THE KING’S BUSINESS
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ary is guaranteed and a comfortable home assured, and travelling expenses in a Pull man car provided. W e are sometimes told that what we need is true “ Pauline doc trine” in our ministers and missionaries. It is true that we do need Pauline doctrine in our ministers and missionaries, but we need Pauline conduct as much, if not more. Paul labored with toil and pain (v .-2 7 ), not only with brain and heart and lips, but with his hands also (Acts 18:3, 4). He spent nights in vigils o f prayer and watch ings against perils of one kind and another. He knew often what it meant to go with out food and drink (cf. Phil. 4:12). He knew what it meant to have insufficient clothing, and to suffer from the cold, and all this time Paul was a man suffering from a physical infirmity (cf. ch. 12:7-10; Gal. 4:13, 14). How far, how very far, was Paul’s type o f Christian living from our self-sparing manner qf life today. vs. 28-30. “Besides those things that are without, (add, there is) that which cometh (preSseth) upon me daily, the care of (anxiety for) all the churches. (29) Who is weak; and I am not weak? who is offended (made to stumble), and I burn not? (30) I f I must needs glory, I will glory o f the things which concern mine infirmities (my weakness).” In addition to all the outward things mentioned above that Paul had to suffer, there was that which pressed upon him daily, “anxiety for all the churches.” Every church o f Christ was dear to Paul. It belonged to his Lord and Saviour, therefore he loved it and it was an object of anxious thought and care to him. To most o f us there are but a few churches that we are really concerned about, but Paul was concerned about all o f them. Many a night he lost sleep in heart-break ing prayer for this church or that o f which he learned that it was in some peculiar trou ble (cf. Col. 2:1, 2, R. V .). By the sym pathy o f love he entered into every Chris tian brother’s need: if any one' else was weak, he was weak with him. I f any one was made to stumble, he himself burned with indignation.' Every brother’s troubles
o f any kind Paul regarded as his own. A classic writer wrote, “nothing human is foreign Ur me,” but Paul, with far more truth could say, “nothing Christian is for eign to me.” It was all really his ow n : he entered into if. He sympathized, i.e., as the word literally means, suffered with. And now Paul comes back to the thought of glorying with which the chapter began, and says, “ If I must needs glory, I will glory o f the things that concern my weakness.” vs. 31-33. “ The God and Father o f our (the) Lord Jesus Christ (omit, Christ), which (who) is blessed for evermore, know- eth that-] I lie not. (32) In Damascus the governor under Aretas the King, kept (guarded) the city of the Damascenes with a guarded (omit, with a garrison), desirous (in order) to apprehend (take) me: (33) And through a window in a basket was I let down, by the wall (was I let down in a basket by the Wall), and escaped his hands." Paul here cites as an especial example o f his infirmities o f which he boasted his lowly and undignified way of escape from the plot against his life at Damascus. The governor (literally, eth- narch, i.e., a Jewish officer to whom Gen tile rulers gave authority in large cities over the Jews residing in them) o f Damas cus guarded Damascus to take Paul. But Paul escaped this plot. His friends let him down through a window through the wall in a basket, and so he escaped (cf. Acts 9:25). It was a very undignified mode o f escape and so he would glory in it (cf. ch. 12:5, 9, 10). Evidently from verse 31'some were disposed to question that Paul had suf fered so great things for Christ, so he affirms it in the most solemn way and cites the case o f his escape from Damascus as an illustration o f what he suffered. The one who is meritipned as'being “blessed for evermore” is the Lord Jesus, and this thought that He is blessed for evermore sets forth His Deity, but His subordina tion to the Father is set < forth in the Father’s being spoken o f as the Qod and Father not merely o f men in general, but “o f the Lord Jesus.”
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