The Good and the Bad
27 When the seven days were nearly over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him, 28 shouting, “Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against our people and our law and this place. And besides, he has brought Greeks into the temple area and defiled this holy place.” 29 (They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with Paul and assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple area.)
30 The whole city was aroused, and the people came running from all directions. Seizing Paul, they dragged him from the temple, and immediately the gates were shut. 31 While they were trying to kill him, news reached the commander of the Roman troops that the whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar. 32 He at once took some officers and soldiers and ran down to the crowd. When the rioters saw the commander and his soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.
33 The commander came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains. Then he asked who he was and what he had done. 34 Some in the crowd shouted one thing and some another, and since the commander could not get at the truth because of the uproar, he ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks.
Acts 21:27-34

In old Western movies, it was easy to tell who the good guys and the bad guys were. The good guys wore white hats and the bad guys wore black hats.

Don’t you wish that life were so simple? In particular, life would be so much easier if we could simply classify a person as good or bad, and everything that they did was according to that classification, that good people did good things and bad people did bad things.

But reality is different. Good people do bad things and bad people do good things. When Paul was attacked by the crowd, it was the hated Romans who saved him. The Roman soldiers were just doing their job, but that doesn’t make walking into a violent mob any less dangerous. They didn’t have to do it. All the soldiers had to do was walk to the temple instead of run (verse 32) and they would have saved themselves a lot of trouble.

Perhaps Paul would have been more comfortable being saved by Christians. But God uses people and speaks to people in unexpected ways. The Roman soldiers were only dealing with a problem, but they would soon listen to Paul sharing to the crowd. We can wonder how God used Paul’s words to touch even their hardened hearts.

We don’t know what is in another person’s heart. We don’t know how God will use that person and how God will reach out to him or her. But as Christians we should always seek to look into a person’s face, especially someone that we do not like, and know that God loves that person.

Prayer:
• Can you see the good in someone you do not like, or do you only see the bad?
Ask God to open your eyes and let you see his great love for that person.