The background to this article is the view sometimes still promoted that Paul was not converted, and that the Damascus Road experience was only a call to ministry. However, the way Luke portrays Paul in Acts 8-Acts 10 shows Saul to lack a right relationship with God. Luke accomplish this picture in part by contrasting the pre-conversion Saul with Stephen, the Ethiopian eunuch, and Cornelius.

How should believers view suffering, especially the kind that comes as a result of them being followers of Christ? With a focus on the relevant passages in 1 Peter 4, the author addresses this issue and points towards the glory that is to be attained at the end.