Apostle Paul (part III)

It occurs to me that many people aren’t really familiar with the life of Apostle Paul. I think that it’s important to be familiar with his life; he wrote a sizable chunk of the New Testament—possibly more than half. I am going to attempt to cover his life here, but it’s going to take more than one post. This is the conclusion of this series.

I mentioned in my last post that Paul suffered a lot of things just as an example to the rest of us, but he also talked about having a thorn in his flesh. We are never actually told what this thorn was. Many theories have been floated, but they are just ideas; when we get to Heaven, we can ask him, but until then, it’s all speculation. In any case, he prayed three times that God would remove it from him, and God finally communicated to him that he needed that problem to keep him humble. When Paul realized that this thorn ultimately meant that he would do more for God with it than he could ever do without it, he accepted it.

Paul also talked about being chief of sinners. The argument could be made that he was talking about his life before he came to know Christ, when he persecuted the church, but it’s also possible that he was very much aware of his faults and failures in day-to-day life as a Christian. It certainly seems that Paul felt that he had a lot to make up for, and that may have made him that much more sensitive to his shortcomings as a Christian, and as a leader in the church.

Most of us will never do anything like the kinds of things that Paul did, either for the sake of the gospel or against it. Some of us will never have the kind of motivation that he had, because we’ve never done the kinds of things that he did prior to. Still, there are learning points in Paul’s life that may make our own journey more fruitful:

First, keep in mind that Paul was raised religious. He was one of God’s chosen people; he adhered strictly to the Law of Moses. Being religious didn’t make him right. In fact, his religious upbringing, if anything, made it harder for him to accept the truth. How were you raised? Were you raised in a “Christian home” or in some other religion, or by a family of atheists? However you were raised, it is important that you be willing to put aside your background, and be willing to accept that much, or even all, of what you were taught was in error. “How can you say that? You don’t know how I was raised!” You’re right; I don’t know how you were raised. You may have been raised completely correctly. I’m not saying this as an accusation. I’m only trying to point out that, even if you were raised by good Christian parents in a good Christian church, there are probably beliefs that you have picked up along the way that don’t align with Scripture. Prayerfully examine what you believe. Ask God, as David did, to create in you a clean heart. And, if you think I’m wrong, then I would ask that you would pray that God would show me the error of my ways. But, if there is an error in my ways or your ways, I hope that neither of us would be stubborn enough that God would need to strike us with blindness in order for us to truly see.

Second, although Paul learned to be content in whatever situation he found himself in, he also strived to be closer to God, and to be able to do more for God. There is not one among us that would not benefit from that attitude. The important thing in life is not our own comfort, but that the will of God be done. God may very well want us to go through some stuff so that we can be more fruitful.

Third, just as Paul suffered a thorn in his flesh, that ultimately kept him humble, and better able to do God’s will, so, too, we must accept that into each life, some rain must fall. There will be things that don’t seem convenient, or even reasonable, that are very necessary. There will be times when you think God is just being terribly unfair. If you feel that way, talk to God about it. I would encourage you to try very hard to not take an accusatory tone when you tell God how unfair He is. The real irony of that is that, generally when we think God is being unfair, those are the times when God is allowing us to experience the rewards of our own actions. When you stop and think about it, grace is terribly unfair. None of deserve grace, but without it, there could have never been a Paul, and none of the rest of us could even have any hope.