After all, in many ways I have come to see the apostle as just another "slob on the bus trying to make his way home" just like the rest of us. Sometimes he misses the mark, but sometimes he is freakin' brilliant, too. So, here are my Top Five insights from the writings of St. Paul:
+ Number Five: So here's what I want you to do. While I'm locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don't want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don't want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences... No prolonged infancies among us, please. We'll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are an easy mark for impostors. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love. (Ephesians 4)
+ Number Four: By entering through faith into what God has al
ways wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that's not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God's grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise. There's more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we're hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we're never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can't round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit! (Romans 5)+ Number Three: In Christ's family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ. Also, since you are Christ's family, then you are Abraham's famous "descendant," heirs according to the covenant promises. (Galatians 3)
+ Number Two: So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging yo
u down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Romans 12)+ Number One: If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 2If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. 3-7If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love. Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, Doesn't have a swelled head, Doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Doesn't fly off the handle, Doesn't keep score of the sins of others, Doesn't revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end. Love never dies... for now we see as through a glass darkly, but then we shall see face to face. (I Corinthians 13)
This is a winning hand as far as I can tell - a truly mature and joy filled testimony to the love of God - and I wouldn't want to ignore it. Tomorrow I'll consider some of the offenses that brother Paul - and the church - have offered the world. But for now I think it best just to revel in the beauty of his insights. (NOTE: I've used Peterson's The Message for the quotes so they may strike some as odd. I love them!)
2 comments:
A couple of things: one, Bart Ehrman has made an excellent case for several of the Epistles attributed to Paul as being forgeries and those remaining as having been doctored by later scribes. Example, the bit about women keeping silent in church is most probably not Paul's statement.
Secondly, the Epistles as we know them are the survivors, not the whole story. What Don't we have by Paul and by other contemporary faithful?
Besides, my favourite Biblical quote is probably his: Work out your faith journey in humility and profound respect (yes, I paraphrased it).
Oh I know about the additional authors of the epistles - I understand that realm - and know that we don't have the whole story, too. And, I find parts of whatever writings we do have to be wise and edifying; not all, mind you, but some. And like you I find myself paraphrasing the old guy lots, too. Thanks for your words, my man.
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