Do You Want to Live a Long Life or a Full Life?
What’s more important than your life and your happiness? For many, this is what it’s all about. But not the Apostle Paul.
Acts 19-20
Today's Scripture Passage
A Few Thoughts to Consider
What’s more important than your life and your happiness?
For many, this is what it’s all about. But not the Apostle Paul. In Acts 20, Paul gives his farewell speech to the church elders in Ephesus. After spending an extended period ministering to them, Paul is journeying toward Jerusalem, aware that trials and imprisonment await him. He meets the Ephesian elders in Miletus to bid them farewell. In this poignant moment, Paul reflects on his ministry, and he makes the following statements in verses 22-24:
22 “And now I am on my way to Jerusalem, compelled by the Spirit, not knowing what I will encounter there, 23 except that in every town the Holy Spirit warns me that chains and afflictions are waiting for me. 24 But I consider my life of no value to myself; my purpose is to finish my course and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of God’s grace.
As F.F. Bruce writes, “Self-preservation was not a motive which he esteemed highly: his main concern was to fulfill the course which Christ had marked for him to run, preaching in the Spirit’s power the good news of God’s free grace in Christ.”[1]
