Paul’s Passion -- to Run the Race
by Beatrice Neall
For three days Saul lay in stunned silence. The hand of God had reached down and
spun him around 180 degrees. He could not see what lay ahead. He was blind.
Then friendly arms lifted him up, his eyes were opened, and he saw laid before
him a race track. It would lead him “before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of
Israel”* to proclaim the gospel of Christ (Acts 9:15). Something else he noticed about the
way ahead -- it led through great suffering. Saul saw it all and did not flinch.
Soon he was galloping down the track -- across barren deserts, treacherous seas,
and robber-infested mountains. Always he saw “the regions beyond” -- new places to conquer
for Christ.
Was he ever tempted by inviting sidetracks? Would he have enjoyed a wife and family,
a pleasant home, and a comfortable salary? For the brave apostle Paul these most elemental human joys
were “off course.” After asserting that he had as much right to a wife and salary as any
other apostle, he declared, “I have made no use of any of these rights” (1 Cor. 9:15). He
was running a race to win a prize, and “every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They
do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Well, I do not run aimlessly, . . . but
I pommel my body and subdue it” (verses 25-27).
For Paul, it was strict self-discipline all the way. In city after city he preached
to Jews and Gentiles, planting churches and turning every place upside down with the message. Along
with great exploits came great sufferings: stoning at Lystra, imprisonment at Philippi, ridicule in
Athens, riots in Ephesus. Paul’s account of his ordeals shows that the Book of Acts only skims
the surface.
“Five times I have received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less
one. Three times I have been beaten with rods; once I was stoned. Three times I have been shipwrecked;
a night and a day I have been adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from
robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness,
danger at sea, danger from false brethren; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in
hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is
the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches” (2 Cor. 11:24-28).
All of this came before his major sufferings had even begun!
But Paul’s vision embraced a wider view that made his trials endurable.
“For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all
comparison,” he wrote, “because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things
that are unseen” (chap. 4:17, 18).
As Paul comes down the last quarter of the track, Jerusalem looms ahead, as well as
ominous news of a cruel fate that awaits him there. Will he turn from his course? He gives his answer:
“And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, bound in the Spirit, not knowing what shall befall
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
accomplish my course and the ministry, which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the
gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:22-24).
The brethren plead with him not to go. “What are you doing, weeping and
breaking my heart?” he replies. “For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die
at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus” (chap. 21:13).
He will stay on course, but from now on he will wear chains. The grim prophecies
are quickly fulfilled. Riots, arrest, attempted assassination, flight by night, imprisonment. Justice
is deferred until the heart grows sick. Is Paul discouraged? He has suffered great hardships, but the
rewards he enjoys are even greater -- the angel of the Lord by his side, the love and devotion of a
host of spiritual children, the admiration of the audience on high, the prospect of the victor’s
crown.
Before the emperor
An ambassador in chains, he begins his mission to governors and kings -- to Felix
and Festus, to Agrippa and Bernice. In Rome he will stand before the emperor himself. He enters the
city with a band of felons, chains clanking from his feet. A two-year house arrest follows during
which his wrists are manacled to Roman guards.
Paul, your past is so grim, your future so ominous -- do you really want to go on?
“One thing I do,” he answers, “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward
to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ
Jesus” (Phil. 3:13, 14).
Release, recapture, incarceration in an underground cell. Trial before the monster
Nero. The death sentence.
The day arrives. Paul is hoisted out of his cell and led to the place of execution.
Timothy, Mark, Luke, and a few others follow him, weeping.
But Paul speaks radiant words of courage. He does not see the block, the executioner,
the sword, or the earth that will soon receive his blood. He is coming down the home stretch now. His
goal is in sight. A “great cloud of witnesses” fills the grandstands -- heroes of faith
in all ages, and all the hosts of heaven cheering him on. Jesus is there at the end of the course
holding up the victor’s crown. He keeps his eye on the goal, he sprints, he breaks through the
finish line, he falls in the arms of his Maker.
And Timothy, unfolding a rumpled letter, recalls words that ring to the end of time:
“I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight,
I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but
unto all them also that love his appearing” (2 Tim. 4:6-8, KJV).
* Bible quotations in this article are from the Revised Standard Version except as indicated.
Click here for printable version