OBEDIENCE IN SUFFERING
In Acts 9, we read the story of a man who was leading the charge in persecuting the church. He was eager to kill the Lord’s followers whenever he could. As he was on his way to Damascus, a bright light overwhelmed him and Jesus appeared, commanding him to stop persecuting his people. Through a series of events, Saul becomes Paul (Acts 13), gets baptized, begins preaching the gospel to churches, and will go on to write over half of the New Testament. The man who was once killing believers goes on to live a life preaching the gospel to the same churches he was persecuting.
Paul’s story starts out with more drama than David’s story. He enters the scene with a terrible reputation. Immediately, Jesus directs Saul (Paul) to go find a man named Ananias. Acts 9 tells us that the last thing Ananias wants to do is interact with this man who had done horrific things, but that the Lord responds, saying, “Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to the kings, as well as to the people of Israel. And I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake.”
So not only do we see a crazy conversion, but we also see that the Lord is clear that Paul’s life is going to be impactful, but it will not be free from suffering. Throughout Paul’s missionary journeys, the Jews would plot to kill him, he was imprisoned on several occasions, he faced many difficult relationships, not to mention he had to live with the burden of his past (he once murdered the people he was now trying to bring salvation to). In no way did this man live a glamorous life. In a few of Paul’s letters, he even mentions how it was a struggle to get people to even pay attention to the words he was saying (2 Corinthians 11:5-6).
From imprisonment, Paul wrote four different letters which would later become four books of the Bible. He did not let his difficult circumstances keep him from preaching the gospel, encouraging believers, mentoring other young teachers, and warning churches about false teachers. Interestingly, Paul didn’t need the spotlight to be obedient to what God called him to do—he needed pen, paper, and someone willing to deliver a letter to a church. Even now, hundreds of years later, we benefit from the words that a broken, sinful man was able to write because of the redemptive work of Christ in his life.
Before you read Scripture today and answer the response questions, consider this—are you willing to suffer for the sake of growing God’s Kingdom even if it means you may suffer and never see a reward on this side of Heaven?
Read 1 Peter 1:12–19.
- How does this passage tell us we should view suffering?
- How was Paul’s life an obscure one?
- What can we learn from Paul’s story about what it means to suffer for the sake of the gospel?