On the Difficulty with Paul

Country Parson

Something I have heard in conversation—or a question asked directly—is the source of many of these columns. Not long ago, a member of our congregation complained, good-naturedly, that we spend entirely too much time on Paul and that she gets tired of him. She also observed that she finds too many of Paul’s comments about women uncomfortable.

Before moving on, it is worth remembering that Paul also proclaimed that in Christ there is “neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female.” He also named women as deacons, leaders of local churches, and fellow workers with him in proclaiming the gospel.

Nevertheless, she has a point. After all, Paul is only a few words shy of being the most prolific writer in the New Testament, trailing only Luke. That means Paul’s letters make up a significant portion of the Scripture read on Sundays, which also means they occupy a significant portion of what I teach when we are studying the New Testament. Pauline scholars who have devoted their careers to the study of his writings are legion.

With that in mind, I think there are a couple of clarifications that need to be made about Paul and his letters.

The first, and most important, is that Paul is not Jesus. Paul is not the Messiah. He is not the Son of God, and although he was eventually executed, he did not rise again on the third day. That should be obvious, but many believers treat everything Paul wrote as though it were “gospel truth.”

It isn’t.

Rather, it is Paul pointing toward gospel truth as he matures in his own understanding of who Jesus was, who he is, and what he means for humanity.

Gospel truth is found first and foremost in the record of what Jesus said and did. It is sealed by his death and resurrection as the incarnate Word of God, who lived and died as one of us—not merely as another prophet, but as God made flesh.

Because Paul’s letters were written first, some have suggested that they must be more authoritative than the Gospels.

It is really the other way around.

The evangelists did their very best to preserve the memory of what Jesus said and did. They told, as faithfully as they were able, of his ministry, his trial, his death, his burial, and above all his resurrection and appearances to many witnesses. Their purpose was to proclaim Jesus himself.

Paul’s purpose was different.

He began as a fierce persecutor of those who followed Jesus. He had never been one of the Twelve, and there is every reason to believe that he rejected the Christian claim that Jesus was the promised Messiah. Only years later did the risen Christ confront him on the road to Damascus as he was traveling to persecute Christians.

From that moment he became the last of the apostles, and he spent the rest of his life doing two things.

The first was discovering for himself what it meant to believe in, trust, and follow Jesus as Lord. Reading his letters in roughly chronological order reveals how that understanding developed and matured over time.

The second was founding churches throughout what is now Turkey, Greece, and Macedonia. He trained local leaders, appointed elders, and wrote letters to congregations struggling with questions of faith, ethics, worship, and life within the surrounding culture.

We should also remember that Paul was only one of many apostles sent out from Jerusalem to proclaim the good news throughout the Mediterranean world and beyond. He had little or nothing to do with the spread of Christianity into North Africa, much of Italy, or the ancient Christian communities that eventually appeared as far away as India.

Sadly, Paul is almost the only apostle whose letters have survived in substantial number. Because of that, he has become our primary source for understanding both the growth of the early Church and the spiritual development of one remarkable believer.

However inspired Paul was by the Holy Spirit, he was not Jesus.

He was a man who faithfully did the best he could, and he did it extraordinarily well. His letters reveal not only his convictions but also his struggles, his doubts, and the way his understanding deepened over the years. They also reveal the struggles of the congregations to whom he wrote.

That is why we continue to study them.

Their questions are our questions. Their conflicts are our conflicts. Their hopes are our hopes. Paul’s letters help guide us on our own journey toward greater faith.

They also enrich our reading of the Gospels. Paul reminds us that faithful people ask questions, wrestle with uncertainty, and continue learning throughout their lives. Faith is not something we acquire once and for all. It grows as we grow.

God is still speaking. God is still creating. Our task is to keep listening.

So give Paul a bit of a break.

More than that, think of him as a trusted mentor who has already walked much of the road on which you now travel and who still has much to teach us.