Fall 1978
Why Not a Fanatic?
Larry Davis

As we examine the life of the Apostle Paul, one thing stands out above all other aspects of his remarkable character. At the beginning of his life with the Lord, he says, “what would you have me to do,” and immediately begins to proclaim the Gospel with power. At the close of his ministry, as he sits in a Roman prison cell, he writes to his followers not to grieve because of his predicament but to rejoice because through his incarceration he has been able to bring the Word of the Lord even into the stronghold of Imperial Rome. In that same letter to the church of Philippi, he expresses the cry of his heart when he writes: “I suffer the loss of all things and count them as dung for the sake of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” So we can see that at the beginning and at the ending, and by all record completely throughout his life, Paul had an unfailing, undivided, unquenchable loyalty and enthusiasm to the cause of Christ.

His enthusiasm was unfailing even though he went through the most severe trials and tribulations, culminating in his martyrdom. His undivided loyalty was to his Master. We never find him espousing any other cause than that of the cross of Jesus Christ. He refused to become involved in the partisan politics that threatened to split the early church; but interested himself only in the pure truth of the kingdom of God. It was Paul who exemplified the two most important facets of the Christian life that we need right now in the body of Christ.

The first was selflessness. Today, we need to review the revelation of the Lord Himself when He washed the feet of the disciples, and made such statements as “the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.” Today the church is filled with Christians who only want to serve their self interests and the lust of the flesh for position and authority, and are not willing to suffer with Christ in order to receive glory with Him, but who draw back at the first sign of disapproval or inconvenience. Christians still live in the sight of the world compromising the eternal word of God for the approval of their peers, and missing the ministry of the Lord because they might lose sleep or be inconvenienced. God has in His mind a church whose members have forgotten that they have the right to be comfortable and who have only one concern and interest—that the kingdom come, and His will be done in earth as it is in heaven.

The second characteristic that is significant today has to do with the depths of God and His Word. Today in the church, it is only too common to see people making a decision that “this is as far as I go,” and settling down into a comfortable routine. This occurs among liberals, conservatives, fundamentalists, Pentecostals, and Charismatics. No one is excepted. At a certain point, the lines are drawn, the limits are set, and everyone moves comfortably within the boundaries. May God give us the fire that consumed Jeremiah and Elijah, and that motivated Paul, so that it may be said of us as it was of the early Christians, “These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also.” One translation of the Greek reads, “Not having yet laid hold, I press toward the mark of the ever upward calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Our move is ever upward; the calling of God in our lives and ministries is ever upward, never regressive and never static. Though there be many who are baptized in the Spirit there are few who are filled with the Spirit. We need to be filled with the fullness of God.

May we be able to say at the end of our life, with Paul, “I have finished (telios; completed perfectly, filled up the full measure of) my course, I have kept the faith, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.”