FROM the eventful day when the face of the Apostle Paul was turned towards heaven there was no lingering look cast behind nor one sigh of regret that he had left all for the Lord that had loved him and given Himself for him. The tremendous earnestness and energy that naturally characterised him were turned by the Holy Spirit into new channels, ennobling them with a heavenly dignity. No one can read the Acts of the Apostles and the Pauline epistles without being impressed with the whole-hearted devotion and zeal with which this great herald of the Cross proclaimed the divine dignity and peerless excellency of his Lord. To him Jesus was the great God and his Saviour Jesus Christ. Nothing short of divine honour paid to his Lord would satisfy the Apostle’s heart. We marvel as we read the wonderful story of his life so full of human interest, so disinterestedly lived, so patiently seeking the highest interests with noble aims and burning eagerness to realise them. As we read the 11th chapter of ii. Corinthians we are impressed that these are not the idle claims of a boaster who is wishing to impress his audience; but the sober words of truth of one who without ostentation is making known what he endured for Christ’s cause in the world. It is a noble record which even his bitterest enemies could not besmear. As the record is read and pondered over the question naturally arises in the mind, what was the motive power that energised the Apostle to undergo such trials, endure such hardships and accomplish such tremendous tasks. The Apostle himself furnishes the answer—it was the love of Christ constraining him. His whole aim in life and death was
to glorify the Saviour who had so graciously redeemed one who had been a persecutor and a blasphemer. Whatever others may have thought of the Lord Jesus, Paul could never forget that it was not by works of righteousness which he had done, but according to His great mercy that he had been saved. It was so manifestly an act of the sovereign grace of God that he gloried in magnifying that grace. Notwithstanding the clearness of the call and the distinctness with which he saw the road mapped out before him, with the goal in the far distance, it proved no easy path to the city—”When we were come into Macedonia,” he says on one occasion, “our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears” (ii. Cor. vii. 5). The Apostle tells us openly of the difficulties that beset him as he went forward with his eye intently fixed on the goal. Within, the remnants of indwelling sin were asserting themselves. The struggle was not a sham battle—sin was a reality, a terrible reality which he dreaded. It was no visionary evil that wrung from his heart the cry: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death” (Rom. vii. 24). There are no enemies so difficult to deal with as the enemies in one’s own house. Outside enemies may be troublesome enough and malicious enough but there is something about the enmity of the enemies of one’s own house that is particularly annoying. It was such enemies as these that the Apostle had to contend against. He had given up the world with its honours, applause and allurements, without a sigh, but the world within called forth many a sigh from his heart. It is true that through the cross he was crucified to the world and the world to him. He was dying a lingering death to the world, his desires in that direction were getting weaker and weaker and the world, which crucified the Lord of glory, was dying to him. Another world was taking its place and was one day to completely fill his heart. In running the race to the goal he was laying aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us.
But he had not only to contend with inward foes—there were also outward enemies, subtle, aggressive instruments of the devil, that made the progress no easy matter. There were also false
friends, concerning whom the Apostle has to make complaint, who failed him in the day of trial. In that wonderful account he leaves of his trials he says: “In labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods; once was I stoned; thrice I suffered shipwreck; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeying often; in perils of waters; in perils of robbers; in perils by mine own countrymen; in perils by the heathen; in perils in the city; in perils in the wilderness; in perils in the sea; in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness; in watchings often; in hunger and thirst; in fastings often; in cold and nakedness. Besides those things that are without that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches” (ii. Cor. xi. 23-28): But in the face of it all he kept his eye fixed on the goal and pressed towards the mark. As a minister of God he approved himself “by honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report; as deceivers and yet true; as unknown and yet well-known; as dying and behold we live; as chastened and not killed” (ii. Cor. vi. 8-9). One would have thought that such a devoted servant of Christ would have escaped the attention of men who were babes in service and witness-bearing but it was not so. He fought a good fight and kept the faith and God set His seal upon his labours.
The faithful bear a twofold affection in their hearts. For on the one side they are vexed, yea, distracted by sundry fears and cares; but God breatheth secret gladness into them, and that according to their necessity, so that no gulf of miseries, howsoever deep, may swallow them up.—Calvin.
Work for Christ may be done from many spurious motives, and from excitement, from emulation, from party-spirit, or from love of praise. Suffering for Christ will seldom be endured from any but one motive, that motive is the grace of God.—Bishop Ryle.