The Monday after the Fifth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on July 21, 2025 by under
Scripture: Acts 5:27-32 (NKJV)
5:27 And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest asked them, 28 saying, “Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this Man’s blood on us!”
29 But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men. 30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. 31 Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. 32 And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.”
Devotion
Peter tried to take the easy path at the trial of Jesus—and ended up in tears of greatest sorrow for disowning the Lord! The high priest wished to take the easy path, pretending the Jewish leadership hadn’t stirred up the people at Jesus’ trial to cry out “His blood be on us and on our children!” (Matt. 27:25). Peter and the Apostles now stand resolute: they must declare the things of which they were eyewitnesses, the things Jesus did and suffered to save us.
Pastors can’t take the easy way out with this reading, either. It’s easy to misrepresent what Peter says if one doesn’t understand the Greek words St. Luke records that get translated as ‘ought’ and ‘obey’. ‘Ought’ is not today’s idea of “we ought to, but we don’t have to.” Nor does it translate as ‘owing a debt,’ as some do; it’s the same “it is necessary!” word that Jesus uses concerning His suffering and death (Matt. 16:21). Couple that with the word translated as ‘obey’, which is not the usual one (which means “act in accord with what you have heard”), but an even stronger, “be governed by what has convinced you, what you follow as supreme, what shapes your life and being”—a fitting thought as we pray this week’s Collect about the necessity of God’s grace governing our prayers and all that we do!
Collect: O God, Who hast prepared for them that love Thee such good things as pass man’s understanding: Pour into our hearts such love toward Thee, that we, loving Thee above all things, may obtain Thy promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
