Word of Encouragement (7/26/2021)
The next prayer we will meditate on is, “I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent...” (1 Tim. 1:12-13). Here is a prayer of thanksgiving. Paul gives thanks to Christ for the gospel ministry He entrusted to him.
The fact that he gives thanks for his ministry implies that it is a great privilege. This is remarkable when we remember what Paul had to endure on account of his ministry. Paul’s life as a Pharisee was a privileged one. He was a Roman citizen. He studied under Gamaliel, a leading Jewish scholar. He was “a rising star” among the Pharisees and Jewish leadership. So, he oversaw the execution of Stephan, the first martyr of Christianity, by stoning (Acts 7:58). He led the persecution of the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem (Acts 8:3). Not satisfied still, he went to the high priest and obtained permission to go down to Damascus and arrest the Christians there and bring them back to Jerusalem. Before his conversion on the road to Damascus by being confronted by the risen Lord, he belonged to the privileged class in the Jewish society and was active in persecuting the church of Jesus Christ.
When Jesus called him to His service, He told him how much he would have to suffer for his sake (Acts 9:16). His words came to be all too true. The following is what Paul said about the sufferings he had to go through in his ministry:
“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. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches” (2 Cor. 11:24-28).
The persecutor became the persecuted. Yet, Paul gives Christ thanks for his ministry. There was something about his ministry, which made all of his suffering worthwhile. What was that? It didn’t have to be anything fancy. The simple fact that he was on the side of the truth should have been enough. How do we measure the value of living with the knowledge of the truth as opposed to living in ignorance or under a lie? If you had to choose between the two, what would be your choice? It gets a little more complicated if we had to choose between living with the knowledge of the truth as a persecuted minority and living in ignorance as the persecuting majority. What would you choose? The choice should be obvious even if it is not an easy choice. I hope we would have the courage to side with the truth, no matter how difficult it may be—even more so because the truth we are talking about determines our eternal destiny.
Paul would have been grateful just for the knowledge of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. By it, he received the gifts of God’s forgiveness, eternal life, adoption as God’s children, an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, and the pledge of God’s eternal and abundant and unending love. But Christ entrusted to him the ministry of the gospel, by which he could proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ so that others might receive the salvation he had been given! His work as a Pharisee was to persecute others and putting them to death. His work as a minister of the gospel was to bring God’s eternal salvation! There was no comparison. Despite all the sufferings he had to endure, Paul could not help but give thanks to Christ for this life-giving ministry of his. Even though not all of us are called to the gospel ministry, we have the gospel, which we can share with others. Let us give thanks to Christ for the gospel!