How much incentive does it take to invite you to something? I myself will admit that I get selfish sometimes. I feel a need to accrue enough benefits to myself for something to be worth it. What if you were asked to do something that wouldn’t benefit you in the slightest? Worse yet, what if you were promised that not only would you gain nothing, you would even suffer tremendously? Could that ever be worthwhile?
Paul enters the scene as a man who has everything. But when God arrests him and calls him to evangelize instead, he doesn’t promise him a better life—he promises suffering. Paul faced constant hardships and opposition and near-death experiences throughout his ministry. Yet it never phased him; instead, he charged forward on his mission so much that his work became the central focus of the second half of the book of Acts. Paul lost everything and suffered in his new life, and yet he considered it all worthwhile.
How is that possible? If we’re honest with ourselves, almost none of us would really want the life that Paul lived. But Paul had utterly shifted his priorities. “Christ is alive,” Paul might say, “and he has made me for the purpose of spreading his gospel and proclaiming his glory until I get to rest in it forever. Christ is my peace, joy, and utter fulfillment forever and ever! How could I not ecstatically share that truth with the world? How could I value any purpose more? How could I think any selfish motives or worldly pleasures are worth being prioritized at all?”
In fairness, most of us aren’t called to the exact same kind of ministry as Paul was. But we are all in ministry. We are all under the Great Commission and called to proclaim the gospel to the world. Never forget that this is not a chore, but the purpose for which we were created and by which we are fulfilled. How then could our own lives take any priority? Like Paul, serve with humility; preach Christ for the sake of repentance and faith; glorify the Lord. If we do so, the one thing that is guaranteed is that we will suffer. But take heart! As Christ himself reminded his disciples, he has overcome the world.
