When Paul came to Corinth to preach the gospel; there was much opposition to him and his message. Paul told the Jews that he was turning to the Gentiles. Then the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision and said: “Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace” (Acts 18:9). Peter and John, after they had been beaten and threatened for their preaching, met with the saints and prayed to God: “And now Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word” (Acts 4:29). These apostles, men of courage and conviction, are just two in a long list of those servants of God who were bold to speak and who would not keep silent when they needed to speak the truth, even if it placed them in grave danger. Nathan, God’s prophet of old, was not afraid to boldly tell King David, “Thou are the man” as he convicted him of his sin with Bathsheba (2 Sam. 12:7). It takes courage to rebuke a king of his sins, but he could not keep silent and please God. Micaiah, the prophet who confronted King Ahab and his false prophets, could not be “cowed” into prophesying only the good thing which Ahab wanted to hear. He plainly told him, “As the Lord liveth, what the Lord saith unto me, that will I speak” (1 Kings 22:14). John the Baptist stood firm before the Pharisees and Sadducees who came to his baptizing. He call them a generation of vipers and demanded they show evidence of their repentance (Mat. 3:7-8). He stood face to face with Harod and Herodias, who were living in adultery (she was his brother’s wife), and boldly told him: “It is not lawful for you to have thy brother’s wife” (Mark 6:18). It cost John his head, but he saved his soul. Jesus is the example in this also. He never remained silent when something needed to be said. His life was literally a running verbal battle with the scribes and Pharisees. On one occasion His disciples asked Him, “Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying?” (Mat. 15:9). Jesus didn’t try to offend them, but He spoke the truth they needed to hear, and if they were offended it was their problem. He told His disciples, “Let them alone; they be blind leaders of the blind” (Mat. 15:14). They were not to seek to appease them in any way. How desperately we need men and women today who will not “hold their peace” when opposition to evil and to false teaching needs to be given. “Be not afraid...” —Richard Gill