Jan. 25: The Conversion of St. Paul

The Church would not be what it is without St. Paul's tireless evangelism and his epistles. We could not live on the Gospels alone.

There is one lesson that I take from St. Paul this day, from the Second Lesson at Matins (Philippians 3): we do not have to get it right. We can be “an Hebrew of the Hebrews” and “touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless,” and that is not enough.

I work hard at making music, and at doing what I perceive to be my duties as a Christian. I get it wrong more often than I get it right. But even when (perhaps especially when) I sometimes get it right, I need St. Paul's reminder that all this is as dung (3:8) “for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.”

This is no excuse to slack off; we must, with St. Paul, “press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (3:14). But our standing with God does not depend on how that turns out. It rests entirely on grace.