Daily Lesson for Sunday 11th of January 2026
Read Philippians 1:19-20. What seems to be Paul’s expectation as to the outcome of his trial? What does he consider even more important than being acquitted?
Although Paul was no criminal, this was not the first time that he had been imprisoned, and he was no stranger to persecution. To the Corinthians, he detailed his sufferings up to that time: “In prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness” (2 Corinthians 11:23-27, NKJV).
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But lest we think these sufferings were uppermost in his mind, Paul immediately adds, “besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches” (2 Corinthians 11:28, NKJV).
Read 1 Corinthians 4:14-16; 1 Thessalonians 2:10-11; Galatians 4:19; and Philemon 1:10. What relationship does Paul have with the churches he established and the people he won for Christ?
Like Jesus, who spared nothing to save us, Paul was willing to “spend and be spent” for the sake of fellow believers (2 Corinthians 12:15, NKJV). But, paradoxically, the more a person’s actions resemble that of Jesus, the less they are loved or appreciated by some. “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12). But faithful Christians remain perhaps the most powerful way to glorify God and to reveal the truth of the gospel (compare Philippians 1:7). “Paul’s patience and cheerfulness during his long and unjust imprisonment, his courage and faith, were a continual sermon.”—Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles, p. 464.
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Look at how you live and how you treat people, especially people who don’t treat you nicely. What kind of witness for Jesus do you present? |
