Can You Always Be About What You've Always Been About?

Paul lived a great adventure, but he is running out of opportunities. Paul had a bloody past when he persecuted the church but experienced a miraculous conversion in a blinding encounter with the resurrected Christ along the Damascus Road (Acts 22:1-11). In his new life, he has spanned the Roman Empire planting churches for the cause of Christ. But presently, there is no opportunity for travel. He is not planting churches. He is in prison. He would like to see the Philippians again, but he makes no plans. He is left only now to prayer and his pen as he senses that he may be nearing the end. He would like to head toward them, but he will most likely be heading off into eternity. With the limitation of incarceration upon him, Paul sees only two options. He is either going to live or die. That’s it. And it is in the context of limited opportunities that Paul makes one of his most powerful statements. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed,