Some Things that Moved Paul Deeply

(Blog version of a two-part message preached at Bible Believers' Baptist Church, Madison, AL, on 26 May 2014.)

Text: Eph. 4:17-21

There are three words in the Bible that consist of only one letter: a/A, I, and o/O. The first of these is called an article, the second a pronoun, but the third functions as an address in some cases (“O King”; “o man of God”; etc.) and as an exclamation in others (“O that they were wise; “O the depths of the riches..”; etc.). It’s interesting that although “a” or “o” can be lowercase or uppercase in scripture, “I” is always uppercase. There may be nothing to that, but “I” is certainly the part of us that needs to be “lowercase” and not “uppercase.”


The word “O” appears 972 times in scripture, 917 in the old testament (OT), and 55 in the new (NT). [The word “oh” appears 37 times, all in the OT.] Of the NT references, 18 of these are in connection with the apostle Paul, either in the Acts chronology (5) or in his epistles (13). A survey of the usage of “O” throughout scripture shows us that it is an expression connected with deep feeling, almost invariably. Since Paul is our pattern and example in the church age, I think that it behooves us to note the things that moved him deeply and examine ourselves as to whether we share his sentiments. Likely those sentiments, if we share them with him, won’t reach the depth that his did, due to the abundant grace that he received as our pattern, but my assertion in this study is that those sentiments should be there, and if they are not, we should allow God to produce them in us. Scripture warns us against becoming “past feeling” (Eph. 4:19), and although it’s a reference to the Gentiles, it’s possible for Christians to become hardened as well, especially in the last days (1 Tim. 4:1-2).

We’ll look at a total of 11 passages, with brief comments on each.

1. Hindering seekers from hearing the truth (Acts 13:10). On the first leg of Paul’s first missionary journey, the apostle encounters a wicked Jewish sorcerer named Bar-Jesus who attempts to keep Sergius Paulus from hearing the truth. Paul becomes righteously indignant (note “righteousness” and “right”) in the Holy Ghost, and the anger is so deep, that the first word out of his mouth is “O…” It should move us deeply when people, lost or saved, try to hinder others from hearing the truth, since the truth brings us life (John 14:6), sanctification (John 17:17), and spiritual freedom (John 8:32). Christ rebuked the Pharisees for the same thing in Mt. 23:13, “But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.” Notice the exclamation point. Christ is deeply moved by this sin and pronounces woe on those that commit it, and Bar-Jesus is a solemn example of such woe at the beginning of the church age.

2. Presence of earthly powers (Acts 26:13, 19). In his defense before Agrippa, Paul twice uses “O” in reference to the king, showing the deep feeling produced by this audience. Why the deep feeling, since he was merely an earthly sovereign? Well, all earthly sovereigns “are ordained of God” (Rom. 13:2) and therefore stand in the place of God, and believers should give them the honour due them (Rom. 13:7). If the heathen respect earthly power (cf. 25:26), shouldn’t we much more, who know the Lord that empowered them (1 Pt. 2:13-14)? Luke addresses the “most excellent Theophilus” (Luke 1:1) this way in Acts 1:1, out of respect for his office. If we really believe that these people sit in the place of God, shouldn’t we have a deep sense of awe and respect toward them?

3. Sinners’ self-righteousness (Rom. 2:1-3). In Rom. 1:18-3:20, Paul shows how all men are guilty before God, Gentiles and Jews, and in need of the gospel. Although some may be following the light they have (i.e. creation, conscience, and law), there is a higher light that is the final solution to their sin problem: the gospel of Christ. Paul anticipates men’s arguments, including the self-justification of the “moral” Jew or Gentile (2:1-11). This self-justification, which Paul no doubt has encountered personally many times before writing this epistle, moves him to address such men personally with great feeling in vv. 1 and 3. One can see why since those justifying themselves by condemning others are also guilty of things worthy of condemnation (e.g. 1:29-32). For example, they may not have performed the act of adultery, but secretly lusted after someone else’s wife in their heart or divorced their wife loosely (Mt. 5:27-32). Paul is rightly stirred by their self-righteousness, as other godly men are in the scriptures. For example, Elihu, the mysterious “fourth man” that reproves Job and magnifies God in Job 32-37, is angered by Job’s self-justification and Job’s three friends’ unjust condemnation of him (Job 32:1-3), quite similar to what we see in Rom. 2:1-3. Self-justification should be abhorrent to all of us, since Christ condemns it (Luke 16:15), and rightly so since, compared with God’s absolute holiness, our best works “are as filthy rags” (Is. 64:6). Small wonder then, that Paul addresses such people so strongly, since God is opposed to men’s self-justification, which exalts them instead of him (Luke 7:29-30).

4. His own inner corruption (Rom. 7:24). In this poignant passage, especially vv. 14-25, Paul describes the struggle of the two natures, which begins at regeneration and continues as long as the believer resides in this “body of death” (v. 24). A believer never reaches a point where the sinful nature does not oppose the desires of the new nature to do good (7:21-23), since this counteraction is said to be a “law” (cf. Gal. 5:17). The burden of this perennial struggle evokes a deep groan from the spirit of Paul, which longs to be free from the evil influence of the flesh. Though he cannot escape its presence until death, he has been delivered from its power by a greater law, that of the Spirit now resident in him through salvation (Rom. 8:1-4). What a tremendous comfort that, even though our regenerated spirits are “trapped” within sinful, corruptible flesh, a greater power is available to mortify its influence, the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:13; Gal. 5:16).

5. Men questioning God’s righteousness in election (Rom. 9:20).
Romans 9-11 is Paul’s explanation of dispensational changes associated with the mystery program and their bearing on Jews and Gentiles. Some Jews believe Paul’s gospel (referred to as “the election” in 11:5, 7), while others don’t. Paul reminds his Roman audience, which includes Jews (4:1, 7:1), that being the physical seed of Abraham does not make them children of God (9:7-8). That comes by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ (9:30, 33). Examples of God preferring spiritual seed over physical are provided from the old testament (Isaac and Ishmael; Jacob and Esau). If any would question the righteousness of this election due to foreknowledge (v. 11), before any works are done, Paul is further willing to defend it. God decides who he will show mercy to and who he will harden and execute wrath upon, but not capriciously. Note carefully in vv. 11, 22 that doing good and evil are involved. God determines that certain will be blessed and cursed, but it’s not arbitrary. The respective “vessels” (vv. 22-23) have to respond appropriately to get the blessings (belief), or inappropriately to get punished (v. 22). Someone questioning God’s righteousness in all of this evokes deep anger from Paul, who is using all the scripture he can to show how God is right in all aspects of election, in any age.

6. God’s wisdom in saving all men through Israel’s fall (Rom. 11:33).  This is one of only two times that Paul uses exclamation points (cf. 2 Cor. 7:11). Here Paul is greatly moved by grasping the wisdom of God’s plan to save all men through Israel’s fall. Although on the surface things look pretty bad for Israel (only a remnant believe Paul’s gospel and the rest are blinded; cf. 11:5-10), God reveals to Paul that their fall brings spiritual riches to the Gentiles (vv. 11-12). But God’s wisdom doesn’t stop there. His intention is not only to save the Gentiles through Israel’s fall, but to conversely use the Gentiles’ salvation to provoke the Jews to jealousy and trusting in Christ themselves (v. 14). When Paul grasps God’s two-sided plan to save all men in this age, as summarized in vv. 30-32, he cannot but burst out in praise for a Being so wise. There are two other places where Paul praises God for his wisdom (Rom. 16:25-27; 1 Tim. 1:17). The greatness of this wisdom should move us deeply and produce praise in our hearts and lips (Ps. 147:5).

7. Allowing unbelieving spouses to depart (1 Cor. 7:16). Paul’s use of “O” in this passage surprised me the most. It is aimed at believing spouses with unbelieving partners. In 1 Cor. 7:15, Paul says that the voluntary departure of an unbelieving partner is a legal divorce, and the believing partner is then free to marry again, in the Lord of course (7:39). It may seem like a strange thing for Paul to be deeply moved about, but it magnifies the importance of peace in the Christian home, if that home and its church is going to be what it ought to. In a sense, he’s saying “Let the unbelieving go; you don’t know whether you’ll save them (cf. 9:22, “…that I may…save some”), and God has called you to peace, which their presence may keep you from. The deep emotion in v. 16, I think, springs from Paul’s desire for the peace God has called all believers to, including those married to unbelieving partners, to be present in believing spouses' lives.

8. 1 Cor. 15:55 (believers’ victory over death). This verse is a free quotation of Hos. 13:14, which refers to the resurrection of Israel at the second coming, but the depth of feeling is retained in Paul’s prophecy here. The verse rings like a challenge to death and the grave, in the assurance of our future glorification. Considering how strong and painful sin is (v. 56), shouldn’t we be deeply moved at the prospect of being completely victorious over it?! As most of us have been taught, trusting Christ as our Saviour delivers us immediately from the penalty of sin, and yielding our members daily to Christ delivers us from the power of sin still latent in our members (Rom. 6, 7). But our glorification will, at long last, deliver us from the very presence of sin, so that it will never trouble us again. Blessed day! “Till all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more…” wrote Cowper in “There is a Fountain.” That’s a reference to glory, where sin and its exceeding sinfulness will be cast off forever and everything we do thereafter will be right (1 John 5:17). What a day that will be and what deep feeling that should arouse in us when we consider what’s to come!

9. Believers’ indifference toward spiritual fathers (2 Cor. 6:11). This verse provides a great example of what “O” signifies: an opened mouth from an enlarged heart. Paul’s heart is enlarged toward the Corinthians (v. 11), his spiritual children (v. 13), but theirs is not toward him (v. 12). I think that vv. 3-10 imply that Paul’s apostolic authority was being questioned by some of the Corinthians, hence this listing of credentials long after he had led them to Christ. He does the same thing in 11:23-33 and in 12:1-12. 2 Cor. 6:10 is a great lead in to his outburst in v. 11. Paul himself, like his Saviour (8:9) had made himself poor so that the Corinthians could be rich, and rightly feels that this should enlarge their heart toward him, their spiritual father. But here the flesh rears its ugly head in the church, and the very people that Paul led to Christ seem to be repaying him not with affection, but by questioning his apostolic authority. Isn’t the flesh great?! One can easily see, then, why Paul would be so moved.
     If his dialogue with the Corinthians has a happy ending, his ministry does not, except on a personal level. In 2 Timothy we read how the church as a whole, and Paul’s ministerial associates, have forsaken him by the time of his death. But God in his grace, perhaps in response to Paul’s intercession in 2 Tim. 4:16, allows the church age to continue, despite the early church’s shameful treatment of the man who led them all to Christ. We tend to look at the early church “through rose-coloured spectacles,” but Paul’s ministry was a fight, from start to finish, against foes outside and inside the church (Acts 20:29-30). The Corinthians’ indifference is, in a way, a precursor to even greater difficulties later in his ministry.

10. Believers’ folly in lapsing into legalism (Gal. 3:1). This outburst follows Paul’s account of Peter’s lapse into legalism, but Christ shows the same deep feeling re: the folly of Cleopas and his companion on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:25), “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken…” The deep emotion here reminds me of that he showed toward Bar-Jesus’ opposition in Acts 13. If God is a God of truth, which he’s called (Ps. 31:5), and he lives in us, which he does (1 Cor. 6:19), then shouldn’t lies and perversion of the truth move us deeply? Ever wonder why there’s so much in the Bible about false doctrine, false prophets, and false teachers? Because God’s very nature is truth and consequently he abhors lying (Ps. 119:163). That stuff may not seem important or “relevant” to you, but it deeply moves a God who is absolutely holy and true (1 John 1:5; Rev. 6:10), and if we’re in tune with him, it should deeply move us too.

11. 1 Tim. 6:11, 20 (minister’s need to flee covetousness and keep his charge). 1 Timothy 6 is perhaps Paul’s strongest words against covetousness. Elsewhere he does call it idolatry (Eph. 5:5; Col. 3:5). It can lead to false doctrine (v. 5) and the general destruction of those who follow it (vv.9-10); hence Paul’s emotional exhortation to Timothy in vv. 11-12 to flee it and follow graces in its place. Note the expression “lay hold of eternal life” in vv. 12, 19. The context of v. 19 is giving (v. 18), and by comparison with vv. 11-12, I think that Paul is exhorting Timothy to give also, in lieu of coveting, and so lay hold on eternal life himself. Lastly, he charges Timothy to keep the charge committed unto him and avoid false doctrine, bringing us full circle from 1 Timothy 1:3, where Paul reminds Timothy of why he left him in Ephesus: to contend for pure doctrine within the church.

In conclusion, then, the life of the apostle Paul is characterized by deep feeling, shown in part by his use of the exclamation “O.” These aren’t the only places he expresses deep feeling (cf. Rom. 9:1-5), but they are indicative of it. Although our faith is not based on feelings, it should produce feelings, even deep ones, about various things, as Paul demonstrates. If we’re not deeply moved by the things Paul was, perhaps it’s because we don’t understand the Christian life very well and our affections are in the wrong place. Paul tells us in Col. 3:1-2, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection (your feelings) on things above, not on things on the earth.”