Acts
16:25-27
25
And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the
prisoners heard them. 26 And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the
foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were
opened, and every one's bands were loosed. 27 And the keeper of the prison
awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his
sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been
fled.
Paul
was a unique character, indeed. He
was devout. He called himself a
“...Pharisee as concerns the law,” and he proved constantly that he was sincere
and earnest in pursuit of acceptance under the law. He was also steadfast in his faith. When others sometimes wavered in faith,
Paul never did. Paul was
tenacious. Even with a “thorn in
his flesh” he continued the work of the Lord. There was no room for quit in his ministry, and he had no
patience with quitters in his churches.
Beyond these, Paul was also genuine and passionate toward the work of
God. In Galatians 2 he recounts
the story of withstanding Peter, to his face, for being what we would consider
today as fake. It was his
integrity, and genuine passion, that carried him through sickness, hunger,
strife, persecution, suffering, prison, and his eventual death. He remained constant throughout it all.
So,
Paul was devout, steadfast, tenacious, genuine, and passionate about the God he
served and the work he committed to God.
These are all good and healthy attributes for someone striving to be
Christian, however, many of those attributes can also become crutches for not
obtaining a higher calling. See,
Paul used those attributes to become Christian, as compared to assuming those
attributes somehow made him Christian.
There is a difference.
We
all know the goal of Jesus Christ. To seek and to save that which was lost. Sis. Gwen Porche’ told me something very interesting
regarding that scripture. She said
it was not “those who” were lost, but “that which” was lost. What was lost in the garden was
relationship between God and man.
Jesus came to restore that relationship, which was lost.
If
we are not active in restoration of relationship, then, we are not becoming
Christian. If our attributes of devotion,
tenacity, and passion are not putting us in the practice of helping others find
a lost relationship, then they are merely crutches that we use to excuse
ourselves from actually being Christians. If our main
goal is to argue and debate about rules and regulations, or show our devotion
by tearing down brothers and sisters who do not, in our opinion, make the
grade; then we are letting positive, Godly attributes excuse us from fulfilling
the purpose of our existence.
Perhaps we are assuming our attributes make us Christian. They don't.
Paul
proved this in prison. With all of
the suffering he had already endured, and all the devotion and tenacity that his
ministry rightly represented, he still ended up in prison. But, he prayed. When he and Silas began to pray, the
chains were removed, and they were free to leave. However, something greater than freedom was beckoning, and
Paul was listening. Verse 27 tells
us that the guard would have killed himself, “...supposing that the prisoners
had been fled,” but Paul and Silas stayed put.
Because
they stayed, Acts 16:29-34 tells the story of the guard, and his entire
household, being saved. Paul and
Silas were not so consumed with their Godly attributes that they forgot their
Godly purpose. They were not so
set in deserving freedom, that they forgot the purpose of prison. Before they demanded liberty for their
good, faithful behavior, they took a look around and determined the value and
cost of that freedom. Their
freedom, in their assessment, was not worth a single lost soul. And, as a result, they saw an entire
family come to God.
So,
would you, would I, stay in prison to save a guard? Our Christianity depends upon it.
by J. Fields Trahan
No comments:
Post a Comment