Small to Be a Big Blessing

Paul got smaller the longer he walked with the Lord. You can clearly see it in his writings. When he wrote his letter to the Galatians—

Paul, an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead)… Galatians 1:1

Just a year or so later, when he writes to the Corinthians, Paul doesn’t put so much stock in his title or credentials. His perception of himself had changed dramatically.

“For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 1 Corinthians 15:9

And about five years after that, in 64 A.D., he doesn’t even call himself an apostle. In fact, Paul sees himself as “least among the saints.”

“To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ” Ephesians 3:8.

Three years later, at the end of his life and sitting in a Roman dungeon, Paul wrote to Timothy, the young pastor of the biggest church in the world at the time. In this letter, Paul called himself “the chief of sinners” because he counted his sins so grievous. Praise the Lord that Jesus counted them as forgiven!

How did Paul deal with all the conflict, persecution, and outright hell he endured as an apostle and martyr of the early church? He got small. Prison does that. With nothing to do, nowhere to go, and no one to lord over, inmates are forced to get small. Paul was.

He knew it wasn’t about him, but about Jesus. This knowledge gave Paul the ability to “finish his course” as written in 2 Timothy 4:7. What about you? Do you want to finish your course well? Can you become a prisoner of God’s mercy and grace so Jesus can become large in the eyes of non-believers?