I wrote about the apostle Paul calling himself the prisoner of Christ here earlier. Paul suffered a lot of things in his life, including being shipwrecked on Malta, which lies in the Mediterranean Sea, just south of the Adriatic and Ionian seas. It was in AD 60, when he was being taken under armed guard to Rome after having appealed to Ceasar, which as a Roman citizen he was entitled to do. The Book of Acts records the details in chapters 27:27 – 28:5.
Paul had set out from Adramyttium, along with other prisoners under the authority of a centurion named Julius. After landing in Myra in Lycia, they changed to another ship, and despite Paul’s warnings of bad weather, they sailed on. What came next was fourteen days of stormy weather, and after that time he begged those on board to eat so that they would be strengthened for what lay ahead.
What happened next was shipwreck on the shores of Malta, where the apostle was bitten by a snake and suffered no ill effects, and performed several miracles among the population. The whole account is fascinating, from the warnings that Paul gave about the trip, and his calm assurance that he would indeed appear before Ceasar.
Paul eventually died after being beheaded by the emperor Nero in 66-67 AD.
The remarkable thing about Paul is the amount of work that he got through during his imprisonment, writing the books of Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, and later, 2 Timothy. During the whole time he was amazingly peaceful, being confident that he was in the center of God’s will for his life.
Calling himself “the prisoner of Jesus Christ” in Ephesians 3:1 was remarkable for the fact that he still wrote about the glory of God, and in Philippians 3:8, he states that he counts everything as loss in comparison to the value of knowing Jesus Christ. The word translated as “dung” or “rubbish” comes from the Greek word skubalon, which means waste, refuse, or manure.
Paul’s point was that nothing, no knowledge and no other person could bring salvation but Christ.
I don’t know about anyone else, but there have been times in my life when I have been in situations where I have fought and prayed about difficult situations, only to find out later that in the midst of it, that God was indeed doing something in my life, and that had I realized it earlier, I could have known his peace in the midst of it.
In Philippians 3:10 Paul says: “that I might know Him and the power of His resurrection”. That’s the source of his peace and confidence, knowing Christ. We can know all the facts and history of God’s people, as Paul did, or we can seek to know Him, as Paul did. Knowing Him, that’s where peace begins.