People Never Change

Suggested Reading:  Acts 15:36-41

"People never change."

How many times have you heard that statement? For some reason, there is an ongoing debate about whether or not people change that has been raging for centuries.  On the one hand, there are examples of people who make the same mistakes over and over again. No matter how many times they promise to never make the same mistake again, no matter how many times they start over, no matter how many chances they get, there are some people who obviously don't change. On the  flip side, there are people who obviously do change. Some people have a pivotal experience in life that causes them to re-examine everything, who they are, what they believe, and how they act.

But I have noticed an interesting phenomenon. Those people who do change, who do pull their lives together and overcome the problems that they have faced and the mistakes of their past, inspire us so that we have hope for ourselves that we might be able to change, but they rarely inspire us enough to believe that other people will change. The dynamic is often pushed even farther when we believe we have changed and we want other people to acknowledge that we have changed, but we don't want to extend that courtesy to others. For some reason, human nature allows us to believe that change is possible for ourselves but rarely in other people. Even the Apostle Paul struggled with that dynamic.

Paul had been a persecutor of the Church, one who opposed Jesus at every turn and abused Jesus' disciples, but Paul had an experience with the living Christ that changed him, that caused him to become one of the very people he had been persecuting. You would think that he could believe that anyone could change. But at the end of Acts chapter 15, we see Paul and Barnabas get into such a major argument that they part ways. The nature of the argument? Barnabas wanted his cousin John Mark to accompany them on their next missionary journey while Paul thought it was a bad idea because Mark had abandoned them on a previous journey. Barnabas believed that John Mark was worth the risk, he believed in Mark. Paul, on the other hand, apparently felt that Mark was unreliable and unworthy of a second chance. Paul, recipient of, perhaps, one of the most undeserving second chances in history, did not believe that Mark could be relied upon, did not believe that Mark had changed or that Mark could change.

Fortunately, Paul's inability to see the potential for change in Mark did not last forever. Years later, when writing 2 Timothy, Paul instructed Timothy, "Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry" (2 Timothy 4:11, NIV). Then, in Colossians, Paul reminded the Colossians how to receive Mark if he happened to come to them from Paul (Colossians 4:10). Not only did Paul eventually change his mind about Mark, but Paul came to rely on Mark and counted Mark as an asset in his own ministry.

One of the great miracles of life in Christ is the opportunity for sinful people to become new creations, the opportunity for change. And while we must keep our eyes open and not naively trust people who have proven themselves unreliable, we must also keep our minds open to the reality that, in Christ, people change. Far too often, we judge people for mistakes that have been left far in the past and refuse to see the evidence of a changed life right before our eyes. Paul may have done that with John Mark, but he eventually opened up to the possibility that Mark had changed, and Paul's life and ministry were blessed as a result.

If we have received new life in Christ, if we have been changed by the Spirit of God, we must be open to the possibility that other people can change as well. When we won't allow for the possibility of change, we might be missing out on some of life's biggest blessings. 

Paul's Time-Travel Superman Adventure

Suggested Reading: Acts 14:8-20

There is an episode of Smallville (a show about Clark Kent before he became Superman) where Clark decides the time has come to reveal himself to the world. He does an interview, gets his story printed, and is an immediate celebrity. People begin giving him free coffees and newspapers because of all the good he does in saving people. Crowds applaud as he walks down the street. Girls throw themselves off of buildings just so that he will catch them. He is seen as a hero who selflessly gives of himself to the world at large.

Until another reporter prints a story claiming Clark Kent is the first wave of an alien invasion and fabricates evidence linking him to a murder.

Suddenly, Clark Kent goes from admired hero to renegade outlaw. The police try to round up all of his friends, looking for a weakness to use against Clark. The S.W.A.T. team arrives at his farmhouse to bring him in for questioning. Overnight, Clark Kent becomes a wanted outlaw. Eventually, Clark has to pull the tried and true sci-fi time-travel technique in order to set things straight and keep the whole scandalous episode from happening. In the end, Clark decides that the world simply isn't ready to know about him yet, at least not by his real name.

Clark's journey from admired hero to wanted outlaw in less than a day parallels a similar journey in the book of Acts. Paul and Barnabas were in the city of Lystra, preaching the Gospel, and Paul healed a crippled man. When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they immediately proclaimed that Paul and Barnabas were gods in human form, naming Barnabas as Zeus, and Paul as Hermes, because Paul did most of the speaking. Paul and Barnabas tried to explain to the people that they were ordinary human beings and that God alone was responsible for the miracle, but it was all they could do to keep the people from making sacrifices to them. Shortly after that, some of Paul's Jewish adversaries from Antioch showed up and turned the once adoring crowds against them until "They stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, apparently dead. But as the believers stood around him, he got up and went back into the city" (Acts 14:19-20, NLT). In just a few short days, Paul went from being considered a god to being stoned by a rioting mob!

Now, none of us can claim to be either Paul or the Man of Steel, but we should never be surprised when people who are really excited about us then turn on us. Too often, we place very unrealistic expectations on other people and when those expectations are not met, disappointment and even anger soon take the place of that initial excitement. Jesus experienced the same phenomenon when the expectant crowds from Palm Sunday realized that Jesus was not the kind of political messiah they had been hoping for.  Ministers have the same experience when congregations expect them to come in and, by their sheer presence, to radically transform their church or youth group overnight, becoming extremely disappointed when it doesn't happen.

If you feel like people have turned on you and that all the good will you once had has been forgotten, remember that you are not alone and don't try to gain back their approval by being what people want you to be. Follow Christ, live out your calling, and allow God to work through people's disappointment and disillusionment.  We can't control people's emotional highs and lows. We can only control whether or not we live consistent, Christ-centered lives. 

Getting Yourself Killed Over a Real-Estate Deal

Suggested Reading: Acts 4:32-5:6

There is an interesting story in the book of Acts about some people who sold some land. At the end of chapter four, a man named Barnabas sold a piece of property and then brought the proceeds to the disciples to be passed out to those who were in need. That kind of thing was somewhat common in the Church in those days. But there was also a couple, Ananias and Saphira, who had heard about Barnabas' gift and were impressed by it. I mean, who wouldn't be impressed by someone who sold a piece of property and just gave the money to the church, right? Well, Ananias and Saphira, we can only assume, wanted people to be impressed with them as well, but they didn't want to make the same sacrifice. So they came up with a plan. They sold a piece of property, then acted like they were giving all of the proceeds to the church when they were really keeping part of it for themselves. When Ananias came to present their gift to the apostles, Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the proceeds from the field? Wasn’t it yours while you possessed it? And after it was sold, wasn’t it at your disposal? Why is it that you planned this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God!” When he heard these words, Ananias dropped dead, and a great fear came on all who heard (Acts 5:3-5, HCSB).

The story demonstrates how people can sometimes do the very same things for very different reasons and that our motivation really can mean the difference between sin and a good deed. Barnabas brought his gift because he wanted to help the poor within the Church. Ananias and Saphira brought their gift because they wanted to look good, as evidenced by the fact that they wanted everyone to believe they had given everything when they really hadn't. Their problem wasn't that they didn't give all of the proceeds from the sale to the Church; Peter made it very clear that the money was always theirs to do whatever they wanted with it. The problem was that they wanted to convince people (apparently, even God!) that they were better, more generous people than they really were. Barnabas and Ananias both sold property and gave the proceeds to the church but their motives were very different. One was an act of charity. Another was a selfish act of deceit.

How often do we engage in the same kind of behavior as Ananias and Saphira, doing the right thing for the wrong reasons? How often do we volunteer, not in order to help, but so that we look good? How often do we give just to get people to leave us alone or to assuage a guilty conscience rather than because it is right to meet a need? How often do we do things we really don't want to do just to win political points or convince someone of our moral superiority?

God judges us not just by our actions, but by the attitude of our hearts. God alone can always tell when an act of kindness is deceitful or when our generosity is really a photo-op. So don't stop doing the right thing, just make sure you adjust your heart so you're doing it for the right reasons.