Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 185 · July 4
Our Own Souls
“So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us.”
Friend,
If someone asked how many people we are truly there for, most of us would give a bigger number than the one we actually live by. I know I would.
Look at what Paul says he handed over to the believers in Thessalonica: "we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us." Paul had a message to deliver, and that was his work. He gave them himself as well, and nobody had asked that of him.
Now notice how short his time with them was. Acts says he reasoned with them in the synagogue on three sabbath days. Then a mob came looking for him at Jason's house, and the believers sent him away by night. He may have stayed a few weeks longer than that, because the church at Philippi sent him help "once and again" while he was there. Either way, it was a matter of weeks. Yet out of those weeks he can write, "we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children," and he says he cared for them "as a father doth his children." He describes leaving them as "being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart." He also reminds them what it cost: "labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you." He worked with his own hands so that they would not have to pay his way.
So here is my question for both of us. Is there someone who could say of you, after only a month, that you gave them your own self along with the good news? If no name comes to mind yet, take heart. The love Paul showed came from the Lord who gave Himself for us, and He is able to make you that kind of friend to someone this month.
Yours on the same road,
a fellow learner
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 185 is But If Not (Daniel 3:17-18).