In Ephesus there was a silversmith by the name of Demetrious who crafted idols, but he was losing business on a daily basis. Why? Because Paul was preaching the Gospel Message in Ephesus and people were coming to Jesus and renouncing their man-made shrines. So Demetrious called together his fellow craftsmen to rile up the city. His tactic was to deceive, twist the truth, and exaggerate when he told the crowd, “Men, you know we receive a good income from this business. And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that man-made gods are no gods at all. There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited…” (verses 25-27) In other words, Demetrious appealed to their greed and persuaded them that Paul’s preaching was impacting their livelihood and that it needed to be stopped at all cost. And all this cunning deception worked, for after he spoke soon the whole city was in an uproar….but comically, it backfired on him, for it tells us that most of the people didn’t even know why they were there rioting and the officials dispersed the crowd without charging Paul for anything.
Safetypinlove 