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While Paul could remain unmoved at the prospect of prison, or even death, for
Christ's sake, he was exceedingly moved by the tears of the saints who sought to
dissuade him from his purpose. It is recorded:
"Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am
ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus"
(Acts 21: 13).
Paul also remembered the tears shed by others. He writes to Timothy:
"Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy"
(II Tim. 1: 4).
In his counsel to the church at Rome he wrote:
"Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep" (Rom. 12: 15).
although, some time earlier, in a different context, he had said:
"The time is short: it remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had
none; and they that weep, as though they wept not" (I Cor. 7: 29, 30).
While weeping was far more common in Eastern lands than in our own, and not
considered a sign of weakness, to be hidden or repressed, there is nothing in the Apostle's
mind or manifested in his character which is indicative of weak or maudlin
sentimentality. He would have been as severe a critic of the lachrymose preacher as any
to-day, but he could not refrain from tears, nor did he attempt to hide the fact, when he
wrote to the Philippians warning them of the evil example of those who were minding
"earthly things". If not repudiated, such conduct would do for the Philippians what the
mixed multitude did for Israel--cause them to lose the prize.
It is enough to make one weep to-day to see how many different ways the evil one has
of cheating the believer of his reward, and perhaps the one most used, is the denial,
falsely put forward as in the interests of grace, that there is a prize to be won or a reward
to be lost, and that in spite of Phil. 3: 14 and Col. 2: 18; 3: 24.
We feel sure that the Apostle shed more tears over others than he ever shed for
himself. Trials and troubles that come from the world are not unexpected; it is the
"lying in wait of the Jews", his own countrymen; the attacks of ignorant brethren; the
slanders created by envy and spite, where love and appreciation should have been found;
these, and the sins of the Lord's people, were the cause of the Apostle's weeping. In all
this he followed the steps of his Lord. The chapter in John's Gospel that contains one of
the mightiest of Christ's self-revelations also contains the most human of all:
"I am the resurrection, and the life" (John 11: 25).
"Jesus wept" (John 11: 35).