Paul's Church Without Wrinkle

All Bible scholars agree: without the missionary work of the Apostle Paul, Christianity would not have survived the First Century AD, as Jesus left nothing in writing, and created no churches to carry on his religious ministry.

Thanks to the Apostle Paul's three journeys throughout Asia Minor and southern Europe, early Christian churches were created that kept the infant Christian faith active and alive in the hearts of a few faithful followers.  In the time before the Gospels were written, Paul wrote a number of letters to the infant churches, many of which he helped create.  Until the Gospels were written, Paul's letters were read and reread, copied and circulated among the faithful, and helped keep the primitive Christian faith alive.  Paul's goal was to convert gentiles into Christians, and was determined to create a church "without wrinkle" (Eph 5:26).

It should be noted that Paul was a Roman citizen, and well educated in Hebrew Scripture.  He was also a Pharisee, skilled in the art of debate, and a charismatic speaker, who, like Abraham Lincoln, spoke in a high-pitched voice, and, too, like Lincoln, was a persuasive speaker.  As a Christian convert, he also was decidedly against the Jewish rite of circumcision, repeatedly telling Christians that circumcision was unnecessary to becoming a faithful Christian.  On several occasions, Paul was attacked physically, arrested for causing social unrest, and once survived being stoned to death.

Known as "The Missionary to the Gentiles", Paul made three journeys to cities in Asia Minor, and in southern Europe.  His first journey included stops in several cities of Asia Minor: Antioch, Tarsus (Paul's hometown), Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. Traveling with Barnabus, the first stage of their journey did not go well, as many of the inhabitants were either hostile Jews, confirmed pagans, or unfriendly Greeks.  Their return journey included stopping and speaking at these very same towns, where they were well received, probably as the result of Paul's healing work, and persistent prayers.

Paul's second journey, included stops in these same cities, but extended far into the western region of Asia Minor, to the coastal cities of Colossae, Ephesus, and Toas.  Everywhere Paul travelled he met with resistance.  However, with determination, healing work, and persistent prayers (and spending several weeks in each city), Paul's effort began resulting in Christian converts, and the creation of new churches.  Paul's third journey brought him as far west as southern Europe, with extended stays in Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, and Corinth.  His fourth mission brought him to Rome.  Paul planned to continue his missionary work in Spain; but this was not to be, as he was arrested--and rather than being locked in jail, as a Roman citizen--was placed under house arrest, which allowed him to send and receive letters, as well as receive guests, perform healings, and to continue preaching the Gospel.

Scholars inform us that Paul wrote thirteen letters to these young Christian churches in Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Philipi, Ephesus, and Thessalonica. These are the letters that have survived, as scholars believe Paul wrote many more letters, to other cites he had visited and formed Christian churches. Note: it's likely all of Paul's letters were dictated to one of his educated companions, letters that generally ended with Paul's signature and personal salutation. He also wrote letters to a number of his christian collegues, many of which have been lost. What is contained in the New Testament is likely a fraction of what he did write. The letter to "Hebrews", while attributed to him, according to Bible scholars, was composed by someone else.  These letters, also called epistles, were copied, widely circulated, and eventually compiled into what would become the New Testament.  It should be said, that the roads Paul and his companions traveled, were built by the Roman Empire, were paved with flat stones, and were relatively level and straight, which made walking less taxing and more convenient.  Apart from being a Christian missionary, Paul earned money as a tent maker, which was a valued and respected profession in his day.   Paul and his missionary companions, were also helped by early Christians who would provide them with food and lodging, as they journeyed throughout Asia Minor and southern Europe.

THE FIELDS WERE READY FOR HARVEST

One of the advantages Paul had while on his three missionary journeys, was that everywhere he traveled, the people to whom he met and preached, being Jews, Greeks, and Romans, were mostly educated, and open to learning about new religious ideas; indeed, the Jews were familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures, having studied them since the time they could walk, and the Greeks and Romans, were familiar with the concept of God, albeit a mortal, changeable God. Nonetheless, they all were open to what an articulate and well-informed missionary had to say.  If any was sick among them, Paul healed them, which would further convince them of the authority of which he spoke. As Jesus once had said to his disciples, "Behold, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest (John 4:35).  While true in Israel, this was equally true in Asia Minor, and in Greece and Rome.

The letters Paul wrote to these early Christian churches were models of clarity, logic, and reasoning, letters that were so compelling, they were studied, copied and widely circulated, and eventually would comprise half of the New Testament.

     

Below is one of Paul's most celebrated letters, to the church in Corinth, where he wrote about the virtues of love (First Corinthians 13, written in 56 A.D.).

PAUL'S ODE TO LOVE

"Though I speak with tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass or a tinking symbol.

"And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.

"Love suffers long and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

"Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.  For we know in part, and we prophecy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.  For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face-to-face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

"And now abideth faith hope, love, these three: but the greatest of these is love."

I think it fitting to close with an excerpt from First Corinthians 2:12: "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God."

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