But the Jews, seeing the crowds, were filled with envy, and contradicted the things said by Paul, [contradicting and] speaking injuriously.
A crowd came to hear the word, far larger than the synagogue had ever drawn. That crowd, not Paul's teaching, set off the reaction. One writer notes what the Jews should have read in the scene, and what they read instead.
The power of God was clearly behind this awakened interest, as the Jews should have discerned. Yet, when they saw the crowds present, envy filled them instead of the same concern to learn the truth of God. This selfish sectarianism blinded their minds to how precious the grace of God is... They opposed what Paul was speaking. They did not only contradict him; they blasphemed (verse 45). That shows their contempt for God Himself. They were that intent on holding on to their sectarian pride.
Opposition to the message was not new. What appears here is a different grievance. The strength of the feeling shows what lay behind it.
But a new feature comes out here. From now on the Spirit of God lets us see it in all the journeys and labours of the apostle Paul. It is the hatred which the unbelieving Jews felt at the preaching of the truth to the Gentiles. The scene now lay outside among the nations whom they despised. If the gospel were a lie, why feel it so strongly? It was not love or respect for Gentiles. But Satan stirred up, not now simply their religious pride but their envy.
A message that reached everyone alike cost them the standing they had held over their neighbours.
A Jonah would rather see Nineveh destroyed than see the vast city spared when it repented. That way he keeps up his reputation as a prophet. These Jews would rather keep the Gentiles ignorant of the gospel, and so keep up their prestige among them. They could not bear to see these preachers drawing crowds of Gentiles to hear the word of grace. That word put everyone on a common level. It announced that the blessings God was now giving out were equally within reach of all, and that all could share in them.
Jonah was a prophet sent to the great city of Nineveh, who resented it when God spared the city.
Another writer names the feeling plainly, and shows what it could not stop.
How low, as well as evil and malicious, jealousy is — religious jealousy above all, as here! Had the gospel been powerless, the Jews would have kept their composure. The long preaching of Moses had never worked like this. The gospel won such wide attention at once, and that was intolerable to them. But the hatred of grace, though it ruins those guilty of it, only enlarges the field of work. It also frees the messengers from waiting too carefully on the men of tradition and their narrow channels. Blasphemies did not shock Paul and Barnabas into silence. They grew bold instead.
The warning does not stay in the first century. One writer turns the verse on the reader. He points to Paul's own experience of rivals preaching while he was in prison.
This filled the Jews with envy, such is the smallness of fallen human nature. The Jews refused the message, and they would not let the Gentiles have it... Do we not see it sometimes even in Christian circles? In prison, Paul had the unhappy experience of knowing that some brothers were preaching the gospel out of envy and strife. They meant to add trouble to the chains of this devoted servant of Christ. And we have known servants of the Lord, jealous of a younger man with more gift, seeking to hinder him in his work.
Envy is hardest to spot when it borrows the language of faithfulness:
As with pride, so it is with envy. Its most horrible and deadly form hides itself under a cover of zeal for the Lord. Under this or some other religious excuse, it seeks the harm of another.
- Crowd — God's power packed the synagogue, and the Jews should have seen it. Instead of joining the interest, they envied it.
- Envy — they could not stand a gospel that worked. A powerless message would have left them calm.
- Contempt — envy did not stop at contradiction. It went on to blasphemy, and blasphemy shows contempt for God Himself.
- Level ground — grace put everyone on a common level. The blessing they had held as prestige was now within reach of all. That was the real offence.
- Enlargement — hatred of grace ruins those who hold it, but it only widens the work. It freed the preachers from narrow channels, and they grew bold instead of silent.
And Paul and Barnabas spoke boldly and said, It was necessary that the word of God should be first spoken to you; but, since ye thrust it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, lo, we turn to the nations;
Paul had preached at Antioch in Pisidia, and the crowds he drew turned the synagogue against him. His reply is one of the great turning points in Acts. He defends God's order, names the sentence they passed on themselves, and opens a door to the nations.
Paul does not apologise for going to the synagogue first. Writers point out that he always began there, and that the synagogue gave him his one open door.
We may notice the apostle's practice. It matched the principle so familiar in his inspired words: "to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." At Salamis they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. It was indeed the only religious place where any such liberty existed. And such was God's order until Jerusalem fell — or at least until the letter to the Hebrews was written. Then the "no difference" which the gospel declares found a still clearer and final application.
What set them off was not the teaching but the size of the crowd. The attack did not silence Paul.
How base, evil and spiteful is jealousy — religious jealousy above all, as here! ... But "the crowds" were too much for religious prejudice. It had lain asleep until now, and it woke with the most spiteful feelings of hatred and abuse. This is what flesh does in the presence of grace and truth, when it sees hearts attracted and consciences touched. Had the gospel been powerless, the Jews would have kept their composure. The long preaching of Moses had never worked like this, and the gospel's immediate success in winning such wide attention was unbearable to them. But the hatred of grace, ruinous to those guilty of it, only enlarges the field of work. ... Paul and Barnabas grew bold, instead of being shocked into silence by Jewish blasphemies.
Paul does not say God had judged them unworthy. He says they passed the sentence themselves.
"Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life" — how solemn to judge oneself unworthy of eternal life, as every unbeliever does!
The same writer turns that verdict on the reader. He traces the refusal back to what the heart is still holding on to:
God is now in Christ, begging and pleading with you to be reconciled to Him. The ground is His acceptance of the One who was made sin. Your rejecting Him proves that you are not willing to be saved. He is ready to save you, to pardon here and now. But you have some secret reserve, something you are keeping back from Him. Either you wish to serve sin a little longer, or you do not believe that God is as good as He is. You prove that you judge yourself unworthy of eternal life.
The move outward looks like a reaction to failure. It was nothing of the kind.
Turning to Gentiles, when the Jews should judge themselves unworthy of everlasting life, was no afterthought in the mind of God. The Gentiles who now heard it were glad. The Scriptures given to Israel contained this announcement about them. Would the Jews boast of a divine written revelation given only to them? That very revelation, it was now shown, had foretold mercy to Gentiles.
Paul then takes words spoken about the Messiah and applies them to himself.
Paul's use of Isaiah 49:6 in the next verse is both striking and full of instruction. The prophet is speaking of the Messiah rejected by Israel. God grants Him this comfort: His humiliation opens the door to wider glory. The slighted servants of Christ take this to themselves. In the same circumstances, infinite grace gives men of faith that right: what was said of Christ is no less true of the Christian. "For so the Lord has commanded us." ... The spirit of obedience, we may add, finds a command where no other eye could see one.
The words were few. One writer sees in them the start of everything that followed.
"Behold, we are turning to the Gentiles" (Acts 13:46) was a challenge of a new kind. It was destined to turn the tide away from Jerusalem, the land of Israel, the synagogue, the law and that whole system. It was to be the beginning of the evangelisation of the world, whatever a person's country or background. It was indeed the beginning of the fulfilment of Isaiah's prophecy, written over five and a half centuries earlier.
- Order. The word had to come to Israel first; Paul kept that order everywhere, and only opposition moved him past it.
- Envy. The crowds, not the teaching, provoked the attack; religious jealousy is the basest kind of all.
- Self-sentence. God did not shut them out. They judged themselves unworthy, and every refusal of Christ says the same thing.
- Purpose. The turn outward was no emergency plan. Israel's own Scriptures had foretold mercy for the Gentiles.
- Overflow. Their rejection did not shrink the work but widened it, and the gospel went out to the whole world.