Acts 17:8
“And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city, when they heard these things.”
If you are going to be faithful in serving the LORD your entire life, you are going to have to come to grips with the fact that you will have to deal with divisions and attacks. Jesus warned us in Matthew 10 that people would hate us. It doesn’t matter how pure your motive is; there are going to be times when you have to deal with divisions among friends and attacks from without.
Paul experienced divisions and attacks in his ministry more than any other apostle. Whether or not it was because of his personality or because of his life before he got saved we do not know, one thing we do know is that he regularly dealt with divisions and attacks. When you analyze why he went through these divisions and attacks, you will find there were three causes. These same three causes still cause divisions and attacks on God’s servants today.
The first cause of divisions and attacks is opinions. Paul and Barnabas had an opinion about John Mark’s profitability to their team. The opinion caused the strife to be so sharp that they felt it was best to each go their own way. Be careful about allowing opinion to cause division. Opinions are not Scriptures, and we must treat them as what they are: opinions.
The second cause of divisions and attacks is jealousy. In Acts 16:19, a man was jealous of Paul’s ministry because “the hope of their gains was gone.” You will find that many will attack you because they feel that you are taking the dynasty they held on a group of people. When this happens, you cannot let it deter you from what the LORD wants you to do. The attacks will be personal, and these people will say bad things about you and try to do bad things to you, but you must continue to do right and let the LORD deal with them.
The third cause of divisions and attacks is envy. The story from the verse above is where the people attacked them and tried to destroy their influence because they “turned the world upside down.” These people wanted the same influence that the apostles had, and because they didn’t have that influence, they tried to destroy them. As your influence grows, people will attack you in an attempt to take your influence because they want it. You must not be concerned with their attacks. Just keep doing what built your influence, and let the LORD deal with their attacks.
When divisions and attacks happen, there are three things you must do. First, you must ask yourself if they are right in any area. There may always be some little truth in an attack. If it is something you need to change, change it. Second, ask yourself if you need to change something. Don’t change the truth, but maybe changing an opinion can keep the division from happening in the future. You need to look at what you are doing and see if there is something you have needlessly done that could have caused the division. Third, just keep doing right. Don’t let the attacks and divisions sidetrack you from what you are supposed to do. If you are not careful, the battle can become your focus instead of reaching the lost for Christ. Just staying focused on truth will take care of the attacks without you having to change one thing. Let me encourage you to stay focused and keep doing right.