“So Paul wanted him to join them on their journey. In deference to the Jews of the area, he arranged for Timothy to be circumcised before they left, for everyone knew that his father was a Greek.” Acts of the Apostles 16:3 NLT
So I’m sitting here looking at Acts 16:3 that says that in deference to the Jews in the area, he arranged for Timothy to be circumcised. And my first thought is in chapter 14 or 15, we just talked about the Jewish leader saying that the Gentiles don’t have to be circumcised.
And so I’m like, what’s up with that? Why is Timothy having to be circumcised when they’ve already said that he doesn’t have to be? I looked it up in Study Bible and a couple other places. From what I read, it’s out of deference to the Jews because many still hadn’t changed their way of thinking. Having someone come to them that was uncircumcised, which is unclean, it would be really hard to start a conversation with them to get them to listen to what Paul wanted to say about Jesus.
I guess I understand that, but what is frustrating to me is that we as humans can be so judgmental. And I’m right there at the top of the list. I will be the first to tell you that I can be very judgmental. I don’t mean to be. I don’t want to be. But I sometimes I am. I have preconceived ideas from childhood about certain things, certain people, certain circumstances.
It is frustrating that, Timothy had to be circumcised in order for people to even listen to Paul. My next thought was if I was told I had to be circumcised, I mean, I’m a woman, but if I was told that I had to do something like that to deliver Jesus’s message, would I? I mean, that’s a pretty big sacrifice. When you have it done as a baby, it’s painful. But as an adult, I would imagine it was a thousand times more painful.
I think sometimes when we’re trying to have people hear the message for the first time, we do have to be respectful of their beliefs and their ideologies and in order for them to even have the ears to hear. Because if Timothy had gone in there not circumcised, I don’t know if they would have let Paul in to the synagogues because he always went to the synagogues first. I don’t know if they would have even let him in the door if Timothy had been uncircumcised.
My other thought was do they just go up to him and say, hey, guess what? He’s circumcised. He can come in. I’m sorry. Maybe I shouldn’t find that humorous.
But can you imagine walking up to somebody and saying, hi, yes. Oh, don’t worry. I’ve been circumcised so I can come in. I mean, that’s kind of a personal thing. But anyways, I digress. My mind goes in 50 million directions sometimes.
It just points out to me how Jesus meets us where we’re at. And that’s kind of what Paul and Timothy did. They met the Jews where they were at. The Jews were at a point where they still believed that you needed to be circumcised. So that’s where they met them. And I think that’s important for us to remember when we’re spreading the message of Jesus – that we do have to meet people where they are. But we don’t have to expect them to stay there because I think that when Jesus comes into your heart and He changes you from the inside out. The new has come and the old has gone. The changes take place in our minds, in our hearts, in our bodies, and in our spirits.
This was a good reminder that sometimes if I want people to listen to me about Jesus, I will need to meet them where there are at not where or how I want to meet them.
Until next time with Jesus’ help let’s be less messy and choose what’s better.