Mary Marrow had just arrived in China as a missionary when
the Boxer Rebellion broke out in 1900. The leaders of China blamed
the missionaries for the problems of the land, and mobs began to
violently persecute the Christians. They were dragged from their
homes and forced to stomp on a cross or they were killed on the
spot. Mary had come to China to serve these people and see Christ
exalted through her life, and she is what she faced. She didn't even
have a chance to learn the language. When she heard the angry
mob approaching the mission compound she was frightened. She
prayed that God would give her strength as so not to shame the
other missionaries.
Suddenly she did a shocking thing, it was even a shock to her,
for she ran out of the door and faced the mob. She cried out, "I am
no good here! I speak such poor Chinese. So kill me. Save all those
inside, for they have healed your sick, taught your children, and
they love you. Tomorrow you will want them back again, and so kill
me quickly." The soldiers were amazed at the courage of this girl,
and they froze until their captain stirred them up. Then they
attacked and killed her on the steps.
A memorial service was held in the states for Mary. She had
gone out with such great dreams, but at such a bad time that she
died before she could do anything. Twenty years went by and Mary
was almost forgotten. Then one day a well-known Chinese General
by the name of General Fang came to the mission headquarters and
told them this story. He had been one of those vengeful soldiers who
killed Mary. For 20 years he had lived with her words echoing in
his mind, and the vision of her courage painted on his eyes. He
asked himself how she could have been so brave, and when he heard
of the Bible he got a copy and read it. He was searching for the
answer to Mary's courage. He became a Christian and joined the
church, and he became well known all over China as the Christian
General. He purchased Bibles for his soldiers and had classes for
them. Wherever he and his army went in China the crops and the
women were safe. Mary Marrow's life had not been in vain after all.
She didn't even learn the language, but her life made an impact on
masses because through her a man of violence became a man of
peace.
This true story has several paradoxes. It illustrates first of all
that sometimes God uses those who do the least to accomplish the
most. Because this is so we need to be faithful with our little, for
God in sovereignty may use it for great things. The second paradox
is that quite often the worse people become the best people. Never
get so disgusted with a zealous servant of the devil that you forget
that they may become a choice servant of God. And intolerant,
bigoted, violent man can become an apostle of love and peace. This
is precisely what Paul tells us about himself.
Paul tells us in verses 13 and 14 that he was always a very
religious man, and he was zealous in his commitment to Judaism.
Paul becomes a great example of both the danger and value of being
religious. Sometimes we tend to assume that being religious is good,
but the facts of history tell us that religious people have written
some of the bloodiest chapters of history because of their zeal
without knowledge. Religion can actually be a great tool of the devil.
Jesus blasted the Pharisees for their zeal in traveling the
world over to make one convert, but when they win him they make
him more a child of hell then themselves.
Paul was one of those fanatical Pharisees who was literally
working like the devil for the Lord. He violently persecuted
Christians, and all the while was convinced he was doing it for the
glory of God. Fanaticism always does evil with the conviction that it
is good. Finley Dunne said, "A fanatic is a man that does what he
thinks the Lord would do if he knew the facts in the case." William
James said, "Fanaticism is only loyalty carried to a convulsive
extreme." Nothing is so sure of its self as fanaticism. Jesus knew
the fanatical zeal of the Jews, and He knew there would be men like
Paul persecuting His church. He warned the disciples in John 16:2,
"They will put you out of the synagogues; indeed, the hour is coming
when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God."
Jesus fully understood the paradoxical nature of religious
conviction. It can persecute the people of God and blaspheme the
name of God, and all for the glory of God. There's not a crime
known to man that has not been committed for the glory of God in
the minds of those who do them. Paul only persecuted Christians
because he was zealous to protect the law of God. He would not
have been a great man in Judaism had he not been intolerant of
what threatened the foundations of Judaism. It is important that we
recognize that Paul was just like those who killed Christ. Jesus
asked His Father to forgive them for they didn't know what they
were doing. Paul also did not know what he was doing when he
destroyed Christians. In I Tim. 1:13 he wrote, "I formerly
blasphemed and persecuted and insulted him, but I receive mercy
because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief."
In his own mind Paul was convinced he was doing good when he
was doing evil, and this does make a difference as to how God judges
a person. God looks at the motive and not just the outward action.
Folly because of ignorance is a different category from willful evil.
If your child buys you some bubble bath and you discover you are
allergic to it and break out, you do not scold the child for the gift.
But if a child knows you are allergic and slips in to add some to your
bath water, then your anger at this deliberate mischief is justified,
and some degree of wrath is legitimate.
We need to keep this distinction in mind, for God does, and it
makes a world of difference in how we interpret Paul's life. As
rotten as were the things that Paul did, he obtained mercy because
he was convinced that what he did was right. We are not trying to
whitewash Paul's past, for he did not do that himself. He was guilty
of the sin of fanaticism and extremism. Whatever his thorn in the
flesh was, his thorn in the soul was the memory of his zeal without
knowledge. He was never free from the vision of Stephen having the
life knocked from him as he held the garments of those who stoned
him. Paul spent much time in prison, and he must have often relived
the experience of his past when he threw many Christians in prison.
Paul was ever conscience of his former folly, and he freely shared it.
Here in verse 13 he says to the Galatians that you have heard of my
former life. Practically everybody had, for Paul shared his personal
testimony everywhere he went.
When Paul went to Jerusalem and to the temple the crowd
heard of his presence and a riot was started. Paul's life was in
danger because they wanted to kill Paul, and he fully understood
their anger. When he stood up to defend himself he said this in Acts
22:3-4, "I am a Jew born at Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this
city at the feet of Gamaliel, educated according to the strict manner
of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as you all are this
day." In other words, Paul understood their zeal in wanting to
destroy him. He goes on to say, "I persecuted this Way to the death,
binding and delivering to prison both men and women." Paul gives
even more details of his bloodthirsty zeal against the
church when he defends himself before king Agrippa. This is his
testimony in Acts 26:9-11: "I myself was convinced that I ought to
do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth and I did
so in Jerusalem; I not only shut up many of the saints in prison, by
authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death I
cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in all the
synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme, and in raging fury
against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities." There is no
doubt about it, Paul was a religious fanatic, and one of the most
dangerous men the church has ever had to face. What a paradox!
The man most responsible for establishing churches all over the
world was the great destroyer of the church. Fanaticism always
goes to extremes.
In the 19th century the immorality was wide spread and there
was reaction against it. Lady Gough, the Emily Post of her day,
gave this advise to respectable people: "The perfect hostess will see
to it that the works of male and female authors be probably
separated on her book shelves. Their proximity, unless they happen
to be married, should not be tolerated." We can laugh at this
extreme perspective, but you have to admit it was an extreme that
began with a good motive to protect Christian morality. But it could
so easily lead to the evil of persecuting those who did not comply,
and this could make a capital offense out of a mere triviality.
History is filled with blood baths due to people who make their
whims the will of God. Violators of the will of God they say should
be destroyed, and so when their whims are violated they set out to
destroy those who will not conform. This should make us extremely
cautious to how we use the Old Testament as a basis for our actions
today. Many times the church has appealed to God's command to
destroy people in the Old Testament as a basis for persecuting
non-conformists. Paul thought he was just like the heroes of old who
were destroying idolaters when he persecuted the Christians. When
he became a Christian, however, he never again advocated violence
in dealing with those who were enemies of the truth. Paul fought
heresy with great zeal, but as a Christian leader he never held the
garments of Christians while he watched them stone a heretic. He
fought error with great zeal, but he never once implied that any
should be imprisoned or harmed physically for their error.
Paul's attitude became the very attitude that makes America
the land of religious liberty. True Christians do not approve of
violence against those who do not believe. Christianity, however,
has been perverted time and time again. One of the saddest records
of history is of how Christians have gotten even with the Jews for
killing Jesus. The cross was a sign of terror to the Jews all through
the middle ages, for it represented hatred for them. During the
Spanish Inquisition thousands of Jews were killed and their
property taken over by the church.
Nowhere does Paul advocate violence as the answer to the
problem of heresy. Paul's answer is the book of Galatians. It is the
answer of argument, persuasion and discussion. These are the
methods that are the basis for the Christian battle, and these are the
methods that are the basis for our country having true religious
liberty. Paul's conversion has a great deal to do with the religious
freedom we have as Americans. Had he brought over into his
Christian life the attitudes he had as a Jewish leader, Christianity
would be like all other religions where persecution of those who
differ is common.
The Koran, for example, gives us an idea of how Moslems are to
deal with unbelief. "When you encounter the unbeliever, strike off
their heads, until you have made a great slaughter among them.
Verily, if God pleased, He could take vengeance on them without
your assistance, but He commands you to fight His battles." Most
religions feel it is right to destroy those who do not believe, and
whenever Christians have come to that same conclusion they have
fallen to the sub-Christian level. Henry Buckle in History Of
Civilization in England wrote, "It is an undoubted fact that an
overwhelming majority of religious persecutors have been men of
the purest intentions, of the most admirable and unsullied morals.
Such men as these are not bad, they are only ignorant..." Paul
admits that he was ignorant, but his conversion to Christ changed,
not only his concept of the truth, but his concept of how truth is to
be preserved. It is not by persecution but by persuasion and by a
life that demonstrates it to be superior.
In contrast to other religions where vengeance is given into the
hands of persecutors, listen to this series of advise from Paul to the
Romans in chapter 12:14-21:
v. 14 "Blest those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them."
v. 17 "Repay no one evil for evil."
v. 19 "Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of
God..."
v. 21 "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."
Paul was a good and godly man as a Jew, but his intolerance
made him an instrument of evil. He was a good man at his worst,
and many godly people have been followers of that unconverted
fanatic. May God help us to listen to Paul and observe the change
Christ made in him, so that we can be followers of him at his best.
Paul never saved anybody as a fanatic destroyer of men, but no one
has won more than Paul the Christ-like fighter for truth. Jesus
changed Paul from the worst kind of religious person to the best
kind of religious person. May God help us to be like Paul at his best.
