Display the Light in darkest times.
It wasn’t a prison in our modern sense of the word. There were no television sets, no exercise periods, and no ombudsman safeguarding prisoner’s rights. There was no air conditioning on the hot summer days and no central heating for the cold winter nights. There was no cafeteria offering balanced meals and no sanitary facilities. It was a stinking, wretched, rat-infested dungeon. And there sat Paul, arguably the greatest Christian ever, waiting for earthly justice to have its say.
How would you have felt under these circumstances? Perhaps scared, defeated, and despairing. Why would God allow such awful circumstances in the life of His child? Where was the God of justice? Where was the God of love? What would the future hold? How could you make it through another day under such circumstances? Without distraction, entertainment, or comfort, these questions would rattle through your brain a hundred times a day. So where would that leave your mental state?
Paul’s experience
Paul was no armchair general, demanding that others fight in battles that he watched from the sidelines. When Paul used words like “I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound” (Php. 4:12), he most certainly knew what he was talking about. Regardless of what a Roman prison would do to our mental state, we know Paul was not defeated by his circumstances. Indeed Paul could say, “the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel” (Php. 1:12).
Was this positive thinking? Was Paul merely hoping that his imprisonment served some higher purpose? Hardly. Both for his benefit and ours, Paul was made to understand the purpose of his imprisonment. In verse 13, we read, “So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace.” The word translated “palace” sometimes refers to the governor’s palace, but since Paul was most likely in Rome at this point, it probably referred to the Praetorian Guard. The nine Praetorian cohorts were roughly equivalent to a Roman legion and were made up of about 9,000 elite soldiers. The Scripture tells us that the whole Praetorian Guard knew Paul was in prison for the sake of Christ.
What about us?
What would we give for the opportunity to reach so many people for Christ? Most of us would earnestly desire the chance to reach thousands with the gospel. But would we be willing to give up our freedom? In fact, we can dream about opportunities for the furtherance of the gospel, but if these dreams are to be realized, it may cost us everything. Perhaps it will cost us our secular employment, our comfortable lifestyle, our freedom, or even our lives. But if we are serious about seeking the furtherance of the gospel, all this and more could be required of us.
The furtherance of the gospel doesn’t always proceed in the ways in which we would anticipate. What if we were given the task of evangelizing a military unit of 9,000 elite soldiers? How would we go about it? Perhaps we would print tracts with the testimony of a former military man. Perhaps we would rent an outreach center close to the banks of the barracks. Perhaps we would order special “military edition” Bibles. We would have a plan, and, certainly, there is nothing wrong with planning a gospel outreach. Indeed, some gospel outreaches should be better planned! But in all our efforts to plan an outreach, we must be open to the Lord’s doing something unexpected. He certainly had an interesting way to reach the Praetorian Guard!
Of course, Paul’s experience flies in the face of the modern “health and wealth prosperity gospel,” which is, of course, no real gospel. This false gospel clearly lacks the ability to save. Furthermore, its full focus is on the fulfillment of earthly desires. So what would this false gospel say to the imprisoned Apostle Paul? “You’re a failure because you lack faith!” “It isn’t God’s will that you should suffer!” Or how about this one: “It is God’s absolute will for you to live in a big house and never suffer a thorn in the flesh!” Yes, we can be assured they would be saying this to Paul because this is exactly what they preach today. But all of this is rubbish. It was God’s will that Paul suffer in prison for the sake of the furtherance of the Gospel, and all the twisted exegesis imaginable won’t change this fact.
Could it be?
Could the Lord be using the unusual and difficult circumstances in our lives to reach people with the gospel? Well, if it really is true that God wants all men to be saved (1 Tim. 2:4), then we can be assured that He is using difficult circumstances in our lives for the furtherance of the gospel. Experienced saints will be able to tell story after story of the Lord’s moving in difficult circumstances for the spread of the gospel. And in each of these stories, God is the hero! In each story, the Lord ends up with the glory. I know a woman for whom the tragic death of her son was the trigger for her to enter full-time Christian ministry. In a place that seldom hears the gospel, she calls people to be born again. But less drastic circumstances can also be used of God, like my own lack of preparation for a university exam. I was in the university cafeteria studying for an exam when a classmate came along andasked, “So what do you believe?” I failed the exam but had an opportunity to share the gospel quite openly.
Is God being cruel in using difficult circumstances for the furtherance of the gospel? Are we helpless and tragic puppets that God uses for His own purposes? God forbid! When we go to be with the Lord Jesus Christ, will we regret the trials which were used to bring us to Christ? Will we begrudge any difficulty which results in precious souls being saved? What if imprisonment was the means by which 9,000 people came to hear the gospel? Would we criticize our Heavenly Father for even one minute of our imprisonment? Absolutely not. We would echo Eli in 1 Samuel 3:18, “He is the Lord; let Him do what is good in His eyes.”
The furtherance of the gospel may involve suffering on our part. So what will sustain us? The answer is found in Philippians 4:12f: “I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Even when we are following the will of God, our own strength is insufficient to sustain us. We cannot do God’s will in the power of the flesh, much less have spiritual success. It is only through Christ who strengthens us that we can succeed in the furtherance of the gospel. The strength that Christ provides is not some ethereal hope. It is not our telling ourselves that it will all work out in the end. It is the real strength Christ provides day by day through the Holy Spirit, whereby we stand in the day of difficulty. This was the experience of Paul, and it can be our experience today as we seek to share our faith and stand for Christ.