When we heard this, we and the people there begged him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart?” Acts 21:12-13
Luke, “the beloved physician” who wrote the account as an eyewitness and participant, in hindsight might well suggest the following “prescription” to us: It is easier to suffer heartbreak at the hands of God than at those of well-meaning friends. He is holy and therefore His motives are pure, and the ultimate good is guaranteed. For great trials He supplies extraordinary comforts. The temporary partnership of suffering is suffused with prospects of eternal glory. The time comes when we have no quarrel with God’s highest purpose for us. In His service we become single-minded. When the devil sends worries, we deal with gnats, not Sherman tanks.
If the vitality of the Book-of-Acts church is to be recovered in our time of history – and it must – it only follows that our cherished personal God must be allowed to reign as the sovereign Lord of history. In His story and in His service we may become expendable. And those who would deny Him break our heart from selfish love. (Part 2 of 2)
Comment: Paul liked the word “mystery” enough to use it 17 times in his letters. The last one in 1 Timothy 3:16 puzzled me the most. He began with “And by common confession great is the mystery of godliness.” How do I define it, I wondered, and was rather surprised that Paul beat me to the punch with the words of a an early Christian hymn he loved: “He who was revealed in the flesh / Was vindicated in the Spirit / Beheld by angels / Proclaimed among the nations / Believed on in the world / Taken up in glory.” If we need context, Paul supplies it in Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” As for the “Mister” in mystery, Paul still finds himself in the dog house two millennia after telling women to be silent in church. In his defense, I would like to share parts of a devotion I titled, Greet Prisca and Aquila. “Aquila and Priscilla” – the well recognized Christian couple – were among the Jews expelled from Rome by Claudius. They fled to Corinth, set up their tent-making business, met Paul and invited him to live and work with them. For nearly two years no husband and wife were ever better taught than these two exemplary disciples. When Paul left Corinth, “Priscilla and Aquila” followed him to Ephesus, staying on as church leaders. When Apollos spoke in their synagogue, “Priscilla and Aquila” – the author’s order again – took him aside and “expounded to him the way of God more accurately.” In an early letter Paul referred to “Aquila and Prisca” and “the church in their house.” In a later one he greeted “Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus…” To Timothy he repeated the distinctive salute. Priscilla in Latin means “little old woman,” being the diminutive of Prisca. Saul alias Paul was name-conscious. The Greek Paulos meant “little one.” This Paul honored the “little old woman’s” stature as greatly beloved friend and admired woman in Christ by calling her Prisca and putting her name before that of her worthy husband. Acts 21
Comments