Yesterday’s murder of the controversial Dr. George Tiller, notorious for his prolofic abortion activity, will no doubt be written and spoken about much in the next few days. The vigilante nature of the murderer’s act is obviously immoral and unjustified. It made me question, though: does the Paphos Paradigm shed any light on confronting evil in the political arena? I believe it does because Paul and Barnabas came across an obstacle in the capital of Cyprus.
6 When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a magician, a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar-Jesus, 7 who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence. This man summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas the magician (for so his name is translated) was opposing them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. 9 But Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze on him, 10 and said, “You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord? 11 Now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and not see the sun for a time.” And immediately a mist and a darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking those who would lead him by the hand. (Acts 13:6-11)
Several principles can be observed from Acts 13 in relation to responding to those with opposing priorities. First of all, I think we can agree that opposition will occur in this world and we shouldn’t be surprised or intimidated when it does. Especially in the political sphere we tend to take great offense that others don’t share our point of view when this is one inescapable reality.
Second, notice why Paul was stirred to action: Bar-Jesus was placing himself between Paul and the governor to block the gospel from having any effect (v. 8). Paul wasn’t passionate about policy differences as much as he was displeased that a wall had been placed in the way of his message. His actions clearly reflect a priority of seeing his mission through – witnessing to Sergius Paulus. He wouldn’t let anything get in the way of that, because he knew the powerful impact the gospel has in the human heart.
Third, motivated by the right reason, Paul has sharp words for Bar-Jesus and calls him exactly what he is: an enemy of what is right. But again, let the passage define “right”. Bar-Jesus opposed Paul’s gospel message while his political views aren’t even mentioned (or seem to concern Paul at all). Passion for seeing the gospel reach a leader is the issue here, not to change his mind on a policy. When the truth of God does its work, the Church must believe that worldviews are changed and spiritually regenerated leaders can then make laws that are more moral and equitable.
Fourth, think about what isn’t recorded in this passage. Given Paul’s pattern of ministry and his priority of proclaiming God’s truth, I believe he witnessed to Bar-Jesus (or at least spoke within his hearing) before this recorded confrontation took place. And who knows what the result was from the combination of Paul’s teaching and Bar-Jesus’ temporary blindness? For Sergius Paulus, it was faith in Christ. We aren’t told what happened ultimately in the magician’s heart and maybe the author, Luke, never found out. But from the impression left by Paul’s response to his opposition, Bar-Jesus may have believed as well.
Murdering a political opponent is never right. With prayer and proper confrontation from the Christian community, perhaps Dr. Tiller would have drawn close to Christ. Our concern over the negative effects of the actions of those hostile to God’s principles in Scripture must be spiritual rather than merely political or opinion-based. It’s important to speak up for righteousness in our world, but the battle is won and lost in the hearts of people as they respond to God’s truth.
Rotunda Reflections 
June 2, 2009 at 6:02 am
Thanks again, Brent,
As one who DOES know the roads of Maryland, I can confirm you certainly ARE ‘burning’ them up!
A tremendously cogent and insightful message, Brother. I, too, fear the ‘opening’ we are giving the Lord’s enemies in the Tiller death. Yet our Lord is faithful–just the requirement He demands in us as stewards–to keep our own eye on the ‘ball’ of the Gospel above all else happening in our lives. And that is very tough sometimes…maybe many times.
Thank you again for your two-fold ministry, Brent, with Capitol in the lives you are touching and through this blog in the lives of its readers.
To His glory,
Steve
June 13, 2009 at 9:02 am
This is somewhat of a “trick” question, because it combines two different contexts. You make a good argument for love and faithfulness, but they do feel like a bit of a stretch. Quite frankly, I think one of the reasons Luke makes a point of stating the Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit when he unleashes this verbal barrage is that even he recognized that without that little extra tidbit of information Paul’s words would have come across as anything but spiritual.
The real key to reconciling Acts 13 with Galatians 5 is that Galatians 5 was never meant to be an exhaustive list. There are many other “fruit of the Spirit” mentioned in the New Testament, but I think the passage that best explains Paul’s confrontation of Bar-Jesus is Ephesians 5:7-12 – “Therefore do not be partakers with them; for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret.”
Luke makes it clear that Bar-Jesus was filling the ears of Sergius Paulus with lies. The issue for Paul was one of truth vs. error, light vs. darkness, and in that arena neither Paul nor Jesus ever pulled any punches. This was not a conversation about policy or opinion; what was at stake was the truth. And Paul’s objective was not to destroy or gain supremacy over Bar-Jesus, it was to clarify the truth in the hearts and minds of Sergius Paulus and everyone else in the proconsul’s court.
Righteousness, holiness, and truth are as much the fruit of the Spirit as gentleness, meekness, and longsuffering. However, a lot is done in the name of righteousness, holiness, and truth that is actually devoid of any of those qualities. Just as passivity and irresponsibility can be cloaked in the false longsuffering of tolerance, hatred and murder are frequently justified in the name of holiness. The difference between selfish and Spirit-filled expressions is that a Spirit-filled act manifests ALL the fruit of the Spirit – because God is never unloving in His truth, unrighteous in His longsuffering, or harsh in His holiness.
In the incident with Bar-Jesus, I see longsuffering, in that the blindness was only for a season. I see meekness, in that Paul did not exact his own judgment or frustration on the magician, but declared that “the hand of the Lord” was upon him. I see gentleness, in that the heresy Bar-Jesus was proclaiming made him worthy of death (especially given that he was a Jewish prophet, which implies he should have known the truth from the Scriptures), but resulted only in temporary blindness.
The key for us is that we must always place God’s agenda above our own, understanding that He is not willing for any to perish, but that all would come to repentance, and always temper our zeal for the truth with self-sacrificing love for not only those who believe the lies but also those who tell them.