Good Morning Friends,
“Many of those who believed now came and
openly confessed their evil deeds. A number who had practiced sorcery brought
their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value
of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. In this way the word
of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.” (Acts 19:18-20)
The people of Ephesus responded so well to
the preaching of the gospel that Paul stayed there for over two years, one of
the longest stays of any during his missionary journeys. Many people came to
Christ. Before they came to Christ, these people had been involved in many
things that were not right. Among the things they had been involved in was
sorcery. They had an interest in spiritual things but turned the wrong
direction in their ignorance. Upon coming to Christ, God convicted them of their
sin and they wanted nothing to do with sorcery any more.
For the Ephesians, repentance was more than
just making a decision in their minds that they would no longer dabble in
sorcery. They were serious about leaving that sin and wanted to get as far away
from the temptation as possible. As an act of repentance and demonstration of
how serious they were, they brought their books of sorcery to be burned in a
public bonfire.
Paul warned Timothy to ‘Flee the evil desires
of youth, and pursue righteousness.” (2 Timothy 2:22) That speaks of the kind
of clear break with sin and temptation that is expressed in the action of the
Ephesians.
The point: get serious about leaving behind
sin, to the point that you deal not just with the sin, but even with the
temptation that you struggle with so much.
His, by Grace,
Steve
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