Quotes About Paul

Breaststroke is an athletic event; butterfly is a political statement.

By all means continue to call me names. I daresay I have far too much confidence.

If this Jesus is God's answer, what is the question? Paul eventually came to the conclusion that God was answering a question that gets at the core of not simply the Jewish drama, but the human drama, a question that no one was yet asking in quite the same way.

Paul doesn't call followers of Jesus "Christians." He calls them "in Christ." That isn't the easiest thing to understand, let alone explain, but it suggests an intimacy with Jesus that defies words. That intimacy also includes—somehow—suffering.

If there is any cure for thinking of the Bible as a once-told-forever-binding source of information about God and his people, Paul is it. For

Paul is "our guy," and we Protestants continue to expect from him clear direction about what to believe and what to do. And Paul certainly seems to oblige. He has that alluring black-and-white, decisive, uncompromising "just do what I say" quality that some of us just can't get enough of. It's almost as if Paul's letters have become the Protestant version of the Law.

Paul would agree, to a certain extent. He did not think that Jesus was the founder of a new religion, rather the concluding, surprise chapter to Israel's story.

Sticking to the Bible at every turn, like it's an owner's manual or book of instruction, as the way to know God misses what Paul and the rest of the New Testament writers show us again and again: the words on the page of the Bible don't drive the story, Jesus does. Jesus is bigger than the Bible. For

We should feel free to see a tension in Paul's thinking, a paradox as I mentioned earlier: what God has done in Jesus is deeply connected to Israel's story while at the same time breaking out of the confines of that story. As soon as we try to resolve that paradox in Paul we will misunderstand him.

Zehr, Paul M. Biblical Criticism in the Life of the Church. Harrisonburg, VA: Herald, 1986.

To see what Paul sees, Christians today are summoned to join Paul: the reality of Jesus demands that the Old Testament be read not by the book, but against the grain.

N. T. Wright's Justification: God's Plan and Paul's Vision or What Paul Really Said.

Paul transforms a tribal story, of kings, land, and the purity of one group of people, into a global story of God's grace and peace to all nations. As famously confusing as Paul's letters are, if we keep this in mind, a lot of what Paul says will make more sense—such as the following.

I forget what lies behind," wrote Paul, but he didn't forget past events, because he had just listed them. He forgot their meaning. They no longer meant shame; they meant glory and wonder.

Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked directly at Elymas

After setting sail from Paphos, Paul and his companions came to Perga in Pamphylia, where John left them to return to Jerusalem.

Paul stood up, motioned with his hand, and began to speak: “Men of Israel and you Gentiles who fear God, listen to me!

As Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue, the people urged them to continue this message on the next Sabbath.

But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy, and they blasphemously contradicted what Paul was saying.

So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who affirmed the message of His grace by enabling them to perform signs and wonders.

This man was listening to the words of Paul, who looked intently at him and saw that he had faith to be healed.

When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices in the Lycaonian language: “The gods have come down to us in human form!”

Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.

Even with these words, Paul and Barnabas could hardly stop the crowds from sacrificing to them.