Paul Finished Well
“Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him.”
Acts 28:30-31
Who are you no more likely to follow, the one who tells you what to do, but doesn’t do it himself, OR someone who tells you what to do, and does it himself?
I think we would all pick the latter. We like people who “walk the walk” and don’t have much regard for someone who merely “talks the talk.”
Paul “practiced what he preached.”
He instructed early believers how to run this Christian race. It’s not a sprint, it’s a long distance race.
Paul finished the race well, but it didn’t happen by accident. He ran well, and showed us how to run well. Running well has several requirements.
- It requires discipline.
“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”
I Corinthians 9:24-27
- It requires focus. You have to keep looking ahead, not behind.
“Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 3:13-14
- It requires a strong finish. Good long-distance runners make a final “kick” or sprint in the end of the race. At the end of his race, Paul wasn’t jogging. He was sprinting. He kept teaching and preaching with confidence until the end. “Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him.” Acts 28:30-31 .
If we keep those principles in mind, one day we will be likely to say what Paul said at the end of his race:
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
II Timothy 4:7
Finish well!
