Thoughts on the Apostle Paul . . .

A few words on the Apostle Paul, my favorite Christian theologian. This is isn't a head trip. It's about understanding freedom and the radical message of Christ for today.

Jewish theologian, Samuel Sandmel, wrote, “Paul did not create Christianity, he re-created it."

I have discovered that Jews are often the best interpreters of Paul. Why? Paul was a Jew, a rabbi, and the framework of Paul’s thinking is largely Jewish, including his apocalyptic world view. Paul never saw himself as deviating from “true Judaism.” To him, Jesus Christ had been revealed as the crucified Messiah, raised from the dead and exalted as Lord. Paul saw a continuous line from Abraham through Moses and the prophets to Christ and beyond. In his view, those Jews who do not accept the gospel are the ones who have deviated and gone astray.

Nevertheless, Paul is the great non-conformist of the early Christian church. We cannot place him in Palestinian Jewish Christianity. Paul represents Hellenistic (Greek-speaking) Christianity. Were it not for Paul, Christianity would have remained a sect within Judaism. Paul was called by Christ to take the gospel to the Gentiles, and this could be called “a second beginning” for Christianity.

This is the main reason we see such tension in Paul’s life and letters. He was breaking new ground, deviating from the Jewish Christian path into the wider Gentile world. Most of his enemies and opponents were Christians. Most of his arguments were with people inside the Christian movement. Thus in Paul we see the stress of a fledging religious movement trying to define itself. Paul is the “genius” behind Hellenistic Christianity, and he paid a price for this.

Paul is interesting, though not always likable. He is impressive, though not always convincing. He is wrong at times, but he is never shallow.

I'm convinced that the institutional church has never understood Paul and his gospel of freedom in Christ. The only way the institutional church can use Paul is by misinterpreting him! Otherwise Paul is too de-stabilizing. Church bureaucrats must water him down. Whenever Christianity gets dull and boring, you can be sure we've lost touch with Paul and that we don't understand him at all.