And There They Preached the Gospel

I'm reading in Acts 14.7 this morning, such a short, benign verse: "And there they preached the gospel" [in Lystra and Derbe]. That's it. Not much of significance there, right?

Wrong. The reason they came to Lystra and Derbe was that they had to flee Iconium because the Jews had whipped up the people to stone them to death. The verse prior to this says that "they fled to Lystra and Derbe;" fled for their lives, that is.

Then notice what they did; they did the exact same thing in Lystra and Derbe that got them within a whisker of being stoned to death in Iconium; they preached the gospel. Remarkable men! Admirable men! Obedient men. God had called them to preach the gospel, so preach the gospel they did.

Of course the question for us is: Are we demonstrating like commitment to Christ? God does not call all of us to work under threat of death (though he calls some), but he does call all of us to work despite whatever opposition arises. May we have the same obedience and faith that Paul and Silas did.