Saturday: A Fellowship of the Spiritually Contagious
WEEK 20
SATURDAY
A FELLOWSHIP OF THE SPIRITUALLY CONTAGIOUS
2 Timothy 4:1, 5
We now come to another mark of Christ upon the church at Antioch—it was redemptive. A spiritual contagion was inherent in its very Christianity. “The Lord’s power was with them, and a large number came to believe and turned to the Lord. . . . A considerable number of people were added to the Lord. . . . teaching large numbers of people” (Acts 11:21, 24, 26). Evangelism was something, not imposed on the situation, but exposed out of the very heart of the situation. It was endemic.
The evangelism was so potent that it evangelized the evangelists, including Paul. Up until Antioch his name was Saul; after Antioch it was changed to Paul. And Paul, or Paulus, is the Roman form of the Hebrew Saul, a symbol of what took place in the soul of Saul. In the burning love of this fellowship the Hebrew bonds of Saul were dissolved, and a universal Christian emerged. If the Christian fellowship of Antioch had not burned up these Hebrew bonds, he would probably never have been the missionary and evangelist to all races. He was born a Jew but reborn a brother of all.
I love to feel, though it is not said, that Antioch had a living part in the remaking of Mark as well. It did indirectly through Barnabas, who was influenced by the Antioch church. Certainly Mark emerged a new man, so much so that Paul, after years apart, wrote, “Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry” (2 Tim 4:11 KJV). I like to think this version is correct; he was profitable “for the ministry.” He started out ministering to Paul and Barnabas—they used him—but here he is profitable for the ministry of Christ. The angle and the attitude had changed, and Mark gladly came to Paul.
The church at Antioch redeemed everything it touched. For at its heart was the Spirit of Jesus, and he is redemption. The church today must be just that: a society of the being redeemed and a society of the redeeming. It should be the fulfillment of the question of the Korean woman, who knocked on the church door and asked, “Is this the place where they mend broken hearts?” It should mend broken hearts, broken homes, broken people.
O Jesus, you mender of broken lives, help me this day to be a mender of broken lives too. Help me to touch healingly everything I touch. And in the process I shall be healed. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I shall be the person of the healing hands, healing situations through love.