Acts 9:28-31 - Living in the fear of the Lord

9:28-30

So Saul was allowed to stay with the disciples, and moved freely about Jerusalem, where he continued to preach the name of Jesus. Saul, being highly educated, was well suited to debate with the Jews, and he devoted his efforts to debating with the Hellenistic Jews, i.e. those who had adopted much of the Greek culture. They too responded in the usual way and tried to kill Saul. So, once again, Saul had to flee, and the brothers took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

9:31

There had been a time of persecution, now there was a time of peace. And this was throughout “Judea, Galilee and Samaria”. There are times of peace and times of persecution, God is in charge in both times. The church was strengthened. A key aspect was that the church was “living in fear of the Lord”. We need to ask ourselves this question “are we living in the fear of the Lord”, or are we living out of our own strength or supposed wisdom?  The Holy Spirit encouraged the church and it grew in numbers, so the persecution had failed.