Acts 14:19Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Truly, sons of the devil. Not only in their own cities, but outside them as well, they act in this way. They exert as much effort to harm the preaching as the apostles exert to establish it.

“And having stirred up the people,” he says, “they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city.” Here the saying is fulfilled: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9). This is greater than raising up the lame man.

The Gentiles took them for gods, but the Jews “persuaded and stirred up the people.” Not all had the same habit of marveling at the apostles. And see: in the very city where they had so greatly marveled at them, they suffer afflictions. This too was profitable for those who saw it.

“Having stirred up the people.” Look at the frenzy of the Jews. They entered among a people who had shown the Apostles such honor, and persuaded them to stone Paul. They dragged him out of the city because they were afraid. Besides this, they were only trying to undermine the preaching.

With difficulty the Apostles stopped this movement of the people by their representations. Yet this impression, seemingly so strong, did not last long, because few had been pierced by the power of truth. The Jews from Iconium succeeded in stirring up most of the pagans there against Paul. The crowd became agitated and stoned him, and he was dragged out of the city as dead. But with the help of the faithful he rose again. After spending the rest of the day still in Lystra, strengthened by the power of God, he departed the next day with Barnabas to the neighboring town of Derbe.

The apostles’ stay in Lystra was marked, among other things, by the healing of a man lame from birth. But this great work of God, performed by the Apostle Paul in the name of Jesus Christ, produced a sad misunderstanding among the city’s pagan inhabitants.

It gave rise in them to the thought that the wonderworkers were gods who had appeared in human form. They wished to offer sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas. The latter were scarcely able to persuade these senseless zealots of their error.

After this the apostles preached the word of God there without hindrance for some time. But Jews who came from Antioch of Pisidia succeeded in stirring up the population against the apostles here as well.

This disturbance was so violent that Paul was stoned and dragged out of the city, since they thought him dead. Therefore on the next day he had to leave this city and go to Derbe.

This preaching caused the people to be disabused of their error and to abandon the thought of sacrifice. The Apostles continued to preach Christ to them.

Some Jews came: unbelieving Jews hostile to Paul and Barnabas, from Antioch (Acts 13:50) and Iconium (Acts 14:5). Their coming to Lystra was hardly accidental. They had probably learned of the successful preaching there by the apostles they hated.

They decided to pursue them, and to hinder the success of their preaching activity there as well.

They persuaded the people, and so forth. How frivolous and susceptible to evil speech the popular mass sometimes is. Those who had recently taken the apostles for gods and wished to honor them with sacrifice now stone Paul.

So once the multitude that cried, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” cried a few days later, “Crucify Him.”

The uprising against Paul and his stoning show how frivolous the Lystrans were, and how cruel the Jews were who pursued the apostles at every step. It also shows the shameless persistence and falsehood with which they armed themselves against them.

Clearly they understood what danger Christianity posed to their influence over the people, and to their own convictions, rites, and way of life. Thinking Paul had been killed by the shower of stones, they cast him outside the city as a despised public criminal.

But the almighty Lord raised him up, and he who was thought dead soon revived. Thus all the devices of his many enemies were wondrously overthrown. This precious vessel of the Church of God was still needed by her. And behold, he remains preserved by God.