The assumption of the name of Paul instead of the name of Saul stood in some relation to his missionary work, and was intended in some sense as a memorial of his first victory in the preaching of the gospel.
I. The new name expresses a new nature. The central heart of Christianity is the possession of a new life, communicated to us through faith in that Son of God who is the Lord of the spirit. Wheresoever there is a true faith, there is a new nature. A change which needs a new name must be a profound change. Has our Christianity revolutionised our nature in any such fashion?
II. We may take this change of name as being expressive of a life's work. Paulis a Roman name. He strips himself of his Jewish connections and relationships. His fellow-countrymen who lived among the Gentiles were in the habit of doing the same thing; but they carried boththeir names their Jewish for use amongst their own people, their Gentile one for use amongst Gentiles. Paul seems to have altogether disused his old name Saul. It was almost equivalent to seceding from Judaism. We may, from the change in the Apostle's name, gather this lesson, never out of date, that the only way to help people is to go down to their level. If you want to bless men, you must identify yourself with them.
III. The change of name is a memorial of victory. The name is that of his first convert. He takes it, as I suppose, because it seemed to him such a blessed thing that at the very moment when he began to sow God helped him to reap. Paul names himself from the first victory that God gave him to win, and so, as it were, carries ever at his breast a memorial of the wonder that through him it had been given to preach, and that not without success, amongst the Gentiles the "unsearchable riches of Christ."
IV. This change of name is an index of the spirit of a life's work. "Paul" means "little"; "Saul" means "desired." He abandons the name that prophesied of favour and honour, to adopt a name that bears upon its very front a profession of humility. His very name is the condensation into a word of his abiding conviction, "I am less than the least of all saints." So, for all hope, for all success in our work, for all growth in Christian grace and character, this disposition of lowly self-abasement. And, above all, learn this that unless you have the new life, the life of God in your hearts, you have no life at all.
A. Maclaren, Christian Commonwealth,May 7th, 1885.
Reference: Acts 13:12. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxx., No. 1781.