Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
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Paul asked the saints to pray for him, so that he might have the courage to speak the things that God had revealed to him. The truth God revealed to Paul was so challenging to doctrines of his day, including some doctrines held as true by God's own people, that Paul needed great spiritual strength just to confess before men what Jesus had revealed to him. Having great confidence in the faith and righteousness of the saints in Thessalonica, Paul wrote in both his letters to them, "Brethren, pray for us", but the principal reason Paul requested the saints to aid him in prayer was expressed best in his letter to the saints at Ephesus: " . . . praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit . . . for all saints, and for me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel" (6:18-19).
This is the attitude of every man who has truly heard and learned the truth from God. The word of God challenges every man, and no man of himself can overcome the world's resistance to it. No man can, by his own will and power, preach the truth of Christ. I have learned that by experience. There have been times I have had to plead with the Lord to please give me faith to believe what he had shown me, much less to proclaim it. The Word of God reveals to the man to whom it comes just how little spiritual strength he has, and how much he must depend on Jesus in order to do the will of God.
Like you, no doubt, I have at times heard fiery Christian ministers on their radio or TV programs declare that they were going to preach the gospel even if no one on earth stood with them. They seem so completely confident that, even if the whole world turned against them, they would boldly hold forth the Word of God to the whole world alone. A few years ago, after hearing such a boast from one Christian radio minister, the Spirit spoke to my heart and said, "That's what a man says who has never heard from God." And I understood exactly what Jesus meant.
That man has no knowledge of what resisting the world is, for his gospel is of the world. He is saying what the world wants him to say, and in is heart he knows that. He is saying what he is saying to gain both favor and money from men.
The reason those ministers proclaim that they possess such mighty faith and strength, even if the whole world turns against them, is because they know that it impresses the listening audience. The very reason such a man is teaching whatever it is that he is teaching is because so many others are teaching it! He has received nothing from God for the saints. If God were to speak to such a man and reveal His truth, he would be on his face begging God for courage to confess before men what he now knows to be true. I have met a number of men who have seen the truth and are now being paid to teach other things. They do not have the courage to speak the whole counsel of God to their congregations. I know these men, and they know me. May our merciful God help them, as He has helped me, to speak the things that we understand.
Remember, my dear brothers and sisters, the man who boasts of his spiritual power to overcome an entire world of opposition is the man who has no idea of what opposition from the world really is. God has not spoken to that man; he is of the world, and the world is paying him to boast of his devotion to Jesus. When God speaks to a man, that man realizes his own desperate weakness and his absolute need of strength from Jesus to confess the truth.
The Word of God is holy and is so different from everything that we first can expect that it changes forever the man to whom it comes. It both demands change and provides the power to change. Once that change is accomplished, the servant of God is never the one boasting of what he will do even if the whole world fights against him. Instead, he is glorifying God for His mercy, both to reveal truth and to give the heart boldness to love it.
I once asked my very wise father if he ever had experiences like mine. Then I told him that on several occasions, I had obeyed God, but I had come so close to not obeying Him that I couldn't rejoice all that much. He replied, "Oh, yes!", and I could tell that he knew exactly how I had felt. The way of the Spirit is a way of victory, but not a victory that is so easy that it can be taken for granted and boasted about. This is why it is foolish to claim to be already saved. Nobody who walks in the Spirit does that.
Paul told the congregation of Christ at Corinth to judge nothing before Jesus comes back. He will declare who will be saved and who will not. He even said that he knew nothing against himself, but that did not make him right with God (1Cor. 4:1-5). It counts for nothing for us to claim to be saved. It isn't about us; it is about Jesus, who alone has the authority from God to declare a man saved or damned.
Live right; fear God; and "hope to the end for the salvation that shall be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." No one will be saved because he claims to be, just as no one is overcoming the world just because he claims that he would be able to, no matter what. No one's tongue is his Savior.