The Lord does not convert every persecutor who attacks the church, or take away every obstacle in our lives, but he gives examples in his word of how he is able to do so. It is important that, whether God subdues those who trouble us, or whether he sustains us under the persecution, we know that he is able to remove them if he wished. If our sufferings continue, it is not for any lack of power on his part. Rather, he works it for our spiritual advantage. In that last day God will remove all those who hurt his children, but in the meantime, we exercise patience.
God can take the worst enemies of the church and transform them into the most ardent servants of Christ. God not only removed Paul as a source of aggravation to the church, but he turned him into the apostle who would do more to spread the gospel than any other man. Before his conversion, it must have seemed impossible that he could ever show kindness to a believer, or agree with anything they believed. It was nothing less than the raising of the dead to those who witnessed the change in Paul. He concluded that his life was an example: ‘that in me first, Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting’ (1 Timothy 1:16).
How can Paul have destroyed that which is indestructible? What he means is not that he succeeded in destroying it but that he did his best to destroy it if he could. He could not destroy the faith, that is the body of teaching revealed in the Gospel, nor could he destroy a single man, woman or child who had taken hold of Christ by faith. ‘The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal: the Lord knoweth them that are his’. But doesn’t he say ‘I compelled them to blaspheme’ (Acts 26:11)? Yes, but this presents to us with no greater problem than when apparent believers fall away. We have to say either that the Lord will restore them, or that they never knew the Lord, just as Christ warns that there will always be some who fall away (Matthew 13:21).