Why wait another day? Things aren’t going to get better. Pack it in. Call it quits. Throw in the towel. Turn back. Give up. Ever feel like that? There’s no hint of the Apostle Paul ever having such a thought and yet his trials would make the most of us embarrassed to ever mention our own problems. Wham! Wham! Wham! Every day for him seemed like a new storm. How could he take another hit?Just think of the context of the verses below. This servant of the Lord, following in the path of obedience, with deep affection for Christ, was under siege. False teachers were worming their way into the hearts of Paul’s converts and undermining his labours and spreading malicious stories about him. Just that experience alone would knock some of us out but read on:
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.
(2Corinthians 11:24-28)
“Stop Paul. That’s enough. If it hurts us just to hear about it, how much more painful must it be for you to experience it! Paul, you aren’t appreciated by most and to make matters worse, you are swamped by afflictions and trials. I think it’s time for you to move into a little condo and write your memoirs. Retire. You seem to be a lightning rod for trouble. Withdraw. Retreat. Scale back your activities. It’s just not worth it. You’ve taken enough hits. It’s someone else’s turn.”
“Excuse me,” Paul interrupts. “How could you say it’s not worth it? How could you say I’ve taken enough hits? When I think of the hits my Lord took, mine are nothing. Think of all the malicious and false accusations they hurled against Him. Think of the spitting. The shame. The humiliation. The lashes upon my Saviour’s back. What about the thorns and the nails? The thirst? The loneliness of Calvary? His tears. His abandonment. The load of my sins. The wrath of God that fell on Him. He never called it quits. Had He turned back and taken the easy way out, I would have been lost eternally.”
Thinking about Christ – loving Him and always keeping Him as the object of his heart’s affections – that’s what propelled Paul forward. It was Christ who motivated him to plow through the waves of trials. It was Christ that kept him afloat.
“Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses
FOR CHRIST’S SAKE…”
2 Corinthians 12:10
Remove Christ from the equation and Paul would have been out of his mind to press forward. How sweet it will be for you, dear child of God, to stand before Christ in the future and to hear Him say: “Thanks my child for not calling it quits FOR MY SAKE. Thanks for making that sacrifice in your life FOR MY SAKE.”
Walk carefully and closely with the Lord today.
Warmly in Christ
Peter Ramsay