He's not one of us ...there are reports of his faith in Christ but we can't trust him. Does anyone really believe this guy is a disciple of Christ? He's not like us ...this guy wants to kill us in the name of God. He'll kill our work... he'll threaten our ministry... he's got to have an angle? We can't afford to talk with him... he might undermine the good work we've been doing here in this church. Lets focus on the work that God has given us to do ...lets just ignore this Saul guy. There's no room for that kind of maverick in our ministry .... hey, has anyone seen Barnabas?
We can imagine this kind of talk among some of the church leaders as they hear of Paul's (then Saul) conversion to Christ. Sadly, this kind of talk continues today for many Apostles (Church Planters) who sometimes feel exiled from church leaders. Why do church leaders push away, nay, send away legitamate disciples of Christ who are blessed with the gift of Apostleship? Perhaps the answer is found in the recorded account by Luke in Acts 9:
26When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. 27But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus.
The opposite of Love isn't hate ...it's fear. Why? Because we can't love someone we're afraid of --someone we feel threatened by, even if we know that our lives would be blessed where we to be obedient to The Holy Spirit by do so.
Too often, I've heard church planters share such negative experiences with church leaders ---even today and espeically in America. We often feel exiled to our own version of Arabia --because church leaders are afraid of us.
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