Saving lives

https://odb.org/2025/09/23/saving-lives

Acts 20:17–24 (NIV): 17 From Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church. 18 When they arrived, he said to them: “You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia. 19 I served the Lord with great humility and with tears and in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents. 20 You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. 21 I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus. 22 “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23 I only know that in every city, the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. 24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.

Adolfo Kaminsky knew how to remove indelible ink from paper. As a member of the anti-Nazi resistance in France, he altered identification cards to save hundreds from concentration camps. Once, he was given three days to forge nine hundred birth and baptismal certificates and ration cards for three hundred Jewish children. He laboured two straight days without sleep, telling himself, “In one hour, I can make thirty blank documents. If I sleep for an hour, thirty people will die.”

The above is an excerpt from today’s ODB, which was courageous and exemplary behaviour. However, in retrospect, it was a criminal act, and while we do not advocate going against the law, there are times when lives matter more than the consequences of our actions.

In the case of Paul, he did not hesitate to travel to Jerusalem to preach, knowing that much pain and hardship await him there. He was eventually arrested, and as he was a Roman citizen, he appealed to Caeser and was granted the right to be tried in Rome and in the process preached Christ at the highest stage of the known world then. Paul’s mission was to preach Christ as spiritual lives matter more than hardship and even his death.

What matters more to us? Is it a successful life lived to the fullest for God’s glory or for our own comfort and security? We may not be called to live like Paul, but surely there must be some risk we need to take for the sake of the Gospel? For example, if we preach Christ, we risk rejection. Nevertheless, the real work to convict someone of his sins is not ours. We just need to share the Gospel or our testimony and let the Holy Spirit use us as His mouthpiece. In the end, every human being has the will to choose for himself, where his heart lies. I think, at the very least, we must prepare a testimony of what God has done for us, His goodness and blessings upon us and our family, and share that with others wherever we have the opportunity. Surely, the spiritual lives of others matter more than our fear or shame of rejection?