but when the apostles barnabas and paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out, “men, why are you doing these things? we also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. [acts 14:14-15]
why are you doing these things?
why do we misplace our worship?
why would we ever give praise to anyone or anything but God alone?
paul and barnabas are upset about misplaced worship in these passages, even when it seems to be to their advantage. going back to verse 8, we find that paul, through the power of the Holy Spirit, has just healed a crippled man who had never walked before. upon seeing this miracle, the people of this deeply religious pagan city now believe him to be hermes, a messenger of the gods, and barnabas to be zeus.
accordingly, they begin to worship and make sacrifices to these two ‘gods’. these two servants of christ are appalled at the thought of being worshipped as pagan gods. the idea that the people of lystra got
everything so very wrong is heartbreaking. they had witnessed the power of Christ at work and missed the whole point by trying to give credit to false gods.
why are they doing these things?
the same question can be asked of our generation. we offer worship to wise teaches – even people who only aim to give glory to God. we offer worship to things that don’t matter and stand in opposition
to the One True God. we offer worship to a lot of things that do not deserve worship at all. we even allow ourselves to receive glory that is due to God alone.
why are we doing these things?
it is a good question to ask ourselves regularly, to ensure that our worship is directed to God alone.
~ jason soroski