Reposition Yourself by T. D. Jakes

We’re not always where we want to be in life, but we can make it better if we’re willing to change. Megachurch pastor T. D. Jakes offers advice on making positive change in his book Reposition Yourself.

To make a change, you need to face the truth. For most of us, a hard truth is that we have a lot to do with our problems. We bring ourselves to an unhappy, unfulfilled state through our own apathy, lack of passion, settling for less than our best, passivity, poor money management and lukewarm relationship with God.

Another hard truth is that life is unfair. Bad stuff happens to all of us, and to some more than others. Success demands perseverance and flexibility.

People who successfully change take effective action. They are attentive to their situation and to themselves, developing a strong sense of their gifts and purpose. They are intentional, setting definite goals and putting themselves in environments and around people who support what they want to achieve. Thee have a plan, recognizing that it is inevitable that things will that they will face setbacks, but a delay in achieving their goals does not mean they will be denied success.

Humility is another key to successful change, though I don’t recall Jakes putting it so bluntly. Humility begins with recognition that we need God; we need the cleansing and power we can only receive through Jesus Christ. Our humility is grown through gratitude. In thanksgiving we appreciate what we have, learn contentment, and gain strength from our struggles. Humility also protects us from the pitfalls of success such as excessive self-reliance, neglect of important relationships or becoming coopted for the agendas of others.

Along the way to way, it is good to make some money. Money gives you options. Jakes offers some advice on managing money so you can make yours grow and have more freedom.

Jakes, T. D. Reposition Yourself: Living Life without Limits. New York: Atria, 2007.

James

James.  The Holy Bible.  New King James Version.  Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

James wrote to Jewish Christians.  His letter is full of practical wisdom for all Christians.

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Several related themes run through James.  These are trials, self-control, practical faith, and humility.

James begins his letter with a discussion of trials.  We all have troubles.  Disconcertingly, sometimes our worst problems arise from doing the right thing.  Though it may seem like God has abandoned us in such times, God is at work.  Facing trials with patience and faith builds our character.

Part of a godly character is self-control.  A mature Christian will discipline himself.  In particular, he will watch what he says.  It is hard to control what we say, refraining from idle and harmful words.  It is hard to speak convincingly about the love, grace, and faithfulness of God when you just spewed a lot of gossip, lies, and nonsense.

James writes of faith in very practical and active terms.  Sermons, exultations, and moral sayings are hollow and useless if they are not coupled with service, aid and upright living.  If we really believe the Gospel and have call to be followers of Christ, we will act like Christ who humbled Himself to labor with men, heal the sick, feed the hungry, and care for the needy.

Emulating the humility or Christ is a theme of the letter in itself.  James extols believers to act with humility and treat everyone fairly.  Wealth and position are temporary, but in our eternal relation to God we’re all the same:  each Christian is a sinful person saved by the grace of God.  Pride is a source of strife, people in conflict as they all try to get their own way, but humble people trust God and can let go of strife.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Deuteronomy

Exodus

Genesis

The Gospels

Hebrews

Leviticus

The Most Effective Organization in the U.S. by Robert A. Watson & Ben Brown

The Pauline Letters

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9 Things You Must Do by Henry Cloud

Psychologist Henry Cloud observed the behaviors and attitudes of successful people. The number of those traits suggested the title of his book, 9 Things You Simply Must Do.

Cloud does not list trait first, but I think humility is a particularly important factor to a successful and meaningful life. Being humble isn’t about putting oneself down; it is about having a proper perspective. We are all human beings with strengths, weaknesses, problems and opportunities. Humble people see the truth about themselves. They are willing to listen to others. Humility is an attitude for learning and growth.

Though it superficially seems opposed to humility, successful people are also brave. They do not let the reactions and feelings of others diver them from doing the right thing. They deal with problems right away. They know when to let things go. They take a stand and oppose what is wrong. They take responsibility for the lives and take action to make them better.

Another characteristic that I think is important is that successful people break down goals into small, doable tasks. Then they do those tasks diligently. Most big goals are achieved in this very manner.

Cloud illustrates each of the nine things with both positive and negative examples. These examples are drawn from people he has known, patients, and his own experiences. In each chapter, he describes someone who practiced the behavior and someone who did not. In several cases, the person who did not initially engage in successful behavior found a way, usually with support from others, to change their behavior and change their results.

Cloud’s message is that people can change their lives if they are willing to adopt behaviors that lead to success. This starts on the inside. The exterior life begins with the interior life. Successful people dig up what is in them, deal with the bad, and work diligently to bring the good things to fruition.

Henry Cloud also wrote

12 “Christian” Beliefs That Can Drive You Crazy with John Townsend

Cloud, Henry. 9 Things You Simply Must Do to Succeed in Love and Life. Brentwood, TN: Integrity, 2004.

The Thinking Life by P. M. Forni

Do you want to live a good life?  Try engaging in some good thinking.  The quality of our life, work, and relationships, our happiness, depends of the decisions we make.  We make better decisions through good thinking that is both creative and analytical.  Such thinking can be difficult if we live in a near constant state of distraction.

P. M. Forni points out in his book The Thinking Life that we live in an age of distraction.  The Internet, cellular phones, and ubiquitous media have made it possible for us to be in an almost constant state of stimulation.  In a diet of constant feeding, our minds have no time to digest, so much of what comes in passes out mostly unchanged.  We can find information in an instant, but it takes more than an instant to take it in and retain it.

Excellent thinking, reflection, introspection, and deep learning, take time and energy.  Not only that, they require some devotion and discipline.  I think one of the most useful points Forni makes is the importance of attention, the opposite of distraction.  I have read the works of memory experts that suggest that we do not remember things because we did not pay close attention to them to begin with.  If we want to know what is going on around us, especially with the people we care about, we have to be attentive.  If we want to remember something, we have to pay attention when we experience it.  If we want to do some serious thinking, we have to attend to some thoughts and put aside others, at least for a while.

Fortunately, our power of paying attention, and other abilities important to thinking like decision making, can be improved with practice.  Throughout The Thinking Life, Forni provides advice on how to develop your thinking abilities.  Each chapter ends with specific questions and exercises aimed at helping you increase your ability in some area of thinking.

In his argument for the benefits of thinking, Forni draws on an ancient Greek philosophy known as Stoicism.  Famous Stoics include Zeno, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, and Seneca.  Forni doesn’t suggest that we be stoical.  He suggests that we practice moderation and self-discipline so that we can set aside time and energy for the important task of thinking, which leads to better decisions and more happiness.

Moderation and self-discipline are virtues, something the Stoics held in high regard.  Another virtue that Forni encourages is humility.  I think humility is one of the greatest virtues.  Humility is a condition for honestly assessing our place in the world so we can see where we need help, see where can help others, and learn.

These comments scratch the surface of Forni’s short book.  He addresses a problem in our culture with thoughtful advice and concision.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis

Attitude is Everything by Jeff Keller

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

Defining Noah Webster by K. Alan Snyder

The Genius in All of Us by David Shenk

The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis

Happier by Tal Ben-Shahar

His Excellency by Joseph J. Ellis

How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster

On Becoming a Leader by Warren Bennis

Secrets You Keep from Yourself by Dan Neuharth

Simple Pictures are Best by Nancy Willard (illustrated by Tomie De Paolo)

Succeed by Heidi Grant Halvorson

The Victory of Reason by Rodney Stark

Forni, P. M.  The Thinking Life: How to Thrive in the Age of Distraction.  New York: St. Martin’s, 2011.

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Second Corinthians

Second Corinthians. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Paul was a missionary who established and grew churches in Asia and Europe. He also kept up correspondence with several churches. The Bible includes two of his letters to the church at Corinth, though some think the book we call Second Corinthians may be Paul’s fourth letter to that congregation.

Second Corinthians covers a lot of ground. The Corinthians were prone to get puffed up and too ready to listen to self-seeking teachers and set aside the Gospel and sound doctrine. Sometimes they seem like children, and sometimes Paul addresses them that way. Don’t judge them too harshly; modern Christians can too easily fall into the same errors and we have fewer excuses.

Part of the letter is informative. Paul writes about what is going on in his life, his travels, his missionary work, and news from other churches.

The letter is also a tool of teaching. In the instance of someone who had been disciplined for wrongdoing, Paul reminds the church to forgive and remember that the purpose of chastising is to lovingly return people to good relationships, not to punish them indefinitely. He reiterates the Gospel and reaffirms the belief in resurrection.



The letter is encouragement as well as instruction. Paul exhorts the church to live the kind of life they were called to, imitating Christ with purity, humility and generosity.

Paul defends himself, too. Other teachers visited Corinth. In some cases, they were not faithful to the Gospel, taught falsely, aggrandized themselves, and took advantage of their positions. Paul contrasted himself to these other teachers, reminding the Corinthians of his conduct among them, his humility and his support of himself without taking using the resources of the Corinthians. He especially emphasized his faithfulness and constancy in the Gospel.

In anticipation of a future visit, Paul sent a gentle warning. He wanted to come to Corinth and find the church in good shape, full of people dedicated to the truth and active in goods works. He wanted them to be the kind of people he was bragging about. He didn’t want to come to find a lot of problems.

Pau’s tone in this letter is interesting. I find it to be often humorous, especially in the ironic argumentation and the way he points out the absurdity of some of the things said against him and the faith. Paul speaks as an older brother with tough cajoling, a mother with gentle nagging, a father with loving discipline, and a friend with persuasive pleading, and a shepherd calling his sheep to safety.

Paul also wrote
First Corinthians
Romans

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Acts
The Gospels
King James Bible

The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande

Gawande, Atul. The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right. New York: Picador, 2009.

Many of the things in our modern world are very complex. Little things done are not done, especially by the experts who undertake some of the most complex tasks, can have significant results. Surgeon Atul Gawande suggests a solution for managing this complexity and making sure that those important, little things aren’t overlooked. His solution is the checklist.

The thread through his book, The Checklist Manifesto, is the development by the World Health Organization (WHO) of a surgical checklist. WHO wanted to reduce surgical complications, especially in the third world. The team they put together, including Dr. Gawande, eventually settled on a checklist.

It was met with much skepticism, even on the part of those who developed it. The results changed minds. Use of the checklist cut serious complications from surgery almost in half. Dr. Gawande recounts his own experiences using the checklist and how it helped him prevent and solve surgical problems.

The checklist isn’t purely a matter for medicine. A very successful user of checklists is the aviation industry.

Aviators were once like surgeons, seen as virtuosos who drew upon skill, daring and intelligence to perform their jobs. Airplanes eventually became to complex for pilots, as the book illustrates in the case of a once experimental military craft. The pilots who took on the new airplane looked for ways to succeed, and survive, where their successors hadn’t. Rather than more training or expertise, the fallback of many professionals, they looked to the checklist. Use of checklists have become standard in aviation, where it checklist making has been much refined.


An interesting chapter deals with the landing of US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River a few years ago. Dr. Gawande praises the skill of the pilot and crew. He also points out, as the crew of the flight always have, the importance of the procedures they used, and especially the checklists that helped them to implement those procedures.

Through several examples, the outline of what make a good checklist and the cases where they work best are show. There isn’t yet and exact science to making checklists, but there is a well-developed art, which includes testing and revision.

It takes a dose of humility to accept that checklists can help highly trained professionals do their jobs better. Dr. Gawande seems to hope his fellow surgeons can show some the humility shown by pilots and allow checklist to become a tool for improving their work.

I come from a background in engineering and this makes sense to me. A procedure is designed much like anything else. If there are critical elements in anything, it is wise to reinforce them in ways that ensure their performance. The human mind is capable of amazing things, but can’t necessarily be relied on to remember to turn off the lights or stove or do any number of other little things.

I’ve also worked in the regulatory field, and seen thoughtless, narrow adherence to rules bring about undesirable results, sometime contrary to what the rules intended. This is not at all in the spirit of The Checklist Manifesto. A good checklist ensures consistency and quality while at the same time freeing the minds of its users to creative deal with the complexities of their task.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Awakening the Entrepreneur Within by Michael Gerber

Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick

Philbrick, Nathaniel. Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War. New York: Viking, 2006.



In Mayflower, Nathaniel Philbrick writes about the Plymouth Colony from the Pilgrim’s flight from Europe to the end of King Philip’s War. It is mainly a story of how the settler’s and their descendants related to the natives.

It was by no means certain that the Pilgrims would get along with the Indians. They were chiefly concerned with building a community on their religious convictions, strong beliefs they held on to in spite of persecution in England. In the New World, they would do things their way.

Even so, they were surprisingly humble. The hardships they faced in America were enough to humble anyone. They quickly realized their dependence on the sufferance of the native populations. Unwittingly, they had upset the political balance of the Indian tribes.

Massasoit was the leader of a tribe that was weakened by disease and other setbacks. Once one of the leading tribes in the regions, the Pokanokets were in danger of being subdued by their rivals. Massasoit, their sachem, built and alliance with the Pilgrims at Plymouth that kept him in a strong position.

This is only the beginning of the political intrigues that run through the history of the Plymouth colony. Many native leaders and would-be sachems used the English, their technology, and the fear many Indians felt to carve out a place for themselves in the dangerous world of inter-tribal politics.

Against this backdrop, the Pilgrims cultivated allies amongst the Indians. Though their desire for religious purity may caused them to separate themselves from the churches in England may have tended to isolate them, the discipline, self-control, humility, and justice required by their faith made them more palatable to the natives than other European settlers.

Things changed quickly within a couple of generations. The Pilgrims were chiefly interested in their religious community, but their immediate descendants were interested in land and the wealth it brought. This inevitably led to competition for resources. The Indians became resentful and the English shed humility as they gained power.

Massasoit’s grandson, Philip, doesn’t seem like a fighter. In fact, he was generally a runner. Even so, he was the spark that set ablaze a war in New England. The sachems before him sold much land to the settlers and Philip found himself without the resources to support his people. He strung things along for a while using threats and capitulations to get what he needed from the English, much like today’s small nuclear states do to the Western countries on a global scale. Plymouth officials became too high-handed with Philip and soon events and the resentments of his young warriors pushed the sachem into war.

The action of the war chapters makes them more interesting reading, but they tell an awful tale. The English killed, enslaved or displace half the native population of southern New England. The land they coveted was theirs for the taking, though Plymouth was so indebted after the war, it couldn’t afford the expansion.

The expulsion of Indians made the frontiers more dangerous. Friendly natives had once buffered the settlers from hostile tribes. Now a settler clearing the frontier was likely to be surrounded by hostile tribes and have no hope of help if they decided to purge foreigners.

As the United States expanded, the Pilgrims and King Philip’s War became lost history outside of New England. When they were brought back to popular knowledge, it was as stories transformed to be suitable for new times. Philbrick puts aside the romanticized tale of Thanksgiving not to debunk it, but to present the Pilgrims and Indians more as they were.

Nathanial Philbrick also wrote
Sea of Glory

If you’re interested in this book, you may might like
Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose

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Good Naked by Joni B. Cole

Writing can be challenging, outstanding writing usually is, but writers don’t have to be miserable. Author, editor and writing instructor Joni B. Cole offers some perspective for writers in Good Naked.

Cole dispels myths of writing. For instance, writers rarely produce perfect first drafts; mediocre writing is okay because it is a place to start. You don’t have to suffer to produce art, but you do have to put in the effort and deal with the difficulties.

Writers need a balanced optimism. Acknowledge the challenges, but believe you can overcome them. Add to it a touch of humility; Cole believes real writers put aside pride and get the help they need to reach their goals, such as joining a writing group.

Cole also runs counter to some popular advice on writing. She doesn’t believe in outlines. Instead, work the parts that are meaningful, that call out to you. You can arrange them and fill in the gaps later as the big picture forms in your mind. It’s easy to imagine her chapters coming together this way, with images, stories, ideas and remembrances being assembled and reworded until they flow together.

Each chapter of the book is an essay. Though the book as a whole has an order and flow, one could read or reread a helpful chapter without needing to flip back to preceding pages to make sense of it.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

The Big Thing by Phyllis Korkki

Finding Your Writer’s Voice by Thaisa Frank & Dorothy Wall

Just Write by Walter Dean Myers

Keeping a Journal You Love by Sheila Bender

Mastering Fiction Writing by Kit Reed

The Right to Write by Julia Cameron

Shut Up & Write! by Judy Bridges

Write Naked by Jennifer Probst

Write Your Heart Out by Rebecca McClanahan

Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg

Cole, Joni B. Good Naked: Reflections on How to Write More, Write Better and Be Happier. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2017.

Life's Not Fair, but God is Good by Robert H. Schuller

You may remember Robert H. Schuller from the Hour of Power television program. He was a popular figure who attracted celebrities to appear on broadcasts of worship services from the Crystal Cathedral. He preached what you might call a gospel of positivity, making in consciously a successor to Norman Vincent Peale and in some sense a predecessor to Joel Osteen. The Crystal Cathedral and the Schullers have floundered after his passing. Life’s Not Fair, but God is Good was published in happier times for them.

Reading the book two decades after it was published gave me an opportunity to look back. One of the things that struck me is that Schuller wrote of the fall of the Soviet Union soon after it occurred. He had high hopes for Russia and the other countries shifting toward a more democratic form of government. He looked forward to flourishing Christianity, greater freedom, wealth, and opportunity for long oppressed people. I’m not sure what he would think of the current state of affairs, especially in Russia, but clearly fall short of the hopes he expressed.

The book also prompted me to recall the Hour of Power. A routine segment featured Schuller interviewing someone, recorded live before the congregation of his church. Though it is not mentioned, I suspect many of the interviews recounted in the book may have come from the show. These guests were often famous performers, athletes, and politicians. Others were people who overcame troubles of all sorts, handicaps, injuries, financial setbacks, abuse and losses. The common thread through these interviews was how people succeeded through faith in God’s grace, hope, positive outlook and persistence.

Speaking of themes, I should say something about the book. The title expresses the theme: Life’s Not Fair, but God is Good. Schuller concedes that sometimes life sucks. Bad things happen to everyone, and sometimes the worst things happen to those who seem to deserve it least. In spite of that, people can lead lives of purpose and joy because God is good. The Great Redeemer can man something beautiful out of the ugliness of life. Not only can He, He will.

I suppose the meat of the book is advice on how to live in the gap between the unfair circumstances we experience and the awesome goodness we can know even in the midst of them. In this, Schuller presents a mix of Christian philosophy and self-help positive thinking. We can’t always choose our circumstances, but we can choose our reactions. Schuller encourages hopeful, positive responses based on the acknowledgment of God’s goodness. Prayer, belief, gratitude, good works, humility, forgiveness, connection to others, generosity, patience, and vision are tools we have, or can develop, to be overcomers in the face of obstacles. We master these skills under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit as we get to know Christ better.

Robert H. Schuller also wrote Self-Love.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

The 4:8 Principle by Tommy Newberry

Gratitude by Melody Beattie

I Declare by Joel Osteen

It’s Not About Me by Max Lucado

The Joy of Supernatural Thinking by Bill Bright

Just Say Thanks! by R. T. Kendall

Positive Imaging by Norman Vincent Peale

The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale

Quiet by Susan Cain

Stop Whining, Start Living by Dr. Laura

This Year I Will… by M. J. Ryan

You Can if You Think You Can by Norman Vincent Peale

Schuller, Robert H. Life’s Not Fair, but God is Good. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1991.

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Epistles

Most of the New Testament is epistles, or letters, sent from church leaders to the churches.  Most of these letters were written by Paul, which are collectively known as the Pauline Letters.  The other epistle writers are James, Peter, John, and Jude.

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The church was growing rapidly and dispersed through the nations around the Mediterranean Sea.  Both in Jerusalem and in the churches founded by missionaries or Christians fleeing persecution, there was a need for sound teaching and a way to bind them together into the larger body of Christ.  The epistles served this purpose.

The epistles cover a lot of ground.  Some of them are fairly long and heavy on instruction.  Others are short, more newsy and encouraging.  Themes that I find recurring in the epistles are: a reiteration of the Gospel emphasizing the centrality of Christ, living as a Christian with character and good relationships, and words of warning and encouragement.

Reiterating the Gospel: The Centrality of Christ

The epistles repeatedly summarize the Gospel.  We have all sinned. Christ came to atone for our sins through His death on the Cross.  His righteousness is imputed to those who receive Him.  He was resurrected, as foretold, as proof of that He was Christ and as evidence of the resurrection we will experience.

The epistle-writers vigorously defended who they knew Christ to be.  He was God (he was divine, God-the-Son, a person of the godhead).  He was incarnated; God became flesh and lived as a human being.  He died on the cross, physically dying as a man.  He was resurrected, and that resurrection was a bodily restoration and transformation, not merely a spiritual continuance.

Christian Living: Character and Relationships

Now that these Christians were saved, what did it mean for the way they lived?  This is still an important question for Christians.   We are to abandon sin and do what is right, exhibiting a Christ-like character.  That character is typified by faith, self-control, humility, and especially love.

One of the toughest problems we face in life, and one of the most important, is our relationships.  The epistle-writers address how we are to relate to each other in church, marriage, family, work, and business.

Warning and Encouragement

The early church was beset by false teachers.  These people twisted the scripture to suit their own purposes.  It has not stopped.  These letters warn us to look out for falsehood and show us how to spot it.

Even more than this, though, these letters are full of encouragement.  We are not alone; God is with us always as the Holy Spirit indwells us.  Whatever trials, temptations, or opposition we face, we can live the life God has called us to in Christ.  Not only that, the difficulties we face in ourselves and around us in this sinful world will pass, and we will be resurrected to live forever in the perfect love and peace of God.

The epistles are:

Romans     1 Corinthians     2 Corinthians

Galatians     Ephesians     Philippians

Colossians     1 Thessalonians     2 Thessalonians

1 Timothy     2 Timothy     Titus

Philemon     Hebrews     James

1 Peter     2 Peter     1 John

2 John     3 John     Jude

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Faith by Jimmy Carter

President Jimmy Carter is well known for his Christian faith. Excepting a handful of famous pastors, Carter is one of the few Americans who is known as a Christian almost as much as he is known for other things; this is especially extraordinary for a former president.

Faith is the title and subject of his recent book. He addresses religious faith, but other types of faith are important to him as well.

For instance, each person need faith in himself to take action with hope to achieve positive results. We need faith in each other to live, work and trade together peaceably.

We even need some degree of faith in government. If we hope to achieve the ultimate purposes of government, justice, equality under the law and peace, we have to believe it can be done. Especially in a republic we need to believe we can achieve these goals through our institutions, laws and the people we elect to represent us.

“A country will have authority and influence because of moral factors, not its military strength; because it can be humble and not blatant and arrogant, because our peple and our country want to serve others and not dominate others. And a nation without morality will soon lose its influence around the world.”-Jimmy Carter, Faith (quoting a speech he presented in 1978)

There are also personal goals that require faith. Justice and equality may be the highest goals we can expect from government, but we want more. If we also hope for love, humility, generosity and kindness, we need another kind of faith.

For many, including Carter, this is religious faith. We find in religion reasons to believe that things like love are real and worthy of pursuing, even if we don’t always get it right.

For Christians, this faith is founded on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the proof of God’s loving mercy and grace. It all starts with God, and we can hope to be better people through the empowerment of God and our grateful response to His love demonstrated in Jesus Christ. As Carter puts it, “It is not what we do for God that is important but what God does for us. Faith brings about good works, but doing good things does not result in faith."

For Carter, Jesus is worthy of consideration as an example of the ideal in human character. Being like Christ is being a better human being. As a Christian and Protestant, Carter believes he has a personal relationship with an ever-present Christ. The faith that underlies Carter’s career and achievements as a politician, philanthropist and peacemaker is that he does not walk alone, but he walks with a living Christ and with other believers who seek to follow Him and see His good will done in our time.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Defining Noah Webster by K. Alan Snyder

The Faith of JFK edited by T. S. Settel

God and Ronald Reagan by Paul Kengor

Hebrews

The Language of God by Francis S. Collins

Carter, Jimmy. Faith: A Journey for All. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018.

Pauline Letters

The apostle Paul wrote most of the New Testament.  His letters to the early churches mix doctrine, biography, advice, and personal messages.  Paul was Jewish and belonged to a sect of zealots called the Pharisees.  He was an up-and-comer with a prestigious education and leadership roles beyond what was typical for a man his age.  He prosecuted the early church, especially congregations of Jewish converts to Christianity.  He gave it all up, though, after having a vision in which he was confronted by Jesus Christ and he eventually became a missionary and apostle to the Gentiles, planting churches in Europe and Asia.

Several themes recur in Paul’s letters.  Some of these are: the Gospel and doctrinal purity, Christian living, and relationships.

The Gospel

Paul was a preacher of the Gospel.  He frequently reminded people to remember and stick to the Gospel he taught with directness and simplicity.  There were a lot of false teachers who taught alternatives, often to draw followers and enrich themselves.  In Paul’s teaching, everything depended on Christ and what He accomplished through His life, death and resurrection; nothing could be added or subtracted from it.

Of course, some tried to add or subtract.  Some of the teachings Paul opposed were Judaizers, Gnostics, and legalism.  Judaizers proposed that to be Christian, one must be Jewish first.  This included conversion to Judaism, including circumcision, and observance of the law of Moses.  According to the Gospel, everything needed was satisfied in Christ.  The Gnostics came from the tradition of mystery religions, taught “secrets” and proposed a Christ who was resurrected as a spirit.  Paul would have none of that either.  The Gospel was plain and all significant events of Christ’s life for our salvation were publicly known, including his physical resurrection.  Both of these groups touched to some degree on legalism.  People wanted to establish rules to live by, either to control people or to aggrandize themselves or to suggest people had a part in their own salvation.  Paul’s Gospel asserted that Christ is all, His sacrifice atoned for our sins and His power in us enables us to do good.

Christian Living

If Christianity wasn’t about following rules, how were we to live?  Could we do whatever we wanted?  Of course, it is silly to think that God would save us from our sins just so we could do whatever evil came to us.  It was equally naïve to think we could, on our own, live up to any rule that is truly pure and perfect.

Instead, a Christian life should be typified by love, humility, gratitude, and obedience to God.  We are to honor Christ our rescuer by imitating Him.  This isn’t to win his favor, but to return the love He showed us and express gratitude for the mercy we did not deserve.  Christ empowers us to live in a new way, knowing Him and doing good instead of sinning and becoming more estranged from God.

Relationships

One of the most important ways we can show our love for God and be Christ-like is in our relationships with others.  Paul wrote about all kinds of relationships: marriage, parent-child, employer-employee (in those days sometimes master-slave), and fellow in the church.  We should treat others with the love, kindness and generosity that Christ shows to us, especially in the church.

The Pauline Letters appear in most Bibles generally from longest to shortest: Romans, First Corinthians, Second Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, First Thessalonians, Second Thessalonians, First Timothy, Second Timothy, Titus, and Philemon.  First and Second Timothy, Titus and sometimes Philemon are called the Pastoral Letters because Timothy and Titus were young pastors.

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