He was a Pharisee studied
elementary principles under famous Rabbi Gamaliel. He was also a citizen of Tharsis (Acts
39:29), a Roman citizen. Roman Citizens have several privileges like
(i) Could travel anywhere within
Roman Empire.
(ii) could not punish until
guilty.
(iii) can make appeal directly.
His Environment: Religion to which he belonged provided to
religious (Judaistic) environment. City of Tharsis provided educated
background. The Roman Empire provided with political environment.
Political Scenario: Political Scenario during Paul’s time was very
encouraging. Old the glory of Rome was disappearing. Main reason for this was
some of the weak rulers. One of such rulers was Caligula (37-41 AD). He was not
able to hold the empire together. The another weak emperor was Claudius (41-54
AD). Of course he was intellectual and Paul did most of his missionary works
under him. Next Emperor was Nero (54-65 A.D). H e was strange character who
started the persecution. Imperial persecution very cruel and killed his own
family. Paul was imprisoned under his rule and later both Peter and Paul were
killed under his persecution. There huge fire in the city and most of the
people thought that Nero himself was responsible for that. But he blamed upon
the Christians.
The Moral and Social Situation during Paul’s Time: There was class
distinction during his time. The society was divided into Lower, Middle and
Upper classes. The upper and rich people used to oppress the others. Some of
these people immediately opposed Christians but latter attracted (Phil 1:13).
Paul was also in the palace of Caesar, aristocratic people.
Romans as a whole, they believed in
religious ideas, collecting ideas from different religion to Rome. Rich
combination of varying religion. They were emperor worshippers. Many mystery
religions which include the worship of mitra. Romans were to tolerate Judaism
and totally opposed Christians.
Philosophical Situation during Paul’s Time. Philosophically, Romans
were influenced by Greek Philosophers- Stoics, Ephecurianism etc. Ephecurianism
did not worry about the next day. They enjoy life. One philosophy that affected
most was the stoicism which attracted more people. Stoicism thought that there
are reasons that can discover certain Natural and ethical Laws. They were very
discipline people. They would live in the brotherhood of humanity. They
attracted most people to them. Some of the intellectual people attracted to
this philosophy. Paul was aware of this philosophical idea. He learned them and
quoted them in some of his teachings. He use in the mass in Athens.
His Activities. In one of his letters he says that he is one of the
high ranking apostles. He also says that he is least of apostles. We have
record that Paul expanded so great than any other apostles. That is why he is
able to say that he had labored more than others. Paul was known to many things
but most probably for his missionary works.
i.He was a devoted missionary. Missionary is one who sent with message.
If we have message, we are missionary. But in the case of Paul, he went place
to place. He became missionary to others.
He was a successful missionary.
ii.He had a real burden. His only desire in the missionary work was
people to be saved.
iii. Paul’s Method of Mission.
a. His selected strategic centre. A careful study of Paul’s
Missionary Journey will tell us that he had a difficult plan. One of that were
certain key cities, important cities. Starting from Antioch, Lystra, Corinth,
Ephesus, Iconia, Philippi, and many of cosmopolitan cities. Some of these
places were trade and commerce centre. Paul not only passed through different
countries but also stayed there.
b.His practice of Presenting the Gospel. First he presented to
Gospel to Jewish people. He would always look to Jewish people. Because- they
were his people and could easily communicate with them and he was also great
burden for his own people. He is always look for synagogue. Even in market
places he would look for Jewish people.
c.His pattern of organizing Church. Through his missionary journey, he initiated
group of people and built the planted the churches. He is not only mere
evangelist, but had a real burden. He worked so that the people converted would
multiply. He revisited the places and encouraged them. In his second missionary
journey he appointed the leaders.
d.His principle of Self Supporting. He supported himself from his
own earning. He made his own living. Paul worked not to make money but to make
living. He did not depend on others for his mission works. Of course, he also
collected but not for himself. He earned basically by tent making. When he was
in prison, he got support from others. But primarily he supported himself
through his works. He encourages churches to give for the works of God’s kingdom,
for pastors (Act 18, 1 Thesal.)
e.He was sensitive of the working of the Holy Spirit. Paul was always
directed by the voice of God. He was directed by the that voice even before he
started his ministry.
f.He had the Policy of Consolarity. He would go to place to place and
simply started church. Acts 15:36. He revisited the churches. In other words,
Paul had more obligations.
Paul’s Literary Contribution: He did not forget the people whom he
brought to the ministry. He kept in touch with them in all the situation.
Sometimes some people sent news to him. Sometimes, his co-workers sent news to
him. Sometimes, situations demanded that he wrote a strong letter. The First
Letter to the Church of Corinth dealt with lots of Spiritual gifts, problems,
moral problems, divisions, coming of the gentile Christianity etc.
The Church in Galatia had a
problem of relationship between Mosaic Law and Christianity. Church in Rome, he
is giving exposition of justification by faith. In his letter to Philemon, he
dealt with the relationship between master and slaves. Sometimes his letters
dealt with ethical problems. All his need came out of his specific needs. Every
letter had great contribution. His letters provide answers to solve those
problems which not only for the early churches but also even today. It contains
a very valuable principle for the entire church.
Paul’s Theology: Every letters that Paul wrote started with
greetings. There are prayers and
then he mentions something about himself and individuals. It is through letters
we see the basic dogma of the church. It is he who formulated basic dogma of
the early church. Jesus is best teacher ever live. H e gave lots of teachings.
How do we relate this with Paul? In
Jesus’ teachings all the doctrines in the New Testament is found and it is
basic form. The basic is the seed. Paul
made this seed to grow. Paul took and developed the teachings of Jesus.
The basic of our theology is the
word of God. Some people say they are complicated, but this statement is not
correct. Paul is not preacher like Peter, but a writer and Philosophers.
The Contents of Paul’s Theology: If we put all his 14 letters, we
got the following
*Righteousness by faith (Romans).
Salvation is predominant in the Romans.
*Justification by faith. A person
is justified by faith alone (Sola-fade)(Rom.5). It is the revelation of God.
The grace of God revealed through Jesus Christ. It is through faith, one can be
justified. It is the righteousness made by the atonement. Our faith must rest
upon the finished work of the cross. In other word, by believing on what Jesus
did on the cross we are provided with garment of righteousness (Romans). By
faith we are saved through grace. (Sola Fade and Sola Gracia) . By emphasizing
this doctrine, Paul was trying to reject the doctrine of Judaism. According to
him, no man can be justified through obeying all the laws.
Paul’s Ethics: If we divide his teachings into two- (i). Relation
with God by faith and (ii). Relation with other man through love. The motive
for his ethic is love. Basis of human conduct. A Christian who is justified is
called upon to life of love. That life of love calls for separation from all
impurities.
Source of Philosophy in his teachings: It is in the theology of
Paul that we get the philosophy of history. That is studying history with
philosophical mind to find out the truth and historical fact. A history is dot,
static or moving circle. The Greek philosophy of history was going on circle. History
is reacting history. But Paul rejected the cyclic view of history. He believed in the supernatural view of
history. Paul takes into account of unregenerate of man’s failure and God’
power. It is not because of something done by man, but because of man’s
failure, God does something to redeem him. History has a beginning, its climax.
But God’s plan for humanity will never change, even though man is failed. One
day, God’s revelation will reach to its climax. God’s plan of history involves
all human beings. The climax of history will be all forms of evil ultimately conquered
and God will be all in all. He will be triumphant (Rom 11:36, Eph.1:10).
Paul as a Polemist: Polemists are the one who defends against the
wrong doctrines. Similarly one who engages in apolemic is apology. But the word
here means defending the truth. Apologists and pologists can be used interchangeability.
Church history apologists emerged from the first century pologists. These
apologists wrote to defend their faith and practice. Roman emperor accused Christians and said
that messages of their teachings were not in line with the Roman Empire. It
declared that Christians were going to set up over against the Roman Empire. In
other words Christians were trying to dethrone Caesar. That is why they were
persecuted. Romans misunderstood some of Christian Practices like Holy kiss as
immoral. Therefore the polemists tried to show that they were not the law
breakers. Apologists mainly wrote to the Roman king to clear the accusation.
Polemics go little further. There were individual fighting,
fighting of true faith. Polemics defend the truth against the false doctrine.
It is the positive fighting against the false doctrine (Jude 1:1-3). Faith have
to spread the subjective and objective. Our response God’s word is objective,
the body of truth. Jude is talking about the body of truth. Throughout the
history of Church, there was fighting for truth. That is Paul’s theology.
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