Saturday, February 3, 2018

The Apostle Paul Teachings, His Main Message

By Kathleen Perry


Apostles of Jesus remained behind to amplify his message. Something stands out in the messages of each follower. The apostle Paul teachings focus on particular themes that can be traced in almost all his epistles. Here are some of these themes that stand out whenever one looks at the works of Christ.

Christ as Lord is a central theme whenever you read his epistles. Christ is not just regarded as the source of authority but as a king who is the source and reason for all authority. Chapter 16 and verse 22 of First Corinthians states that those who fail to recognize the authority of Christ as Christians must be accursed. It means that there is no claim of Christianity if it is not accompanied by recognition of Christ as the authority.

The message of resurrection is heavily repeated and advocated. This could be attributed to his background as a Pharisee. It gave him the understanding and strong ability to interpret the word with this depth. Borrowing form the resurrection of Lazarus, his message is that if death can obey Christ, every Christian has no option but to follow the same path.

There is sufficient focus on justification. In fact, the word Justified and Justification appear tenses of times through his writing. The central message when he talks about justification is a confirmation that without getting legitimacy from Christ, human beings are useless. This seems to be in reference to John chapter 1, verse 20 where he says that those who received Christ were given the power to be children of God.

There is a lot of teaching about Grace in his works. The apostle is known for his salutation which captures the word Grace on numerous occasions. He also uses the same word during benediction. Ephesians 2,8 is a perfect example that salvation is a matter of grace which then comes with faith. In Romans chapter 3 and verse 24, he combines grace and justification to pass another strong message.

Faith cannot be divorced from the teachings of Paul. Faith is one of the most frequent words you will find in his epistles. In fact, Romans 1, 17 features the word three times in a single sentence. Hebrew chapter 11 is considered the heaviest chapter in the bible about faith. His message borrows heavily from the Old Testament and is therefore impossible to divorce the two.

A common characteristic of the message of Paul is its clarity. He is deep about the issues affecting the people he is writing to. Having traveled widely, he gave sufficient time to the people who hosted him along the way. His focus was to ensure that they understood the message deeply. His message was so powerful that it caused him to be kicked out of some cities. Because of concern for Christianity wherever he went, his message resonated intensely.

Paul did not deviate in any way from what Christ taught. It is his address of particular themes that made him standout and a source of great wisdom despite starting as Saul the persecutor. He was an incredibly travelled preacher who ended up in the hands of Emperor Nero in Rome Italy. He was martyred by beheading, alongside Peter who was crucified, albeit in a different position from Christ according to history books.




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