Wisdom's Corner
Do Not Let Others Pack Up Your Soul

Have you ever been to a circus? When I was a boy the circus traveled around the country. It would stop in a town and put up the big main tent. The big tent was known as the Big Top. When the circus was finished performing in that town, the Big Top and all the rest of the circus was taken down and packed up. When it was all packed up it could be moved to another town.

The ancient greeks had a word for packing things up like this. At first the word was used for simply packing up baggage so one could go from one place to another. Over time the word was used for taking something apart and packing it. Eventually it was used for the very violent plundering that an enemy army would do when they had conquered a town. They would tear everything down and pack up the best things and carry them off to their home country. The town they had conquered would be left destroyed.

This word is used in Acts 15:24. "For as much as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment." The word "subverting" is the word we have been talking about.

There were some people who were teaching that christians must keep the old law, the Law of Moses. The apostles and elders at Jerusalem wrote the christians in Antioch telling them that this is wrong. Christians do not have to keep any part of the old law. If someone believed this, they had allowed the enemy to come and dismantle, pack up, and carry away their soul to another country. This is a way of saying that their soul had been captured by the enemy and they were no longer a citizen of God's kingdom if they believed that a christian had to keep the old law.

Do not let anyone pack up your soul. Study the Bible. Learn what is right for a christian to do. Keep your soul from those who would try to take it apart and carry it away from the Kingdom of God.

Get God's wisdom. And if any of this is hard to understand, ask an adult to help you. Until next time, keep reading your Bible.

Mark McWhorter

Copyright 1999

Published by The Old Paths Bible School
(http://www.oldpaths.org)