Jesus and Paul

Christians talk themselves into a lot of corners.  I think when you stare at the Bible and study it and begin asking questions you've never asked before, it is, more often than not, a very good thing.  That is exactly what each of us should be doing.

A problem, though, arises when you come to a certain conclusion that creates difficulty and then stick with that conclusion, assuming the difficulty is in the Scripture and not your understanding.  This article I read today was a great example. 
He was describing the "controversey" that has come up about how the teachings of Paul and Jesus are different.  Some even claim they are of a completely different character.  The difficulty begins with the conclusion that Jesus' focus is on God's Kingdom (the rule of God, including care for the poor, a radical view of possessions, etc.) and that Paul's focus is justification by faith.  If you start with these ideas, you can certainly find controversey, because Paul writes little about Jesus' kingdom themes, and Jesus speaks little about justification.  But these ideas are not really true.  They primarily preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, but from different perspectives to different audiences in different times.

The author seems to think he has a huge breakthrough (and I don't want to discount the idea that this may have been a personal breakthrough and many others need the same insight) when he says that both Jesus and Paul primarily preach "Jesus."  I got to the end of the article, and I wanted to say, "Well, duh..."

But here's the thing... as I read the other parts where he set up the disconnect, I was right there with him.  It began to be hard for me to see how these messages fitr together, too.  So if the article had a different point, I may have gone away with a serious question.  If I were not completely confident in the unity of the New Testament, it might have even shaken my faith in Paul or the Gospels--or in the idea of the Kingdom of God or justification by faith.

It' good to ask questions about what we do not understand.  And it is good, even if those questions are not settled right away.  The Bible has a lot of places where "the truth is in the tension" between two ideas that do not seem to be reconcilable.  But if our questions cause us to want to choose one understanding at the expense of throwing out another truth clearly taught in Scripture or to say something silly like, "Paul and Jesus do not agree," we know we have painted ourselves into a corner, and we know that we have not yet arrived at the truth.

Here is the article from Christianity Today.