{"id":18188,"date":"2013-05-19T08:40:28","date_gmt":"2013-05-19T16:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?p=18188"},"modified":"2013-05-19T08:40:28","modified_gmt":"2013-05-19T16:40:28","slug":"111-charts-on-the-apostle-paul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/111-charts-on-the-apostle-paul\/","title":{"rendered":"111 Charts on the Apostle Paul"},"content":{"rendered":"
I have a love\/hate relationship with the Apostle Paul.<\/p>\n
On the one hand, I love the guy. He is probably the greatest missionary the world has ever seen, he wrote a large percentage of the Christian Scriptures, he was a champion of God’s grace and of the Gospel for the Gentiles, and he had a theological mind and loving heart like none other.<\/p>\n
And yet… I find his letters to be some of the most boring in the New Testament. Maybe boring isn’t the right word. Tiresome?\u00a0Repetitive? Dry?<\/p>\n
I don’t know. Maybe it is just the season of my life I am in right now (and have been in for 15 years).<\/p>\n
<\/a>I know, I know. Bible teachers shouldn’t say such things. Most Bible teachers seem to spend an inordinate amount of time in the letters and writings of Paul. When I was a pastor, I did too. I preached through Philippians and Ephesians. And while I enjoying doing so, and learned a lot, and believe the people who heard these sermons learned a lot, it was always a relief to leave Paul and get into one of the narratives of Scripture (such as Genesis, Esther, or Jonah–which I have also preached), or my favorite of all – one of the Gospels.<\/p>\n Don’t get me wrong. I do love Paul. I love what he has written. When it comes to theology and the practical outworking of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for our life as Christians, Paul’s writings are among the best.<\/p>\n Maybe it is just that Paul is sometimes hard to understand. I know his letters are fairly well organized, but sometimes he goes off on rabbit trails, and other times he says things which don’t make a whole lot of sense, or which seem to contradict what he said in a different letter.<\/p>\n