Effective Connections

Many – probably even most – of Jesus’ disciples were excellent at making effective connections with others.  They had to be competent at that in order to spread the word about Christianity as they had been commanded to do.  Jesus’ hand-picked 12 apostles were, for the most part, ordinary men – most weren’t professional or extremely educated.  The 12, along with many other disciples, walked and talked with Jesus while He was on this earth, witnessing his divine teachings and many miracles; this enabled them to be instrumental in spreading the word about the Lord.  

There was a man named Saul that had been an enemy of Jesus’ disciples for a very long time – fervent in his attempts to squelch their teachings.  He would search them out, torture and murder them in order to discourage the others from their ministries.  But then he had a very personal encounter with the Lord.  As a result of that encounter, he became a believer and his name was changed to Paul.  Although he ministered to the Jewish people, he also became an advocate for Jesus to the Gentiles (non-Jews.)  He was extraordinary in his ability to establish connections.  

The passage below was one of my daily readings this week and I noticed the subtle way Paul established a connection with the people.   

“While Paul was waiting in Athens, he was upset to see all the idols in the city. He went to the synagogue to speak to the Jews and to anyone who worshiped with them. Day after day he also spoke to everyone he met in the market. Some of them were Epicureans and some were Stoics, and they started arguing with him.  People were asking, ‘What is this know-it-all trying to say?’  Some even said, ‘Paul must be preaching about foreign gods! That’s what he means when he talks about Jesus and about people rising from death.’  They brought Paul before a council called the Areopagus, and said, ‘Tell us what your new teaching is all about. We have heard you say some strange things, and we want to know what you mean.’  More than anything else the people of Athens and the foreigners living there loved to hear and to talk about anything new. So Paul stood up in front of the council and said:  ‘People of Athens, I see that you are very religious. As I was going through your city and looking at the things you worship, I found an altar with the words, ‘To an Unknown God.’ You worship this God, but you don’t really know him. So I want to tell you about him. This God made the world and everything in it. He is Lord of heaven and earth, and he doesn’t live in temples built by human hands. He doesn’t need help from anyone. He gives life, breath, and everything else to all people. From one person God made all nations who live on earth, and he decided when and where every nation would be.  God has done all this, so that we will look for him and reach out and find him. He isn’t far from any of us, and he gives us the power to live, to move, and to be who we are. ‘We are his children,’ just as some of your poets have said.  Since we are God’s children, we must not think that he is like an idol made out of gold or silver or stone. He isn’t like anything that humans have thought up and made. In the past, God forgave all this because people did not know what they were doing. But now he says that everyone everywhere must turn to him. He has set a day when he will judge the world’s people with fairness. And he has chosen the man Jesus to do the judging for him. God has given proof of this to all of us by raising Jesus from death.”  As soon as the people heard Paul say a man had been raised from death, some of them started laughing. Others said, ‘We will hear you talk about this some other time.’  When Paul left the council meeting, some of the men put their faith in the Lord and went with Paul. One of them was a council member named Dionysius. A woman named Damaris and several others also put their faith in the Lord.”  (Acts 17:16-34 CEV)

We’re told that Paul was upset as he walked about Athens seeing the many idols that were set up for the people to worship.  Yet when the people got upset with his message and started arguing with him, he didn’t reject them and lash out in anger.  I’m sure when they invited him to come speak to them they likely figured they could trap him with his words.  But what did he do?  He complimented them – “I see that you are very religious”.  Then, using their own words, he mentions what they say on one of their altars – “To an Unknown God”.  He points out that they are worshiping something/someone that they don’t even know and tells them he wants to tell them about the “Unknown God” they’re paying homage to.  He was building those critical connections that are necessary if you want someone to listen to you and take you and your words seriously.

“…we are to create links – to relate to others through whatever commonalities we can find.  Our ability to share our lives, as well as to learn from those around us, depends on our willingness to connect.” *

So connecting effectively with others not only enables us to reach out to them, but helps us to learn from them as well.  It never hurts to hear the perspectives of others – provided we weigh what they have to say against God’s Word.

If we only look at what we view as others’ wrong opinions and beliefs and then become critical of them, we hinder our ability to connect.  Paul looked for what could be right about their belief and built on that.  It would serve us much better to follow Paul’s excellent example for connection.  Hopefully then we can build on that ability to connect, allowing God’s truth to be revealed through us.

Written by Karran Martin – May 4, 2024

*Quote from Chris Tiegreen

[All bold emphasis is mine]