15But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; 16for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.”
We each have our own personal “Great Commission,” that is, our specific role in the charge to make disciples (Matt. 28:18–20). Some evangelize, some teach, some support, some encourage, etc. Saul, the great antagonist against the early church, was commissioned to become the apostle to the Gentiles. Lest any of us boast in our roles, remember that the greatest evangelist of all time, Paul the apostle, was initially the greatest antagonist of all. God doesn’t choose us because of our accomplishments! His purposes and inner counsel from eternity past is beyond our understanding. What we can say for sure is that His choosing any of us is laced with grace. And the greater the sin, the greater the grace. If we boast in anything, let us boast only in God’s grace through Jesus Christ that saved us (see Eph. 2:8–9, Gal. 6:14).
Saul was now a chosen man. He who was an instrument in the hands of the enemy is now a vessel for God’s purpose: the unique role of taking the gospel to the Gentile world. This defined him and everything he did. It became his life mission; he did not choose it for himself, but God chose him for this work (see Rom. 1:1; Gal. 1:15; Eph. 3:7).
Ironically, with Paul being a Jew of high standing—in his own words, “I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions” (Gal. 1:14)—one would think he would have been more suitable for reaching the Jews. Yet God chose an uneducated, common fisherman like Peter to be the apostle to the Jews (Gal. 2:7–9). God’s ways are certainly beyond our ways!
The commission of Saul to become the apostle to the Gentiles would involve also a call to suffering. A superficial view would see this as a penance for all the suffering he inflicted on Christians. But the statement is forward looking; Paul’s suffering would be “for My Name’s sake,” that is, for Christ’s sake. Just as he had the authority from the Jewish chief priests to persecute “all who call on the name of Christ” (Acts 9:14), now he was called upon by the authority of the God of the Jews to enter into that persecution which he once inflicted.
This is true for all of us; God has told us we would suffer when living for Christ. As Paul wrote Timothy, “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12).
Lord, help me accept my persecution as part of Your calling for me.
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