Paul the Apostle
We finished the Beth Moore study on Paul last week, and I've been doing some thinking. People have asked me if I named my son after Paul the Apostle. I deadpan. "No, I named him after Paul Newman." (Interestingly, when I was pregnant--the best time of my life, and I felt great the whole time--my husband and I said we needed to make a decision about the baby's name. The first choice for both of us was Paul, with an "A" name as middle. He said Allen, I said Andrew, and I won, in honor of Scottish heritage, of course. That was the easiest decision in our marriage!)
Back to the point. After Paul is converted, Ananias is sent to him. Ananias is wary of this idea, and understandably protests that this is the man who has been killing Christians. Ananias is one of those unsung Bible heroes. Who of us would have gone to Paul? God's answer to Ananias is, among other statements, "Paul must learn how much he will suffer for the gospel's sake."
Of all the things God could have told Ananias, why this? And why did Paul go through so much for the gospel (well, for one reason, God just said he would). I think it has to do with empathy.
The Paul who wrote the 16th chapter of Romans, where he specifically names at least 26 people, is not the same man who stood by and watched one of his own Jewish people be stoned. Paul in Acts 8 is a zealot of the worst order, with neither sympathy nor empathy for the suffering he is watching or is about to inflict on many families and churches in the region in his hunt for Christians. In Romans 16, not only does he mention Jews, but he mentions Hermes and Narcissus, two believers obviously, from their names, from pagan backgrounds--Gentiles of perhaps the worst order.
So we go from a man who did whatever it took to "cleanse Judaism" of these heretics to a man who had deep personal relationships with all kinds of people. God built empathy into a man who had none. How? I'm sure there was some direct infusion and teaching, but it is clear that the suffering is what did it. I'm sure every time he was whipped he remembered the women and children that he himself might have taken to a lashing.
It's not that I'm saying he was being paid back, punishment for punishment for his sins. No, grace takes care of that. I am saying he had a long way to go to understand human suffering and for him at least it was not something to be learned vicariously. Thus, God's words to Ananias are no coincidence, but a prophecy of what Paul's life would have to be to extricate him from his zealotry and self-righteousness and, I think, almost pathological lack of concern for others. And it worked. It's hard to read Romans 16 and not be moved.
What true miracles grace can do in the human heart.
Back to the point. After Paul is converted, Ananias is sent to him. Ananias is wary of this idea, and understandably protests that this is the man who has been killing Christians. Ananias is one of those unsung Bible heroes. Who of us would have gone to Paul? God's answer to Ananias is, among other statements, "Paul must learn how much he will suffer for the gospel's sake."
Of all the things God could have told Ananias, why this? And why did Paul go through so much for the gospel (well, for one reason, God just said he would). I think it has to do with empathy.
The Paul who wrote the 16th chapter of Romans, where he specifically names at least 26 people, is not the same man who stood by and watched one of his own Jewish people be stoned. Paul in Acts 8 is a zealot of the worst order, with neither sympathy nor empathy for the suffering he is watching or is about to inflict on many families and churches in the region in his hunt for Christians. In Romans 16, not only does he mention Jews, but he mentions Hermes and Narcissus, two believers obviously, from their names, from pagan backgrounds--Gentiles of perhaps the worst order.
So we go from a man who did whatever it took to "cleanse Judaism" of these heretics to a man who had deep personal relationships with all kinds of people. God built empathy into a man who had none. How? I'm sure there was some direct infusion and teaching, but it is clear that the suffering is what did it. I'm sure every time he was whipped he remembered the women and children that he himself might have taken to a lashing.
It's not that I'm saying he was being paid back, punishment for punishment for his sins. No, grace takes care of that. I am saying he had a long way to go to understand human suffering and for him at least it was not something to be learned vicariously. Thus, God's words to Ananias are no coincidence, but a prophecy of what Paul's life would have to be to extricate him from his zealotry and self-righteousness and, I think, almost pathological lack of concern for others. And it worked. It's hard to read Romans 16 and not be moved.
What true miracles grace can do in the human heart.
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