What Makes Saint Paul Such An Expert?


    By Grantley Morris


    He really knew God. Once a violent enemy of Christianity, Paul was clever, but as everyone who has not found God knows, intelligence does not help you find God (Luke 10:21; Mark 10:15; 1 Corinthians 1:19-29). The apostle Paul’s dealings with God makes the spiritual experience of this world’s smartest people shrink to nothing (Acts 9:1-24; 13:7-12; 14:8-11; 28:3-6; Romans 15:18-19; 1 Corinthians 2:4-5; 11:1; 2 Corinthians 12:1-10; Galatians 1:10-20; 2:1-2,6-7; Philippians 1:21; 2 Timothy 1:3).

    Few people have endured such agony. He was hated and time after time after time sworn at, cheated, whipped, cruelly beaten, jailed, hit with stones until almost dead, and shipwrecked (1 Corinthians 4:11-13; 2 Corinthians 11:23-29).

    Paul’s understanding of the purest love completes his claim as an expert on the link between God’s love and suffering (1 Corinthians 13). He was not fooled by the many forms of mere emotional self-centeredness that many people pretend to be love.

    Though you reject every Christian on the planet, you cannot ignore this saint of a man. And he discovered that the reality of suffering cannot reduce the endlessness of God’s powerful love.

    This understanding did not come cheaply to Paul, and he realized it could not be passed on by words alone (Ephesians 3:17-19). Deep experience, prayer, and continual closeness to God is the price people must pay to gain such deep understanding.

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