4 But the multitude of the city was divided: and part held with the Jews, and part with the apostles. 5 And when there was an assault made both of the Gentiles, and also of the Jews with their rulers, to use them despitefully, and to stone them, 6 They were ware of it, and fled unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and unto the region that lieth round about: 7 And there they preached the gospel. (Acts 14:4-7 KJV)
William Burkitt’s Commentary
Observe here, 1. How upon the preaching of the gospel there follow great divisions; The multitude was divided. Not that the gospel is the cause of division, but the occasion only, and that by accident too. The sacred institutions and ordinances of Christ, are not to be quarrelled with, or objected against, because through man’s corruption they breed differences, discords, and divisions.
Observe, 2. How this division was the cause of persecution: The city was divided, and an attempt was made to use the apostles despitefully, and to stone them.
Lord! what ill usage have thine ambassadors met with from the first publication of the gospel! The unkind world has treated them as if they were not fit to live, driving them from place to place, and persecuting them from city to city.
But observe, 3. The prudential care which the apostles use for their own preservation: They were ware of it, and fled to Lystra and Derbe: according to Christ’s command, When they persecute you in one city, flee unto another. Christ allows his ministers a liberty of flight in time of persecution, that they may preserve their lives for future service. We must not expect safety by a miracle, when we may have it in the use of means; yet probably it might not be fear, or a desire to save their lives, which made the apostles flee; but because they were unwilling to lose time there, when their ministry was obstructed, and when they saw the gospel was rejected. Accordingly they fled to Derbe and Lystra, and there preached the gospel.
From whence note, How greatly persecution, by scattering, tends to the increasing of the gospel. Thousands had never heard of Jesus Christ, if persecution had not driven the ministers of the gospel unto them. The wisdom of God well knows how to order those things which are designed for the prejudice, to tend to the furtherance, of the gospel. Php_1:12