21.What was Paul debating in his mind?

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Whether it would be better for him to go home to be with Jesus or to remain in his body in order to minister to the needs of the Christian people.

We can understand the pressures that were on Paul at this time. To go to be with Jesus would mean exceedingly great joy and delight in the spirit realm. But there were few—if any—human beings living on the earth who could impart to the churches the wisdom, the strength, the courage, the determination, the inspiration, the example that were Paul’s to give by the Lord’s grace.

So this rugged, faithful Jew awakened each day to obnoxious confinement in a military barracks, bearing on his spirit the burden of all the churches of Christ. Paul had a few years remaining before he could write to Timothy that his course was finished and the crown of righteousness was his.

Marvellous grace has come to the Body of Christ because of the remaining years of Paul’s imprisonment in his physical body. Also, Paul’s own personality would have become more mature, better prepared to pass into the Presence of the infinitely pure, infinitely gentle Jesus.