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NASB | 1 Corinthians 1:1 Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 1 Corinthians 1:1 Paul, called as an apostle (special messenger, personally chosen representative) of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, |
Bible Question:
Hi, This is my first time posting here, so let me introduce myself. I'm Julie, a 30 or so married mother and housewife. I claim no denomination. I call myself a Christian. I'm confused about Paul. For the last 20 years my dad has been telling me that Paul is the false teacher. I never paid much attention, until the other day I read Matthew and John, and then I read Acts...and all of a sudden I could see what my dad's been harping on all these years. There's something not right with Paul. Who is Paul, Saul, Apollos? He said he was a Pharisee, but then he said he's a Jew, but then he said he's a Roman...it seems like he said whatever was convenient for him. He didn't know Jesus on the human level, never met him. He watched Stephen be stoned, held the coats of the men who threw the stones. He killed and imprisoned the followers of The Way, which are Jesus original 12 disciples and the people who follow. And all of a sudden he's performing miracles or is it magic? He says he has all the powers of Jesus and all the knowledge of heaven. Where in the bible, save for the works of Paul, does it ever mention anything about a Paul? It does say to beware the false teachers and false prophets. It seems that he's tooting his own horn. And his teachings differ slightly from Jesus' teachings, but different enough to notice. Paul teaches faith without works. That as long as you have faith in Jesus you're saved and you don't have to do anything else because your sins are already taken care of so don't worry about it just party on dude, and believe. James taught that faith without works is dead. If we have faith in Jesus, and love Him, I believe we should show it with works. Like, obeying the 10 commandments, and the one Jesus gave us which was to love your brother more than yourself. The devil believes in Jesus, too. Does that mean he's saved? Nope. Because his works are evil. Jesus says that we can know them by their fruit. That must mean by their works. I don't mean to make anyone mad here. I don't know what to believe about Paul for sure. I am losing a lot of sleep trying to figure all this out. I don't want to follow the wrong path. Every church I've ever been to teaches right off of Paul's writings more than any other writings...and I'm wondering about the narrow gate and the wide gate, and us sheep being led to slaughter by a false teacher and I don't want to be one of those poor little unfortunate lambs. Thanks for taking to time to help. |
Bible Answer: Julie, Here is a collection of a few of my earlier posts. If "faith without works is dead" faith (James 2:26), then works of faith as opposed to Works of the Law (i.e. circumcision) are living faith in action, or what St. Pauls calls "faith working in love"(Gal 5:6) or "the obdedience of faith" (Rom 1:5, 16:26) The New Testament speaks of Old Testament saints who were saved by obedient faith in God. Abraham is the prime example spoken of in Romans 4 and James 2:21-26. So we know the Old Testament faithful were saved by faith in the promised Messiah. To say that doing good works means nothing contradicts the scripture. If you do good works in Christ you are doing His work. Take a look at theses passages and put your mind at rest. Matt 7:21 Matt 19:16-17 Matt 25:34-46 John 14:21 Romans 2:28 Galatians 5:4-6 Ephesians 2:8-10 Philemon 2:12-13 James 2:14-24 That being said: "faith without works is dead" James 2:20,26 is crystal clear and intentionally blunt. Faith in Christ cannot be separated from works in Christ or you don't really have any Faith to show, only a lifeless corpse of a mental concept without any spiritual substance and of no earthly good either. They are two side of the same coin. We know James is speaking about the same Faith as Paul because they both use Abraham's faith as the illustrating example. Paul never says we are saved by faith alone and James never says we are saved by works alone but he does says: "we are not saved by faith alone" James 2:24. If you look at James and Paul in full context it is clear that faith in Christ and works in Christ are inseparable if we are talking about a living saving faith. It is no accident that Paul opens and closes Romans with the phrase "the obedience of faith" Romans 1:5 and 16:26, which fits perfectly with Galatians 5:5 and James. It is not a matter of works adding to faith. Works in Christ are the physical embodiment and manifestation of faith in Christ, without which faith is dead. For human beings as created and as God intended us to be, the body and the spirit are an integrated unit. That is why our redemption is not complete until our bodies are resurrected at the Second Coming. It goes without saying that works in Christ are not the same thing as "works of the law" such as circumcision, which Paul is often speaking about in Romans. The "obedience of faith" is as different from the "works of the law" as are the commandments written on stone from the commandments written on our hearts. Paul's primary point about works was that what we do can not obligate God to save us. We can not make God do anything. God saves us because God loves us and because he wants to save us, not because we make Him obliged to save us.Our good works flow from our faith in God's love for us, God's love for us does not flow from our works. Emmaus |