Poor Paul

I think most have heard the term, “Robbing Peter to pay Paul.” But in reality it is Paul who is being robbed. Modern theologians have made Paul a pauper. They have followed the ways of the world. As someone wrote my son: “We love Jesus; Paul? Not so much.” Paul never slighted our Lord’s teachings (1 Tim.6:3), but simply took them a step further. Nevertheless, you will not hear Paul quoted by the worldlings as authoritative on any of today’s issues.

This is in spite of the fact that Paul’s writings are specifically to this Church Age. All the Bible is for us, but not all of it is to or about us. Jesus and the twelve ministered to the Jews; Paul, to the Gentiles. Lift Paul’s Epistles from the Bible and you would be in complete darkness as to most of the great doctrines (Resurrection, Atonement, Justification, etc.), as well as how Christians should live today.

Someone has said, “Christianity is the only religion that teaches by letters.”  This being the case, every saint should be familiar with Paul’s Letters. You should not be long out of them.

The following is from my own personal Bible study. Notice the progression in Paul’s life and teachings (Prov. 4:18). Here are three examples of it: 1) Early in his ministry he seemed to believe in the immediate return of the Lord, while toward the end, the imminent return. 2) He cast out devils at the offset of his ministry, but at the last, I believe, taught individual saints how to instruct others to do it in their own personal lives (2 Tim. 2:24-26, notice v 26. 3) He healed at the commencement of his ministry, but toward the end, left sick saints unaided by him (2 Tim.4:20). He also travelled with Doctor Luke in many of his journeys.