This passage lets us see something about the heart of Paul. He was human like all of us. Sometimes he got tired, he got weary, and apparently he even got ready to go home. He mentions in 2 Corinthians that the missions team had despaired ‘even of life itself.’
You can hardly blame him. His life was tougher than any of us will ever face. Sometimes it was so bad that he wished that God would just take him out of it and cary him to heaven. That’s not really a bad desire is it? Eternity with Christ away from all the evil of the world?
But we know that can’t be right. There is far too much to do in the here and now. God’s desire is that everyone we saved and that we lead others to Him.
So how did Paul resolve his ‘strait betwixt two?’
For me to abide in the flesh in more needful for you. I will continue and abide with you to help and to see the joy of Christ in you.
As much as we look forward to heaven we need to put that in God’s hands and get busy serving Him. While we wait for His coming we must, as Paul wrote to the Thessalonians ‘Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.’
Looking for His coming and looking forward to heaven does not mean we sit back and do nothing – it means we get busy and do all we can do to advance His kingdom.
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