The Living Word, 26 January 2020

The apostle Paul suffered a great deal as an itinerant evangelist around the eastern Mediterranean and  Aegean regions. It is so ironical that so many people were offended by his message of peace and love in Jesus’ name. Paul’s understanding of this is that his suffering for the sake of the gospel has actually enhanced his ability to witness (Philippians 1:12-14). The guards assigned to him can’t escape hearing his conversations with Timothy and Silas. Even members of the local churches were emboldened by Paul’s example to preach and witness all the more! 

This is like a paradox, the more they preached, the greater the risk of persecution and suffering. Did this risk slow them down? No! it made them bolder!

But many people also heard what Paul and his colleagues were preaching and came to accept that Jesus Christ IS the Son of God and eternal salvation is only found through faith in his name. this is what caused the church in Philippi to grow so well. Many of the believers heard and saw Paul’s testimony but still received Christ as Saviour, knowing full well that it may bring trouble from those who didn’t believe.

Paul can be quite objective too, “for to me, living is Christ and to die is gain” (1:21). It matters not to him even if he dies for the cause of the Gospel. He is not talking irresponsibly or flippantly. Paul knows the real cost of following Christ. Read his testimony to the Corinthian church of his personal experience of persecution (2 Corinthians 11:24-29). This is what he calls “light and momentary troubles” (2 Cor. 4:17). Not being dismissive of the present difficulties, but realistic that these afflictions are nothing to be compared to the coming glory of eternal life. 

That helps us understand his remarks about preferring to be “with the Lord” (Phil. 1:23) but also his reality check of verse 24-25, that for the meantime there is a task to accomplish. Firstly, in ministering to the believers he has fostered into the Kingdom and secondly, partnering with them in the ongoing task of reaching out to the lost and broken world of the first century.

This task is yet to be complete. Our call to “know and make known the love of Jesus” weighs heavily on our shoulders as it did for Paul and the Philippian church. Through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit we can do it. Spend our whole lives focussing on ways and means of reaching out to the lost who live around us. Acknowledging with apostle Paul that it is a difficult job. But also agreeing that if in my whole life I only ever helped one person to become a follower of Jesus Christ, if everyone of us had the same desire, in the first generation we can double the Church. 

That’s what happened in the first century and through the power of the same Holy Spirit we can do it again and again. It is costly; but think of the gains in God’s Kingdom. Hallelujah!

In Christ,

Alan Wood