe had
something to do with his neighbor. I’m sure that these two men had a relationship
long before Paul came into the picture. They may have talked religion before, chatted
about the going on in Corinth and do all the things neighbors do. So when Crispus sees his neighbor open his
home and life to the teaching of Jesus, I can’t help but think that is had an effect
on his openness to listening to what Paul had been teaching.
Our example alone
can’t the extent of our evangelism but the kind of neighbor we are does have an
effect on how people will receive the gospel. Christian should be good neighbors. We should be the kind of person that when someone
realizes where we worship, it lends credence to the cause. One worst story I ever heard was of a man that
was ready to be baptized but he found out that a certain person was a member
there, he remarked, than this can’t be the right church of the Bible!
How does our example
among those we live by say about the Faith?
Are we an asset or an embarrassment? Are we person that brings people in or drives
them away?
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