Learning From Paul

Galatians 1:11-24

Introduction

I am always amazed at the diversity of personalities among people. Two of the categories that exist are those who are easy going and who are able to agree to disagree, and those who have very strong convictions and exclaim: “Here I stand, I can do no other.” Of course these are just the extremes of a continuum with many points in between. This can be demonstrated in a wide variety of settings. Take for example a couple of people trying to make a decision of what restaurant they want to go out to for a meal. One might respond with: “It doesn’t matter to me, anywhere works.” The other might have very strong opinions and have to drive past a dozen good restaurant to get to one that has made their short list. I see this spectrum all the time.

It also exists within the church. There are those who do not get concerned by what they consider secondary matters and are happy to fellowship with people they disagree with. Others might not see anything as a secondary issue and see every detail as part of discerning the purity of the faith.

When we look at the Apostle Paul, that great Christians who is responsible for so much of our New Testament, where do you think he fits in this continuum? That is not as easy to answer as you might expect. I would suggest that Paul did see areas that he could agree to disagree on and that he saw some compromise as needed for the unity of and the building up of the faith. At the same time, Paul comes across as someone who takes a strong stand and probably found himself frequently in conflict. 

Last week, we looked at the Apostle Peter. Based on what we know about Peter and Paul, I suspect that Peter would probably be the easier of the two to get along with. At the same time, our theology is shaped much more by Paul than Peter, partially because we have so many of Paul’s letters. But I think that space of thinking deeply about how following Jesus gets applied to real life is where Paul was comfortable.

I have talked to a number of Christians who have admitted to me that they love Jesus but struggle with Paul. Some of the things that Paul says seem so black and white and make some people uncomfortable. Again, I think there is more nuance to Paul than he is given credit for but I do understand what people are saying. Let us take a look at the life of Paul and try to understand what we can learn, not just from his teachings but from his life.

Life of Paul

Paul does not share a lot of personal information but what we have is very interesting. What we know is, like Peter who was originally Simon, Paul was originally named Saul. He was from a city called Tarsus, in modern Turkey, and a place known as a place of learning. Paul was from the tribe of Benjamin, was a Pharisee, and was trained by one of Judaism’s top rabbis. 

We first meet Paul, then known as Saul, as he was persecuting the Christians. He was present at the stoning of Stephen. We need to take a moment to consider why Paul was doing this. Some with anti-Jewish sentiment have suggested that Jewish people were naturally anti-Christian. This is not true. In the beginning, Christianity was 100% Jewish and was actually considered a sect of Judaism. Most Jews who were not already followers of Jesus did not really care about the debates. But there is always someone who is focused on the identity markers of who is in and who is out. Paul was one of these. Although it was not against the law to believe that the Messiah had come, Paul and some others saw these early Christians as a threat to the ways they understood their traditions. We see this even in Christianity. During the Reformation, both Catholics and Protestants persecuted those who were different from them. What Paul was doing was out of zeal for the Jewish traditions as he understood them. He would never had considered that he was going against God’s will. He understood what he was doing to be God’s will. Again, Christians have fallen into this many times as well.

Everything changed when Paul encountered the risen Jesus. This was a very special meeting. This was after the ascension and so after the time that the risen Jesus had been meeting with the apostles. We do not have any other examples of something like this in Scripture. Jesus did not ask Pul if he wanted to be a Christian, he simply revealed himself in his glory to Paul and that was that. When we look at what Jesus promised Paul in that meeting, it was both that he would have a special ministry, this would include being the apostle to the Gentiles, but also that he would suffer. Both promises came true.

How do we know that Paul really met Jesus and did not just have a guilty conscience over what he had been doing to the Christians? In that culture, community was everything. Paul had a secure community within the Pharisees but all that would be lost if he followed Jesus. But there was no guarantee that Paul would be accepted by the Christians.They had every reason to question Paul’s sincerity and respond out of fear. Paul was taking a real chance on his future by becoming a Jesus follower, something that he would have done unless he encountered something real.

What we find in Galatians 1 is a defence of the gospel that Paul was preaching. Because of the circumstances of his transformation, there were those who questioned Paul’s credentials. Paul did not claim to be only a Christian, he claimed to be an apostle. But Paul did not become a Christian until after the ascension, and so how could he be an apostle? Some suspected that Paul was taught the gospel by the Jerusalem apostles and was then riding their coattails. He just shared what someone else taught him and that did not make him anyone special. This is why in many of Paul’s letters, he strongly affirms his authority as an apostle. Paul was an apostle, not because of the authority of Peter or James, but because Paul received his gospel directly from Jesus. Not everyone would accept this and yet the fruit of his ministry demonstrated its truthfulness. Paul planted numerous churches, spread the gospel throughout the Roman Empire, and developed the next generation of leaders. While Paul was not the first to preach to the Gentiles, he did take it to the next level and was the strongest advocate that Gentiles could follow Jesus without taking on the Jewish Law. Paul was also responsible for writing much of our New Testament as many of his letters were collected early on and passed around the churches. Much of our theology today is shaped by how Paul took the gospel of Jesus Christ and applied to real life.

Sounds like a successful life. It was but it was also a life of suffering. He experience conflict both inside and outside the church. The little about his life that he shares is about his suffering rather than his accomplishments. Paul eventually was sent to Rome because he had appealed to Caesar, which was his right as a Roman citizen, after experiencing conflict in Jerusalem. Tradition tells us that Paul was beheaded in Rome during the reign of Nero. And yet Paul’s legacy lives on.

Conclusion

To be honest, I can identify more with the Apostle Peter than I can with the Apostle Paul. And yet there is much about Paul that draws me. Paul is often known today for his strong stands that he took, something that did not stop after he became a Christian. And yet this same Paul wrote the beautiful words about love that we find in 1 Corinthians 13. When we move from the caricature of Paul that is often shared, we actually find an incredibly complex figure. He is both strong and weak, confident and anxious. 

Paul was one who held strong convictions and yet he understood the difference between primary and secondary issues. While Paul would not compromise on the nature of the gospel, he did see that there were other issues in which we should agree to disagree for the sake of Christian unity.

Paul offers us a snapshot of a healthy faith that is Christ-centred and at the same time is shaped by the importance of loving one another. He also is someone who had a thoughtful faith, one that considered the nuances of a specific situation. Although Paul wrote his letters two thousand years ago, he still has so much to offer the church today. Neither the gospel nor human nature have changed throughout the centuries.

I am thankful that God had given us people like Peter and Paul, and many other men and women, who are inspirations for us.