How often have we heard, "What happens in a politician's private life is his own affair; it only concerns the voters when it affects performance in office"? Yet often sexual or financial indiscretion means the ruin of political ambitions, no matter how cogent the political message. A message's truth is judged by the messenger's integrity.

Luke's narrative about the gospel's advance at Iconium sets side by side the Jewish persecutors and the Christian witnesses. By focusing on the courageous Christian witnesses, he helps us decide between the Jewish attacks on the gospel and that gospel's truth claims.