He who has no "marks" - no "print of the nails," has no evidence of true discipleship. Paul bore these marks of sacrifice in his body - the proof positive of his daily dying, but he lived again in the lives of thousands of others. In Galatia, in Corinth, in Thessalonica, in Ephesus, in Philippi, there were those in whom he had buried himself; but, like the buried seed, he had brought forth much fruit, and these were among the living because he had learned the secret of daily dying.

These outward brand-marks of the Lord Jesus inflicted on Paul's body were as nothing in comparison to the inward scars. His missionary journeys, his satanic assaults, his persecution from the enemies of the cross, his attacks from the false brethren, his concern for the young converts, the care of the churches: these were the real scars.

Have you the brand-marks of the Lord Jesus on Your body? How few believers have His brand-marks upon their bodies! How few are giving themselves away for the sake of those who can only be saved by the sacrifice of their lives.

In these days of ease and heartless self-indulgence, it's easy to pass through life without the "stigmata" in which the apostle gloried. This feeble age is the mother of feeble saints.

The militant words of the first century found in the Gospels and Epistles need a militant age to interpret them. How few real New Testament churches there are today! How few New Testament Christians there are! Witness the idle, easy-going, compromising Christians who exhibit scholastic degrees instead of scars!

Think of the awful condition of earth's millions without the gospel who will never hear its message at the present rate of advance. Think of all the various phases of the work of God that urgently need reinforcements.

Then cry to God, my brother, my sister, that He will make you a real soldier of the Cross, to bear the outward and inward scars of conquest!

The first-century believers, so honored by us, will rise up in judgment against us, because of our easy lives! Oh, that there were in this century more like George Hunter, that blessed pioneer missionary to the Gobi Desert and the other outlying parts of Asia. Possibly no man in modern times has ever followed so gloriously in the footsteps of the apostle, glorying in all the implications of the Cross.

For years, he labored alone in these Asian wilds without any furlough, penetrating the dark places of heathenism. What sufferings and sacrifices were his, I have not time to relate, but, blessed be God, he, too, filled up in his own person what was lacking in Christ's sufferings (Colossians1:24).

The Son of God desperately needs warriors today! May God help us to stand with Paul, come what may, and cry out, "Henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the ownership-marks of the Lord Jesus."

This is copyrighted material from James Stewart's book Come O Breath!, available from Revival Literature, PO Box 6068, Asheville, NC 28816.