But Saul was ravaging the church.  Entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.  Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.

Background
When the Church began, it was not accepted by the Jews or the Romans.  Furthermore, it was still only in Jerusalem and only reaching out to Jews.  The Jews rejected Jesus as the Messiah because they were looking for a leader like Moses and David that would rescue them from physical oppression (Roman rule) instead of rescuing them from their spiritual oppression (their sin).  As such, the Jews saw the believers as turning Jews hearts from the teachings (The Law) that they had lived under for the last 1,500 years.  And they had a long history of consequences whenever they did not purge people that taught differently.  As such, Saul (later renamed by God to Paul) and the Jews had a passion to purge these believers which they considered false teachers.

But the message of the Gospel, a message of a loving God that is full of grace and mercy, was very appealing and started to grow.  The Jews decided it was time to end this movement and started  targeting believers.  Stephen became the first recorded martyr as recorded in Acts 6-7 and the persecution began to get very harsh.

Unlike verses that are teaching principles or commands, these verses are “narrative” describing the actions of what they did.  We learn and are encouraged by their faith rather than being given truths upon which to guide our faith decisions.  We will focus on the “why” of their “faith in action” rather expanding on a taught principle / command.

What it meant to the original audience
When the early Church experienced the Gospel with hearts opened by the Holy Spirit, they understood true love, eternal purpose and the overwhelming value of Heaven over things of this world.  As such, when persecution came and becoming refugees was their best option, they found it completely natural to tell people why accepting the consequences of faith was a natural decision.  God validated their faith by recording it in His Word.

For us today
Today, depending on where you live in the world, you may be experiencing similar harsh persecution or you may be living a comfortable Christian walk or something in between those two ends of the spectrum.  Our ability to respond correctly depends on our understanding of the Word and our connection to the Spirit.

Do you have a strong enough foundation in what God is doing to give a love-based response to opposition and persecution?