Fasting is Different

Chapter 11, verses 23 and 27, he gives us somewhat similar lists. He says,

“Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as a fool—I am more.”

And then he gives a whole list of ways in which he proved he was a minister of Christ. And in verse 27, this is part of the list:

“in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.”

So he says, “I fasted often.” And notice he says hunger and thirst is one thing, fasting is another. Hunger and thirst is when you can’t eat because you don’t have anything to eat. Fasting is when you *could* eat, but you deny yourself. That was one of the ways that Paul proved himself as a minister of Christ. And I believe Christ’s ministers should prove themselves that way today.