LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
The Design of Paul's Life
Christian Chen in his book "The Mystery of His Will" has very accurately demonstrated the close relationship that Paul's epistles have with the apostle's spiritual life.
Chen divides Paul's Christian life – 33 years – into three stages of 11 years each. The first is childhood, the second is adolescence, and the third is maturity. For its part, the order in which the epistles were written reveals characteristics of each of these stages. And here the correspondence is even greater, because it not only occurs between the life of Paul and the epistles themselves, but also reaches the churches or people to whom they were addressed.
There are four groups of epistles: the first is made up of 1 and 2 Thessalonians, which corresponds to Paul's spiritual childhood, and addressed to a new church, which was experiencing its first months of life. The second group is made up of Romans, Galatians, and 1 and 2 Corinthians, which corresponds to Paul's spiritual adolescence, aimed at churches that need orderly and systematic teaching. The third group is Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon, which corresponds to Paul's maturity, the stage of greatest revelation, in his confinement in Rome. And the fourth group is 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus, which corresponds to Paul's old age.
Pablo's first 11 years were years of learning, of silence. Arabia and Tarsus were the places that saw him drink the first words of God and receive the first spiritual lessons. His life was like a dam that held back the water that was going to be released one day.
The second 11 years were the most fruitful years. Paul made three missionary trips and filled the known world with the gospel. The water spread out, bringing life to every corner.
In the third 11 years, the ones that could have been of even greater growth, Pablo for long periods, was confined in a jail. But the loss of freedom did not mean a decline in his spiritual life. On the contrary, the lower he was taken, the higher God raised him. While in jail he received revelation of the greatest mysteries of the Bible.
There is nothing accidental in the life of a servant of God. Certainly, Paul did not have, in life, the opportunity to see the design of his life, but God, with each experience of Paul, was weaving a very beautiful tapestry, which illustrates how God works with his servants.
The attitude of a servant of God is simply to follow his Lord, accepting that every circumstance and trial is perfectly ordained by God for his purpose and his glory.