THE KING ’S BUSINESS
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to kill him if possible. W e learn from chapter 19:23-41 that there were also fierce trials through Gentile opposition.* How Paul’s history puts to shame our worrying over the small trials and hardships that come to us in the path o f truth and loyalty to Christ. vs. 20, 21. “And how I kept hack noth ing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught (how that 1 shrank not from declaring unto you any thing that was profitable, and teaching) you publicly, and from house to house, testify ing both to the (omit, the) Jew and also (omit, .also) to the (omit, the) Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." No amount o f opposition, even though it was murderous in its bitterness' and violence, kept Paul from declaring the whole truth. Not one thing that was. profitable for the Ephesians to know had he kept back in order to please man and to escape suffering. How many there are today utterly unlike Paul in this. They know full well that a certain line of truth will be profitable, but they hesitate to declare it in its fulness because o f the opposition' it might arouse. Or? the other hand Paul never declared truth for the mere sake o f startling people and arousing oppo sition, or for the sake o f parading his knowledge; he simply sought to find out what would be “profitable” for people to hear and declared that, regardless o f the consequences to himself. Much o f his’ work was “teaching” rather than merely preaching. He taught wherever he could get an opportunity, sometimes in public places, often from “house to house.” It was the interests o f men that he was after and not the notoriety that comes from large audiences. He'was “at it and always at it.” As far as his message was con cerned, he had the same message for both Jew . and Gentile, and that message was “ repentance,” or a change o f mind, turning from sin unto God, and “ faith toward (or upon) our Lord Jesus Christ;” i.e., a faith that rooted itself in Him and terminated in Him. There are those who tell us today
own knowledge o f his manner o f life among them. It is a great thing when a minister o f the Word so lives that he may begin his appeal to others in regard to their conduct, by a reference to their own personal knowledge o f his own manner of life. Few indeed are the men who could do this with the force with which Paul could do it. Paul had served the Lord. The word translated ‘'serve” means to serve as a bond-servant, and they all knew that Paul had acted the part o f a devoted bond-ser vant o f the Lord Jesus. He had counted himself as belonging to Him and under obli gation to do His will in everything at any cost, no matter how hard the things might be that such services required o f him. O f how many o f us do those who know us best know this to be true? They knew also that this service had been “with all lowliness o f mind.” There was nothing that humility demanded that he had not done. He had been ready to take the humblest place. He had never sought to exalt self. There had been but one he had sought to exalt and that was the Lord Jesus, and even among, the brethren he had counted others as having superior interests to his own (cf. Phil. 2:3 ). Paul had so acted that he had no doubt that they knew this to be. true about himself. He had also served “with tears.” His tears had been over their imperfections, and over the hard ness and impenitence o f their hearts (cf. v. 31). He seems rather to have wept than to have been irritated over their short comings. There is a much needed lesson here too for all o f us. Many o f us get impatient far more easily than we weep over the slowness and impenitence and hardness o f those whom we are seeking to lead into the truth, but it is the one who “goeth forth and weepeth” who is most likely to "come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him” (Ps. 126:6). But not only had there been lowliness of mind and tears, there h'ad been .hard “trials” too. These trials had come from the plots o f the Jews, who never tired in their attempts to drive Paul out and even
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