Ministry in Berea

Paul and his associates were forced to flee Thessalonica toward Berea under the cover of night. Most likely the authorities ordered them to leave the city, but the team's secretive departure indicates that their lives were in danger. The fierceness of the Thessalonian Jews' hostility would soon be clear as they followed the missionaries to Berea and sought to reproduce there the same civil uprising they had secured in their own city. The Berean Jews were far more noble-minded and receptive to Paul's message than their Thessalonian counterparts, and yet at Berea also the gospel would not bear its fruit unopposed. The gospel's work in the world is always one of faith and unbelief, embrace and rejection, joy and rage, life and death.