“Then, besides all this, I have the daily burden of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak without my feeling that weakness? Who is led astray, and I do not burn with anger?”
2 Corinthians 11:28-29 NLT
After his long list of woes in the previous verses, woes, incidentally, that would fill us with horror should we have to face into them, Paul continues with yet another problem – “the daily burden of my concern for all the churches”. Paul wasn’t a missionary who found people willing to respond to the Gospel, those who repented of their sins, believed the Good News, and placed their faith in Jesus, becoming disciples, and then moved on without giving them another thought. Paul really cared for the churches that he had established. He knew these converts personally. He had stayed in their homes, made relationships, cried with them, laughed with them, played with their children, and became involved in their personal lives. On top of that, Paul knew that there was a cost to becoming believers in Jesus for these people. The new converts would be ostracised, harassed, and imprisoned. Some would even die for their faith, such was the world of that time in its antagonism to Christians, who challenged the sinful and wicked lifestyles of the idol worshippers in their towns and cities. There was not the same social cohesion or enforcement of the law in those days, so anyone who was different suffered. With that backdrop, Paul agonised over the people in the churches he had established. On the one hand, he was desperate to continue his missionary calling, establishing even more churches full of converts filled with the love of Jesus. On the other hand, he wanted to stay with his friends and help them grow in their faith. To make matters worse, communications in those days were poor, and information relied on people taking news as they travelled through towns, cities and villages.
In the years after the Second World War, and after the victory of the communist party, missionaries were evicted from China, leaving behind them fledgling groups of Christians, leaderless and forced to meet underground and away from the gaze of the authorities. For some years, there was no news about how the Chinese believers were faring, if at all. Thankfully, the missionaries established local leaders, training them up in the faith, and the Christians in China transitioned to an indigenous, decentralised, and often underground movement, shifting from institutional church structures to small, home-based gatherings. Despite attempts to eradicate Christianity, particularly during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), the faithful remained resilient by trusting in local leadership and, in many areas, experiencing significant growth. Estimates of the number of Chinese Christians vary, but some figures approaching 100 million have been quoted. But how things have turned out would not have been much comfort at the time for the missionaries concerned, and they would have been heavily burdened down by their fears and anxiety for the well-being of their friends left behind, and how they were faring in such a hostile environment. But they needn’t have worried, because Jesus made a significant promise. In Matthew 16:18 Jesus said, “Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it”. And today we see Jesus’ promise in action: there are an estimated 2.4 billion Christians worldwide, representing a third of the world’s population.
To add to his “daily burden”, Paul also went through the same emotional experiences that his converts did. When they were weak in their faith, Paul experienced the weakness as well. When they were tempted and fell into sin, he felt emotional anger that the enemy had caused so much damage. As anyone devoted to a cause knows, it is difficult to walk away from a situation under threat. Everything within us wants to fix the situation and make things right.
We pilgrims in the West live in a much more stable environment, being free to worship publicly in our churches and communities. There is no persecution worthy of note, but we have different challenges. There sometimes seems to be a lethargy that has impregnated so many congregations, and they do little to further the witness of Christ in their communities. But we must remember that we Christians are the dispensers of grace, God’s grace, to those around us. We must share the love of Jesus with anyone who is listening, sharing Good News in our sad and bad world.
Dear Heavenly Father. Thank You for Your grace and the church that You have established. We love You Lord, and worship You today. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 