Many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices. And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone; and they counted up the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing” (Acts 19:18-20).
Some of those who turned to Christ in Ephesus were involved in the occult. To their credit, these new believers wanted to make a clean break with their sinful past, even at a great personal cost. The risk was too great to keep their magical textbooks around because the temptation would be to return to that profession, especially when things got tough as a follower of Christ. And you wouldn’t want them to fall into the hands of others who might be tempted. It would be better to burn them all and be done with it.
Perhaps this is why God was so insistent that the Israelites utterly destroy any remnants of the pagan idolatry that surrounded them. “The graven images of their gods you are to burn with fire; you shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, or you will be snared by it, for it is an abomination to the LORD your God. You shall not bring an abomination into your house, and like it come under the ban; you shall utterly detest it and you shall utterly abhor it, for it is something banned” (Deuteronomy 7:25-26).
Could it be that we need to make a clean break with our own sinful past? Are we hoarding remnants from a previous sinful lifestyle that could tempt us to return to it? Is it worth the chance? Perhaps it’s time for a good old-fashioned “book burning” in our own lives -- a sacrifice, if you will, of any ties that could cause us to stumble. If only Jesus would have said something about this. Oh wait! He did (cf. Matthew 5:29-30).
God loves you!
Mike
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