28: The principle here is to fear Almighty God. He alone has the ultimate control over things. The devil, and evil persons, may only bring about physical death if God allows it. However, nobody but God himself can destroy the soul. So, he is the one to obey and respect above all else.
The disciples would, of course, find themselves before civil magistrates of all kinds. They were not to give in to persecution. While Jesus taught obedience to civil authorities, this obedience was to be subservient to obedience to Almighty God. As long as the commands of the civil authorities fit with the commands of God, they were to be obeyed. One might ask how this is to be determined. Scripture gives us the guide on that. It seems that the only area which the early church in Acts and the Epistles felt led to disobey government was in connection with preaching the gospel. That was the hill to die on. civil authorities were not meant to stop the preaching of the gospel. The disciples continually disobeyed any commands from the authorities regarding the cessation of this preaching. Evidently, all other commands were obeyed.
The early Christians sought to change their nations through the love of Christ, through conversion to Christ, not by civil or social means. Societal ills were not the focus of their ministry. They truly believed that the gospel would change people. Thus, they were not concerned with making their nations better without offering Christ as the solution.
An issue that comes up in this verse is the destruction of the body and soul in hell. What does Jesus mean here? What is he teaching? It sounds as if he is saying that the soul and body will be destroyed (as in annihilated) in hell. However, this is a case where we must understand Scripture with Scripture. Why would a person’s body be included in the destruction here mentioned if the body and soul will cease to exist? Obviously, there would be no reason to resurrect the body only to destroy it again.
We know that the rich man in Jesus’ parable was conscious in hell. We also know that hell will be cast into the lake of fire in the end. So, hell by itself is not the final destination of the wicked. Thus, Jesus does not by the word ‘destroy’ mean ‘to make to cease to exist’ but to bring to destruction. This state of the damned will be final, and is as much destruction as anything can be, for all of eternity. This is also evidenced by the fact that Jesus uses a different word in the second part of the verse. He does not say that God will kill the soul and body. It is a different thing. The lake of fire, for example, is the ‘second death,’ a different kind of death from the first death.
Daily Bible Reading: Acts 28:1-Romans 2:29
Daily Memory Verse: 1 John 2:6 “He that saith he abideth in him ought also so to walk, even as he walked.”
Daily Tidbit: Romans chapter one is a spot in the Bible where we get a principle that I have tried to explain on several occasions. There are other passages that help with the principle, but Romans gives a complete picture I think. The principle is that sin is wrong because it is against God. That may seem to go without saying. However, many people think sin is wrong simply because it is bad, inadvisable, not the best, not acceptable, etc. In other words, they try to define sin without Almighty God. This is not possible. The moment you lose sight of who God really is, you lose the ability to truly understand sin.
Let’s use an example. If God said it was a sin to stand on one foot, then it would be a sin to stand on one foot. Now we all know that is not a sin. But, is it not a sin because we know it isn’t, or because God says it isn’t? Indeed, if we know that God wants us to do something, but we stand on one foot instead, it would then be a sin. So, we see that we must not think of things as sin on the basis of their own merits. This will keep us from justifying ourselves when we sin. Therefore, if Almighty God says it is wrong, don’t do it, no matter what.
Praise Journal: Heavenly Father, thank You for Your working in our lives. Without Your working, we would never come to You. We would never know the Truth. You bring us to Yourself. Yes, we must respond to You, but Your mercy is worth responding to. May we always value all that we receive from You. You help us to see the need for You in our lives. You give us wisdom and knowledge of You. What a blessing that is! You call us to work in Your plan. We can help in the work of spreading the gospel. This is a great and wonderful privilege! Thank you for always knowing what we need in life and for providing it. You are better to us than we even understand. You are worthy of our praise! In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.
Prayer Journal Highlights: Pray for a lady taking cancer treatments. Pray for a woman’s unspoken request. Pray for a woman having problems with her back.
Personal Journal Entry #13065