Sunday, January 21, 2018

The Apostle Paul Teachings, His Main Themes

By Kathleen Perry


Apostles drew their messages from the lessons of Christ. However, each had different areas that he concentrated on in his works. The Apostle Paul Teachings are unique because of the depth and manner of coverage of the ordinary themes. Here is a look at the main areas that make his work stand out from that of other apostles.

He emphasized on the Lordship of Jesus Christ. His focus was not only on Christ as the source of authority but also as King. An example is perfectly captured in chapter 16, verse 22 of the first book of Corinthians. His message that that those who do not recognize Christ should be accursed. The idea is that, being a Christian must also come with recognizing Christ as the Lord. Every Christian is invited to recognize the supremacy of Christ.

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.

Paul is emphatic about the place of grace in Christian living. It can be seen intensely in his benedictions and salutations, mostly at the end of his epistles. An example is chapter 2 of Ephesians, verse 8 where salvation arises from faith, which brings unique grace. Romans chapter 3 and verse 24 captures the two elements of justification and grace together.

Another running theme is that of faith. The word features strongly and frequently throughout the epistles, with Romans chapter 1 and verse 17 standing out among the others because Faith is mentioned a record three times. Further, Hebrew 11 is regarded as the best chapter to teach faith in the bible. The message of faith is reflected in the understanding of the Old Testament, books that were studied heavily by Pharisees.

Something stands out in the life of Paul that is not in other apostles. He spent a lot of time wherever he went and was outright about his message. He did not want to produce half backed Christians. His message was deep to the point of being sent out of some of the places he went to preach. These happenings set him apart from the other apostles he was working with.

The teaching of Paul was not any different from that of Christ. His emphasis on certain themes makes his work standout and easy to relate for most Christians. He was also a very travelled follower who ended up in Rome, Italy in the hands of Emperor Nero. He was executed by beheading to become a martyr alongside Peter whose death was said to be by crucifixion.




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