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Paul’s Years of Ministry
243
Paul Reviews His Experience
Writing to the Philippians, he describes his experience before
and after his conversion. “If any other man thinketh that he hath
whereof he might trust in the flesh,” he says, “I more: circumcised
the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an
Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning
zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in
the law, blameless.”
Philippians 3:4-6
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After his conversion his testimony was:
“Yea verily, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I suffered the loss
of all things, and do count them but refuse, that I may gain Christ,
and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even
that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ,
the righteousness which is from God by faith.”
Philippians 3:8, 9
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A.R.V.
The righteousness that heretofore he had thought of so much
worth was now worthless in his sight. The longing of his soul was:
“That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and
the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His
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death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the
dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already
perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which
also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren I count not myself
to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things
which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are
before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of
God in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 3:10-14
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An Adaptable Worker
See him in the dungeon at Philippi, where, despite his pain-
racked body, his song of praise breaks the silence of midnight. After
the earthquake has opened the prison doors, his voice is again heard,
in words of cheer to the heathen jailer, “Do thyself no harm: for we
are all here”—every man in his place, restrained by the presence
of one fellow prisoner. And the jailer, convicted of the reality of