Without a doubt, these few pages written about an apostle who knew why, have generally focused on Paul. It could easily appear a writer is seeking to exalt him, perhaps idolize him, in some sense. Though an assurance may be offered that this is not the case by any means, it is easily understood how this could appear so.
Certain writings have been specified, even selected out for inclusion in what we call the scriptures (for our edification). Is it not true that of those collected and assembled as what is called the new testament, none other assembled group of writings give us as much insight and plain exposition of what a man experienced in himself, and declared by himself of himself, of what such a man pursuing the Lord experiences and had experienced? Paul is rich in his letters of not only what he experienced as though outwardly, but inwardly as well. Really, none other does that.
But is it not as though this adds to any legitimacy over any other letters or the gospels, God forbid. And if taken as such an extreme example of a man’s recounting of, and with much self inclusion, it might just as easily be said by any so disposed, “This man talks too much about himself”.
Yet even in all that, and if it were to be said, just think for a brief moment of all the riches presented in those writings, with mentions of self notwithstanding. How much of doctrine we accept, prescriptions of conduct as the household of God (and for when we come together as such), how much of encouragement is found not exempting healthy reproofs and rebuke, how much is relied upon so to speak, as true. But the man did neither spare himself his baring of soul, nor his own particular attentions to what is going on with him as said before, including warts and all. He is a Jew of Jews, after all.
What does that mean, “He is a Jew of Jews, after all?” Consider. Or, to keep it more scriptural, a Hebrew of Hebrews.
Consider especially the scriptures to which he often referred, as what is to us called the “Old Testament” even as what any Jew, even today, would call the scriptures. What his, or any Jew’s view of them may be in particular, from Genesis to Malachi they are accepted as the scriptures of the Jews, and for the Jews…even if not seeing their overall and beneficial applicability for all people for all of time. And surely Jesus never saw them as anything less. But it does take new eyes to see this.
But the point is this, assembled together, and read without preconceived notion or bias (is that possible? Nevertheless, I posit) they are indeed a warts and all recounting, if taken as they are, of a people whose history is rife with wrong turns, vanities and often base motives, stiffneckedness, hard headedness, with abundant internecine strivings and consequences.
Terrible and vicious leaders who resist the God often mentioned, are spiteful and unjust and in many ways worse toward each other than the oft mentioned enemies who reject their God. One might even say to such a Jew, even today, if commended to their scriptures, their writings… “Are you sure you want these to speak for you?” Or, “I just have to ask, if you don’t mind, are you a Moses Jew or a Korah Jew, a David Jew or a Saul sort of Jew (David’s own warts and all, notwithstanding), an Elijah kinda Jew or an Ahab/Jezebel sort of Jew, a Hezekiah or a Manasseh?”
Yes, if there’s any warts and all history of a people, compounded and assembled as their scriptures, their writings and history to which they look as both guide and for guidance, concluding them to be God inspired, I know of no other like it. Ahh, and if there’s any stand as might be taken of superiority for such, as having been delivered to them (or us, no less, “christians” in all we have and claim) in the giving and reception…it is never too far beyond mention…”Oh yeah, you are the people who give your own prophets such a hard time, and not infrequently kill them”. So much for any self exalting. So much for any innate wisdom and farsightedness.
And I am persuaded Saul cum Paul, who now read with spirit’s light, understanding and insight, even a farsightedness far beyond his natural brothers of his day (after whom he longed, deeply) yet as a Jew always, knew unless warts and all, of a people telling on themselves while seeking to exalt a God unseen, even the God of all creation, that God could not and would not endorse as true.
The Lord doesn’t much like only the flattering or appealing part of things, told.
The same light by which God may be made to be seen of man, and by a man, must always, and cannot but always, also show man of his true estate. Needy? Yes. Subject to perfidy? Of course. Mercurial and unstable in all his own ways? Who doubts? With a heart desperately wicked beyond knowing? Too right. Proud? Arrogant? Boastful? Even murderous? But the glory as always is, and must also and always remain if their be any honest telling of having seen that God unseen, is that to such, He causes Himself to appear…even to a saving born of the deepest of mercy. It is mercy that God allows man to see Him.
And Paul, once Saul, found out he truly was a real Jew…of the faith of Abraham, once Abram, called out from all he once knew, understood as his own, from all of milieu once familiar and common to himself, and to walk in a way “he knew not”. Which is and was, not only new to him, but indeed, is, for all called by the Lord’s name. Newness of life, is always…new. And in such light, this new man Paul, when discovering those mechanisms, traps, inherent pitfalls in both their lurking and successes at snaring of the old man, knew much.
How pride so easily takes advantage, how a seeming piety is all of false, how cleaning the outside of the cup is vain and even harmful to others, this he all came to see too well (if “too” might be used) and was never without a likewise impetus to show himself as no different than any other…even if some they were yet practicing under a deceit of such base and worldly motive. He couldn’t (and wouldn’t) tell of true, apart from telling on himself.
He understood the trap set as once set. How that man in all desperate need, weakness, fears, in all wickedness of sin and its shaming…would reach out of himself to hide such. How he could lay hold of pride, boastfulness, self exalting, some form of godliness for covering.
But what did he find of better, no, not better, incomparable glory when stripped of these things by Christ as they were exposed as weak and beggarly, of a poverty beyond describing, of a fetidness beyond description?
The only covering sufficient. Sufficient and exceeding of all sufficiency for man in his nakedness before his Creator. His Lord, His (God’s) Christ, made for him to not only be that very all which afflicts and condemns (He became sin for him as Paul took things very personally, yet not excluding us all), but far more. Paul found that place of shame removed, where once weakness and weaknesses that were diligently to be kept under wraps and hidden from one another…but where he rather boasted in them! He was no longer ashamed of the frailty of man, by which he was also once taken advantage of by an evil abettor to all sorts of mischief.
Yes, he, Paul, surely saw His Lord in all truth of spirit, but not and never apart from those particular revelations of things that inhibit, would hide from sight, cause a stumbling, would and could be used to dissuade a man from looking into the light of Christ, so that he would say:
Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.
“For we are not ignorant of his devices”. His schemes. His seeking to take advantage of matters now made fit, and fit only, for submission to the Christ of God. Submit weaknesses to Him, in truth. Submit, when found and seen, the confession of sin to Him. Submit all, and especially that all and anything that would (and did once) tend to a shaming for hiding…BRING IT ALL INTO THE LIGHT! And don’t play games with one another seeking to appear more than you are. There is a seeing eye. And the judge is near, even at the door. And if there be fears…know the terror of the Lord and be persuaded, even that all…is due only Him!
I have known some, if not many, even in Christ, with some outward boast of being fearless, or wanting to make some show of it. And without doubt, and in ignorance, have not known themselves (nor God for that matter) to such measure as what can come upon them…in all that ignorance. And boasting. A man just like me. No, beyond that…not like me… but me. Therefore I really have no place to even mention…the “others” I have found. But, I too, am of a company, even if any might prefer my exclusion.
And it is not to promulgate fear as a savory or even righteous estate or even extol it. But there is the fear of the Lord, nevertheless. And if any, even as I once understood, and some many that may still say it means a reverential awe (with which I do not disagree), there can be an unwholesome reduction of “it” (the fear of the Lord) that to me at least, seems most often un-sensed or unseen. When I read these words, and correct my senses as need be, I come away with something a bit more? different? than just a sense of reverential awe being suggested or declared:
but I will show to you, whom ye may fear; Fear him who, after the killing, is having authority to cast to the gehenna; yes, I say to you, Fear ye Him. (Young’s Literal for clarity and accuracy)
Or, if taking the more familiar, perhaps:
But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him. (KJV)
“I say unto you, Fear him”
That reiterating is not vain. But necessary. Jesus is not unaware of how we may make of things to be things they are not. Even in many cases, reduce them. And God forbid I say that full reverential awe and attention are less than is implied, I am simply unconvinced that cannot be entered at all, apart from, or if losing, or denying that sense of…terror.
To Paul again:
“Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men” KJV, while others use “fear of the Lord”
A question might be…did Paul know “it”, the terror/fear of the Lord of which he speaks, using this word φόβον (phobon) from which we derive phobia?
It may well be that Paul, as learning in Christ and from Christ, that barring all else, even including all else…a man will always and only pay the utmost attention to what grips him with greatest fear. And that this too, even as weakness(es), shame(s), doubts, even sins are to be submitted to to the Lord…even to a liberty from, a resolution of, this thing of utmost of concern…even most dread fear, is/are to be submitted only to Him for resolution, and then perhaps right and reverential awe may indeed follow.
Perhaps it is that oddly a thing (or anything for that matter) that seems to call for most (or any) attention must be surrendered to Him who is worthy of all attention…and then they are resolved. But, if any can receive it, attention and worship can hardly be separated, even if not commonly equated. Nor understood.
Likewise when considering “the fear of the Lord”, or if considering to rightly apprehend it, we have others speaking.
“But the Lord of hosts, him you shall regard as holy; let him be your fear, and let him be your dread” Is 8:13
Not merely in this is a “thing” called fear rendered, but to have right identity… “let him be your fear, and let him be your dread” He is to be (our God, both our fear, and our dread)
Beyond these plain matters, if considered, as I am persuaded they must be, only in Christ can be resolved such things. There is provided a very effective way of God, being Christ Himself, to whom alone any and all such only seeming paradox are to be submitted, and from and in Him alone, are resolved.
Questions of “How can I love what I fear, am even terrorized by?” are not unworthy.
Or “Shouldn’t I love God as a Father more than I fear Him” no less. Surely good questions…for asking, seeking, knocking.
But if, just if Paul can be counted as faithful, and knows something of God, and knows no less, something of man, (if you doubt read his sweeping statements of the estate of all men, he was not timid to make them) then he might also understand our (man’s) tendency toward a reduction of matters to our convenience and comforts. Things seemingly easier to live with. Even all tendency to “smooth over” things that raise inner conflict (even) of necessity, that we prefer not resolved…or shelved…for fear of knowing that cost.
But then…Paul faced a conflict we may rarely consider of ourselves, as in our seeming 2000 year post appraisal of Christ and His cross. Messiah crucified…lifted up to all shame of man, scorn of man, and by such a heinous device as he knew to well spoke of a something he, in all his prior wisdom and understanding was too unbearable to consider…but of which, if we only blithely confess in rote repetitions, never grasp the beyond profound implications….”cursed is everyone that hangs upon a tree”. Messiah…made a curse? Yet…this is where Saul cum Paul…started. We, at least many of us, have yet to come to that. Is that harsh or wrong judgment? God knows.
Before we can stop being Pharisees, or even take warning about them, we may have to first be of them. And if we may think within ourselves we are immune to such tendencies…well…then the Lord’s warnings were vain, no? Or was that…only for a them? Be careful if thinking or saying that, for then how many other things, even promises…given to that them…will you also find you are casting aside?
I like context, too. And I like/am persuade/am overjoyed that God has made Jesus His Christ to be of all context, for all time, to each and every man who ever was, and is, and ever shall be. And that all of creation, and yes, even things of heaven, have been made in all, subject to Him.
Beware of not being contextual to Him.
The apostle who knew why. He also grasped quite a bit of the how of it if one believes him faithful and true to his Lord, and well beyond caring about how he himself appeared in doing so. Perhaps one might even come to believe he actually did as he said…gloried in the cross of Christ…sought to know nothing whilst among the church yet in the earth but Christ, and him crucified.
Yeah, that was a biggie for him, having never gotten over that truth that so turned all his theology and wisdom on its ear. Thanks be to God we have the record of a man who never got over that. All his study, all his piety in practice, all his seeming devotion to what was shown to be no more than his own imaginations of how things are, overturned and more…shown as offal, as dung. God’s Christ, the Messiah of all hope for ages, Moshiach himself submitting Himself to the ungodly in all ungodliness of intent, because He saw another intent, and submitted to Him in all obedience, as so far overarching all the wickedness of men’s hands and intents…that He is even able to deliver them from such wickedness. To even begin to see, aright.
And Paul knew that that He, had done that thing…for him. (Paul took things very personally) “…who loved me, and gave himself for me…”
Maybe it’s less wonder…he gloried. And maybe that’s also why he just couldn’t avoid being so personal in his writings.
Ooh, Paul, your leaking onto the pages! Don’t you know where these writings are going to end up? Ha ha ha ha ha
Nevertheless “But I am what I am by the grace of God”.
Paul, for all his seeming staunchness, his oft attributed lack of seeming tact and/or too directness…even to this day some remark of his apparent inflexibility that seems to bleed through, really, is all and only due to disregard, even discomfit, in being dealt with…so very personally. He hits that mark, seeing past all the posing and posturing, all the easy hypocrisy adopted as men shuffle for position and title, the sectarianism born not of honor or a desire for preserving truth, but corrupting it by falling to false and weak gods of self preferences.
How, though, how did he hit the mark so well, so often, so accurately? Because it had been hit…in him. He suffered it to be hit in himself. He allowed…even finding all of futility in any form of resistance that might be adopted…or even promoted. Broke down, bereft of all but Christ, and desiring to be so “that I may know Him…” he recounted how such, now counted as dung, once appeared as advantage to himself. So that broken down to what he was broken up to he would write:
For we can do nothing against the truth, but for it.
And he told us he knew the why. Have you heard it? I’m convinced you have read it.
I’m convinced you too have had wonderings about “whys”. Why don’t others see as I see? Why does the gospel take root in some but seemingly not in others? Why is it that my most plain efforts to share such good news more often (or just perhaps too often) seem to fall on deaf ears? Am I doing something wrong, perhaps…not seeing nor understanding as rightly as I imagine I do?
Why do some believe, and some don’t? And perhaps ultimately as distilled down eventually, or even in the mix somewhere, might come “why do I believe what I do believe of Jesus Christ?” even regardless of others. This question is especially worthy when coupled with, “and what do I really believe about Jesus Christ?” Sometimes, and maybe most often, these come in the wine press. When it is very important to sort out things of life and death. When things seemingly making themselves pressingly real (like life and death) squeeze a man to consider what he knows in the face of them. What he can hold…going in. What will…make it through…and in? What do…I know?
But then, maybe you haven’t. Maybe all your asking, seeking, knocking is led otherwise, God knows.
But Paul said he knew the why. At least as far as he himself was concerned in being granted salvation by the grace of God. And though he endorsed this as worthy and worthy of all acceptance, he also knew (apostles seem to know things) that he could never force it to acceptance, but that didn’t deter him from his recommendation of it for all acceptance. He knew he had no dominion over any man’s faith. He was glad to be a helper of their (even our?) joy.
And perhaps then, if looked at in that way, Paul seeking to be a helper of joy…some other vagabond soul who believes Paul faithful, might seek to work out in Christ how such a thing…even such a thing that seems almost ludicrous to state, along with commending it to worthy acceptance could be so…and could really be…to joy.
What he says, he says here:
This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
This is a faithful (is it faith full?) saying, and worthy of all (really, all?) acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (Come on Paul, what are you saying you premier apostle you! We been poring over your stuff for thousands of years trying to glean) Do you really want us to raise our hands at Sunday school and say “Paul” when asked “who was the chief sinner?” by the teacher? Is that what you mean? Ha ha ha ha ha (Do I laugh too much?)
But now to the why. At least the ultimate of why’s as far as he was concerned, when concerned, personally. The why of why he got to talk so unrelentingly about the love of God and the mercy and grace found only in Jesus Christ. The why of why he was called, the why of why what he was called to, he was called to. The why of why he faithfully ministered in that calling, and no less, live in it and by it.
Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.
Howbeit for this cause…
This is the because of it…the why of it. The cause of his obtaining mercy even as the chiefest of sinners. Christ saving a vessel in which He could especially, and specifically show forth His patience and longsuffering.
(Gee, Paul, you sure it wasn’t because you could be such a brilliant expositor? After all, you are regarded as a very smart man. And you did write a lot of deep stuff in a deep way, and that probably helped Jesus a lot with His message)
Go ahead, ask or think that if you think heaven needs more laughter.
A pattern he surely knew he could not impose, because he had not chosen it himself, and he had no power over it to impose it. But as a helper of joy he understood. He before had already come to that place of understanding in regards to certain matters he knew as true, but were still up for question to some or the “otherwise minded”. God is able to show, as only God is able to show.
But for those who believed in Christ, and no less believed Paul called of Christ as a wise master builder laying a firm and true foundation…there really is no choice, right? Because if he lies here, where else may error be found?
A pattern. A pattern to be understood amongst those who received of Paul as having received of God, through Christ.
for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.
I think “the” we are in that hereafter. Or of that hereafter.
Do we accept the pattern? God knows.
Even as to (can it be so?) knowing this also “why” of ourselves?
Chosen not for what we might do (though we might do things), chosen not for what we might learn (though we might learn things), chosen not for what we might attain or attain to (though we might attain and attain to things)…but chosen, if we believe the pattern…as “just” a vessel by which Jesus Christ might demonstrate all longsufferinng and patience (with).
Is that too much? Still too easy to think or talk about what one has done in the Lord as for the Lord? Still too easy to think of matters learned and ready with a distribution from pulpits or lecterns or daises…and more fun to do so? Or, in some cases just too ready to lay out thoughts on WordPress.com? God knows.
But maybe not as ready to see or then admit who one knows is the real chiefest of sinners in requirement of the utmost of mercy…and longsuffering patience to make it through? Not because he has gotten anything or even near anything right ever or at all, with nothing to show…but a single hope in the God who is full of mercy to the very weakest, even less than the least of all?
Who’d a thunk joy would come packaged so? And no less, be so obvious as to require a lot of work to miss it? I used to suffer some (maybe even a lot) from what is commonly called imposter syndrome. Christ has taken the load of all posing and trying to fit, or even caring if one seems to sense that necessity.
A liar trying to tell the truth may have the most unbearable burden of all. It’s a lot of work.
And, we can do nothing against the truth, but for it.
I think I’d be something of a liar if I tried to tell you how much of mercy and patience with me I have needed and how much has been shown. For those would be only times…I know.
How often (O, God, when have I not?) even thought myself…right.
The Christ of God? Crucified?
Really?
Looks to me like Paul was not ashamed to join Him there…and glad, and gloried in it.
But, is that just me?
He sure is a helper of joy.
Oh, look, Paul has bled through, too.
I can only surmise it is because he chose not to hide himself from his own flesh.
Or better, was chosen to.
The body is all of One.
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