CONTENDING WITH OUR DUAL IDENTITY - LESSONS FROM PAUL'S ENCOUNTER WITH THE HELLENISTS IN ACTS 9:26-30
By Ezekiel Kimosop
PASSAGE
And when Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, and did not believe that he was a disciple. 27 But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. And he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that He had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. 28 So he was with them at Jerusalem, coming in and going out. 29 And he spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the Hellenists, but they attempted to kill him. 30 When the brethren found out, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him out to Tarsus. (Acts 9:26-30, NKJV)
ANALYSIS
Paul had escaped Damascus after the Jews sought to kill him following his conversion to the Christian faith (Acts 9:23-25).
Upon returning to Jerusalem, Paul continued to face rejection by those who knew his difficult past. He had persecuted the church until he met Christ on his way to Damascus.
Barnabas presented him to the Jerusalem believers but doubts prevailed. Some believers could not reconcile Paul's past life with his new identity as a believer and Christian missionary.
They heard Paul's testimony and his Christian witness in Damascus but were still not convinced that he was a true believer. His past life as a persecutor overshadowed his testimony.
The Hellenistic Jews sought to kill him. Hellenists were Greek speaking Jews of Diaspora who lived outside Palestine but who later returned to settle in Jerusalem. They were influenced by Hellenistic or Greco-Roman culture. Palestinian Jews spoke Aramaic. Paul himself was a Hellenistic Jew. He was raised in Tarsus but came to Jerusalem where he received his theological training and later became a radical Pharisee.
Paul's experience is not unique. Some believers have suffered persecution and rejection for their Christian convictions. Curiously, their harshest critics happen to come from among people who were close to them before they converted to the Christian faith.
The Jerusalem believers perhaps considered Paul as a double agent or spy sent by the Jewish religious authorities to gather crucial intelligence on the church under the conversion pretext.
Have you ever been stigmatized by people who seek to draw from your past to ridicule your present standing in Christ? Do not be discouraged by the labels from your past life. What God has done for you in Christ Jesus has cured your past.
2 Corinthians 5:17-18 says "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation." (NKJV).
Our new life in Christ comes with a new status. We are now children of God. We have been translated from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light (Colossians 1:3). Scripture also proclaims thus:
"In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross" (Colossians 2:11-14, NKJV).
Paul contended with His dark past even as he sought his rightful space among the community of believers, the house of faith. His new identity in Christ Jesus was tested by fire and emerged authentic. It overshadowed his dark past.
Paul's apostolic mantle was also tested on several occasions but he remained steadfast in Christ. He confronted the doubting Thomases not with a sword and shield but with compelling conviction and confidence.
His four rhetorical questions in 1 Corinthians 9:1-2, attest to his confidence. He asserts thus:
"Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? 2 If I am not an apostle to others, yet doubtless I am to you. For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord." (NKJV).
Paul's experience teaches us that we are not immune to ridicule and scorn in our societies of context. We must contend with the dual identity phenomenon.
ILLUSTRATION
One preacher whom we shall call X once testified about his journey of faith. He was a social misfit in his youth. He drank and smocked. One evening, a group of evangelists came to a nearby town where he worked as a farm hand. Mr X heard loud speakers calling people to the market crusade. He decided to go for the meeting and sat at the far end listening as he smocked. His heart melted as he heard the gospel proclaimed.
When the altar call was made, Mr X dropped his cigarette and walked forward. The crowd watched in disbelief as the young man knelt down before the preacher and wept profusely. He was totally broken. He turned to Christ.
Mr X came to Christ but his community doubted his sincerity, knowing his difficult past. Time however revealed the truth about his transformed life. The man started going to church and confessed that he had met Jesus Christ.
Mr X later enrolled for Bible college and rose to become an ordained minister. He recently retired from ministry having served for more than 50 years.
God affirms those He calls. The fruit of their calling will be manifested as they grow in Christ and serve God.
CONCLUSION
Every believer comes to Christ with a stained past. That past however does not determine our identity. As we contend with the labels and ridicules of our past life, God builds our convictions in Christ and transforms our inner life through the Holy Spirit and His word. Our past identity eventually collapses and our new nature in Christ shapes out as we faithfully walk in Him.
How long does this take?
As we grow in Christ, our Christian identity is consistently built and fortified. Ephesians 4:13 describes this process. It says in part: "...till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." (NKJV).
Our new identity is complete in Christ. What remains is for the doubting Thomases to get convinced about this inner transformation through the fruit of the Spirit that eventually emerges.
Paul grew in stature and served as an apostle to the Gentiles. He wrote 13 New Testament Epistles. His apostolic stature towered above those of the Jerusalem apostles. He covered an expansive territory preaching the gospel and establishing churches in Achaia, Macedonia, and Asia Minor. He was finally martyred for his faith under Nero and his soul is in the presence of God (2 Timothy 4:7-8).
His new identity in Christ Jesus was unmistakably proven.
Keep it Christ!
© Ezekiel Kimosop 2026
