You May Die!

In the 2011 Death Race, competitors were asked to sign waivers on which were written only three words.

The apostle Paul is doing hard time in a Roman prison.

Parole date, unknown.

We don't know if he was in a prison prison, or under house arrest. But he does mention his chains, not once, not twice, but three times in a span of four verses (Philippians 1:13, 14, 17). So we can disregard the idea that he was in an Italian villa with an electronic bracelet on his ankle, free to come and go as he pleased as long as he didn't wander past the palace guards -- whom he also mentions.

As a Christian in Nero's Rome about A.D. 61 he's not very popular, and Paul knows that he could die.

In spite of this, Paul is very upbeat in his letter from Rome to the Christians in Philippi. He thanks God for their sharing in the gospel and prays for them with joy (1:3-5). Imprisonment has had some unexpected benefits, he reports -- it "has actually helped to spread the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to everyone else that my imprisonment is for Christ" (vv. 12-13). This...