Fellow Jews had beaten Paul with 39 stripes on 5 different occasions. The law of Moses limited such punishment to 40 blows, but Jewish custom permitted only 39 lest a miscount go beyond what the Law allowed. Deuteronomy 25:3 “Forty blows he may give him and no more, lest he should exceed this and beat him with many blows above these, and your brother be humiliated in your sight." The Gentiles also sentenced Paul to a beating with rods three different times. He was stoned by his own people. At Lystra Jewish rebels persuaded a mob to illegally stone Paul; afterward they dragged him outside the city leaving him for dead as we see in Acts 14:19. He was shipwrecked and many of his journeys he faced danger. Acts 20:23 “except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me.”
You can go on and on talking about Paul’s sufferings for Christ. The point to note is Paul’s faithfulness through all his sufferings; Nothing turned him away from Christ or his ministry. Christ had called him to preach and minister, and he would not be stopped except by death.
We need to evaluate our lives and make sure that we can say with Paul, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. ~ 2 Timothy 4:7
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