Paul was arguably the greatest missionary the Church has
known. Interestingly, he had also been its greatest sinner (1 Tim. 1:15-16).
How was God able to take a man who had been a hard-hearted oppressor and to
convert him into a tender-hearted servant? Once, he had been forcing Christians
to renounce Jesus, and now he was pleading with them, by any means, to receive
Him:
·
To the weak I became weak, that I might win the
weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save
some. (1 Corinthians 9:22; ESV)
What brought about this transformation? This is a question
that all of us who want to be Christ-like ask.
The faithful Christian, Ananias, could hardly believe that
such a transformation was possible. After God had told him to go to Paul and to
lay his hands on him in prayer to receive his sight back, Ananias assumed that
God was making a grave mistake. However, He explained:
·
“Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to
carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I
will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” (Acts 9:15-16)
We can do nothing without God (2 Cor. 3:5; John 15:4-5). We
must be chosen and equipped, but how does God equip? Paul wouldn’t be able to “carry
my name before the Gentiles…” without suffering “for the sake of my name.”
I want to be everything to the Lord, but the extent of Paul’s
suffering is mind-boggling. He related:
·
You know it was because of a bodily ailment that
I preached the gospel to you at first, and though my condition was a trial to
you, you did not scorn or despise me… (Galatians 4:13-14)
Whatever his “bodily ailment,” it was a “trial to” the
Galatians, something that might have caused them to “scorn or despise” Paul.
How humiliating!
We do not know what this horrid ailment was. However, Paul
understood that it had mysteriously enabled him to preach the Gospel.
Perplexing? Paul was taught that his work depended on
learning to trust in God. This meant that he could no longer trust in Himself –
his own abilities and winsomeness:
·
For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers,
of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond
our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had
received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves
but on God who raises the dead. (2 Corinthians 1:8-9)
To learn to not trust in ourselves is horribly painful. It
means being stripped of our pride and even our confidence that people will
like, respect, and receive us. Paul’s ailment had caused him to despair of such
confidence.
However, the stripping away of self-confidence and our
pleasures took many other forms:
·
To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are
poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own
hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we
entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse
of all things. (1 Corinthians 4:11-13)
Am I willing to pick up such a Cross? Can I? Certainly not
by my own strength! “Lord help me!” And He does. Paul extended to us the
promise of Christ-like-ness, one that would come with a price-tag:
·
Always carrying in the body the death of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live
are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus
also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. (2 Corinthians 4:10-11)
How can we endure this? Humanly, we cannot. Why am I
relating this? To encourage you that our Lord has a purpose for your suffering.
He is preparing you. Use this gift of suffering, knowing that it is not about
you but about Him (Gal 2:20)!
The extent of Paul’s suffering was unbelievable:
·
With far greater labors, far more imprisonments,
with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the
hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with
rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was
adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from
robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city,
danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil
and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often
without food, in cold and exposure. (2 Corinthians 11:23-27)
Through God’s incomprehensible ministrations, instead of
breaking Paul, God used suffering to produce in him a heart of compassion, as
the next two verses demonstrate:
·
And, apart from other things, there is the daily
pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not
weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?
As if this wasn’t enough suffering, God added a “thorn in
the flesh” in order to keep Paul humble and dependent. But He also gave Paul
the understanding that His grace was enough to keep him afloat:
·
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for
you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the
more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For
the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships,
persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians
12:9-10)
If only we might learn that weakness is a gift. It forces us
to look above to our only source of hope and strength. This is the only way
that we can serve Him. “If God is for us, who can be against us” (Romans
8:31-32)!
Consequently, I inform my students that I no longer trust in
myself; nor do I want too, lest I be deprived of the power of God.
Our Lord is able to make the least and most unworthy of us
to stand for Him:
·
Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of
another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be
upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. (Romans 14:4)
I trust that the Lord will equip me to serve Him, even in
martyrdom, if this is His calling. Therefore, let us take up our Cross.
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