Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”
Acts 21:13 NIV
How much grief and suffering are you willing to endure to follow where God leads you? Am I willing to die for the sake of Jesus? In this passage, we find Paul on his way to Jerusalem, knowing that trouble awaited him there. He had expressed to the Ephesian elders earlier that the Spirit was compelling him to go. And on a subsequent stop on the journey, the believers, through the Spirit, had warned him not to go. And now, once again, he is being urged to stay away from Jerusalem.
We might think Paul foolish to march into certain trouble. I can see myself joining in with others in pleading with him to let the rest of the team take care of business in Jerusalem. And had I been in Paul’s place, I likely would have been on the next boat out of town. But Paul’s response is an echo of what he later tells Timothy: “I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day” (2 Tim 1:12). What a wonderful example he gives us of faithfulness to our Lord Jesus, regardless of the personal cost. Up to and including being willing to die for Jesus.
