march 2011...

editorial...

Excuses, excuses. No one likes them, but I’m afraid we have quite a good one to explain exactly why we’re one week late in uploading the March edition of the mag. Nope, the dog didn’t eat all the articles… it’s much better than that; a baby appeared and meant that Dan (one of our editors) totally forgot about his work responsibilities and got consumed with changing nappies and buying overpriced but very cute baby-grows. Sorry about that, he’s now back in the room and so here’s this month’s editorial…

We’re into our third month exploring some pretty impressive followers of Jesus and so in each edition we’re introducing the online mag with a quick look at some people who inspire us to follow God better! This month’s editorial takes a look at a ancient guy who wrote a vast portion of what we now call the New Testament… it’s pretty safe to say that without this chap none of us would have heard the message of Jesus, so he must be important!

hero number three:

Paul of Tarsus (aka the Apostle Paul, Saul)

We’ve probably all heard of Paul. He was a leading member of the early church (probably from around (AD 35-67ish) and though he wasn’t one of Jesus’ twelve disciples, he pretty much helped define what the first decades of Christianity looked like after Jesus’ death. There’s way too much to say to cover everything Paul did here (if you’re reading the Bible in One Year with us, you’ll be working through Acts at the moment and seeing his extensive travels), so we figured we’d pop in our three favourite things about this immense leader:

1) His thoughts: Paul was a pretty clever chap, in fact he was so clever that some of the enduring images of the Church and our understanding of Jesus still stem from his thoughts and interpretations. Ever heard the Church described as a ‘one body with many parts’ or that famous passage on love that gets read at weddings? That’s Paul. Nice work eh? Most people don’t remember what I say an hour later, but we’re still quoting Paul 2000 years on and his words have shaped the whole churches’ perspective on what being followers of Jesus should look like.

2) His vision: When Paul came on the scene, Christianity was simply a sect within Judaism. There was a small but growing group of people who believed that Jesus was the long awaited Jewish Messiah, but that only really had relevance to Jews. Paul was different. He had vision. He realised that Jesus’ death and resurrection wasn’t simply a symbol of hope for Jews, but something that had relevance to all people. Believe it or not, Paul had to fight pretty hard to make sure that people outside of Judaism who began converting to Christianity didn’t also need to become Jewish… Without Paul, it’s safe to say that male followers of Jesus would still need to be circumcised – just imagine trying to sell that to friends who were thinking about coming to church with you!

Paul managed to see how following Jesus could change everything, no matter what background or religion you came from. That’s an immense claim to fame that he helped early Christianity spread and paved the way for people like you and me to understand and believe in the good news.  

3) His devotion: Paul loved Jesus and he loved the Church that arose after Jesus’ death and resurrection. He was utterly devoted to the task of furthering the message of Jesus, so much so that he went on several epic journeys to plant new churches and see people come to know God. He was persecuted, beaten, ridiculed, imprisoned and eventually killed for his faith and the revolutionary words he was speaking. And what was his response? Well, here’s a snippet:

“… for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

I’m definitely still working on having that attitude; it doesn’t come naturally to any of us that’s for sure! But that’s why, St Paul is  our third hero of the faith. What a legend.

Enjoy the rest of the articles this month, we’ve also got an awesome competition and some funny baby videos to keep you entertained. And don’t forget to jump into the Bible in One Year blog for more on Paul!

Cheers

editor@soulsurvivor.com