“We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you.”
2 Corinthians 4:8-12 NLT
Paul described the persecution he and his travelling colleagues experienced, but always with a positive “spin”. He could have just written about the facts, the physical and verbal attacks, the beatings and stonings, but he always followed the description of his attacks with a positive comment. For example, he wrote, “We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God”. Paul was a man the world has never seen the like of again, although some have come close. Paul had a mission that never left his vision, and he was even prepared to give his life for Jesus, willingly if it were part of the furtherance of the Gospel. Why did he do it? Because after his encounter with Jesus, what else could he do? I have known several men who have had an encounter with Jesus that was so real that they were freed from drug addiction. Subsequently, they have been very committed to evangelism. One of them confided in me that “he who has been forgiven much will give much”. In other words, his encounter with Jesus totally turned his life around, and he dedicated the rest of his life to his Saviour. Paul’s encounter with Jesus on the Damascus Road was so real to him that it transformed his whole thinking and sent him on a journey that ended in his premature death, just for sharing his Jesus-experience with others. Has Jesus got hold of us to that extent? Are we so fired up with our mission for Jesus that we have put Him at the centre of all we do?
At the start of his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul described a situation that was life-threatening. “We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead” (2 Corinthians 1:8-9). Again, he used that word “crushed”. It’s a word that we normally associate with something like what we do to a clove of garlic to extract the flavour within. But crushing human beings points to an episode of physical torture and utter depravity. Paul’s experiences led him to expect to die, and that had the effect of crushing his spirit. A crushed spirit is a state of deep emotional, mental, and spiritual exhaustion, characterised by a loss of hope, passion, and the energy to face life. Often described as hitting rock bottom or a “dark night of the soul,” it represents a profound, oppressive pain that renders a person feeling broken or empty, frequently linked to severe stress, grief, or betrayal. To an unbeliever, such a state leads to hopelessness and a state of extreme mental anguish. But to Paul, there was a light that broke through into his dark place, the presence of God Himself. He knew that God could even raise the dead, and that sustained him and his colleagues. As we read on in the first chapter, we find that God did indeed rescue them from “mortal danger”, and he continued with “And you are helping us by praying for us. Then many people will give thanks because God has graciously answered so many prayers for our safety” (2 Corinthians 1:11).
Paul and his colleagues faced many hardships during those missionary journeys because the enemy was not going to give up his territory without a fight. And how better to stop the Way, the early Christian movement, than by doing away with the ones responsible for its spread? But Paul reminded the Corinthians that because of the cost he was prepared to pay with his own life, they had the benefit of eternal life.
We pilgrims also have the opportunity to tell others about Jesus. There may be some opposition, but here in the West, there would be nothing on the scale of what Paul experienced. We Western Christians do not really understand what persecution means. But we still have to look for opportunities to share our testimony about Jesus. Yesterday I met a man walking his daughter’s dog in the local park. In the conversation that followed, he admitted that he was glad that he was coming to the end of his life, because he was so depressed by the state of the world. Thankfully, I was able to share the hope of the Gospel with him, but it reminded me that many people walking our streets are almost overwhelmed by feelings of hopelessness. It may be inconvenient to stop and talk to people sometimes, but we must do so anyway. We may be resented or receive abuse in return, but it is only we pilgrims who have those precious words of eternal life, of God’s love and grace. And we pray for ourselves, for opportunities to share the Gospel, for our families and friends, all with the assurance that God hears our prayers and will work in hearts and minds to bring about His purposes.
Dear Heavenly Father. We thank You for all You have done for us, for our salvation and for Jesus. Regardless of what the world thinks of our faith, we share it anyway, thankful for Your strength helping us, and for giving us the words to say. We worship You today. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 