Acts 21:13 Then Paul answered, What mean you to weep and to break my heart? for I am ready not to be bound only… This strong declaration, "I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus," sounds very much like the language of St. Peter to his Master. "Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake." And yet there is the most vital distinction between the spirit and tone and temper of the two sayings, and the difference comes fully out in the actions that followed. Self-trusting Peter failed in the testing hour. Christ trusting Paul went on to win the martyr's crown. This is the subject before us; but in introducing it there should be some estimate of the blended strength and weakness of Peter's character before his fall. The boldness and forwardness were valuable qualities for one who was to be a leading gospel witness and missionary; but before the humbling experience of his fall, Peter's forwardness meant undue self-reliance. So our Lord had on one occasion to speak more sternly to him than to any other of his disciples, even saying, "Get thee behind me, Satan." There should be also a due estimate of the highly wrought condition of Paul's feeling when he uttered the seemingly boastful words of our text. "The intense sensitiveness of St. Paul's nature shows itself in every syllable. It was with no Stoic hardness that he resisted their entreaties. They were positively crushing to him. He adhered to his purpose, but it was as with a broken heart. In spite of this, however, his martyr-like, Luther-like nature carried him forward. Bonds and imprisonment! - these he had heard of when he was yet at Corinth and Ephesus, before he had started on his journey; but what were they to one who was ready to face death?" The comparison may take three forms. I. ST. PETER'S BOASTING WAS THAT OF INEXPERIENCE, He talked about dying with Jesus, but he did not know what dying was. He had not suffered much in his discipleship. Persecutions nor shame had yet touched him. He talked about dying as we all do until God has taken us and set us down at the very edge of the borderland. Many of us feel very confident that we can master temptation, endure affliction, and face death; while the truth may be that we know nothing of the force or the subtlety of either, and may well be humble, and look on to untried scenes saying, "Lead thou me on." II. ST. PAUL'S BOASTING WAS THAT OF EXPERIENCE. He had fully proved what he could do, and what he could bear, for Christ's sake. He had been sick and ill; he had faced death by shipwreck; he had been stoned by the mob, and left for dead. He was always bearing about in the body the "dying of the Lord Jesus." He might speak strongly and confidently; for there could be nothing in his coming lot that had not been represented in his past experiences. He knew well that he labored day by day with his life, as it were, in his hands. There is all the difference between his words and St. Peter's that we find between the confident utterance of a youth and the calm expressions Of the aged. And St. Paul's has really no boastfulness in it. It is but the fixed and settled purpose of his life pressed out into intense language. III. ST. PETER'S BOASTING WAS THAT OF PASSIONATE FEELING. He did love the Master, and was sincere in expressing his love; but he did not think about his words before speaking, so they bear the character of the impulsive man that St. Peter was. Under excitement we may easily promise too much. Under self-restraint we shall find that what we would and what we can seriously differ from each other. When feeling is calmed, judgment will not always support what feeling has said. IV. ST. PAUL'S BOASTING WAS THAT OF SETTLED CONVICTION. The result, not of resolve alone, but of resolve tested, renewed, and established. Sober, settled conviction breathes in that first chapter of the Epistle to the Philippians. It is quiet, calm writing. And it reads thus: "With all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." The same tone of settled conviction is on his glowing words so simply written in his letter to Timothy: "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness." Such expressions can never be mistaken for boasting; they are only signs of a soul that is sublimely uplifted in the strength of its faith, and in the fullness of its experience. V. ST, PETER'S BOASTING WAS THAT OF SELF-CONFIDENCE. This being the more familiar view taken of St. Peter's words, the mode of treating it may be left. The point to impress is that he spoke relying in himself, and with no question of his own ability to carry out what he said. He that leaneth on himself leaneth on a reed that will too surely bend beneath his weight. "It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." And St. Peter's own Master thus solemnly warned both him and his fellow-disciples: "Without me ye can do nothing." Then and now, self-confidence is only vain confidence. VI. ST. PAUL'S BOASTING WAS THAT OF FULL SUBMISSION. St. Peter thought of "dying with Christ" as something to do. St. Paul thought of it as something to bear. Christ did not ask St. Peter to die with him. He pushed himself into the place. Christ (lid ask St. Paul to suffer and to die for him, and the tender grace of his seeming boasting lies in its being his full acceptance of God's will for him, and his assurance that, however hard to flesh and blood, his will is love. St. Paul's spirit took his confidence altogether away from self, and made it rest altogether on Christ. St. Peter said, "I can do all things." St. Paul said, "I can do all things through him that strengtheneth me." After his humiliation, St. Peter was converted to the better mind; and illustration of his humble and trustful spirit may be taken from his Epistles. Especially notice 1 Peter 5:6, 7, "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you." - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. |
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