one word brings the hate

And he said to me, ‘Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’

Up to this word they listened to him. Then they raised their voices and said, “Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live.”

Acts 22:21-22

One word turned the Jerusalem religious authorities into a violent mob seeking Paul’s death. One word so incensed them that a squad of heavily armed Roman soldiers had to intervene to stop their mob actions. What was that one word?

It wasn’t the name of Jesus. Paul makes it clear early in his defense that Jesus saved him and called him uniquely. It wasn’t Christian baptism that offended them. Paul gave a clear account of how he followed that ordinance quickly after his conversion and nobody was rankled by that fact. It wasn’t that Paul twice called Jesus “Lord” in his testimony, making Jesus equal with God, although that was a reason the Jerusalem Jews had insisted Jesus be crucified. 

What was “the word” that led this crowd to shut Paul down and refuse to hear more? It was the word “Gentiles”. As soon as Paul shared his call by Jesus to go preach to the Gentiles, that was when the crowd had heard enough. Their hatred for the Romans and all non-Jews was so strong that they could not bear the thought that God would want His gospel brought to those hated, awful Gentiles. And so here we see a racial hatred so deep that it rejects God Himself just to go on hating people. And it wanted to murder anyone who would not share in that hate.

But God loves the world and so should we. The gospel is for all people, all nations, all people in a nation whether natural born or immigrant (legal or illegal). The good news has no barriers. And Jesus is building a kingdom that will cover this globe in every nation among humanity. No human ethnic barriers can blockade the love of Christ in the gospel! The church lives under that view of the world.