by Hugh DeLong<\/p>\n
“In Iconium they entered the synagogue of the Jews together, and spoke in such a manner that a large number of people believed, both of Jews and of Greeks. But the Jews who disbelieved stirred up the minds of the Gentiles and embittered them against the brethren.\u00a0 Therefore they spent a long time there speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord, who was testifying to the word of His grace, granting that signs and wonders be done by their hands. But the people of the city were divided; and some sided with the Jews, and some with the apostles. And when an attempt was made by both the Gentiles and the Jews with their rulers, to mistreat and to stone them, they became aware of it and fled to the cities of Lycaonia, Lystra and Derbe, and the surrounding region<\/em>” (Acts 14:1-6).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The Commission was Go <\/b>– Preach<\/strong>. But the commission in Mark 16 shows two<\/strong> reactions to such preaching – Believe and be Baptized, or not believe<\/strong>. Here, the gospel is presented in a way that caused some to believe. That style of preaching is outlined in Acts 17:2-3: “And according to Paul’s custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, ‘This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.’<\/em>“<\/p>\n
Along with this, the promise to the apostles was that God would confirm <\/b>their message with signs <\/b>and wonders <\/b>– and here He does just that! Yet, some<\/strong> believed, and some didn’t<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
Those who didn’t believe didn’t just let it go, but rather actively pursued the course of violence against the preachers. What I observe is that, in my <\/b>efforts to share the good news, I will have some <\/b>success. While the message has already been confirmed and needs no further such acts from God, I must ensure that my <\/b>teaching is in accord with the revealed and confirmed message. Then there will be opposition and rejection.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Then comes the difficult part for us: how do we <\/b>respond? Do we return evil for evil? Do we turn to violence to stop the opponent? First, these preachers didn’t just quit after one hearing! They continued amidst the opposition for a long time! Second, they stayed faithful to the example of Jesus, who was also rejected and persecuted! (cp. I Peter 2:21-23). Our <\/b>conduct does not depend on how others act. This is always a difficult part of following Jesus. Faithfully preaching the word demands that we ourselves are following its teaching.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Hugh DeLong “In Iconium they entered the synagogue of the Jews together, and spoke in such a manner that a large number of people believed, both of Jews and of Greeks. But the Jews who disbelieved stirred up the minds of the Gentiles and embittered them against the brethren.\u00a0 Therefore they spent a long…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[139,49,1004],"class_list":["post-95362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-belief","tag-faith","tag-unbelief"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":47722,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/were-the-gentiles-allowed-to-go-into-the-synagogues\/","url_meta":{"origin":95362,"position":0},"title":"Were the Gentiles allowed to go into the synagogues?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 20, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Were the Gentiles allowed to go into the synagogues? Answer: Gentiles were allowed to come to the temple complex, but they were restricted to remain in the outer court, the court of the Gentiles. The question is whether some similar restriction forbade Gentiles from entering synagogues. We know that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92363,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-baptism-only-for-the-jews-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":95362,"position":1},"title":"Was baptism only for the Jews? (3)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 28, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day. Does I Corinthians 12:13 refer to Holy Spirit baptism? Was water baptism only for the Jews? Did it stop when Paul got his assignment to the Gentiles? Thanks. Answer: I Corinthians 12:13 tells us who was behind the means by which we can be saved. The Holy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12621,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/arent-there-more-examples-of-paul-preaching-on-the-sabbath-than-on-the-first-day-of-the-week\/","url_meta":{"origin":95362,"position":2},"title":"Aren’t there more examples of Paul preaching on the Sabbath than on the first day of the week?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: You seem to be saying that Acts 20:7 shows that the disciples kept the first day of the week but I would like you to explain why in Acts 13:42-44; Acts 17:1-4; and Acts 18:1-4 that the Apostle Paul, along with the Jews and Gentiles, observed the Sabbath day\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16966,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/would-the-gentiles-have-been-saved-if-the-jews-had-not-rejected-jesus\/","url_meta":{"origin":95362,"position":3},"title":"Would the Gentiles have been saved if the Jews had not rejected Jesus?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question from one of my students. I know half the answer, but he did bring up an interesting question: if the Jews weren't provoked to jealousy and didn't reject God, would the Gentiles have received salvation? Even though from the prophets writing it was decided a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":95298,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-paul-wait-a-week-to-teach-the-gentiles\/","url_meta":{"origin":95362,"position":4},"title":"Why did Paul wait a week to teach the Gentiles?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 28, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Regarding Acts 13:42, why would Paul have the Gentiles wait a week to hear the word of God? Why would he not simply tell them that the church is meeting tomorrow (the first day of the week) as we are commanded? Thank you Answer: \"But going on from Perga,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18583,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wasnt-the-conversion-of-the-samaritans-proof-that-god-wanted-gentiles-saved\/","url_meta":{"origin":95362,"position":5},"title":"Wasn’t the conversion of the Samaritans proof that God wanted Gentiles saved?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 18, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Cornelius and his family was proof that the Gentiles were also accepted by God without the law or becoming a Jew, but Samaritans (Acts 8) were already being baptized into Christ before Acts 10. Was that not proof or were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95362\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}