If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ...
Philippians 3:4-8
I’m resuming the theme of last weekend’s Reflection. St Paul described his life in some detail in his two letters to the Christians at Corinth: see 1 Corinthians 4:11-13, 2 Corinthians 6:3-10 & 2 Corinthians 11: 21-28. He wrote about being hungry and thirsty, not suitably dressed for the climate, assaulted (‘buffeted’) and homeless. But he added something only possible if he was content with such a lifestyle: 'When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things...’
In his second letter he explains that so not to put obstacles to belief in anyone’s way, he endured ‘afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labours, sleepless nights, hunger...through honour and dishonour, through slander and praise...’ Later, he was specific: ‘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...’
That final reference to daily pressure from the churches would, I think, have been enough to crush many ministers. As we read in his other letters, many Christians were abandoning the faith he had so faithfully taught them at such great personal cost. He later told Timothy that ‘all who are in Asia turned away from me’ (2 Timothy 1:15).
When Peter said to Jesus that the disciples had left everything to follow Him, Jesus replied, 'Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life' (Mark 10:29-30).
We should remember that Paul had things to be ashamed of in his life. In the passage at the start of this Reflection, along with his noble birth and religious devotion, he refers to the way he persecuted the church. He imprisoned many Christians and almost certainly caused the deaths of some. That he had come to terms with that, and didn't try to hide it, should encourage every Christians with a difficult past, especially where they have acted persecuted other out of a misguided zeal to please God.
When Peter said to Jesus that the disciples had left everything to follow Him, Jesus replied, 'Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life' (Mark 10:29-30).
We should remember that Paul had things to be ashamed of in his life. In the passage at the start of this Reflection, along with his noble birth and religious devotion, he refers to the way he persecuted the church. He imprisoned many Christians and almost certainly caused the deaths of some. That he had come to terms with that, and didn't try to hide it, should encourage every Christians with a difficult past, especially where they have acted persecuted other out of a misguided zeal to please God.
A life of ease does not necessarily indicate God's favour; a life of hardship does not necessarily indicate God's disapproval. We need to be committed to what's right. For St Paul to be content with his life, and to remain content in the belief that things could get still worse, required solid faith in God, a clear understanding of his purpose and a focus on a future that would make all the hardship worthwhile. He wanted to ‘gain Christ’ and, because this is fundamental to our own contentment, it's the subject of next weekend’s Reflection.
© Copyright Philip Evans 2015.
What is freely received should be freely shared and not sold for profit, so please feel free to copy these Reflections freely and without cost to others. Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations in these Reflections are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
