Paul’s Ministry to Jewish Christians
I was asked my opinion of a blog post by a Biblical counselor who was talking about reconciliation, trust building, and repentance. The main point of the post was that forgiveness can happen immediately, but sometimes reconciliation and rebuilt trust takes a bit longer, and sometimes trust is never regained at all. I generally agree with these main points. However, I think I need to say something about the example the author gave for backing up or illustrating her points. The reason I’m writing about this post is because I’m a little bit afraid that this use of Scripture is widespread, and someone needs to say something about it. I’m not going to link this post to the author’s post because she might have simply gotten caught up in a trend and I don’t want to draw undue attention to her. She might have simply been duped. So, let me say again, there are a few things in her post that I agree with. My main concern is with how she used the Bible to illustrate her point.
The author was responding to counselees who were using Paul’s conversion as an example of how people can change from being horrible one minute to being godly the next. These people were asserting that people do change quickly and when they do, the person sinned against should accept their repentance at face value and should quickly let life go back to what it was before. They were saying, “I’ve repented. Now you need to get your act together and trust me just like before. And, if you don’t, you’re guilty of being bitter.”
The author then went on to talk about Paul. She rightly pointed out that just because Paul made a 180 change, not everyone makes that same change. I think, if she had stopped there, things would have been good. Alas, she didn’t.
Based on Galatians 1 and 2 where Paul said that he went to Arabia for this first three years as a Christian, and afterward spent 14 years away from Jerusalem, our author contended that he did this because the saint didn’t trust him. But Acts 9 records that meeting. The text says, “Then all who heard were amazed, and said, “Is this not he who destroyed those who called on this name in Jerusalem, and has come here for that purpose, so that he might bring them bound to the chief priests?” (Acts 9:21) and “And when Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, and did not believe that he was a disciple.” (Acts 9:26). So, yes, at first the saints were afraid of him and didn’t trust him. The text goes on, “But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. And he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that He had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus” (Acts 9:27). Followed by, “So he was with them at Jerusalem, coming in and going out. And he spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the Hellenists, but they attempted to kill him” (Acts 9:28–29).
The text tells us that Barnabas took Paul to the apostles and told them what Paul had been up to. After they listened to Barnabas, Paul’s relationship with the Christian church in Jerusalem was great. And from then on, Paul went in and out as one of them (v. 28) “And he spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the Hellenists, but they attempted to kill him” (v. 29). These Hellenists, incidentally, were Jewish Greeks who had come to Jerusalem to worship. Consequently, the Jewish Christians were fine with Paul. It was the unbelieving Jews who didn’t want him around.
Contrary to what is floating around the web, Paul was not only trusted as an Apostle, preacher, teacher, and leader in the church, but Christian Jews were Paul’s primary helpers, friends, and comrades. Barnabas was Jewish. Timothy was Jewish. Luke was a Jew. Almost everyone who traveled with Paul was Jewish. And everywhere Paul went he went first to the Jewish synagogues (e.g. Acts 9:1:19; 22:1-21; 26:4-18) and when the unbelieving Jews kicked him out, he went to the Gentiles. But in the process, the first Christians in most of these places were Jewish. So, far from the Christians not trusting Paul, they overwhelmingly joined with him in ministry.
Galatians 1:24 adds that the saints who hadn’t met him, but who had heard of him, were glorifying God because of him and his conversion and subsequent ministry.
Then, in Galatians 2, Paul said that he and Barnabas went to Jerusalem after a 14-year absence. He took Barnabas (who was a Jewish believer) and Titus (who was a Greek). They went, not to try to regain anyone’s trust, but to present to the Apostles the gospel they were preaching to the Gentiles so that everyone would be on the same page with what was being spread all over the world (Gal. 2:1-2; 9).
Conclusion:
On this topic, our counselor didn’t do a very good job of handling Scripture. Paul did become a Christian after persecuting Christians (Jewish Christians). But as soon as he was converted and introduced to the other Apostles, everyone praised God for him and let him teach in their synagogues. And, though God appointed his main ministry to be to the Gentiles, his practice in a new place was to start with the Jewish (especially Jewish Christians cf. Acts 13:5, 13ff; 14:1) folks and then move out to the Gentiles. God did use Paul as a minister to Jewish Christians, from the beginning of his Christian life (Acts 9:19) until his death.
How we might use this for counseling: The example of someone coming to Christ from a horrific background and changing from the roots to the fruit would be one good way of looking at Pauls’ life. In fact, every time Paul talked about his background it was in order to show the power of God in transforming lives, starting with his. We can also see the example of how the saints who had feared him had begun to treat him after they had believed the Apostles’ testimony about him (Acts 9:27).
Finally, we should notice that there is nothing explicit about trusting Paul anywhere in these texts. There is a lot about trusting God and obeying God and rejoicing in what God has provided, but nothing about trust. More on this in a later post.