WHAT DID THE APOSTLE PAUL FEAR?

Fear: “noun 1) an unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain, or harm.

2) The likelihood of something unwelcome happening.”448

Fear is not a word we might readily associate with the Apostle Paul for he exhibited such extraordinary boldness and courage in the face of extreme peril.

Nevertheless, he did experience fear and wrote:

“when we came to Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were troubled on every side.  Outside were conflicts, inside were fears.”449

But  he  did  not  allow  fear  to  control  him  or  determine  his  actions  or  words. Threatened danger did not intimidate him or diminish his faithfulness to Christ in circumstances of persecution and hardship.

When Paul received prophecy that suffering awaited him in Jerusalem it did not for a moment frighten him off from going there.  He said “none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself”.450

He records:

“I have fought with beasts at Ephesus”451  and wrote to Timothy “I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion”.452

He was opposed by false apostles but gave them no ground:

“But what I do, I will also continue to do, that I may cut off the opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the things of which they boast. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ”.453

He was accustomed to peril and to enduring extreme hardship:

“in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often.  From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one.  Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness”.454

In all of this he demonstrated great courage and a life not in any way governed by fear but supplied with strength from the Lord.  Even the devil cannot stop a man like that!

But there was one thing he did especially fear with a godly righteous fear and placed on record:

“I am jealous for you with godly jealously.   For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.  But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ”.455

Paul feared because he saw the sinister hand of the devil reaching out to spoil the church, to corrupt her simple purity, to break “the body of Christ”, to draw her away from her Head.  He realised that this scheme of Satan had a very real probability of success.  He knew how crafty the devil is and how vulnerable the Corinthian church in particular (to whom he wrote these words) and the whole church in general was if she did not stick close to Christ.

He saw the most precious “body of Christ”, the fruit of Christ’s sufferings and for which he personally had suffered too, being targeted by the devil.   He dreaded the thought of her sacred chastity being defiled.  He hated to think of her simple purity and undivided heart being corrupted.  His spirit rose up to protect her from the cunning of “the evil one” and the wickedness of false apostles.  He would fight for her while ever he had breath but he feared that nevertheless she would be corrupted!

Just how might it happen?  How might the scheming treachery of Satan succeed? What tactic might Satan use?  Well, just as Satan had deceived Eve, he would this time try  to deceive the church and seduce her to come under his authority through the illegitimate authority of his agents the false apostles, prophets and teachers.   This deceitful  trap  would  ensure  that  the  body  did  not  remain  blessedly,  willingly, submitted  to  Jesus  Christ  as  sole  Head  and  would  in  one  fell  swoop  drastically undermine the fruit of the Cross.

“For  such  are  false  apostles,  deceitful  workers,  transforming  themselves  into apostles of Christ.   And no wonder!   For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.”456

They may not all be deliberate deceivers because many will have firstly fallen into culpable deception themselves and will believe their own lie.   Some may be quite credible people, increasing the likelihood of the deception succeeding.  However, they become agents for the deception of the church and the more credible their authority appears to be the more effective the deception and the greater the spiritual impact and damage.

This scheme of Satan disrupts the interconnectedness of the Head and the body, wresting them apart and establishing in the place of the Head a false usurped spiritual authority over the church which robs her of the rule of grace from her Head.