But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.
Here we find the introduction of Saul into the New Testament in Acts 3.
But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him
Here we discover Paul’s new identity in Acts 13. What is significant in Saul’s conversion that we can learn about ourselves?
Galatians 1:17-18 English Standard Version
17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. 18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days.
Paul was not immediately accepted in his new identity. He waited for three years to make his approach to Peter and the counsel in Jerusalem. We have no record of the time he spent away from the ministry he was about to lead in the gentiles. It might be that Saul had to find himself in this new identity. His conversion was one of the most dramatic of any in the bible.
We become a new creation in Christ and we should not expect to embrace this new identity without understanding what has really changed and what remains unchanged. None of us should have to expect the same troubles that Sual found, but some of things are very similar.
A Plot to Kill Paul
When it was day, the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul.
Associates from a former life will no longer trust us. They might not try and kill us, but trust has been lost. Breaking off contact with our past may not always be an option for us. Sometimes they are family members, work associates, maybe even life long friends. We must accept that they need to see we have changed, not for our sake but for theirs.