The Problem With Paul

How the first-century church survived their first few years is remarkable. Today, nearly 50% of startups fail within five years.  

 

Can you imagine these new Jewish believers in Acts 2 wondering how they fit into Temple worship and what to do about required sacrifices? What are the polity, governance, and infrastructure elements of this movement? Remember, no New Testament letter existed yet; their theology was being formed by their experience and whatever they could interpret from the Law and the Prophets that shed light on this new sect. What was the discipleship structure for understanding this remarkable covenant? How could Gentiles ever be a part of this movement? And on and on and on.

Think how complicated—and fragile—this all would have been. No wonder Gnosticism and various squirrelly theologies slipped in so quickly.

And then Paul steps into the picture.

I often hear believers taking potshots at Paul and his supposed “reshaping of Jesus’ message.” Sometimes, people pit Paul’s letters against the less “legalistic” love ethic of Jesus. But I can’t even imagine what Christianity—let alone the early church—would have done without his clear-headed and revelatory insight into this strange and unarticulated new covenant.

There are precious few verses in the prophets regarding the details and nature of this next covenant (there is far more about “the day of the Lord,” which is sometimes interpreted as the same). The only place that even uses the specific language of “new covenant” is Jeremiah 31, with God spelling out just a few basics: the forgiveness of sins, an individualized and actualized deep knowledge of Him, and a new spirit concordant with the law and heart of God.

Yes, Paul’s writing requires thoughtful and contextual understanding, but I don’t always see a dichotomy between the Kingdom language of Jesus and the mysterious foreshadows and types within the Old Testament.

Somewhat sweetly, the apostle Peter put it like this:

This is just as our beloved brother Paul wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him—speaking of these things in all his letters. Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are ignorant and unstable twist his letters to mean something quite different from what he meant, just as they do the other parts of Scripture—and the result is disaster for them.   2 PETER 3:15b–16

Even more so, taking into account what Luke recorded of the encounter pre-conversion Saul (Paul) had with Jesus—it’s Jesus who calls a believer named Ananias to pray for Paul, who was walking around in the dark, blinded by the light. In a vision, Jesus tells Ananias that Paul has been handpicked to carry the Kingdom message to the Gentiles—and via some kick-butt suffering. Years later, Paul becomes the first real theologian of the Jesus Underground movement. Reading his letters is like, as historian Thomas Cahill writes, “watching original theology in the making.” Pretty amazing when you think about what he did.

When we say the word theologian, we tend to think of a bookish kind of guy with glasses and a corduroy sport coat with patches on the elbows. But Paul was certainly not that.

• Think of a religious zealot who switches sides inexplicably and now constantly gets attacked; who once escaped some bounty hunters over a city wall at night in a rope-lowered basket;

• Think of a guy who almost gets torn apart because his preaching about Jesus is so compelling that the idol-making trade union riots in Ephesus because of a Kingdom-driven recession;

• Three times he narrowly survives a shipwreck;

• Imprisoned multiple times;

• Five times flogged with thirty-nine lashes;

• Three times he was beaten with a cane;

• Once he survived a stoning…barely;

• Traveled all over the Middle East, Asia, and Europe—pre-Megabus days, when it was extremely dangerous;

• Often went without food, left in prison cold and naked for months;

• While calling himself the “chief sinner” (probably because he was a widow-maker pre-conversion), he humbly writes that he now has a “clear conscience.” Wow. Now that’s a deep understanding of forgiveness and grace.

Let me ask you: What do you think Paul would think of American Christianity? And what would you think of someone who, by his own admission, was not much to look at and not very impressive in person? And this is the man who says to the people he’s mentoring: Fight a worthy fight…a good fight.

I agree: Paul can be difficult and challenging, and we should wrestle with his writing. But before I throw shade, maybe I should try walking a mile in his leadership sandals.

Dave Workman | The Elemental Group

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