The Key to Paul’s Success Among the Nations and its Application for Every Steward
I’ve heard it said before, and it just makes good sense: A wise wife will want her husband to love God more than he loves her, because it will enable him to love her far more than he could if she were #1. Stated differently, loving God foremost will expand my capacity to love Sonja far more than if she were my top priority (that is, ahead of — or apart from — God).
This seems to be a principle that has a thousand applications, and it pops up wherever you look.
Most recently I saw it in Romans 1:5. Tucked away in Paul’s greeting of the Christians in Rome is a parenthetical statement that is loaded with significance:
“…Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations…(emphasis mine).”
Now, I got help in this observation from commentator Thomas R. Schreiner, who zeroed in appropriately on the phrase “for the sake of his name.” Generally speaking in Scripture, a name carries greater significance than it does for us today. It was meant to reflect the very essence of a person. We know that Christ’s essence is glorious; we want for his name to be magnified and his glory to be intensified in the universe and among the nations (hard to do one without the other, I suppose).
Christ’s glory ought to be the motivator for the promotion of the obedience of faith among all the nations. Paul wanted desperately to see Christ glorified. That drove him and motivated him. It energized him amid adversity and served to block out peripheral distractions.
So what happened when Paul was looking to see the name of Christ magnified among the nations for the sake of the glory of Christ? He tirelessly proclaimed the Christ-glorifying gospel among the Gentiles.
I think that some of us profess a commitment to the glory of Christ that results in our navel-gazing and cliquish theological banter. I can’t help but think that if Paul were hanging out with my family at a park, we might turn around to find him missing – off boldly proclaiming the compelling gospel of Christ to couples walking their dogs. But he wouldn’t do it for their sake, but for Christ’s, which would mean that he would be unfazed by their flat rejection of the message, and equally encouraged by their positive response, knowing their rejection or embrace was of Christ, not himself.
The application here is to plan and act. Paul’s plan was to use Rome as a missionary outpost as he looked to advance the gospel in Spain (15:28). No inactive navel-gazing here. Having that big picture constantly in view helped him to know how to spend his days. So he was about the business of glorifying Christ on the ground level.
If Paul’s goal would have been the obedience of the Gentiles, he would have been more disappointed by the disobedient. But he had a rock-solid confidence in his calling coupled with a firm motivating commitment to the glory of Christ that compelled him to act. That would help him to stay the course despite countless obstacles, and it would also help him to make good decisions: Is this going to help advance my greater goal of the glory of Christ?
The husband who just wants to make his wife happy can’t do it for a bunch of reasons (not the least of which is that what makes her happy changes with the time of day and he probably can’t keep up). Same thing for husbands or any other human relationship, since we’re all so fickle. But if that same husband lives to glorify God, his wife will probably be thrilled with him most of the time.
The father who wants his child to obey for sake of his (the father’s) reputation can force external compliance upon the child and guarantee exasperation. But the father who wants his child to learn the blessings that accompany a life of obedience will approach discipline differently – and probably have a similar immediate effect but with much greater happiness and lasting benefit.
The employer who is concerned with the bottom line without concern for his workers will soon be disappointed.
The coach who prioritizes integrity over wins and losses often finds himself winning more games…but not always.
The list goes on. The point is that when we are properly motivated and focused (e.g., the glory of Christ), the peripheral victories (e.g., the obedience of faith among the nations) often come along automatically. When the peripheral becomes the focus, we miss the point.
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