Skip to main content

Why Foreign Missions? 20l. The Gospel and Paul’s Self-Understanding

Why Foreign Missions?  20l. The Gospel and Paul’s Self-Understanding

Understanding the Gospel also involves understanding Paul's calling and life, which are a performance of the Gospel.[1]  As Morna Hooker points out, this is why suffering is part of Paul's ministry of the Gospel.[2]  Paul's hardship catalogues elaborate this point (1 Cor. 4.9-13; 2 Cor. 4.8-12; 6.3-10; 11.23-32; 12.10; 8.35; 4.11-13; 2 Tim. 3.10-11).  The terms that Paul uses to designate himself include: apostle, servant and slave, ambassador, witness, priest, father and mother, herald, and teacher—all terms having to do with his role with respect to the Gospel.

1.  Apostle
                        a.  Paul uses the term of others:  Rom. 16.7; 2 Cor. 8.23; Phl. 2.25
b.  Paul uses the term of special group, those who have seen the Lord (1 Cor. 9.1) and have been commissioned to proclaim the Gospel and so establish Churches ("apostello"=I send; 1 Cor. 1.17; 9.1f; 2 Cor. 3.2f; Ga. 1.1), and those who have miracles, signs, wonders attending their proclamation (2 Cor. 12.12).  This is the designation by which he addresses his churches:  Rom. 1.1; 1 Cor. 1.1; 2 Cor. 1.1; Ga. 1.1; Eph. 1.1; Col. 1.1; 1 Tim. 1.1; 2 Tim. 1.1; Titus 1.1 (cf. Titus 1.11).
c.  Certain authority goes with apostleship: 2 Cor. 10.8; 1 Cor. 9.1ff; Eph. 3.5; 1 Th. 2.6f) but one derived from Christ (Gal. 11‑17), not the Church, and from conformity to the Gospel (Gal. 1.8f), not from an office per se.  The foundation of the Church is the apostles and prophets (Eph. 2.20)
d.  Especially, Paul is apostle of the Gentiles: Rom. 11.13; Gal. 2.8
e.  Paul sees the apostles as most giving of selves (1 Cor. 4.9) and himself as very self‑denying among other apostles (1 Cor. 9.5) and more hard‑working (1 Cor. 15.10)
                        f.  Paul sees himself as the least of the apostles: 1 Cor. 15.9; cf. 1 Tim. 1.15f.
                2.  Servant and slave:
a.  Of Christ:  Rom. 1.1; Gal. 1.10; Phl. 1.1; 2.22; Tit. 1.1 (Epaphras, Col. 4.12; a church  leader, 2 Tim. 2.24)
                        b.  Of the churches: 2 Cor. 4.5
c.  Believers are to consider themselves as servants as well.  Servants of obedience/righteousness (Rom. 6.16, 17, 20), of Christ (1 Cor. 7.21‑24; Eph. 6.6; Rom. 12.11; 14.18), one another (Ga. 5.13), slaves serve the Lord (Col. 3.24), of God (1 Th. 1.9)
               3.  Ambassador: 2 Cor. 5.20
               4.  Witness (marturia:  1 C. 15.15)
               5.  Priest:  Rom. 15.16.
a.  The saints are sacrifices being prepared  for God (Rom. 12.1f; Phl. 2.15 [amoma]),  their faith is a sacrificial service to God (Phl. 2.17; cf. 2.30; 4.18)
                        b.  Paul is working to present these saints to God (Phl. 2.16; Rom. 15.16
                        c.  Paul's life‑work is sacrificial.
                            1.  2 Cor. 4.10‑12: Paul carries about the death of Jesus in his body
                            2. Phl. 2.17: spendomai (pour out as a drink offering; cf. 2 Kgs. 16.3; Jer. 7.18;
                Hos. 9.3) refers to Paul’s suffering. 
This is the 3rd of 3 metaphors Paul uses of his apostolic activities here: running, working, pouring out as a libation.
                3.  Phl. 3.10f: Paul wishes to share in Christ’s sufferings and attain to the
                              resurrection
                4.  Col. 1.24:  filling up what still remains of Christ's sufferings on behalf of
                              his body, the Church
                5.  Rom. 9.1‑3 (notion of sacrifice)
                6.  2 Tim. 4.6:  sacrifice of death
    7.  2 Cor. 2.14‑17 (incense)
                8. Rom. 12.1; 1 Co. 10.18; Eph. 5.2; Phl. 2.17; 4.18: thusia, sacrifice
d. 2 Cor. 9.12; Phl. 2.17; 2.30 (leitougia: Paul is a minister performing a religious service,            as Aaron in the tabernacle)
 6.  Father:  1 Th. 2.11f (not authority image)
                 Mother:  Gal. 4.19
 7. Herald (or proclaimer) and Teacher:  2 Tim. 1.11

Conclusion

The various terms of self‑designation all reflect P's activity for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  He is an apostle, one sent by Jesus to proclaim the Gospel.  He has an authority in this role, but it is derived from the Gospel and does not exist apart from the Gospel.  In this light he also is a servant, ambassador, witness, priest, teacher, and preacher of Christ.  To the churches his role is one of planting and nurturing, and so he is seen as a father and mother to them.  Again, several of these roles imply authority, but always in relation to the Gospel and not as an authority existing in a status or office alone.

[1] Cf. Rollin G. Grams, Gospel and Mission in Paul’s Ethics (unpublished PhD dissertation, Duke University, 1989).
[2] Morna Hooker, Not Ashamed of the Gospel: New Testament Interpretations of the Death of Christ, Didsbury Lectures (Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 1994), pp. 27ff).
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Alasdair MacIntyre and Tradition Enquiry

Alasdair MacIntyre's subject is philosophical ethics, and he is best known for his critique of ethics understood as the application of general, universal principles.  He has reintroduced the importance of virtue ethics, along with the role of narrative and community in defining the virtues.  His focus on these things—narrative, community, virtue—combine to form an approach to enquiry which he calls ‘tradition enquiry.’ [1] MacIntyre characterises ethical thinking in the West in our day as ethics that has lost an understanding of the virtues, even if virtues like ‘justice’ are often under discussion.  Greek philosophical ethics, and ethics through to the Enlightenment, focussed ethics on virtue and began with questions of character: 'Who should we be?', rather than questions of action, 'What shall we do?'  Contemporary ethics has focused on the latter question alone, with the magisterial traditions of deontological ('What rules govern our actions?') and tel...
Post a Comment
Read more

The New Virtues of a Failing Culture

  An insanity has fallen upon the West, like a witch’s spell.   We have lived with it long enough to know it, understand it, but not long enough to resist it, to undo it.   The very stewards of the truth that would remove it have left their posts.   They have succumbed to its whispers, become its servants.   It has infected the very air and crept along the ground like a mist until it is within us and all about us.   We utter its precepts like schoolchildren taught their lines. Its power lies in its claims of virtuosity, distorted goodness.   If presented as the vices that they are, they would be rejected.   These virtues are proclaimed from the pulpits and painted on banners or made into flags.   They are established in our schools, colleges, universities, and seminaries.   They are the hallucinogen making our own cultural suicide bearable, even desirable.   They are virtues, but disordered, or they are the excess or deficiency of...
Post a Comment
Read more

'Nature' and ‘Against Nature’ in Romans 1:26-27: A Study in the Primary Sources

Introduction In Romans 1:26-27, Paul distinguishes ‘unnatural’ from ‘natural’, saying that homosexual acts among both women and men are ‘unnatural’.  Romans 1:26-27 For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse [ physikēn chrēsin, natural use ] for unnatural [ para physin, against nature ],  27 and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse [ physikēn chrēsin, natural use ] with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error. This understanding, however, has been questioned, and the debate centres around what Paul means by ‘natural’ ( physikon and kata physin ) and ‘unnatural’ ( para physin ).  Those questioning this understanding in recent years (it was not questioned in the history of the church until now) [1] focus on the notion of ‘natural’ rather than the Greek phrases, but bo...
Post a Comment
Read more