Paul Who?

Exodus 1:8

King James Version

8 Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.

II Corinthians 11: 1-6

Q: Free association.  When I mention the Apostle Paul, what word comes to mind?

When I think of the Apostle Paul, I think of authority.  Spiritual authority.  God-given authority.  His spiritual origins – the sources of his authority – are not obscure or ambiguous.  He met Christ, face to face, on the road to Damascus and was specifically commissioned by the Spirit to take the gospel to the Gentile world.  Moreover, the scriptures are chock full of passages documenting the demonstration of Paul’s authority right in the light of day. He drove out demons, healed the sick, and raised the dead. 

We look at the church today – at its many divisions, at the moral confusion and compromise, at the fraud and hypocrisy and even debauchery that plague it at the highest and lowest levels, might think that if we had such a spiritual giant among us today we might have more unity, more clarity, more cohesion, more power, less confusion, fraud and corruption.

When we think of the writings of Paul, we also think of authority.  Every piece of his writing that has survived antiquity, every bit that can be confirmed as his own, has been canonized.  His words are familiar and even dear to millions even today, some 2000 years after they were written.  We think of his passage on the resurrection (I Cor 15) and the middle chapters in Romans and the love passage in I Corinthians 13, we can imagine little that exceeds their influence and, indeed, their authority, throughout the history of the western world.

Compacted into this very small collection of Paul’s letters is everything that explains the modern world.  Everything we take for granted.  The idea of human rights, the idea of international law – these do not go back to Greek philosophy or Roman law.  They are founded in the letters of Paul.

Tom Holland, historian

“His writings, along with the four Gospels, are the most revolutionary, the most influential writings to come out of antiquity.  His writings were like depth charges which set up recurrent ripples of revolution.  By the time of the 11th century, everything had changed.  The world of classical antiquity, an economy based almost entirely on slave labor, a sexual ethic that permitted male Roman citizens to have sex with anyone they wanted and in any way that they wanted, a government that reveled in cruelty, had been overturned.”

Tom Holland

Western culture is fundamentally different from that of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and much of that difference is due to Christianity. For instance, our societies are much fairer and less cruel. The possibility of an afterlife and a reckoning leads to more restrained and less selfish behavior in the here and now. The notion that we are all, kings and peons alike, equal in the eyes of an almighty creator is socially liberating and protects the lower orders from depredations. Jesus was a political revolutionary (among other things).

Justin Brierly on the writings of Paul:  St Paul’s ‘depth charge’: Why historian Tom Holland changed his mind about Christianity. By Justin Brierly.

If only we had such a man in our midst today.  How much brighter would our horizon be, how much better ordered our lives, how much more certain our hope.

Q: What sort of opposition did Paul face in his day?

And yet, when we read his letters – perhaps the parts of them that are not so familiar, those parts of our Bibles that are not heavy with highlighting and underscoring – we find that Paul’s influence, even in his own day, among those to whom he had preached and brought to Christ, was vulnerable and fragile.  Subject to usurpation.  We are not talking now about the opposition Paul faced from “the world.”  That is, from established religious interests, both Jewish and pagan, outside of the church, and from governmental officeholders who were jealous of their own authority and were suspicious of anything – God or not – who might undermine their own power.  All of that is well-documented and easily remembered.  Sunday School 101.  This kind of opposition was a matter of honor to Paul.  Of course the world would resist him. That old, oppressive order was what he was fighting against; what the gospel he preached intended to supplant. 

But what I want to consider this morning is another kind of opposition or undermining that Paul experienced.  And that is opposition within the church itself.  Opposition from those who called themselves apostles and who wormed their way inside the churches Paul had founded or influenced with the purpose of taking control, usurping his authority.  Opposition from those leaders and also from those within the congregations who followed them.

When we read the book of II Corinthians we find it inescapable that Paul, who founded the church there, was, after a very little time, having to pull out all of the stops to re-establish his authority and to call into question the bona-fides of those who had moved in.  Paul’s recounting of the situation is all we have to go on.  We have nothing from his “opponents” and nothing from the congregation itself that has survived. 

Q: What were the false apostles actually preaching and teaching?

And Paul’s own account of the matter is somewhat oblique.  Although he is given to his rather characteristic heated rants – taking whole paragraphs to cast aspersions on those he opposes and tout his own virtues – he never actually names his opponents and his descriptions of what they were actually preaching and teaching are, again, rather oblique.  It is certainly a sore spot with Paul that the interlopers at Corinth have criticized him:

The Paul who is ‘humble enough to your face when he is with you, but outspoken enough when he is away from you…’ (10:1)

…my mind is made up to tackle certain people who have made up their minds that I move on the low level of the flesh (10:2)

My opponent says ‘Paul’s letters are weighty and telling, but his personality is weak and his delivery is beneath contempt (10:10)

But what they were actually teaching is anything but clear.  Rather than give detail about the doctrine they proposed, Paul simply refers to them, again and again, as preaching something other than what he preached (11: 4) He does give us reason to think that the interloper(s) were using their pretended authority to enrich themselves materially:

English Standard Version

20 For you bear it if someone makes slaves of you, or devours you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or strikes you in the face…

II Corinthians 11:20

As frustrating as this omission may seem to the reader, it may be a good thing.  It may be the way it is because in the providence of God what is important is not so much the details of the teachings of those particular false apostles in Corinth, but the fact that false teachers and teachings do arise.  That the occurrences in Corinth and Galatia (Gal. 1: 6-7) are the first examples of a dynamic that has continued through the centuries.  What is important, therefore, is not so much the content of the false teachings in Corinth but identifying the dynamic in our day and time.  What are the marks of false teachers, generally speaking?  How can we identify them today?  And for this, Paul’s general descriptions serve quite well.

In the first place, we should be wary of any teacher or preacher who seeks to aggrandize himself.  Anyone who looks at the pulpit as a means of fame or riches or personal advancement is not fit for it.  Anyone who glories in exercising power over others is unfit for the pulpit

Thoughts

  1. It didn’t take long for the churches Paul founded to veer off course.  Corinth, (6: 12 “you are withholding your affection from us.”  “Make room for us in your hearts.” 7: 2) Galatia.  (Gal. 1: 6)
    1. What might have been the false gospel that the pseudo- apostles preached to the Corinthians?
      1. A gospel of salvation by works.  A means of enslaving rather than liberating people?
    1. What are the false gospels that attract and hinder men and women of the church today?
      1. Materialism – that life consists in material gainNihilism – nothingness.  Nothing, in the end, really mattersHedonism – life is to be lived in the pursuit of physical pleasures.  “Faster horses, younger women, older whiskey, more money.”
      1. Humanism – mankind can find his own salvation through reason and invention and without the power of God or reference to His character.
  2. It didn’t take long for people to figure out that there was a quick buck to be made in dabbling in religion.  (5: 12) Example: The Assemblies of God church in Matewan.
  3. The truth is always under assault.  It must be ably stated and defended in every generation.  It takes constant effort and vigilance to stay the course, to recognize and stay clear of false teachers.  Of those who are seeking money, influence and self-aggrandizement.
  4. Not every change is progress.  There must be consistency in the faith.  What is preached today must not be inconsistent with what was preached at first.  Continuity.
  5. Look for accountability and transparency in leaders and administrators. “For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord, but also in the eyes of men.” 8: 21 If what he was doing was right in the eyes of God, why would he worry about whether it was right in the eyes of men” In other words, we are transparent and accountable.  We are not running a “me and God” kind of ministry.  That is tyrannical.  God has said this to me, you don’t know about it, you aren’t in on the revelation, so just shut up and fall into line and send me your money.  Paul: “We want to avoid any criticism of the way we administer this liberal gift.”
  6. 10: 2 “some people” – a reference to interlopers, Paul’s opponents?
  7. 10: 7 “You are looking only on the surface of things.”  This must be a response to something Paul has heard about the church at Corinth.  Something that they have been conned into believing.  10: 12 “some who commend themselves”

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