Acts 20:1-16

Be still: God you are the friend to the stranger, fill me with your compassion today I pray. Amen

Read: Acts 20:1–16

On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight. (v7)

Encounter: I love this passage – it’s quite hilarious. Paul is with his friends on a Sunday at a gathering where he’s talking for so long that someone falls asleep and falls out a window! Thankfully the person, although falling from a great height, eventually is healed and goes on their way.

What is hard to see at first glance, because of how strange and funny the scene is, is how much love there is in this passage. Paul is about to go on a long journey and only has one day left with the believers there. So they break bread together, sharing communion as Jesus taught them and Paul is talking with people all day and all night!

It’s like the last day of a Christian camp or festival (if you’ve not been to one, I do recommend it) when on the last night everyone has bonded so much from being together that no one wants to go to bed! 

The relationship these people had was absolutely filled with love and joy. No-one wanted to go home. We gain here an insight (and will do over the next few days) of the genuine love that Paul and the early believers had for each other. This truly is a beautiful picture of church.

Apply: 1 John 4:7 says, ‘let us love one another, for love comes from God.' Jesus commands that we love one another. (John 13:34-35) Sometimes loving each other is easy, and sometimes it’s harder. The truth is that communities of love are made because we choose to love, even when it’s difficult. To show up for each other, to check in, to speak well of each other, to be kind, honest and gracious (the list goes on). In this moment, think of someone you will see today – what could it look like for you to love them in a small way? 

Devote: God, we thank you that you call us to love one another. Help me to be more loving as I encounter people today.