Marked (Part 1)

Beloved, our Savior Jesus Christ has inspired me to write unto you from a new subject entitled “Marked”. My favorite apostle, Paul, is quoted as saying, “from henceforth let no man trouble me (or worry me): for I bear in my body the MARKS of the Lord Jesus” (Galatians 6:17). Beloved, it would be a simple matter for us to direct our thoughts toward the sufferings of Jesus, and consider that Paul was referring to the continuation of those sufferings in himself. We understand Paul to say, “(I) now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church” (Colossians 1:24). In other words, Paul tells us that his joy in sufferings came from knowing that “the church” would benefit from them.

Chosen Ones, no doubt Paul suffered more than any of his contemporaries, because to him was “given much”, and Jesus said that “unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required” (Luke 12:48). Let me pause and say that many of you are marked to suffer some things because you are marked to receive many things. Paul testified of his imprisonments (see II Corinthians 11). He told of the five different times he received thirty nine stripes on his back, of the beatings with rods, of his three shipwrecks, of the hunger, thirst, cold and nakedness that he had to endure. He also told of his many periods of fasting, and of his most severe time of suffering, when he was stoned, dragged out of the city and left for dead. Yes, Beloved, he carried many “marks” of these “sufferings” in “his body”. This was even climaxed by his being beheaded by Nero, the great emperor.

Nevertheless, Precious Ones, I would have you to understand that none of these things fully explains what the apostle Paul had in mind when he wrote that he bore the marks of Jesus Christ in his body (Galatians 6:17). The correct interpretation of Paul’s words is that he was actually speaking of the change that took place in him when he became a new creature in Christ. Beloved, it was a change so sensational that people of Galatia and the nearby regions of Syria (in Greece) marveled and said of Paul, “ he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which he once destroyed” (Galatians 1:23).

I will write more on this subject next Sunday. Until then, know this...

I love you all SO very much.

In His Love,

Pastor William L. McCoy