St. Paul: Up Close and Personal
Part II

It has been said that a pastor should have a heart as big as an elephant's and a hide as thick as a rhinoceros. Paul had both! This is a man who, as far as we know, did more to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ than any other human being. The life experience of Paul makes the challenges that most of us pastors and parishioners face look like Christian kindergarten. Paul said, "Five times I was given the thirty-nine lashes by the Jews; three times I was whipped by the Romans; and once I was stoned. I have been in three shipwrecks, and once I spend twenty-four hours in the water. In my many travels I have been in danger from floods and from robbers, in danger from fellow Jews and from Gentiles; there have been dangers in the cities, dangers in the wilds, dangers on the high seas, and dangers from false friends. There has been work and toil; often I have gone without sleep; I have been hungry and thirsty; I have often been without enough food, shelter and clothing. And not to mention other things, every day I am under the pressure of my concern for all the churches." 2 Corinthians 11:24-28 Today's English Version.
Paul is thought to have dictated most of his letters to an assistant called an amanuenses. The late F.F. Bruce, in his book--- Paul: Apostle Of The Heart Set Free, p.456, writes, "Paul's letters were regularly dictated to an assistant. At times the torrents of his thought rushes forward so swiftly that it outstrips the flow of his words, and his words have to leap over a gap now and then so as to catch up on his thought. How the scribe managed to keep up with his words we can only surmise. Time and again Paul starts a sentence that never reaches a grammatical end, for before he is well launched on it a new thought strikes him and he turns aside to deal with that. When he comes back on the main track, the original start of the sentence has been forgotten. All this means that Paul is not the smoothest of authors, or the easiest to follow, but it does give us an unmistakable impression of the man himself."
I think most people who have tried to read Paul's writings, without explanatory notes or someone to guide them, would agree with professor Bruce's observation that Paul is often hard to understand and I would add sometimes seemingly incomprehensible. However, those who persist will have the privilege of plumbing the depths of some of the greatest themes God has ever made known to mankind.
Paul had personality. Sometimes he could be blunt. "I wish that the people who are upsetting you would go all the way; let them go on and castrate themselves!" Galatians 5:12. Sometimes he could be very humble,"Last of all he [Jesus] appeared also to me---even though I am like someone whose birth was abnormal. For I am the least of the apostles---I do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted God's church." 1 Corinthians 15:8-9. TEV. And seemingly because of his late calling, Paul often begins his letters by asserting his authority as an apostle. Consider, Galatians 1:1, "From Paul, whose call to be an apostle did not come from man or by means of man, but from Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead." And, in Paul's letter to the Ephesians, "From Paul, who by God's will is an apostle of Christ Jesus---." Ephesians 1:1 TEV.
But most of all, Paul had a big heart and once referred lovingly to his church members as, "My dear children!"Galatians 4:19 TEV. We are also reminded that it was Paul (with a heart as big as an elephant's) who wrote the "love" chapter of 1 Corinthians 13, "I may be able to speak the languages of men and even of angels, but if I have not love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell."
Paul's writings reveal that he had many sides to his personality--- some appeared to need a little refinement. However, God worked with and blessed this man who was a persecutor and enemy of the early church and turned him into the spiritual giant we revere today. I'm confident God can do the same for me and for you.

Blessings in your study of God's Word!

Marvin Hunt

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