If you look at Paul's life, not just at his letters, it becomes clear that EVERYTHING the man EVER did, as an apostle, was ALL for the purpose of advancing God's Kingdom. So, in those letters, if Paul spends much time talking about some topics that needed to be talked about, then why was he doing that? He did that because those topics were causing problems in God's Kingdom at that time.
In Corinth, in Ephesus, in Thessalonica, in Galatia - in every place where Paul went, his primary, secondary, tertiary and ultimate aim was to ESTABLISH GOD'S KINGDOM. (No, it doesn't matter just this moment what else we often call it. That's still what it was.) And when Paul went back and visited God's Kingdom, or sent his junior apostles to visit God's Kingdom, or wrote a letter to the subjects of God's Kingdom... ALL OF THAT... every word of it was written ONLY because Paul was trying to help people live together, in harmony, as the people of God, under HIS headship.
And yet so many people read Paul and think, "Wow, he was focused on all these ideas." Well, for a page or two at a time, yes of course he was. But you can't judge the man's LIFE on the basis of word-count.
Look at Paul's HISTORY. Not just his "theology".
In terms of their actions, Paul's focus was NOT at all different from Jesus'.
1 comment:
Great post. Favorite quote: "you can't judge the man's LIFE on the basis of word-count." Amen!
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