NOTES for Ac 5:27-41

As we read today's passage from the Acts of the Apostles, we hear something important from a Pharisee respected by all the people. This man, who believes in God, speaks about what awaits an undertaking if it is not from God: “If this plan or this undertaking is of human origin, it will break up” (Acts 5:38). Some of us may feel a protest arising, a disagreement with these words. How many deeds displeasing to God are flourishing on earth and are in the “prime of life”! What can be said in response, and how are Gamaliel's words to be understood? He is describing a situation in which people say that the Lord is with them and supports their undertaking. In today's text, these people are the apostles. Gamaliel points out that those who followed false prophets ultimately found nothing capable of continuing to draw them onward. As for the prosperity of evil and corrupt undertakings, it is evident to a believer that what is displeasing and unrighteous in the Lord's eyes will not be blessed. We also find confirmation in Holy Scripture, which says that only one thing awaits evil: the end of its existence (Jude 1:5-8).