Paul an Example for Gospel Workers by ARTHUR V. FOX

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 13, 1910

Paul an Example for Gospel Workers

By ARTHUR V. FOX

ARTHUR V. FOX

“For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; to them that are without law, as without law (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ), that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. . . . But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast-away.” 1 Cor. 9: 19-27.

Paul adapts himself to men. At Jerusalem he disputes with the Grecians. At Paphos he not only preaches the word to the inquiring Sergius Paulus, but administers a stern rebuke to Elymas, the sorcerer. In the synagogue of Antioch, in Pisidia, he recites the whole history of the Jews before he describes the Messiah, and afterward quotes the prophets and the psalms. At Iconium, to a mixed assembly, he so speaks that a multitude both of the Greeks and Jews believed. At Lystra, among idolaters, worshipers of Jupiter and Mercury, he plants himself upon the great principles of religion, exhorting men that they should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven and earth, the sea and all things that are therein, and points to his witnesses in the falling rain and fruitful seasons, and hearts overflowing “with food and gladness.” At Thessalonica, in a synagogue of the Jews, he reasons out of the Scriptures, “opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead.”

When encountering the Epicureans and Stoics at Athens, or preaching to the multitude on Mars Hill, he takes for his text the inscription of an idol altar, and argues the folly of idolatry, from the attributes of the Creator; the unity of the human race, from the relation of all men to the common Father; and the necessity of repentance, from the future judgment; proceeding thus through the porticoes of nature and providence to the temple of grace, wherein he exhibits Jesus and the resurrection. He adapts himself to occasions. At Corinth, where he finds men captious, he disputes as well as persuades, both in the synagogues and in the school of Tyrannus. At Miletus he consoles, and counsels, and warns his weeping elders, from whom he is departing for the last time, and calls them to witness that he has kept back nothing that was profitable to them.

At Jerusalem, to accommodate innocent prejudices, Paul underwent the ceremony of purification in the temple. When addressing an infuriated mob from the steps of the castle, he softened their hearts by a recital of his own life and experience. Brought before a bigoted, usurping high priest, he administered to him a withering rebuke. In the midst of an excited council, composed of heterogeneous elements, he made gain for the gospel by mentioning the doctrine of the resurrection. When judged before Felix, he confronted his accusers and asserted his innocence: when before him as a man who had received bribes, committed excesses, and lived in adultery, he preached righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come.

When he was brought before Agrippa, a Jew, he argued Jesus and the resurrection from the promise made unto the twelve tribes, and so argued that when he said, “King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest,” the king responded, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.” When he was a shipwrecked voyager, he was not ashamed to act the part of a sailor, as well as a minister, giving directions concerning the company, and the soldiers, and the ship.

Nor does Paul confine himself to preaching. He is the bearer of alms from the churches at Antioch, and the bearer of despatches from the council of Jerusalem. In his ordinary ministrations, he visits from house to house, he heals the sick, comforts the mourner, and encourages the fainting. Here he establishes believers, there he corrects heretics; here he disputes with infidels, there he rebukes bigots; sometimes exhorting the wavering to continuance in the faith, sometimes confronting rulers for violations of law and privilege.

Paul was far from being a man of one idea, or of one unvarying round of duty. He did not slumber over his preaching, nor put his hearers to sleep; his ministry was living, inspiring, active, practical, agitating. Like fire, it spread over Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece, and the islands of the Ægean. It disrobed priests, and shook idols, and alarmed nations; it excited envy, contradiction, and persecution; it stirred up devout and honorable women, and chief men not a few; it aroused Gentiles, and provoked Jews, and divided multitudes; it put the town clerk of Ephesus at his wits’ end; it shook the prison of Philippi, and alarmed the jailer, and perplexed and humbled the magistrates; it vexed the philosophers of the academy and the sectaries of the temple; it set in motion the soldiers, the doctors, and the lawyers; it troubled courts, and governors, and crowns. To use the language of his enemies, it “turned the world upside down.” With all this, it enlightened minds, converted souls, comforted mourners, and saved men, in the demonstration of the Spirit and power.

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