The Bible is full of the personal narratives of some very interesting and admirable characters. The Old Testament, in particular, contains the stories of dozens of faithful servants of God and they are portrayed warts and all. The New Testament, of course, begins with the four “Gospels” which are biographies of Jesus and, like all biographies, tell the story of the life of their subject from a specific perspective and with a specific agenda. Many of the differences between particularly the first three gospels escape the casual student because, while they may not be lost in translation, they can certainly be hidden in translation.

While the Gospels paint a fairly clear picture of the ministry of Jesus, they do not tell us much about Him before He reached the age of thirty. Of course, He lived only a few more years so, in a very real sense they provide only a fleeting glimpse of a man who knew His time was limited and His duties immense. It is, therefore, important to look at all of the Gospels to get the most complete idea of Christ that is possible.

It is also important to read the writings of Paul. Although he was not intimate with Jesus during His earthly life, Paul’s is the author of more of the New Testament than any other single person. While he does not give us a book which is a true biography of Christ, he does give us several books which focus on the theology of Christ and that is just as important.

In the book of Acts, written by Luke as a companion volume to his Gospel, we get a decent biography of Paul, at least from the time shortly before his conversion and through his original imprisonment in Rome. I say decent not because of the quality of the text but because it serves as Paul’s biography incidentally to Luke’s primary objective, which was to explain how Paul ended up in prison in Rome.

While Acts tells of many of the sufferings Paul endured for the cause of Christ, it does not really tells us very much about the suffering which was the most painful to him, the ill treatment he received from other so-called Christians. In many of his letters to churches and to his closest associates, Paul discusses the hardships inflicted on him by those who should have been working to support his efforts. Many people tried to deny Paul’s authority as an apostle, others mocked his speaking ability and his physical appearance, and some even tried to twist his words to lead weak Christians astray.

While it is sad to realize that so many people hurt Paul when they had a wonderful opportunity to help him, it is even sadder, to me at least, that Paul is still undergoing much of the betrayal he experienced during his life approximately two thousand years later. Many people today try to claim that Paul was not really an apostle and we do not really have to listen to him. Others attack his character and describe his as a homophobic misogynist. Worst of all, many take his beautiful discussions of redemption through the grace of God given through the blood of Christ to lead some less informed people away from the beautiful truth it contains.

Paul, in a very real sense, is still being persecuted and, worst of all, most of the persecution is coming from people who should be thanking God that Paul gave everything so that we might have a better understanding of what has been done for us and what we should be doing about it. The next time you give thanks to God for all of the blessings He has given you, perhaps you could remember to thank Him for the lives of all of the people who sacrificed so much to give us His word.

coordinating the food for IRS party.

Please give her a call.

Items for the friendship house this month are: Baby shampoo, lotion, wipes, diapers, etc..