Uncommon Common Sense

Acts 7: 55-60

Filled with the Holy Spirit, Stephen gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he died.

When Stephen woke up this particular day, its hard to imagine that he was thinking he would die later that same day. From reading chapter 6 and all of chapter 7 I get the feeling that Stephen was outspoken about his faith and the apostles laid hands on him so he received through the Holy Spirit miraculous gifts. But I do imagine that there was a sense among the church that persecution was brewing. But Stephen spoke plainly and boldly to the jewish religious leaders and I don’t think that they were used to a proselytized Greek, speaking to them on a peer to peer level. So that alone offended them. There are certain situations in life where it doesn’t matter how right you may be in what you are saying, you are not going to win because the group you’re speaking to only cares about their point of view. And if you are going against it, they want to squash it.

We see this today in the media and the political arena. Truth doesn’t matter anymore, the only thing that seems to matter is the agenda of those who have the power. If in order to be politically correct, I have to validate your denial of common sense right and wrong, then I would rather be politically incorrect. If someone is offended by my refusal to use a pronoun because it doesn’t make sense to me to call a “he” a “she” I don’t understand why they would be offended. It doesn’t make sense to me. Just respect that. I’m still going to love you even if I can’t make sense of certain things.

But speaking up about your beliefs will get you canceled, labeled, rejected even killed. Just trying to have a sensible conversation about the certain issues that are prevalent in our world today, like Stephen did in all of chapter seven, it seems that you will get the same ridiculous response: they will cover their ears because they don’t want to hear what you are saying, shout their opinions all the louder and try to erase you because you are exposing the faultiness of their beliefs.

I have to believe that those that have the power to rule and control, do not want people with common sensibility to have any say in things. It’s because Satan is the ruler of this world. That sounds pretty dramatic I know but it is true. When people with common sense are in charge, they restore order, fairness and balance to society. People with common sense care about getting something done that betters everyone. But I don’t believe that common sense will ever rule the day because this world is the devils’. I know that sounds over simplifying and perhaps naive but I believe it’s true.

For those of us who just can’t seem to let go of common sense, the best we can hope for is to continue to look to Heaven and see Christ before us. To not lose hope in the belief that there is a right and wrong and it’s not wrong to believe that. Perhaps the hardest part is to remain compassionate for those who are being deceived. We all, at one time or another, have been duped into believing lies about how life should be and have chased after what will never be caught, and just leads us further and further away from God.

3 For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. 4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, 5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we did in righteousness, but in accordance with His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He richly poured out upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior Titus 3:3-6

Paul wrote these words to Titus. Paul, who formerly was named Saul, who witnessed and approved the stoning of Stephen. I have to believe that though Stephen may have died that day, his words lived on. But more than that, Paul saw the courage of someone who was not afraid to speak the truth even if it offended others and got him killed, and as Stephen clearly imitated Jesus in his death, Paul went on to imitate Stephen’s courageous way of life.