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¹⁸ After this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila. At Cenchreae he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow. ¹⁹ And they came to Ephesus, and he left them there, but he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. ²⁰ When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined. ²¹ But on taking leave of them he said, “I will return to you if God wills,” and he set sail from Ephesus.

²² When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, and then went down to Antioch. ²³ After spending some time there, he departed and went from one place to the next through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples. (ESV)

The apostle James writes: ”Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— ¹⁴ yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. ¹⁵ Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” (James 4:13-15, ESV). This was the spirit in which Paul lived, and in it he is an example to us all. (See also 1 Corinthians 4:19). It transpires that it was indeed God’s will for him to return to Ephesus, and, as we shall see, he had a remarkable ministry there.

I note, by the way (9,10) that Paul stayed for a while longer in Corinth before moving on. This was in spite of the febrile atmosphere. ‘He was not one to run away from either the battlefield or the harvest field.’ Warren Wiersbe

PRAYER: ”Thy blessed will divine, with joy I make it mine, My heart shall be Thy throne, and Thine alone.
Choose Thou the path I tread and whither, I am led, Help me to follow on, O mighty Saviour.” (Harry Tee)

1Oh, the joys of those who are kind to the poor!

The LORD rescues them when they are in trouble.

2The LORD protects them

and keeps them alive.

He gives them prosperity in the land

and rescues them from their enemies.

3The LORD nurses them when they are sick

and restores them to health. (NLT)

The God revealed to us in Jesus is the healer of soul and body. The gospels are filled with stories of healing miracles. The church Jesus founded is called to be an instrument of healing in the world, continuing the works of Jesus in the power of the same Spirit who filled and animated Him. Christians have a long established tradition of being involved in healing ministries: praying for the sick (within and without the church), exercising spiritual gifts, founding hospitals, pioneering medical missions, and so on.

Psalm 41:3 beautifully establishes the basis of all prayer for the sick. It shows God’s loving, tender care for us. In ‘The Message’ it reads like this: ”Whenever we’re sick and in bed, God becomes our nurse, nurses us back to health.” Alec Motyer says it carries the idea of God rearranging the bedding. There is this thought of the Lord’s personal care of the sick one. ”What a sweet conception of God as nurse in the room where feet must be shod with velvet and voices speak in gentlest tones!” F.B. Meyer.

Let this encourage you today in your prayers for your own healing, and/or your prayer concerns for others. A famous preacher told how, early on in his Christian life, he went through the entire Bible from beginning to end, with a blue pencil in hand, and he marked every single reference he found to healing. ‘Do you know what I ended up with?’ he asked. ‘A blue Bible!’

 But if you put up with these big-shot “apostles,” why can’t you put up with simple me? I’m as good as they are. It’s true that I don’t have their voice, haven’t mastered that smooth eloquence that impresses you so much. But when I do open my mouth, I at least know what I’m talking about. We haven’t kept anything back. We let you in on everything.

 I wonder, did I make a bad mistake in proclaiming God’s Message to you without asking for something in return, serving you free of charge so that you wouldn’t be inconvenienced by me? It turns out that the other churches paid my way so that you could have a free ride. Not once during the time I lived among you did anyone have to lift a finger to help me out. My needs were always supplied by the believers from Macedonia province. I was careful never to be a burden to you, and I never will be, you can count on it. With Christ as my witness, it’s a point of honor with me, and I’m not going to keep it quiet just to protect you from what the neighbours will think. It’s not that I don’t love you; God knows I do. I’m just trying to keep things open and honest between us.

 And I’m not changing my position on this. I’d die before taking your money. I’m giving nobody grounds for lumping me in with those money-grubbing “preachers,” vaunting themselves as something special. The Message

It is interesting to see how people who are determined to undermine a good man will find a way to do so. Paul was ready to concede that he didn’t have the ”eloquence” of his critics, but he never saw this as being of value in ministry. He relied, in his weakness, upon the power of God, and he spoke the truth.

Now we see that, in Corinth, he was criticised for not taking funding from the church (even though, as an apostle, he had the right to do so: see 1 Cor.9). In the meantime, his false teaching critics were lying to them, and laughing all the way to the bank. The people (or at least some of them) took it as an indication of Paul’s inferiority that he didn’t ‘charge’ for his services.

As they say, ‘Go figure’!