by David Scott Robertson
The young Christian couple discovers that they are going to have a baby.
It's a boy and it's their first child.
You can just imagine their excitement!
Shortly after the announcement,
Their friends and family begin to ask them “what are you going to name him?”
They've been thinking a lot about that question lately.
Dad sits at the computer at work and can hardly think of anything else.
Mom is busily preparing for her maternity leave at her job
And has trouble concentrating on training her replacement because of thinking of baby names.
The happy couple want to give their son a noble name --
One that will speak to his destiny.
After much discussion, they finally come to a mutual agreement on a name.
They select a name of a man whom they both greatly admire,
A man that personifies bold change and aggressive Christianity,
Values that this young Christian couple prize and hold dear.
The name of their son shall be Paul, named after the great apostle.
Good choice, good man.
After all,
Without question, Paul was indeed a chosen man of God commissioned for a great work.
What Christian parent does not want their child to be a vessel of honor for God?
And as these new parents have correctly concluded, the apostle Paul was certainly that.
Paul was consecrated and dedicated to the Lord by his parents,
And in like fashion the couple pledges to dedicate their newborn son
To the Lord in a ceremony at church.
Paul did exploits for God
And blazed evangelistic trails to Jews and Gentiles who had embraced Jesus of Nazareth.
Paul was gloriously saved in a magnificent encounter with Jesus on a road one day (Acts 9),
And it wasn't to be the last time the Lord stood by Him in person.
At various times, angels from heaven visited Paul
And on at least one occasion Paul was translated to the angelic headquarters in the Third Heaven (2 Corinthians 12:2).
Paul was used tremendously as an instrument of healing, preaching, and mentoring
A whole crop of young pastors.
Paul was mightily filled with the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts flowed through him constantly.
The young Christian parents are mindful that it was the vessel Paul
Whom the Holy Spirit chose to breathe on to write much of the New Testament:
The book of Romans,
The book of 1 Corinthians,
The book of 2 Corinthians,
The book of Galatians,
The book of Ephesians,
The book of Philippians,
The book of Colossians,
The book of 1 Thessalonians,
The book of 2 Thessalonians,
The book of 1 Timothy,
The book of 2 Timothy,
The book of Titus,
And the book of Philemon.
No wonder the new parents want their son to have this remarkable namesake!
They want their boy to be a world changer too…
To courageously burst religious wineskins…
To boldly blast through archaic paradigms in his generation that prevent people from embracing
The Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth -
The Truth being a Person and that Person being Christ Jesus.
Ah yes, Paul.
What a great name for their son.
There is laid up in heaven a great crown of righteousness for the apostle Paul
And that is the aspiration the young couple have for their little Paul --
To grow up to become a great man of God
Who receives the crown of righteousness from God at the end of his life.
It's at this point that the cross enters the picture.
For there can be no crown without a cross.
The apostle Paul was familiar with “the cross.”
Not just the barbaric instrument of death the Romans used to murder people,
But the cross that Jesus described when He said:
"...If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mat 16:24 NIV).
Oh, that cross.
It was that cross that caused the great apostle
To list in a passage in 2 Corinthians chapter 11
A few things that his association with Jesus had caused him to have to bear:
1. In labors, more abundant (v. 23).
2. In stripes above measure (v. 23)
3. In prisons [plural] more frequently (v. 23)
4. In deaths often (v. 23)
5. From the Jews fives times he received floggings of thirty-nine stripes (v. 24).
6. Three times he was beaten with rods (v. 25).
7. One time, Paul was stoned and left for dead (v. 25).
8. On three occasions he was shipwrecked (v. 25).
9. He spent one whole day and one whole night he on the sea in extreme weather (v. 25).
10. His ministry caused him to travel extensively and he was rarely at home (v 26).
11. His life was frequently in jeopardy by using dangerous transportation (v. 26).
12. He was in danger of being mugged by strangers constantly (v. 26).
13. He was in danger of being mobbed by his own countrymen (v. 26).
14. The very people he was sent to preach to, the Gentiles, often threatened him (v. 26).
15. Whether he was in the city or the country or out on a boat in the sea, he was in peril (v. 26).
16. He found his way into nests of false teachers who endangered his life (v. 26).
17. He wore himself out by working hard for the gospel and often went without sleep (v. 27).
18. Many times he went without food and water (v. 27).
19. Often he suffered cold because he wasn't dressed for the weather (v. 27).
20. Besides all this, his heart daily was bombarded with concern for all the churches (v. 28).
21. On more than one occasion, a plot to assassinate him was discovered and he had to flee
(v. 32-33; Acts 9:29; Acts 23:21)
The point here is simple:
There is no crown without a cross.
It is well and good to name our children after a great man or a great woman
Who have lived an exceptional and exemplary life before us --
But we must remember (and be prepared) that a great life and testimony
Very often carries the price tag of great suffering and sacrifice.
Although this is true,
Nevertheless we can trust God completely with our sons and our daughters.
We love our children as much as humanly possible,
But God loves our very own kids far beyond our ability to do so.
Regardless of what parents name their beloved children,
The God who fashioned the child in its mother's womb has a new name reserved
For all His children to be revealed to them at the end of the age…
(Rev 2:17 NIV) He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.”
DSR
9/30/02