{"id":371,"date":"2014-01-13T13:37:16","date_gmt":"2014-01-13T18:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=371"},"modified":"2014-03-08T19:09:14","modified_gmt":"2014-03-09T00:09:14","slug":"st-paul-20140112","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=371","title":{"rendered":"A Look at the New Testament – St Paul \u2013 20140112"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I began to share in the last issue of this article, we need to imagine Paul\u2019s approach as much more conversational. Consider the story in ACTS 16 of Paul\u2019s conversion of a Gentile \u201dGod-lover\u201d named Lydia, whom he met in a Jewish gathering just outside the gates of Philippi in northern Greece (I would encourage you to pick up your New Testament and read this chapter in ACTS<\/em><\/a>). Lydia was a successful businesswoman. A dealer in purple dye, which was highly valued and expensive in the ancient world. She was from Thyatira in Asia Minor and was now in Greece. Obviously very competent and intelligent, she had become attracted to Judaism.
\nAccording to ACTS, Paul engaged her in conversation. Soon she and her whole household converted to become Christ-followers. What might Paul have said to Lydia? It seems implausible that Paul simply proclaimed, as some Christian preaching does today, that we are all sinners and that Jesus died for our sins, so we can be forgiven and go to heaven if we believe in Him. Why would Lydia respond to that kind of message?
\nInstead, we need to image Paul telling her about Jesus, about the kind of man he was, what he taught, and what he did; about his execution by the authorities; about Paul\u2019s own experience of Jesus appearing to him, convincing him that the way of Jesus was the way of the God of the Bible; and that Jesus was Lord and Messiah, the promised one of Israel. In short, Paul would have talked about Jesus and testified to his meaning and significance. He would have emphasized that in Jesus a new form of Judaism had been created in which Gentiles could be full participants \u201cIn Christ,\u201d as he wrote in one of his most famous verses, \u201cThere is no longer Jew or Greek\u201d (Galatians 3:28). He would have invited her into a new community in which she could be both Gentile and Jew. Indeed, Paul\u2019s purpose was to create communities of Christ-followers or to integrate converts into communities that already existed.
\nPaul\u2019s communities of Christ-followers are called \u201cchurches\u201d in most English translations of the New Testament. Doing so is potentially misleading, because of the modern associations with the world \u201cchurch.\u201d It most commonly means a building and\/or a community of Christians, large or small, organized for \u201creligious\u201d purposes with designated leadership roles and a set of beliefs or doctrines.
\nThe communities of Paul were not churches in this modern sense. The first church building dates from the mid-200s, and churches were not common until after Constantine legalized Christianity and became its patron in the 300s. He was, as you know, highly influenced by his mother.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I began to share in the last issue of this article, we need to imagine Paul\u2019s approach as much more conversational. Consider the story in ACTS 16 of Paul\u2019s conversion of a Gentile \u201dGod-lover\u201d named Lydia, whom he met … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-look-at-the-new-testament","tag-acts-of-the-apostles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=371"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":663,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions\/663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}