… when I set out from, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only …
Summary: Paul’s mission to share the Gospel was unique in many ways. One of those ways was that Paul was directly accountable to the Lord. He knew Jesus, and that was enough. Yet, when the Philippians remembered Paul and sent help, he was deeply touched.
It is hard to imagine what Paul’s life must have been like after meeting Jesus.
Before he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, he was a Pharisee. If he went somewhere, he had an entire organization behind him. The high priest, the Council, and their associates would give him letters of introduction and authority to carry out his missions (Acts 22:5). When Paul showed up as a Pharisee, people paid attention.
Then he met Jesus.
Suddenly, everything was different. Remember what he said earlier?
“But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.” (Philippians 3:7)
All the power, authority, and support he had enjoyed as a Pharisee immediately evaporated. Just as he rejected them, the people he once associated with now rejected him.
Paul’s support group evaporated.
Paul didn’t go out of his way to make friends, either. When Peter, who had been called by the Holy Spirit to minister to Gentiles, began to separate himself from them again, Paul called him out (Galatians 2:11-21).
With Paul, it was Jesus or nothing, and that is how he lived.
Instead of letters of support, people openly plotted against Paul.* Instead of institutional support, Paul depended only on Jesus for guidance and direction.
It is easy for us to imagine that somehow Paul’s life was not as hard as it would be for you or me. Somehow, his relationship with Jesus and the Holy Spirit made his trials and loneliness easier to bear.
Mmmmm… No. It doesn’t work like that. Paul’s work for the Lord was hard, lonely, demanding, and dangerous (2 Corinthians 11:23–27). He did have companionship. There are people God supplied to support him along the way. He spent time in the company of fellow believers. Yet the burden of the mission, for the most part, fell on his shoulders alone.
Even though he brought the Gospel of Life in Jesus Christ to a community and taught them about the Way, that wasn’t enough to earn their support. Often, it seems, he was forgotten. In this letter, only the Philippians appear to have kept Paul in mind while he worked to bring the Gospel to other places.
Only you, he says, “shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving…”
Application: Remember those who serve the Lord’s cause in sharing the Gospel.
Food for Thought: What does it say about Paul’s relationship with Jesus that he was able to suffer loneliness and still keep working to share the Gospel?
*Acts 21:27–36 , 22:22–23, 23:12–22, 30, 25:2–3
I think that Paul was so close to Jesus that he never truly felt alone.
2 Timothy 4: 16 – 18: At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. 17But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion’s mouth. 18The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Thank you, Rich!
Amen! May every believer experience the Lord Jesus’ presence!
I think it is safe to say that Jesus was everything to Paul, and everything without Jesus was nothing to Paul. He states this many different ways in his writings, in profound declarations of his faith in Jesus, but also in the manner he speaks to those he is writing to. Paul not only wanted to bring people to Christ, but he wanted for them a firm relationship with Him, and to be presented as faithful to Him in eternity. He wasn’t just trying to “get them on board,” Paul wanted them to experience the kind of relationship he himself experienced with Jesus. Looking at it from that perspective tells me that it is possible for a man to have such a close relationship with Jesus that the power of the relationship overpowers anything else in that man’s life. That the relationship itself becomes evidence that Jesus is greater than anything in this world that a man could experience. I believe this is the relationship Paul had with Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 2:11-13
11 Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, 12 and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, 13 so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
Thank you, Chris!
“… it is possible for a man to have such a close relationship with Jesus that the power of the relationship overpowers anything else in that man’s life. ”
Yes! That is what we strive for. 🙂