Hi all,
Last week I shared transparently about the toughest time in our married lives, a 9 month period where everything precious to us was taken away.
In English, we quote Paul this way: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” But I wrote the Greek literal: “I prevail with (dynamite) power in the one strengthening me.” He wrote that after saying he had ‘entered a new dimension, having been initiated into a mystery’. (v11-12)
Paul’s letter to Lydia and the Philippians
It was his warmest and most transparent letter, giving us a glimpse into his emotions and personal growth in the Lord.
Philippi had no synagogue, but Jewish women met to pray by the river. There, Paul and his fellow travelers met a businesswoman named Lydia. Acts 16:14 tells us she was a ‘seller of purple’, originally from Thyatira, which was a city near Ephesus near the coast in south-west (modern) Turkey. More than that, it says this: “…who worshipped God, heard us, whose heart the Lord opened so that she listened to the things Paul was talking about.”
Note – she was a worshipper of God but was not yet born again.
We can speculate that it was because she worshipped God that Paul was led to talk to her. I think about people I know who are worshippers of God but not yet born again as far as I know. Those are the ones I ask the Father to draw to Himself as per John 6:45, for they are not far from the kingdom of God.
In Acts 16: 16-18, Luke records ‘as we went to prayer’ (at the river), a girl with a spirit of divination followed them, crying out, “These men are the servants of the most high god, showing us the way of salvation.” That grieved Paul for in that city at that time, the spirit in the girl was talking about Apollo, not the God of Israel. It may be that the spirit, not wanting to be cast out of the girl, caused her to proclaim this, hoping Paul would ignore her so he could stay with the girl.
Paul was well aware of the Greek culture and gods, and he was grieved with the spirit of divination in the girl following them ‘many days’ proclaiming Apollo as the most high god. The only question is, ‘Why did he wait so long to cast it out?’. The Greek of 16:18 says Paul was deeply grieved, in emotional pain due to the unrelenting nature of this spirit in the girl. Perhaps he waited because he knew that if he cast it out, it would cause greater trouble for them – indeed, they were arrested, beaten, and thrown in jail.
Perhaps he was concerned that with so few Jewish people in the city.
It would cause great difficulty for Lydia and the other believers. We don’t know, but at some point, his distress was great enough that he turned and cast the thing out of her, with the resultant arrest and beating.
You know the story: Paul and Silas were beaten and chained to the wall in the local jail. In 16: 23-31, the officials charge the jailer with keeping them secure under penalty of death, chaining them in the innermost part of the prison. But at midnight, with the other prisoners hearing them worship, there was a great earthquake, and Paul and Silas’ chains fell off. The jailer, seeing the doors and gates open, prepared to kill himself, knowing it would mean death for him and his family for letting prisoners escape. Paul assured him all the prisoners were there still, and the jailer asked what he could do to be saved.
In context
The subject was how the jailer’s life and that of his family could be saved from execution due to the chains falling away and all the doors and gates opening. Out of context, Christians take this as a promise that their whole family will be saved if they alone believe. This is not consistent with what Paul wrote in I Corinthians 7: 16: “For who knows wife, if you will save your husband? Who knows, husband, if you will save your wife?” Yet many believe it is scriptural that if one spouse is saved, the other and their children will all be saved at some point. There is no such promise in the NT.
That said, perhaps awed by the divine intervention, the jailer and his whole family believed on Jesus and were baptized. With Lydia and her household, this was the start of the body of Christ in Philippi.
In the 10 years after leaving Philippi in Acts 16…
…he experienced a riot in Thessalonica and having to be quickly taken out of town, then very limited success in Athens in Acts 17. In Acts 18 he had good success with the start of the body of Christ in Corinth, followed by a federal court victory there. Then, success for 2 years in Ephesus was followed by a riot. Before turning to Jerusalem, he traveled constantly, was arrested in Jerusalem, suffered a ship wreck, and was awaiting trial in Rome. In those 10 years, he wrote in our terms:
I have been initiated into a secret on how to be self-sufficient no matter my surroundings. I have strength in the one who strengthens me.
Today, the phrase; I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me…
…means hang in there, grit your teeth and try your hardest, you can do it with all your strength – but that is NOT what Paul was talking about. He was talking about a mystery he had been initiated into, that came through very difficult and life-threatening circumstances.
He had learned to be at peace in any situation. That made him independent of whatever circumstances were swirling around him: He found by focusing on his spirit and the Lord’s presence there, he could remain in that peace and look for His provision in any situation.
THAT is what we all should aspire to. No matter what is happening around us, we learn to shift our attention to our spirit where the Spirit of God lives and find His peace. The thing about an initiation is that a person has to go through something to enter into that mystery.
It means any difficulty or stress you are in right now, is the perfect opportunity to be initiated into the mystery of how to be independent of circumstances. Next week, details how to control our thoughts and emotions to stay focused on the one giving you dynamite power in your spirit.
Until then, blessings,
John Fenn
