By Martin Morrison
A stone struck me rather violently on my thigh one afternoon, whilst walking next to a road. No, it wasn’t anyone who disliked me, but a passing car that threw up the stone in its wake. I also remember that for some time afterwards, I checked anxiously whether there was an approaching car and if so, allowing the car to pass before walking over the same spot. Some may call that being cautious, others paranoia!
I mention that rather random event, because Paul’s behaviour in his first missionary journey seems positively strange. We are told in Acts 14: 19 that when he was preaching the Gospel in Lystra, present day Turkey, the crowd stoned him and dragged him out of the city supposing him to be dead. He wasn’t dead. But instead of abandoning Lystra and heading for friendlier shores, he gets up and returns to the very people who had just stoned him. Luke, the author of Acts continues by telling us that he then goes to Derbe to preach the Gospel and then returns to Lystra, “…..strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the Kingdom of God”. Acts 14: 22.
I cannot imagine what it feels like being stoned, when the purpose of the carefully aimed stones is to kill you. Do you try and duck your head or move your body? Do you cry out in terror? Do you try and remember who threw the most vicious stone and plan revenge in your heart? Are your emotions filled with anger and bitterness, or is it just fear and disbelief? I find it almost unimaginable to put myself in the shoes of Paul.
The question that genuinely puzzles me, is why after surviving this lynching mob in Lystra, he returns to the very people who stoned him, not once but twice. In fact, he returns to Lystra a third time on his second missionary journey. (Acts 16:1). Surely, such behaviour is abnormal human behaviour? Come to think of it, it is abnormal!
But then we read about Paul’s purpose, that drove his life. In Acts 20, Paul is in Ephesus, saying goodbye to his very dear brothers and sisters in Christ knowing that he will never see them again. It is an understandably emotional scene. There’s much weeping and embracing as he says his final goodbye.
Before leaving them he gives a most memorable farewell. Most striking for our purposes is vs 22 – 24,”And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God”.
So here we find the reason for Paul’s seemingly abnormal behaviour. The overriding purpose in Paul’s life was a divine sense of call, a divine sense of obligation, a divine sense of mission. He felt himself on a divine assignment. Being what? To testify to the gospel of the grace of God. No other religion or spirituality preaches the gospel of grace. Yet Paul who had experienced that divine grace on the Damascus road, was compelled to share this gospel, until his life was spent. Nothing was more precious, nothing more valuable. Even his own life.
A life lived without purpose is a wasted life. What greater and more magnificent purpose than to live for God and eternity. To live to share the gospel of the grace of God through our words, our talents, our money, our time, our love.
I wonder if we can say with Paul, I do not see the purpose of my life being me and my comfort and my rights and my well-being. No, I am so infinitely privileged that my purpose is so much more than me and my little life. My divine assignment is to live and testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
For further Reading: Don’t Waste your Life. John Piper. Available on Amazon Kindle.
My grateful thanks to Panganayi Sithole who drew my attention to the above passages and thought.