“As to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless” (Philippians 3:6).
If you’ve ever been involved in the hiring process, you know to look for red flags on a resume. The candidate was apparently out of work for more than a year. That will get your attention. Hey, look there. Why did they work at that job for just a few months? Unless you’re Osama bin Laden, rarely do you include your years as a terrorist in your job history. Here in the third chapter of Philippians, Paul looks back on his days as Saul and refers to a copy of his religious resume. The first half of it is incredibly impressive (Phil 3:5). Have you ever laid your eyes on a more mind-blowing Jewish background? He was among the best and brightest of young Jews. We’re not just talking about a first round draft pick, but the number one pick overall. That’s when we move to the second half of his resume. “As to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless” (v6). Church persecutor?!? Yeah, that gets the warning lights flashing down at quality control!
Paul wants his readers to know he can not only disarm the arguments of those who can earn their way into heaven but also those who think their too bad for God to save. The first half of this religious resume is all about the apostle’s unrighteous goodness. He tried to pile up enough stats to impress God. He did all the right things for all the wrong reasons. The second half focuses on his unrighteous badness. And when I say “badness,” I’m NOT talking about breaking the speed limit by five miles an hour down the interstate. We’re talking terrorism. We’re talking murder. The man from Tarsus wants us to know when it comes to sin, you’ve got nothing on him. But here’s the deal. You can’t out-sin our Savior.
A lot of people seem to believe that before Jesus saved him, Saul was simply a passionate but misguided soul. He rounded up a few of Christ’s followers and tossed them in jail but he never REALLY didn’t hurt anyone, right? Not even close. Before he became Jesus’ handpicked spokesman to the non-Jewish world, Saul was a one-man wrecking crew against His church. Here he makes an incredibly powerful admission of his very dark history. “As to zeal, a persecutor of the church” (v6). Check out the original language and it gets even darker! He had “zeal” (Gr. zelos), which paints a picture of excitement, passion, and ferocity. According to MacArthur, this sort of zeal is the highest single virtue for a Jew. It combines both a powerful love and hate. Since Saul had such a passion for Judaism, he burned with hatred for anything and everything that might threaten it. And if you can’t tell the players without a scorecard, we’re talking about the church of Jesus here.
What stokes your fire? What do you love to do? What are your hobbies? For this Jewish up-and-comer, it was being a “persecutor of the church” (v6). Here we see the Greek word dioko. It means to drive away, make something or someone run, chase swiftly, hunt down, or pursue with the purpose to harass. There’s incredibly intensity and focus. Picture the Terminator unrelenting in its pursuit of John and Sarah Connor. No matter what you might do or where you tried to go as a first century believer, Saul would chase after you with intent to do great harm. You might run but you can’t hide.
In case you’re not buying this idea of the Apostle Paul was the Terrorist Saul, let’s check some other places in the New Testament. Saul was so much in favor of Stephen’s stoning that he ran the coat check table at the execution (Acts 7:58-8:1). It was just after the murder of this first martyr that the young man from Tarsus got busy. “Saul was ravaging the church, entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison” (Acts 8:3). Ravaging. Did you catch that? Just a little later, Dr. Luke finds the future apostle taking his act on the road. “But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem” (Acts 9:1). It was just outside the city limits that everything changed. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Just after being taken into protective custody by Roman authorities, Paul tells an angry mob about his bloody background. “I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women” (Acts 22:4). Later the apostle tells King Agrippa how he blatantly opposed the name of Jesus (Acts 26:9-11). This is an incredibly scary description of the sort of religious terrorism campaign he once oversaw. He not only tossed Christ’s followers in the slammer but went on the road to arrest and kill even more of them. He cast his vote to execute these believers every chance he got. He personally tortured those he suspected of trusting in Jesus in order to force them to blaspheme. And in his letter to the churches of Galatia, he confesses his crimes against Christ. “For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it” (Gal 1:13).
Don’t make the mistake of thinking Saul of Tarsus is just like those folks we read about in the Old Testament who trusted in God and His goodness but simply didn’t know about Jesus. This dude was a lost legalist. With apologies to Mike Tyson, he was the baddest man on the planet. Well, at least until Jesus ambushed him just outside Damascus before Saul’s next black ops mission to terrorize His church (Acts 9:1-19). Paul wants everyone to know even though he had murder and terrorism on his resume, he still couldn’t out-sin our Savior.
The apostle wraps up his job history, “as to righteousness under the law, blameless” (v6). Nobody who watched Saul could find anything fault with him. He was squeaky clean. Did all the right things. Said all the right things. He put on a perfect performance. Spotless reputation. Long before Andre Agassi, Saul believed image was everything. But that’s not the whole story. There was a problem. A BIG problem. The outside may look great but there’s a hot mess in his heart. His heart was full of hate. Is that you? Are you all about keeping up appearances? Are you all about your image? Is there a steaming cauldron of anger and hatred bubbling deep inside you? Well, Paul would love to chat with you if you’ve got a moment. He knows a Guy.
When you take a closer look at Saul before Paul, he’s certainly no angel. No, he’s a thug. A bully. A terrorist. He spent his time chasing down Jesus’ followers to kill them. It was open season. I don’t know about you, but Saul is NOT at the top of my list when it comes to candidates who will take the Good News to a lost and dying world. Seems like someone we would want God to strike with some of His patented fire and brimstone, don’t you think? Jesus thought otherwise. Instead Christ came to Saul’s rescue. I like to think that He knocked this hit man off his horse with a blast of His amazing grace. Saul may have been a major league sinner, but Jesus is a Hall of Fame Savior.
How ‘bout you? Think you’re too far gone for God to save? Is there stuff in your rearview mirror you believe disqualifies you from the love of Jesus? Maybe you’ve stolen or embezzled. Possibly an affair. Or an abortion. Is your heart full of hate? Paul’s got news for you. Some VERY Good News! No matter what you’ve done, no matter had bad you’ve been, Jesus is ready and willing to come to your rescue. You may be great sinner, but you can’t out-sin our Savior!!
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