Changing One's Stripes

Paul didn't have an easy time of it when he started his ministry.

And after taking some food, he regained his strength. For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus, and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” All who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem among those who invoked this name? And has he not come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?” Saul became increasingly more powerful and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Messiah. After some time had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night so that they might kill him; but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket. When he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples; and they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him, brought him to the apostles, and described for them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had spoken boldly in the name of Jesus. So he went in and out among them in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. He spoke and argued with the Hellenists; but they were attempting to kill him. When the believers learned of it, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus. Meanwhile the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was built up. Living in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers. - Acts 9:19-31

Paul had a reputation as Saul from Tarsus, and that reputation preceded him wherever he went.

It's not that they were wrong about him  He had been a persecutor of the believers, so they had just cause to be scared.  He was the one who had changed.  How quick are you to believe someone has changed their ways, especially if they were known to be evil?

The tiger cannot change its stripes, nor the leopard its spots.  But we humans can make real changes in our lives.  We can toss off the old and become new again.

If we choose to look for real change in people, we will at times be disappointed.  Some pretend to change.  Others struggle to change, but fail.  But a few succeed and become new people.

Those are the ones we long to find and accept, but it is always easier to avoid them.

Why risk it, we ask ourselves?

What if we are wrong?

So, Paul is shipped off to where they may not know his past, and that is how we tend to deal with it.  Those who know us may be the hardest to convince we have changed.

So, we go somewhere else, where nobody knows our name and we build a new reputation from scratch.

I think it is interesting that the disciples, whom Jesus taught to be accepting of all, especially the beggars, thieves and prostitutes, found it hard to accept Paul.

It is one thing to accept people who do not pose a threat to you, and reject those who do.

Paul is an example of God's grace multiplied.  He proves to us that we are capable of changing and being accepted, if not be others, at least by God.

And what better acceptance is there than that?

More to come...