An Example In Saul

Honouring our word, we are looking at Saul, a man with a mission and purpose, whose love for his work, had not even the smell of any hypocrisy, dissimilation, or pretension. His deep love for his Jewish traditions and for his mission pertaining to the same, is a sure example of the text we have been holding, throughout the week. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Romans 12: 9. Do not be confused by what is being done.

To help us understand the general, holistic universality of the truth of the text, not limiting it in any way, we are being shown its wisdom through what is against God. It helps us to see people first and foremost, since people are the vehicles, who give life and proof to the truth of the text. It’s like Jesus teaching this truth, when some of the Jewish religious leaders were accusing Him of casting out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons. Jesus exposed the utter folly of such an accusation, by making a universal truth. Study it and note that Jesus wanted them to see that if He is of God and if He is being fake and hypocritical in His love for what He is doing, God’s Kingdom will never stand. Quickly note how Jesus, in His unmatched wisdom, makes it universal and does not limit it to God’s Kingdom only. Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. Matthew 12: 25b.

This is the general understanding behind our receiving more, through Saul, the persecutor of Jesus, before he met Jesus and became Paul, the preacher of Jesus. 

Saul is a man on the move. During our receiving today and tomorrow, whenever the word MAP is used, it refers to Saul’s, Mission and Purpose. Saul is a man with a MAP. This is what is recorded about Saul, in the first two verses of Acts, Chapter Nine. Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

It is this present text, which we shall carefully and diligently examine, to expose more of our week’s working text. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Romans 12: 9.  

 Let’s give praise upfront, to our Leader and Guide, God the Holy Spirit, for He is the only One to lead us into this truth. These two verses give a perfect picture and tell a precise story of Saul, the man with a MAP, void of hypocrisy, showing how much he hates evil as he sees it, and  how faithfully he clings to good as he understands it. Most interesting, isn’t it!

The word, still, as noted in the present text, allows us to know that Saul was engaged in this mission previously and was simply carrying it on. Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder. This was not just Saul’s work, but it was his passionate work, his life-dedicated work, a work in which there was nothing fake, false or hypocritical. You see, Saul was a dedicated Pharisee of Pharisees, whose entire life was the Scriptures, and how they were interpreted by the scholars of his day. Being schooled under the tutorship of Gamaliel, a teacher par excellence, the best ever in his time, Saul was a model student. It could rightly be said of him that he no longer lived, but the law lived in him.  His love for the law and his abhorrence of anyone and anything that was against the Jewish laws and traditions, was never hidden.

Good, for Saul, was the Law of Moses.

Good, for him, was loving it, clinging to it and obeying it.

Good, for him, was denouncing everything else and clinging to the law and the prophets as interpreted by his people. Good, for Saul, was denouncing every other way and being faithful to the Jewish teachings and traditions.

It is in this attitude and spirit that we carefully examine the MAP of Saul.

This will be done tomorrow.