But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries. - 1 Corinthians 16:8-9 (ESV)
Couple of thoughts:
(1) Effective work and many adversaries, they just don't seem to go together. At least, we don't want them to go together. As a follower of Christ, this is our destiny – to suffer for the Gospel. Suffering takes on many forms: outright opposition, threats of violence, denial of certain pleasures, swallowing our pride. To be sure, the blessings to be had in Christ outweigh the afflictions, but there will be felt suffering from people and things opposed to the Gospel. Paul writes in Philippians 1:29-30
For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.
The point is that the presence of suffering is not a negative factor in determining what effective work might be. We often see adversaries as deterrent; Paul says opposition is a part of following Jesus.
(2) The presence of opposition doesn't mean that you are doing effective work. Many people look at opposition as a confirmation that they are doing the right thing. The effectiveness of the work must be measured against Scripture, not the number of emails we receive. I know several ministries that get quite a bit of opposition and I think that it is often deserved. We are to examine our faithfulness to Christ, not the amount of heat we get.
