Go on your way;
behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves.
Jesus did not try to train his disciples to be wolves who were able to engage other wolves on their own aggressive terms. By prohibiting much preparation on the part of his disciples he would make it clear to them that the Kingdom did not spread on the basis of competition with the world. What, to the world, was a severe handicap, was actually an advantage for the spread of the Kingdom. Worldly projects didn't benefit from being unencumbered since they were try to produce earthly results. But the Kingdom had its own energizing power that didn't originate in this world. It won its battles by listening to the Spirit rather than by utilizing overwhelming force. It was like Gideon who only won after sending a sufficient number of his troops home (see Judges 7:1-15). It was like how Israel would prevail against Amalek as long as Moses had his hands raised in worship (see Exodus 17:11-13).
Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals;
and greet no one along the way.
We have no reason to assume that Paul ever undertook a mission under exactly the same conditions as the seventy-two Jesus sent. But he certainly internalized the attitude that such conditions were meant to teach. Dozens of things that would have thwarted successful men from completing worldly endeavors were not enough to discourage Paul, let alone stop him. Had he been dependent on the support he received alone the way he might have been crushed when he was deserted by Demas, Crescens, and Titus. He could do without his cloak when needed. What mattered to him was conveying the word of God, which is why the papyrus rolls and the parchments seems more important to him than the cloak. He faced opposition from wolves like Alexander the coppersmith without losing his focus. Because he was rooted in the Holy Spirit as the source of his mission he was able to brush off the rejection and desertion he experienced, even praying that those who did so be forgiven, just as Jesus, and later, Steven, had also done.
Luke is the only one with me.
The temptation to abandon one who appeared at times to be as weak an ineffective as a lamb must have been strong. But Luke at least recognized the greater power that was at work in Paul. It's no wonder how much he himself came to be concerned to see the events of the Gospel and the events of Paul's mission recorded and preserved for posterity. It is no doubt for this reason among others that Luke himself wrote the largest portion of the New Testament. He learned and understood that what Paul said was true for him could also be true for anyone who let the Lord show them the way.
But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength,
so that through me the proclamation might be completed
and all the Gentiles might hear it.
Elevation Worship - See A Victory
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