When a person decides to
share the gospel with others, is there a price to pay? In the case of
Paul the apostle the answer was an emphatic yes, and because the
church members in Galatia were straying from Paul's original gospel,
Paul was paying a price again. Paul has just suggested that they be
as he was because the church did not injure him at all, and in
chapter four and verse thirteen he notes the manner in which he
shared the gospel with them in the first place. He wrote:
You know how through
infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first.
Paul
wrote first, “You know how through infirmity of the flesh...”.
While preaching the gospel, Paul the apostle faced some incredible
obstacles. We read in Second Corinthians chapter eleven and verses
twenty-two through twenty-eight:
Are they Hebrews? so
[am] I. Are they Israelites? so [am] I. Are they the seed of Abraham?
so [am] I. Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I [am]
more; in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons
more frequent, in deaths often. Of the Jews five times received I
forty [stripes] save one. Three times was I beaten with rods, once
was I stoned, three times I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I
have been in the deep; [In] journeyings often, [in] perils of waters,
[in] perils of robbers, [in] perils by [mine own] countrymen, [in]
perils by the heathen, [in] perils in the city, [in] perils in the
wilderness, [in] perils in the sea, [in] perils among false brethren;
In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and
thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things
that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all
the churches.
With a
list like this, we might wonder why anyone would want to continue
sharing the gospel, but Paul did, and we are the beneficiaries of his
work today. Paul makes the appeal to the Galatians and shares the
price he paid to share the truth of God with them.
He
continued, “...I preached the gospel unto you at the first.”
When Paul the apostle first shared with the people of Galatia, he did
so although he had suffered much in the flesh. There were not only
outward infirmities, but also inward ones as well. In Second
Corinthians chapter seven and verse five we read:
For, when we were come
into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every
side; without [were] fightings, within [were] fears.
Paul
paid a price for sharing the gospel both outwardly and inwardly, and
those who heard his preaching in Galatia did not do so without a cost
to Paul. When we think about this for a few moments, we may begin to
understand Paul's love and compassion for the Galatian church. It
cost him to share the gospel with them, and now they were being
persuaded by Judaizers who were leading them away from the truth of
the gospel. Paul's appeal is somewhat like ours would be if we ever
made a sacrifice for the benefit of someone else. The real question
for us is this, “What price would we pay for sharing the gospel of
Jesus Christ?” Would we be as willing to suffer for the sake of the
gospel in the manner that Paul was? Perhaps as we examine ourselves
today we will keep in mind the price that Paul was willing to pay,
and we will begin to ask ourselves, “How much is the salvation of
others worth to us?”
Next time we will discover a malady that Paul had in his flesh, so
read ahead, and let us join together then.
Until
tomorrow...there is more...
Look for
the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From Generation
to Generation” in all major
bookstore
sites, www.amazon.com ; www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to
e-books, and find it locally at
www.mrzlc.com/bookstore
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