Three times in the New Testament we have recorded that the apostle Paul said, “I am ready.” Let’s take a moment to look at each of these (in their chronological order) and the lessons we can learn from them.
Near the end of his second Corinthian letter, Paul told these brethren, “Now for the third time I am ready to come to you” (2 Cor. 12:14). Paul had been in Corinth for 18 months to establish the church in Acts 18 and had apparently made another quick trip (not recorded in Acts) after writing First Corinthians (a trip that was sorrowful and unfruitful, 2 Cor. 2:1). He was now ready to go back a third time to “encourage them” (Acts 20:2) and punish them if necessary (2 Cor. 13:1-6). But, why bother? If they had become so divisive and even resistant to the point of needing to be disciplined, why not just let them go and bid them good riddance? The answer: Because Paul wanted them to be saved! He wrote to his struggling brethren, “If we are afflicted, it is for your…salvation… Behold, now is the day of salvation…For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation” (2 Cor. 1:6; 6:2; 7:10). I am ready to do whatever is necessary for brethren to be saved!
Not many weeks after writing that letter to the Christians in Corinth, Paul penned these words to the brethren in Rome, “So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also” (Rom. 1:15). Shortly after writing Second Corinthians, Paul spent three months in Corinth to strengthen the brethren (Acts 20:3). While he was helping those brethren, he was thinking about other places needing the gospel, and so he wrote the book of Romans. Paul is on his third missionary journey; all he had been doing is preaching, preaching, preaching. And, what is on his mind? Preaching even more! But, why? What did Paul know? He knew that “the gospel of Christ…is the power of God to salvation” (1:16). I am ready to preach the gospel any place and every place so people can be saved!
Finally, as Paul was hurrying at the end of his third journey to get to Jerusalem by Pentecost (Acts 20:16), the prophet Agabus prophesied that Paul would be arrested if he went to Jerusalem and the brethren “pleaded with him not to go” (21:10-12). But Paul would hear nothing of placing concern for himself above the will of the Lord! He declared, “I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus” (21:13). The message of Christ, the salvation of souls and “the will of the Lord” (21:14) were more essential to Paul than even his own life. I am ready to sacrifice my own life for the sake of the gospel of Christ and the salvation of souls!
Can you make these affirmations? Are you ready?