This chapter is an awfully complicated bit of reasoning, and I do wonder what my fellow church members make of it. I have a word from the Holy Spirit for the perplexed: "It's OK if you don't understand it, or even like it."
There seems to be little flaw in our evangelical DNA which comes out as an anxiety, or insecurity about, believing the right doctrines. I'd like to pass on God's permission to you to accept St Paul as God accepts him, whilst being honest with yourself that the way he sees some things just doesn't always 'float your boat'. He'd be the first one to agree - there's great wisdom in Romans 14. But that too is wrapped up in a very Pauline way, which may put some off.
It's a miracle of God's grace that the first apostles apparently stayed united - especially when St Paul bursts in on the scene. The tensions and difficulties they had surface a number of times. St James pretty well goes head-to-head with St Paul over salvation by faith alone (James 2:24). Martin Luther was so passionately attached to St Paul that he said James was 'a letter of straw'! St Peter and St Paul seemed to have agreed a modus vivendi whereby they kept to separate mission fields (Galatians 2:9). You can sense all these human issues in St Peter's closing words to his second letter: 'Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes in the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand ...' (2 Peter 3:15-16). And then St John! The apostle for the contemplative, mystical believer. It's very rare to hear a preacher majoring on St Paul, weaving in anything from St John, or vice versa. Yet St Paul's mystical side is second to none.
Ideally, we shouldn't say "I'm for Paul", or "I'm for John". But be kind to yourself, like God is. Don't beat yourself up about being baffled or put off Paul for now. Honour the place where you are now, throw yourself passionately into the relationship God has given with Himself and His truth now. Remember, every point of view is just that - a view from a point. Relish and live your spiritual life to the full at the point you are now.
I've realised that it's the only option actually. I see, experience and understand only a tiny part (1 Corinthians 10:9), and what I can now won’t be what I will tomorrow. I’m certain of that, because I can look back to see how far I’ve repented and changed.
Doesn't the Evangelical anxiety about 'sound doctrine' come from a tradition that has been pulpit-centred rather than altar-centred? We need to meet God; we need to know Him. When we spend too much time talking about Him, but lack that encounter, then anxiety and over-intellectualised speculation result. Here we see how close the Catholic and the Charismatic are (and of course there are many Charismatic Catholics): they both place the encounter with God at the centre of faith. And they're both a lot of fun. Taste and see that the Lord is good!
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