1Cor 16:5-9 - A Man's Mind Plans His Way... But The Lord Directs His Steps (Reprise)

5-9 I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, for I intend to pass through Macedonia, 6 and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter, so that you may help me on my journey, wherever I go. 7 For I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. 8 But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, 9 for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.


When he first starts to let them in on his plans it looks like Paul is presumptuous about what he will and will not be doing. But that would be our mistaken conclusion. All these plans come under the attitude of mind expressed in that little codicil in verse 7 - "if the Lord permits".

We should know and understand by now, if we know Paul’s theology at all, that not only are all his plans subject to the Lord’s will, but they are, underneath, moved by His will. Outwardly there is the appearance of chopping and changing and frustration and uncertainty - but underneath it all are the everlasting arms. Underneath it all the Lord is directing the steps of the will of the man. By faith, Paul understands that God is at work in and through him to do His will and that God alone decides what will and will not come to pass, including those things that he (Paul) purposes. And it is all working together for his good even though he often does not see the big picture, as God does.

Paul’s comings and goings, and their attendant plans no doubt changed quite frequently, as the Lord’s providence unfolded. Thus, it appears that in the lost (unpreserved) letter referred to earlier {1Co 5:9} Paul may have intended to go to Corinth before going to Macedonia as can be deduced by his later letter {2Co 1:15-16} - but the plans changed for unspecified reasons. Indeed, some in Corinth (probably some of the false teachers) took opportunity to impugn and attack Paul for putting them on the back burner as far as a visit was concerned, such that Paul justified himself in the second letter to the Corinthians, as earlier indicated.

Paul’s life was just like ours in this respect - that he looked to God and made decisions based on his understanding of God’s will, stood ready for God to override, and prepared for the flack of all those who looked upon the outward things with coloured, self-serving or ignorant eyes. Paul stood or fell to His Master and to no one else and he gladly paid the price. There were adversaries without and there were adversaries within. This was no idyllic cake-walk - no ethereal, spiritualized, gauzy tip-toeing through the tulips. The early church was a minefield - a fifth-column infiltrated, mole penetrated, writhing, seething pottage of conflict and opposition. And it was all the time under threat of persecution from without.

In other words, the servants were not greater than their Master. As they hated Him, so they hated the church. As they betrayed Him, so they betrayed the church, including those who broke bread with all. Just as today, when the threat was from outside - from the world - the church fared well because people counted the cost and their genuineness was apparent; persecution purified and purged the professors. Just as today, one of the greatest threats came not from without, but from within - with all manner of subtle heresies, false teachers and schisms. Times are not better today. Heresies are not fewer. Where the body is, there the vultures gather. Lack of vigilance draws them closer, but they are ever there.

Whatever Paul means by a wide door opening in Macedonia, we can see that wherever there is the greatest activity of the Holy Spirit there is the greatest opposition of the devil. If he is not bothering us it is likely because we are not a threat to him. If we have no spiritual battle it is likely that we have no spiritual life worthy of attracting the foe's attention.