"HE SEEMS TO BE!"

Acts 17:16-18                    (ESV)
"16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.
17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.
18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic PHILOSOPHERS also conversed with him. And some said, "What does this babbler wish to say?" Others said, "HE SEEMS TO BE" a preacher of foreign divinities"-because he was preaching JESUS and the resurrection."



The Apostle Paul was brought up and educated as Saul, a devout JEW (Acts 22), and was committed to eliminating people of "the Way"!  The people of "the Way" were people who believed that JESUS was the Son of GOD and came to earth to pay a ransom for the sins of all mankind.  However, there are many who cannot SEE TRUTH for many reasons, but mainly because it hasn't been revealed to them.  A lot of them are too educated to have FAITH, as they think they need to have PROOF that something is as it appears to be?  The Apostle Paul had his eyes opened to the TRUTH, and now shared with others and prayed that GOD would reveal HIS TRUTH to them.

When Paul was "reasoning" in the synagogue with "the Jews and devout persons", it wasn't as if these were illiterates of their day.  These were people esteemed by most as people who were wiser than their peers.  But "most" are of "this world" and cannot SEE Spiritual things!  1 Corinthians 2:14 says "The natural person does not accept the things of the SPIRIT of GOD, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned."  THE Apostle Paul knew these men were unable to SEE, so he had to speak to them accordingly.  The thing is, the "educated illiterates" could only SEE things that their eyes were opened to by the SPIRIT of GOD!

It is difficult to remember that I was formerly an "educated illiterate" before GOD called me "out of darkness into HIS marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9)!  Although I have no college education, I always tried learning from the situations I found myself in.  Sadly, I had to go through a tremendous amount of "darkness" to find "HIS marvelous light" sometimes!   Displaying what "HE SEEMS TO BE" sometimes was only what I wanted people to think about me, not what I actually was.   When you are trying to be something you really aren't, the frustration can make you so unsettled and disgruntled that you appear angry even when you're not!  Trying to be what "HE SEEMS TO BE" instead of what you truly are is masquerading, an emulation of the great deceiver, when you boil it all down.  

When we back up and observe who we really are versus who we want to be, it makes it easier to flee from what "HE SEEMS TO BE"!  We are just sojourners traveling through "this world", not permanent fixtures.  We shouldn't concern ourselves with what others SEE from our lives.  We need to realize that GOD SEES from our lives is what really matters!  Only GOD knows if what "HE SEEMS TO BE" is what HE designed us to be!  We need to be about pleasing HIM and let "this world" deal with their own!