Living with Enemies: Apostle Paul
This is the second post in a series exploring the lives of people attempting to live a life true to Jesus’ example and teaching in the midst of serious enmity. The first post focused on Jesus himself.
How can a violent murderer change so much that he would say things like “bless those who persecute you” and “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink”? Ask Paul!
The first time we hear of him, Paul is arresting and murdering followers of Jesus, whom he believed to be dangerous heretics.
When he attended the stoning of one of those people, the man in question was inspired by Jesus’ example to forgive Paul and his other executioners with his dying breaths. Yet Paul could not care less and continued to arrest, imprison and murder.
It is only after seeing a dramatic vision of Jesus asking Paul why he is persecuting him, that Paul realized what he was doing. Suddenly, he found himself on the other side, a new follower of Jesus, himself now persecuted.
Immediately a pattern was set that repeated the rest of his life. Paul would go to a city to tell people about Jesus. Some people would join the movement. Many would try to kick him out, beat him, and even stone him. Paul would escape to a different city and the cycle would begin all over.
In the end, Paul was arrested in Jerusalem, taken to Rome, and beheaded there.
What does Paul’s life reveal about the Christian ‘life with enemies’?
As we saw with Jesus, Paul shows that both running away from your enemies and confronting them can be legitimate responses to enmity.
Paul often ran away from persecution. But when he felt the Spirit call him to go to Jerusalem, where he knew persecution and ultimately death awaited him, he went. His mission was to preach even in Rome, so running was no option this time.
And the cost of faithfulness to his calling was very high, as it meant torture and death. But Paul believed the cost of being unfaithful would be even higher. It would mean to lose Jesus!
Therefore, strangely he rejoiced in all that he suffered for Jesus sake:
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
Yet we should not let this mislead us into thinking that this was a man who somehow did not have the normal range of human feelings.
Paul greatly despaired when a huge mob in the city of Ephesus was after him and caught some of his companions. He was utterly heartbroken when saying farewell to his friends, knowing he was on his way to meet his death.
So paradoxically, in the midst of difficulties, there is both a place for joy and despair. But what most matters is faithfulness to Jesus and his calling or mission for us.
For Paul, “turning the other cheek” did also not mean simple meek submission. When he did not run away from his enemies, he often addressed them with harsh words of judgment. But he never used violence.
He believed that vengeance was not ours to take, but that we should leave wrath to God who will bring ultimate justice. In the meantime, Paul suggests we not “be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
So Paul proposes we get practical and feed our enemies when they are hungry, that we give them to drink when they are thirsty.
In a similar vein, Jesus washed the feet of the one he knew would betray him. Yet betrayed he still was.
So doing good may stop evil today, but ultimately our hope for true justice can only be in God at the end of this age. Yet doing good is the only option according to Paul. Ignoring evil or responding to it with more evil (vengeance) only perpetuates evil.
A lot of Paul’s ‘life with enemies’ does not make sense humanly speaking.
As he himself wrote:
What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
It is only in the light of Jesus’ resurrection that we can understand his perspective, why he was ready to suffer and die for the sake of Jesus and his mission.
“To live is Christ and to die is gain,” Paul wrote.
With Jesus, either way is fine.
Read the next entry in this series on Ignatius of Antioch.
