Story of the Life of St. Paul, the Apostle — John Shaqi
Story of the Life of St. Paul, the ApostleSeymour, Mary, active 1880-1896
History
Story of the Life of St. Paul, the Apostle
Seymour, Mary, active 1880-1896
Paul, the Apostle, Saint
After labouring about three months alone, St. Paul was encouraged
by the arrival of Silas and Timothy. There was much to tell about
their work, and Timothy spoke of the faith and of the love of the
Christians in Thessalonica, but they had fallen into some errors,
which St. Paul reproved in his letter of holy counsel, known to
us as the First Epistle to the Thessalonians.
Silas and Timothy had brought a gift of money to the Apostle from
the Churches of Macedonia, so that he was not forced to spend so
many hours at his trade, and had therefore more time for
instructing and preaching. Among those people of Corinth who had
been received into the Christian Church was Crispus, the chief
ruler of the synagogue--and his entire household had also opened
their minds to truth.
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This made the Jews extremely angry, and they spoke so
blasphemously of Christ that St. Paul could not bear to hear
them. Shaking his garment with a gesture of horror and
indignation, he cried, "Your blood be upon your own head; I am
clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles." And so
saying he left the synagogue and went to the dwelling of Justus,
who, being a pious man, allowed the Apostle to teach there.
In a vision of the night God encouraged His servant, saying to
him, "Do not fear, but speak, and hold not thy peace. Because I
am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee, for I
have much people in this city."
After this declaration of God's Will St. Paul remained in Corinth
for another year and half.
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He had already, as we have seen, written one epistle to the
Thessalonians, and a few months later he wrote them a second.
Some of the people of Thessalonica had fallen into a mistake.
Thinking that Christ was soon coming to judge the world, they
deemed it useless to occupy themselves in their different
callings.
When they left off work, like all other idle, unemployed people,
they began to meddle with the concerns of their neighbours, and
in his second letter St. Paul warned them that a great many
things were to happen before the second coming of Christ, and he
told them also the rule, "If any man will not work neither let
him eat." He begged them to pray that the Word of God might bring
forth much fruit among the Corinthian people, and bid them hold
firmly to the traditions received from him.
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After a time a new governor named Gallio came to Corinth, and the
unbelieving Jews took this opportunity of trying to injure the
Apostle. Taking him before a magistrate, they accused him of
teaching men to worship God after a manner contrary to law.
Before the Apostle could attempt to defend this charge, Gallio
said he would not listen to such a complaint, and he sent the
angry people away.
The Greeks were very much vexed at this attempt of the Jews to
bring trouble upon St. Paul, and they seized Sosthenes, the chief
ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment-seat,
and yet even then Gallio did not interfere.
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Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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