The Apostle of Love Flashcards
1
Q
If love was not a big theme in the message of Jesus, how did it become so?
A
- Paul talks about God’s love for us, of the need for us to love God, of the need for people to love one another - “brotherly love”.
- Brotherhood across bounds of ethnicity, class, gender:
- “The is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”
- After the Crucifixion Paul persecuted the followers of Jesus, throwing them into prison. But on his way to Damascus he is blinded and hears the voice of Jesus. He eventually decides that Jesus died in atonement for humanity’s sins.
- Paul devoted his life to spreading this message and was vital to the eventual success of the religious movement that came to be called Christianity.
- And, more than Jesus, he was responsible for injecting that religion with the notion of interethnic brotherly love.
2
Q
need for people to love one another
A
brotherly love
3
Q
Lacking in Love
A
- In the Roman Empire, the century after the Crucifixion was a time of dislocation.
- People swarm into cities from towns and farms, encounter alien cultures and peoples, and face this without the support of kin.
- Like U.S. cities in the early 20th century that founded social organizations such as the Elks Club and the Rotary Club.
- They formed “fictive families” for people whose real families were off in a distant town or village.
- The services offered were material (burying the dead) and psychological (giving people the sense that others cared about them).
- Caring for the widows and orphans, the old, unemployed, disabled, burial fund for the poor and nursing services.
- For Paul, “brothers” means “followers of Christ”, so the church was understood as one big family.
- The early Christians had a stronger-than-average sense of family.
- As a result, relationships with fellow congregants were more intense.
4
Q
Paul as CEO
A
- His epistles are sent to distant congregations in an attempt to keep them consonant with the overall mission.
- These letters are not just spiritual reflections but tools for solving administrative problems.
5
Q
The above is written in response to a crisis
A
- First, after he left Corinth, the Church split into factions and Paul faced rivals for authority.
- Second, many in the church were “enthusiasts” who believed themselves to have direct access to the divine and to be nearer spiritual perfection. Some believed they did not need to follow the church’s guidance in moral matters, while others spontaneously spoke out in tongues.
- They disavowed responsible obligation toward the rest; they lacked brotherly love.
- They are using their spiritual gifts in a showy, arrogant way.
- Speaking to your brothers in a language that they cannot understand is not a loving act.
6
Q
Brotherly love not only produced cohesion in Christian communities, but invoking this familial feeling also allowed Paul to assert his authority at the expense of his rivals.
A
- It was he, not they, who founded the family of Corinthian Christians
- Because he felt that he had to move on and cultivate churches across the Empire, he had to implant brotherly love as a governing value and nurture it continuously.
- The doctrine of brotherly love has two virtues:
1. Fraternal bonding made churches attractive places to be, an extended family.
2. This doctrine became a form of remote control to induce congregational cohesion
7
Q
Love That Crosses Borders
A
- Paul identifies himself as the Apostle to the Gentiles whose mission is to bring the grace of Jesus Christi to the non-Jewish world. There is no longer “Jew or Greek” as all are eligible for God’s salvation.
- By making Jews and Greeks equal, Paul was placing pragmatism over scriptural principle.
- His scriptural basis for so doing lay in the prophetic writings, especially Second Isaiah, who envisioned a coming messiah.
- The basic idea is that the Gentile nations will submit to the rule of Israel’s God and hence Israel.
- For Paul, the world must submit to Israel’s messiah, Jesus.
8
Q
Fringe Benefits
A
- What did people get for turning their homes into churches?
- First off, the Gospel.
- Then new benefits.
- Reliable lodging. Paul’s letters often include requests that they extend hospitality to traveling church leaders.
- A network of people to plug into, a congregation of “brothers/siblings”: “I commend to you our sister Phoebe…”
- Paul’s international church built on existing cosmopolitan values of inter-ethnic tolerance and amity.
- The Roman Empire was a huge commercial opportunity. Once remote cities are now linked by roads with a uniform legal code.
9
Q
How universal is Universal?
A
- What emerges from early Christianity was not exactly a God of universal love.
- The core appeal was “brotherly love” or familial love, and familial is directed inwards, towards kin, not outwards to everybody.
- Paul generally preaches love directed toward other Christians, but he also exhorts early Christians to extend hospitality to the unconverted.
- He exhorts a kind of “love” for non-Christians but it is less important than brotherly love among Christians.
- Christianity could not just keep extending hospitality to non-Christians forever, because it wanted to grow and joining meant benefits of an extended family.
- If you could get these benefits without joining why join?
- Also, a small group of people could not give endlessly without any contribution in return.
- Key to Christianity’s growth: Be nice to outsiders but not endlessly nice, unless they became insiders, after which they were expected to give and not just get.
10
Q
Brothers, Yes, but Enemies
A
- Paul was part of a religious minority that was resented and could be persecuted to the point of extinction. (Like, Philo not wanting to antagonize the pagan majority.)
- Befriending an enemy can be a powerful counterattack, because you are denying the enemy what he wants most, a rationale for hatred and a pretext for attack.
- He is injecting the Hebrew doctrine of kindness towards enemies into Christianity.
