Verse: Ephesians 3:8-9
Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ,  and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.

Devotion
Since Christian is committed to handing me impossible to devotionalize verses, let’s continue my series on profiles of New Testament persona, shall we?

Let’s remember that Peter was defacto leader of the church after Jesus ascended into heaven. He uses the one key line that we’re all secretly waiting to hear each and every pastor start their message with – “Seriously, we’re not drunk” (Acts 2:15). He’ll go on to author (but not write) 2 letters that we include in the bible.

Paul goes on to write somewhere between 14 and 21 books of the Bible. If you ask me, I’m going to go ahead and say Paul wrote AT LEAST 20 of them (1). So, who is this guy? Paul was a Pharisee, essentially a Jewish priest or pastor. These, specifically, are the sort of people that were constantly in verbal duels with Jesus throughout the gospels. He came from a wealthy family, from a wealthy city, and not only that – a family of Pharisees. Basically, he’s Lucius Malfoy. He was educated in Tarsus and Jerusalem. In his spare time he engaged in leatherworking and had a working understanding of camping equipment. During his day job – he hunted and executed Christians. He was an inquisitor.

In an issue of questionable pacing on Luke’s part when writing the Book of Acts (2), Paul is introduced at the execution of Stephen, a prominent church figure in Jerusalem. After Stephen’s stoned to death (as in actually had rocks thrown at him until he died), Paul went on  a door-to-door campaign of dragging Christians out of their homes and throwing them in prison (3). From there Paul goes on the road – with a Letter of Marque to hunt Christians in Damascus, too. Paul was fervent in his desire to “catch them all.”

So, who was Paul? He’s either the best of the best – the ultimate zealot, on the road, rounding up the heretics. Or, he’s the dark wind in the night, appearing at your doorstep when you least expect it and dragging you from family and home, not for something you’ve done, but for something you believe. He’s the best or the worst, the least or the greatest. Personally, I can imagine God looking down, cracking his knuckles, and then just saying “Watch this.”

Paul is on the road to Damascus – he gets hit by a ray of light straight from the skies (Zeus style) and knocked clear off his … donkey. Jesus, literally speaks from the sky to Paul, and asks “Paul, why are you persecuting me?” Paul asks, “Who are you, Lord?” Jesus takes a moment, considers the possibility that in the entirety of the three years of his earthly ministry, no one was actually listening, and replies “I am Jesus … whom you are persecuting. (It’s a whole Mathew 25:40 thing … which will make sense one day assuming you don’t persecute him to death before he can write his gospel).”

That same single-minded focus and determination that he’d shown in his education and his crusading against Christians. That’s how you end up writing more than half of the New Testament without being in the first movie – I mean any of the gospels.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think he was perfect.

  • This week Christian went about 12 minutes over. Paul preached so long that a guy passed out, fell out on a window, and died. By the shear grace of God, Paul raised him from the dead (Acts 20:7-12).
  • He could be socially awkward and blunt (Galatians 2:1-10).
  • He could be stubborn and argumentative (Acts 15:36-40).
  • He wasn’t perfect and he knew it (2 Corinthians 12:7).

Those traits are part of why a lot of us are Christians today. After he became a Christian, they took him to Jerusalem and the Jewish Christians thought it was all a trick (like a truly horrible undercover job). The non-Christian Jews tried to kill him when he started debating them. The apostles had to encourage him to go out and preach the gospel to … anywhere else. I think he misheard and decided to preach EVERYWHERE else. The weird names of books in the New Testament? They’re cities that Paul visited, left, and then wrote letters to. It’s an archaeology scavenger hunt from Jerusalem to Rome. All through Turkey, Greece and Italy. He was … given the grace to preach to the Gentiles.

Before Jesus, a non-Jew (Gentile) could become Jewish. It was sort of complicated and didn’t happen as often as I think the world really needed it to. I have to apologize for this metaphorical pun, but trust me several of Paul’s are more groanworthy – He took the fervor of imprisoning Christians and turned it into an unmatched fervor for freeing non-Jewish non-Christians. And he also got rid of the adult circumcision thing (6). I think by the time Paul wrote Ephesians, he really understood what God was trying to do with him.

Prayer
God, use me to help others. Use my talents, and failings, my strengths, and weaknesses, my good ideas and my bad ones. Amen.

Footnotes:

  1. The one in question would be the book of Hebrews.  It’s the one that Christian mentioned on Sunday as reminding us that we really are actually supposed to go to church (Hebrews 10:25).  Here’s the funny thing about the Book of Hebrews: In the 2nd – 3rd centuries it was debated whether Paul actually wrote that one.  During the 5th – 16th centuries the church was absolutely positive Paul wrote it.  Since then, it’s just sat heavily in the area of “very unlikely and almost certainly not.”  Yes, that’s basically 200 years of unsure, 1,200 years where Paul definitely wrote it, and 400 years where he didn’t write it.  Why is this important?  We spent 200 years where the topic could be discussed, and 1,200 years just being wrong about it.  We were wrong about something for 1,200 years.
  2. I’m not blaming him, this is what happens when you write non-fiction.  It’s just Stephen is introduced in chapter 6 and executed in chapter 7.  This is exactly like when a show introduces a character in one episode and tries to endear him to you, and then kills him in the next episode.  It’s just too fast.  You don’t hear about him again, and the next episode is about a wizard.
  3. Naturally, this is where God does one His most common, but always fascinating plays – the Romans 8:28 maneuver.  Paul goes door to door rounding up Christians to try to shut down this heresy.  When Christians who aren’t imprisoned hear what’s going on, they scatter in every direction, leaving the city.  What happens when they’re out in the world?  They just keep being Christians – and that attracts more people to become Christians.  Paul was better off NOT rounding up the people that he did. 
  4. Now, to become an “Apostle” you have to have listened to Jesus speak.  It doesn’t really do anything for you, exactly, its sort of like having one of those American Flag pins that members of Congress have.  It’s really cool, don’t get me wrong, but you shouldn’t be spending your life as a Christian unhappy that you’re a Christian in 2021 and not in 35 AD.  It may unlock one super power, leave a comment if you want me to tell you which one.
  5. I don’t think he realized that his personal e-mail correspondence was going to be made public for 2 millennia, either.
  6. https://www.instagram.com/p/CM3Imp4rK83/?igshid=1catfw5q19elh

Author: Chris Simmons, who is trying his darndest to get banned from devotion duty.