What did the Apostle Paul suffer for the sake of the Gospel?
The Apostle Paul suffered physical hardships and relentless opposition for the Gospel. He constantly had to defend his apostleship against Jewish people from Jerusalem who viewed him as a false teacher and imposter. Despite all this, the love of Christ drove him on.
Les teaches that the Apostle Paul suffered inexorably for the sake of the Gospel. Along with his physical sufferings, he had to constantly defend his apostleship, standing up against the Jewish people from Jerusalem who thought he was a false teacher and an imposter. In spite of all the opposition, Paul was driven on by one thing: the love of Christ. Les explains that Paul's background as a religious zealot under Judaism and as a Pharisee set him up for this. Though God totally transformed and saved him by grace, that personality kept going, and Paul turned all that energy not to defeat the name of Christ but out of love for Him. The love of Christ constrained, or drove, him, because he concluded that if one died for the whole human race, then all were dead.