Acts 9:7-19

It is possible to fake a Christian conversion.  Any parole board member will tell you; not everyone claiming to be a Christian is one.  Some people put on and take off their Christianity like a jacket.  They wear it only when it serves their selfish purposes.  As Christians, we all recognize this is true, and we wonder how we are supposed to respond to an unrighteous man’s claim of conversion.  This is especially difficult when there are many reasons the conversion could be a fraud.  In most cases, only time provides proof that someone’s conversion to follow Christ is genuine.  With time it becomes obvious they are walking in a new direction and are relating to others in a new way.

Ananias knew who Saul was and what he had been doing.  He knew that Saul was dangerous to believers.  He had been harming the followers of Jesus.  If Saul was pretending, Ananias would be risking his life to go and see him.  Yet, Ananias did not have the luxury to wait and see if Saul’s conversion was genuine.  His Lord was telling him to go to Saul now, not a month from now.  We talk about following Jesus and allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us.  That is much easier to do when he is only guiding us to church on Sunday and perhaps to witness to a neighbor once in a great while.  It is much harder to follow the guidance of the spirit when doing so places our life at risk.

Most Christians know that Saul became God’s chosen instrument to evangelize the gentiles.  Luke recorded his missionary journeys in the book of Acts.  What we sometimes forget is that if Ananias had not been faithful, Saul might have ended up as an unknown blind man.  It was wise for Ananias to be skeptical of Saul’s conversion, but it was even wiser for him to be obedient to God.  We cannot always know that a conversion is genuine, but we can always be obedient.