Paul and Silas then traveled through the towns of Amphipolis and Apollonia and came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. As was Paul’s custom, he went to the synagogue service, and for three Sabbaths in a row he used the Scriptures to reason with the people. He explained the prophecies and proved that the Messiah must suffer and rise from the dead. He said, “This Jesus I’m telling you about is the Messiah.” Some of the Jews who listened were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with many God-fearing Greek men and quite a few prominent women.
But some of the Jews were jealous, so they gathered some troublemakers from the marketplace to form a mob and start a riot. They attacked the home of Jason, searching for Paul and Silas so they could drag them out to the crowd. Not finding them there, they dragged out Jason and some of the other believers instead and took them before the city council. “Paul and Silas have caused trouble all over the world,” they shouted, “and now they are here disturbing our city, too. And Jason has welcomed them into his home. They are all guilty of treason against Caesar, for they profess allegiance to another king, named Jesus.”
The people of the city, as well as the city council, were thrown into turmoil by these reports. So the officials forced Jason and the other believers to post bond, and then they released them. - Acts 17:1-9
Why the other Jews felt jealous? How they reacted gives a clue about what was going on in their internal world. When they reacted by gathering some troublemakers, it speaks volumes about their inner motivations and Luke calls it out: jealousy. They had plenty of time to dispute with Paul in the open discussion that Paul fostered when he arrived. They must have felt threatened by their loss of influence: among some Jews, among the God-fearing Gentiles in whom they prided themselves for their evangelistic efforts, among the prominent woman of status and probably wealth (the same phrase is used for women who supported Jesus' ministry, some of whom are identified as belonging to politically influential families). Even then, this threat to their status was a test for them: are you genuinely interested in the truth? If they were righteous, the ploy of getting together morally-questionable thugs to route out Paul and the household where he was staying reveals them to be mafia in church clothing.
It is worth asking why we are so upset and what our reaction is saying about our inner life. Sometimes the other party is deliberately being provocative. Sometimes we are sensitive to an area where we have been hurt before. Sometimes we are defending those who we perceive are without defense in a situation. Or it could be something our identity-who we see ourselves to be, our pride-protecting others perception of us, or our status-other ability to control or influence others, or our desires-what we want and we realize that others have some measure of control over achieving what we want. Even if I am right in an argument, I may fail the test.
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