Friends, Ever struggle explaining your faith in Christ to an unbelieving family member?  Consider the newly anointed Apostle of Christ Paul going home to his pious Jewish family in Tarsus. See the column below. Blessings and peace in the New Year.  Bob

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Spirituality Column #894

January 2, 2024

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Welcome to the Family

By Bob Walters

“… because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” – Romans 8:14

The Apostle Paul wrote 13 of the New Testament’s 27 books explaining the kingdom of God, the person of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the mission of the church, and human life in Christ.

The four Gospels tell the story of Jesus. Acts tells the story of the early church, Peter, and Paul; the various letters of Paul and others explain the Good News of Jesus and what humanity is supposed to do about it.  Suddenly, in Christ, we are heirs.

It’s not surprising Paul was so adept and well-practiced at illuminating this newly arrived “Light of the World” – Jesus – who “came for all mankind” (John 3:16) and fulfilled the promises God made to Israel (Matthew 5:17). Jesus came into this world not to start a new religion, but to cement the divine-human relationship God set in motion in the Garden of Eden through Adam and Eve, in the seed of Israel through Abraham, and with the Law of Moses on Sinai.  Jesus came to complete God’s family.

Unlikely as Paul may have seemed – as “Saul” Paul had been killing Christians in defense of the Jewish Torah – Paul was the right man for the job of explaining deeply how the One God entered humanity through Israel in the person of Jesus to renew and restore the fallen world riven by sin and living far from its creator, the One God.

Paul brought many assets to the mission, including brains, energy, persistence, and faith in the One God.  Paul was thoroughly versed in Israel’s scripture as a Pharisee, schooled in Greek culture, was a Roman citizen, and who, despite being a zealot against the first Christians, became the tireless champion of the early church …  and not only because the resurrected Jesus appeared – forcefully, dreadfully, familiarly, personally – to Paul on the road to Damascus.

My holiday reading this year – we’ve had a couple weeks out of school – has been British professor (N.T.) Tom Wright’s book, “Paul: A Biography,” 432 pages published in 2018. Wright is called “St. Paul’s greatest living interpreter” and I’ll not attempt a “review” of the book.  I will say that its depth and common sense assumptions add new dimensions to the readings of Paul.  It’s a big read, but I enjoyed it immensely.

Wright drives home the point, vigorously described by Paul, that Christianity is a completion, not a replacement, of God’s great glory and purpose. And for all the book’s fresh and fascinating information and detail, one aspect I’d never before considered stopped me cold: Paul had to explain his faith in Jesus to his own pious Jewish family.

Shortly after beginning his ministry in Damascus and Jerusalem, “speaking boldly,” “Grecian Jews tried to kill Saul” and “the brothers” sent Paul back home to Tarsus (Acts 9:28-30) for what is thought to be a period of nearly 10, silent years.

Wright sets a fascinating narrative for this period before Paul wrote his letters: the zeal-filled Pharisee Saul goes home to his Jewish family in his Jewish neighborhood of Tarsus – where he had likely learned the family tentmaking business – now bringing zeal for Christ into a family environment that remained zealously pro-Torah. 

One never need wonder how Paul became so good at expressing the inheritance in Christ of the human family under the One God, saved by Jesus.  Paul began with a decade of trying to explain it to his own family and neighbors. That’s serious conviction.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) is aware of the many “controversies” regarding the actual authorship of the various “Pauline” letters and other books of the Bible as well, but accepts the truth of the biblical canon as God’s Word.  Satan prefers we doubt.