Acts 20:18-19
And when they came to him, he said to them: “You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility & with tears & with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews.”
HUMILITY, TEARS & TRIALS
Think for a moment about the most humiliating thing that has ever happened to you. Do you bring that up very often in conversations? Have you worked at forgetting or even denying that it ever happened?
Serving others is difficult enough as it is, given that our ego prefers to be served. Yet, in this passage of Scripture, Paul comments on his service to God by saying it was with all humility & tears & trials.
Some people are only willing to serve others if they get credit for it. But, even if we are uncomfortable with getting credit, neither do we want to be humiliated in our service. And serving with tears & trials isn’t especially welcome either.
Paul knowingly served under all of those circumstances, yet he’s not bragging. Rather, he says these things to encourage people who will find themselves serving under similar conditions.
Throughout the world, serving with humility, tears & trials are the norm for Christians. But, here in the USA we’ve had circumstances that are anything but the norm. People growing up in the United States, during the 20th century, were not all believers in Jesus as Savior. However, practically all US citizens received training to think from a Biblical worldview. They generally agreed on what was right & what was wrong. Christian beliefs were RESPECTED even if they were not adhered to.
Though the term didn’t exist then, it was completely out of the question that anyone would even try to CANCEL someone for teaching the things that Jesus taught. For example, the Word of God makes it perfectly clear that human existence begins with CONCEPTION. Human ACCOUNTABILITY for sin begins at that same point. Regarding every human being, God created specific individuals, each one in a unique relationship with their heavenly Father. And He created them as male & as female.
For years now, scholars, politicians & all manner of leaders, have been trying to & succeeding in deconstructing society. They’ve been tearing it down, tearing it apart, & tearing it into a million unrecognizable pieces. And not all of their deconstructing was wrong. The racism exemplified by the KKK needed to be attacked & deconstructed. The sexism of the 20th century USA was damaging & confining in ways that were not unlike slavery in some respects. Men & women, of all races, should have equal opportunities for education & service according to the vocations that our heavenly Creator gives to us individually.
In spite of its obvious & serious faults, the United States has provided equal opportunity in far greater ways than probably any civilization prior to it. The devil is now, in the 21st century, orchestrating it's destruction. The tragedy of it all, is that a huge percentage of our population is buying into it.
Research has suggested today, only 6% of self-described Christians have a true Biblical worldview. So, it’s pretty safe to say that non-Christians do not in any way look at life through the teachings of Jesus. In that context, serving the Lord with all humility & with tears & with trials will become much more commonplace in the next few years.
Paul, & Jesus too, did not want us to become discouraged. However, we need to see our calling in realistic terms. No more rose-colored glasses or holier-than-thou views of what it is to be a child of God. Satan is waging war against us & against the kingdom of God. The nation of Ukraine has no more illusions about the intentions of Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation.” He is waging war & killing thousands of Ukrainian citizens. The war that Satan is waging on all of humanity is even more serious than that. To top it off...our sinful nature, even that of Christians, gladly works with him.
As Paul so aptly put it, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.” (Romans 7:18-19)
Given that reality, it’s no wonder Paul’s service to the Lord was with all humility, tears & trials. He wasn’t only at war with Satan & the world’s unbelievers...Paul was at war with himself. You & I live with that same reality & passing on our faith in Christ to others will become marked more & more by all humility, tears & trials.