Journeying with Paul...part three

In part two of journeying with Paul, I traced his first journey, seeing how he taught and established pockets of the ekklesia in the towns that he visited, setting elders up to lead them before moving on to the next town. I followed him all the way back to his starting point of Antioch, which is where I will take up in part three of his journeys.

At this point Paul returns to Antioch. It is during this time that the conference in Jerusalem takes place and it is during this time that Paul writes his letter to the Galatians, at least this is the period in which my chronological Bible places that letter.

One belief is that Galatia may have been the area that included the cities of Antioch, Lystra, Derbe, and Iconium. If so then we see that despite Paul’s best efforts to teach the ekklesia in those areas and to leave them with elders that can lead them as needed, they have not stuck to the things he taught them.

The book of Galatians, after Paul has introduced himself, starts with him telling them, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.” From that we can see that the believers he has left behind are not holding to the faith they had when he was with them and that there are those that are leading them astray.

I don’t know if these believers are merely immature in their faith and have nothing to turn to to test what people are trying to teach them or if these believers did not hold a deep enough faith to have faith unto salvation. Either way there are false teachers in their midst.

Paul writes them that anyone teaching a gospel other than what he taught them is accursed and that he did not learn from any man the gospel he gave them but that he got it straight from Christ. We can see in Paul’s letter that the Lord is the one that did all these things in his life. In this letter he tells them, ‘…when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me…’ There he tells them Who was behind him getting the gospel that he taught them and just after that he tells them, ‘I did not immediately consult with anyone.’ (Galatians 1)

As Paul writes this letter he is, it would seem, taking them back to the very basics, explaining…again…the gospel that he has already given them, almost walking them step by step through the gospel. Is he frustrated with them? Is he upset? Angry? Disappointed? We don’t know but Galatians two gives us an idea that he feels something strong as he writes this letter. He calls them, ‘O Foolish Galatians!’ Did he shake his head as he wrote that? Did he cry tears of sadness for their lack of faith? Did he stop what he was writing and pray for their faith?

We don’t know. But we know that he continues, almost taking them by the hand and explaining, step by step, why the law is not the faith they should have now. In chapter four he questions them, ‘…now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world…’ And he tells them something that gives us an idea of this thoughts, if not his feelings, he says, ‘I’m afraid I may have labored over you in vain.’ He continues with his worries over them, reminding them of the faith they had while he was with them, and then he says, ‘for I am perplexed about you.’

It’s at some point after writing to the Galatians that Paul begins his second journey, which takes us back to the 15^th chapter of Acts. Here we see Paul telling Barnabas that they should revisit the cities of their first journey, to check on the believers there. Possibly because of whatever prompted him to write the letter to the Galatians? Barnabas wanted to take John (Mark) with them but Paul doesn’t want to since John left them on the first journey. Barnabas and Paul wind up parting ways over this, Barnabas and John, who is called Mark here, going one way and Paul and Silas going another.

Paul winds up back in Derbe and Lystra. Chances are good that he is checking up on them, seeing how their faith is holding up, if it’s real, if it bloomed for a moment and then faded away, if they followed every doctrine that came their way. Is he trying to separate the wheat from the chaff? Is he trying to get those that seem to be true believers, now tested by time, away from those that may or may not still profess a belief? We don’t know. Scripture doesn’t tell us what he’s doing but if we look back to the letter he sent to them we get an idea of what he may have faced when he revisited these cities. What then would he have done when he got there?

It is here that we first meet Timothy, who now joins Paul on his journey. We are told that the assemblies are strengthened and that they are growing daily.

In a time when we have so many professing believers my mind both wants to understand that concept and be amazed that the numbers of believers could really grow that quickly. On first appearance, if one could somehow travel to every city in America on a Sunday morning, and if they had the ability to see into every ‘church’ in those cities, as well as the ones that aren’t located in cities, it would appear that the ‘church’ is of huge proportions, but the reality is that the majority of those going to those ‘churches’ profess a faith that they do not live. The faith many of them hold is only surface deep.

They are on the broad road. They are the many. They are those that profess with their lips. But how many among them are among the few? How many are the ones whose hearts are not far from the Lord?

Only the Lord knows the answer to that.

But that is what I think of as I think of the early groups of believers growing so quickly. Throughout the New Testament we are told time and again of false teachers, and we have just seen that false teachers were a problem among the early believers as well. We are also told of those whose hearts are far from the Lord. Paul, in his letter to the Galatians gave them the works of the flesh and the fruits of the Spirit. In that letter he told them to look after each other and themselves. Later he tells the disciples in Corinth to test themselves to see if they are in the faith. He doesn’t mean that they should see if they have faith to claim a belief in Christ, he is telling them to test themselves to see if they have saving faith, to see if their faith is real, to see if the salvation they think they have is real or if it is only something they think they have because they want to have it.

I think of those that claim to believe in Christ and yet cuss words come from their lips. I personally know someone that has stood in a ‘church’ building and said just such words. I think of someone that claims to believe in Christ but enjoys movies that depict sin. I think of someone that claims to know Christ but thinks nothing of living with someone without being married to that person.

These are the many that make up the ‘church’ buildings of our day. I don’t know what cultural things the many of Paul’s day were hanging onto while claiming to belong to Christ. In chapter 15 of Acts we can see that sexual immorality and idolatry were at least a portion of it.

These are the people that Paul spent his life teaching and encouraging. These are the people that Paul prayed for. These are the people that Paul told to test themselves.

In other words Paul knew there were false believers among those he was teaching. He knew they were there and he was telling them to check for themselves to see if they truly had salvation, to see if their faith was real, if it was heart felt.

I am put in the mind of those that tell us that ‘God loves everyone’ and that ‘we are all equal in God’s eyes.’ Most of those that say that are probably only repeating what they have been told, most likely from someone in a ‘leadership’ role. If the God that said ‘Jacob I loved but Esau I hated’ saw everyone equal…then why does Scripture show us that there is a distinction between those he loves and those he doesn’t? Why does Scripture tell us that the prayers of the righteous availeth much (James 5:16) but the prayers of the sinner are not heard (John 9:31)?

But it isn’t the people that are repeating these heresies that my mind goes to but to the heretical ‘leaders’ that planted these ideas in their heads. Scripture shows us Paul telling those he is leading to ‘test’ themselves. He tells them to check their faith, put it to the test. Here is a man trying to show them through their own faith that the faith they have may not be the real thing. And then there are those ‘leaders’ today that assure anyone that has said the ‘prayer’ that they have eternal salvation, those that tell people that ‘God’ just wants to love them, those that tell them that we are all equal in ‘God’s’ eyes.

Maybe we are all equal in their god’s eyes but their god is not my God, nor is their god the God of Scripture.

The times were different, the heresies may have been different, the sins may have been, in some way, different, but the false believers were mixed among the true believers then just as they are today. And those false believers were standing up and proclaiming Christ just as the true Christians were. And the false teachers were causing trouble among the church, confusing things, mixing things up.

The church was no longer what it was when Paul first encountered it. When Paul first came into Scripture the called out assembly was strong, living under the leadership of the apostles, probably the constant leadership, and they were all living for the betterment of each other. They were lifting each other up and supporting each other as they should, and when they didn’t their sin was quickly, and harshly, dealt with, or so it would seem from the only example we are given. But gone are those days. As we move into chapter 16 we see that Paul is teaching a different kind of assembly of believers, one where sin is a problem along with false professions.

On this second journey of Paul’s we also see that the Holy Spirit is controlling where he goes and who he speaks to. We see no direct interaction with believers during this journey until Paul gets to Philippi. Here they go to the riverside and encounter a group of women, among which is Lydia, a woman that is a ‘worshipper of God.’ And here we once again see the Lord at work for we are told that ‘the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.’

And later we see that the spirit living within the slave girl…the demon…recognized Paul and those with him for what they were. Paul cast the demon out of the girl but then finds himself and those with him, once again, being persecuted by the people. They are beat and thrown into prison. By the Lord’s hand they are freed, no small miracle in the way that came about, and are eventually escorted from the city.

In time they make their way to Thessalonica where a mob forms and accuses them, through accusations toward Jason and some others, of having ‘turned the world upside down.’ There in that accusation it would seem to me that their accusers would see that they aren’t dealing with any small thing. What in this world has the ability to turn the world upside down? Much of the problem, as I understand it, was that Paul and the others, these men of God, were following the laws of the land only so far as they did not go against the laws of the Lord. They followed Christ first, taught that He was the King, before they would follow the king of the land. This was a belief that turned the world, as it was known, upside down. Christ and His ways were being taught over those of the king of the land. And this new belief was what was turning the world upside down.

How many groups of people have gone around trying to get others to believe what they do…and not one of them has turned the world upside down. The only one is the group of believers that belong to Christ. And why did they turn the world upside down? Because Christ did the turning.

It is at this point, once Jason and the others are free, that Paul and Silas escape during the night. What was it like that night, being snuck out of town, traveling dark roads? Did their hearts pound in fear? Did they jump at every little sound? Did they avoid the roads and walk through areas where no one would be looking for them, or where they weren’t likely to run into anyone?

They get to Berea and are received ‘with all eagerness’. The Jews there compared what Paul said against the Scriptures and many of them believed. We are told here that those in Berea have the Scriptures, rather, we are told that they compare what they are taught against the Scriptures, so they must have had a copy of the Scriptures. This group of people may have had a slight advantage over those in the other towns, or they may not have, we really don't know if the people in the other towns had a copy of the Scriptures or not. It does seem that those in the other towns did not compare Paul's teachings against Scripture. Although that, too, is something we really don't know, it just seems that way because Scripture specifically mentions those in Berea comparing Paul's teachings to the Scriptures.

 So here Paul was, received 'with all eagerness, by a group of people that tested what he taught and as a result believed what he said. What fellowship he must have had with them. What enjoyment may he have gained being with them? But Paul’s trouble with the Thessalonians wasn’t over. Those in Thessalonica heard that Paul was teaching in Berea and they followed him there, causing trouble for him. The ‘brothers’ immediately sent Paul away but his leaving parted him from Silas and Timothy.

Paul, while waiting for his companions, spoke in the synagogues of Athens. After seeing several of those he spoke to believe, Paul then went on to Corinth. Here we see that Paul worked as a tent maker and spoke in the synagogues ‘every Sabbath’.

Silas and Timothy arrive in Corinth to find Paul busy trying to teach the word to the Jews but they ‘reviled him’. Paul then took his teaching to the Gentiles. For a year and a half Paul lived and taught among the Gentiles in Corinth.

About a year and a half ago I wanted to understand more of what Paul experienced in Corinth so I spent weeks studying 1 and 2 Corinthians. As I studied those two books I wanted to understand not only what Paul was writing of but what he was experiencing at that time.

That study led me to the understanding that Corinth was a very popular and very large city. It sat between two bodies of water that was part of a main travel route. People came and went from this city pretty much constantly. Travelers passed through from all lands bringing with them their beliefs and their customs.

Corinth was a city that was deep in sin. Homosexuality was rampant as was the worshipping of all manner of idols and gods. I remember reading somewhere, on the city of Corinth, that homosexuality was so abundant there that Paul most likely couldn’t have avoided it if he had so much as looked out his window.

This was what Paul lived in the midst of. This is what he struggled against. This is what he faced every single day as he shared the Gospel with people that weren’t always receptive.

It was here, in Corinth, that Paul wrote his letters to the Thessalonians. These letters were written to the believers in the very city that Paul and the others had to be snuck out of under the cover of darkness. This is the very same city that the Jews there weren’t happy enough that they were out of their city but those very Jews chased after him and stirred up so much trouble in Berea that Paul had to be sent away.

And it’s to the believers there that Paul writes while he is living in Corinth. In this letter we see that Paul worries over the believers there, in chapter three, we learn that he was so worried that he sent Timothy to find out how they were doing and it’s at some point after Timothy’s return that Paul writes this letter.

Paul writes of his thankfulness for the believers in Thessalonica and tells them that they are ‘chosen’. He reminds them of the men that he and the others provoked while they were among them.

This seems to be a very different letter than that last one he wrote. With his first letter he was grieved and worried over the condition of the church, of the believers, that he had once seen faith in. In this letter he writes of how he has heard of their faith from others.

In this letter we see something that anyone that teaches of Christ should take to heart. Paul writes, ‘…we speak, not to please man, but to please God…’ He tells them that ‘we’ are speaking only to please God. They aren’t concerned about upsetting anyone, as so many preachers today are. They aren’t concerned about saying something that may not fit with the times, may not be accepted by most people, or may be considered illegal. He tells them they speak for the purpose of pleasing God.

When was the last time you heard of a preacher that did that? I’ve never heard of any in our modern society.

But Paul doesn’t stop with that. He tells them, ‘…we never came with words of flattery…nor with a pretext for greed…nor do we seek glory from people.’ There is an example that anyone in a ‘leadership’ role could take to heart. Don’t do it to flatter anyone. Don’t be afraid of offending them. Don’t do it out of greed. Don’t do it for the attention or fame it brings. Don’t do it to please man. Do it to please God.

Oh…how many preachers and elders of today would be put out of business if they had to meet just those qualifications?

Paul goes on to give them instructions for living to please the Lord as well as how to live so that they may ‘walk properly before outsiders.’ They were to work with their hands ‘as we instructed you’ and ‘be dependent on no one.’

If all that isn’t enough, at the very end of 1 Thessalonians, Paul says, ‘we ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you…’ Would he not be speaking of the elders there? Are these not the men that would be what our society labels as preachers today? Paul clearly says that these are the men that are ‘over you’ and ‘admonish you’, are those not the men in position over the believers?

It would seem to me that those are the very men he is speaking of there, the elders. And he clearly states that these are men ‘who labor among you’. That, I suppose, could be seen as working among the believers, ministering to them, helping them, serving them. But it could also mean that they are literally working among the others. Paul was, even as he wrote this letter, working among those that he was ‘over’. He was working as a tent maker even as he was teaching of Christ and most likely teaching all the believers around him. Not only that but he was, even while working as a tent maker and teaching the believers around him, instructing the believers in the far off cities.

Paul uses this letter to encourage and to teach the believers in Thessalonica. Even as he is basically telling them that they are doing a good job, he gives them instructions on what they should be doing.

And we must remember that this letter is going into the hands of believers that most likely had little or no written instructions for living in faith. They had no Bible to turn to. They couldn’t even go to someone that was further along in their faith than they were because they were all relatively new believers.

What treasure this letter must have been to them. As they struggled to live out their faith, most likely basing their lives on what was in their hearts and what they remembered of the instruction Paul had given them while among them, what treasure would it have been for them to get this letter, to have it to read time and again, to turn to it when they questioned something.

And chances are Paul knew that.

While still in Corinth Paul wrote a second letter to the believers in Thessalonica. I find his introduction enlightening. Just after he writes who the letter is from he says…’To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.’ That is the ESV version but if we remember that the word ‘church’ did not exist in the Scriptures until the 1500’s then we know that the word ‘church’ was not in the original letter that Paul wrote. That leaves us to look to the word that would have been there…ekklesia…and if we use the English translation of that word we get something like… ‘To the called out ones of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.’ Unless we want to change the word ‘church’ to assembly and then we have, ‘To the called out assembly of God…’

Whatever definition we put in place of ekklesia it certainly changes the tone of the letter. These were a specific people that this letter is being written to. Our modern day minds are conditioned to see the word ‘church’ and to equate it with a ‘church’ system inside a physical building. And that…is exactly why the word ‘church’ was put in the English translations to begin with, to give more power to this organized system than it should have.

If we change ‘church’ to ‘the called out ones…we go from ‘church…in God’ to ‘called out ones…in God.’ And that, to me, is a major difference.

And so Paul addresses his second letter to ‘the called out ones’ in Thessalonica. It would seem, from Thessalonians chapter one, that Paul and those with him use the believers in Thessalonica as an example when speaking to other believers. It also appears that as of the time of this second letter, those in Thessalonica are still being persecuted.

Paul encourages the believers and gives them hope for themselves while also telling them of what will befall the unbelievers. As he moves into chapter two, which wouldn’t have been a chapter in the original letter, or in the original Scriptures, like the word church, chapters and verses weren’t added to Scripture until the mid-1500’s, Paul says something that is very easily overlooked. He is speaking of the coming of Christ but almost immediately he says, ‘…we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us…’ It would seem from what is said there that someone has approached the Thessalonians through a letter claiming to be Paul or one of the men with him or through messages they claimed were from Paul and those with him, either that or Paul fears that someone might do that very thing.

Here, in this letter, Paul tells the Thessalonians that ‘…they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them (unbelievers) a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that they may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.’ And almost immediately after that he says, ‘But …God chose you…to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you…’ There Paul spells out for them who is behind the unbelief and who is behind the belief. In just those few words Paul shows the Thessalonians, and us, that faith is by the hand of the Lord. God sent a delusion on the unbeliever and he called the believers to salvation. He tells them so much in such a short bit of writing.

If we think back to his first letter to the Thessalonians we will recall that Paul gave them instruction about working with their hands and depending on no one. Here, in this second letter, he tells them, ‘…keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us.’ Now, we know that Paul is specifically speaking to the Thessalonians here but these same teachings would also apply to those throughout time. Paul explained what was expected of believers and showed how ‘elders’ are to lead. In his first letter to the Thessalonians he said, ‘we ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you…’ and in this second letter he tells them, ‘keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness…’

In the first letter he clearly states that those that are over them in the Lord and that admonish them are laboring among them and then here, in this second letter, he tells them to keep away from any brother walking in idleness. There is much to be gained from those two things. He is addressing those that are ‘brothers’, these are believers, most likely, from the tone of this letter, he is addressing the elect, or those he believes to be the elect. In 1 Thessalonians he addressed his letter to the saints. Then he gives insight into what the leaders are to be doing…working among the brothers…and now he tells them to stay away from anyone walking in idleness. These leaders of the ‘called out ones’ were to be working just as he did, remember he was a tent maker, and he straight out tells them, ‘…you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day…’. This was what Paul and those with him did, even as they ministered to the believers, teaching and instructing them, and this was what Paul says the leaders should do. They were to work just as he did and just as the other believers were. And he tells the ‘brothers’ to stay away from those walking in idleness.

 That would include the leaders. Paul taught them through his words and actions what a leader is to be. Next to Christ, Paul was the most important teacher of the Scriptures. He has set the example for them and he tells them in his letters what should be happening and what they are to do with those that are not doing as he instructed and showed by example.

In other words…the leaders were to be working with their hands, holding down jobs, not sitting in a building, sometimes visiting ‘members’, and generally spending his days ‘earning’ his income by sponging off the believers of the ‘church’ while claiming that this ‘ministering’ is work.

Paul draws this letter to a close by telling them that he has heard that there are some that are not doing their part, they are not working. And he tells them to warn them and then to have nothing to do with them, ‘If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.’

So not only is Paul spreading the gospel in Corinth, a city of great sin, but he is working, presumably six days a week, since Scripture tells us ‘six days you shall work’, and then teaching in the synagogues on the Sabbath, but he is also writing letters of encouragement and teaching to the believers in the cities he has previously visited. And since we know he taught much while in those cities, it is highly likely, although we don’t know for certain, that Paul is also teaching believers in Corinth.

This would seem to be supported by the fact that he wrote in his second letter to the Thessalonians that they worked night and day while in Thessalonica. To hold down a job, teach on the Sabbath, instruct the believers in their faith, and write letters of encouragement and instruction to believers, it would pretty much take night and day.

And it’s at this point, sometime after writing the second letter to the Thessalonians, that Paul once again finds himself in trouble. The Jews united against him in attack and ‘brought him before the tribunal’. Their charge? ‘This man is persuading the people to worship God contrary to the law.’

The NKJV says ‘judgment seat’ instead of ‘tribunal’. This judgement seat was a platform supposedly similar to an outdoor theater where the courts were conducted. The judgment seat in Corinth has been excavated and today it is possible to literally stand where Paul did, facing the same platform where Paul faced Gallio.

Several years ago I visited a nature museum that had an outdoor theater. I didn’t watch any kind of performance there but I can imagine Paul standing there, facing a judge that was to decide his fate. Now Paul well knew his fate rested in the hands of the Lord and so he knew that whatever happened would happen by the Lord’s hand. But still…I wonder…did Paul worry? Was he afraid? Did he fear being beat again? Being stoned? Being put in prison again? Did his legs shake as he faced that judge? Did his hands tremble? Did he close his eyes to block what was before him from his vision? Did he pray?

This facing of Gallio all came to nothing because Gallio threw the charges out and did nothing, not to Paul, not to the Jews.

It was at some point after his appearance before Gallio that Paul begins to travel again. He leaves Corinth and sails to Syria. He cuts his hair because of a vow he ‘was under’ but we aren’t told of that vow. When he arrives in Ephesus he leaves Priscilla and Aquila and goes into the synagogues to reason with the Jews. It appears that his time in Ephesus was brief for he leaves them despite them asking him to stay longer.

From there he sails to Caesarea where we are told he ‘went up and greeted the church’, again if we recall that ‘church’ was not in the original Scriptures, nor was it a part of the lives of people in the New Testament than we can understand that he went to greet the ‘called out ones’, or ‘the called out assembly’. He met with the believers. Where, we do not know. Maybe he met with them in a building. Maybe he met with them in someone’s house. Maybe he met with them in a field or in a cemetery. We don’t know where he met with them but we know it isn’t in a ‘church’ and we know that he wasn’t meeting with the ‘church’ as our minds would, through conditioning, tend to think upon reading that word.

After leaving Caesarea he goes to Antioch, having now made a full circle back to where he started and ending his second journey.

This pretty much ends the time in which Paul made his second journey. Is Paul tired? Does he feel that he is accomplishing anything? Does he feel that he labors over people that turn back to their sinful ways as soon as he is out of sight? Does he ever long to stay in one place? To leave behind all the persecution and be 'normal'?

We still see nothing of what Paul wants or thinks. We see nothing of his feelings beyond what we can discern from his letters, and there is very little of that. But he teaching and leading...and angering non believers...everywhere he goes. He is doing what the Lord has set him aside to do, what he has been called to do. He was doing what the Lord had planned for him to do long before he was even born.