Paul and Peter

It is evident that [Luke] gives prominence in his story to Peter (chapters 1-12) and to Paul (chapters 13-28).  It seems very probable, as well, that he deliberately presents them as exercising parallel, rather than divergent, ministries.  The similarities are remarkable.  Thus, both Peter and Paul were filled with the Holy Spirit (4.8 and 9.17; 13.9).  Both preached the Word of God with boldness (4.13, 31 and 9.27, 29).  Both bore witness before Jewish audiences to Jesus crucified, risen, and reigning, in fulfillment of Scripture, as the way of salvation (e.g., 2.22ff and 13.46ff).  Both preached to Gentiles as well as Jews (10.34ff and 13.46ff).  Both received visions which gave vital direction to the church’s developing mission (10.9ff; 16.9).  Both were imprisoned for their testimony to Jesus and then miraculously set free (12.7ff and 16.25ff).  Both healed a congenital cripple – Peter in Jerusalem and Paul in Lystra (3.2ff and 14.8ff).  Both healed other sick people (9.41 and 28.8).  Both exorcised evil spirits (5.16 and 16.18).  Both possessed such extraordinary powers that people were healed by Peter’s shadow and by Paul’s handkerchiefs and aprons (5.15 and 19.12).  Both raised the dead – Tabitha, in Joppa by Peter, and Eutychus, in Troas by Paul (9.36ff and 20.7ff).  Both called down God’s judgment on a sorcerer/false teacher – Peter, on Simon Magus in Samaria, and Paul, on Elymas in Paphos (8.20ff and 13.6ff), and both refused the worship of their fellow human beings – Peter, that of Cornelius, and Paul, that of the Lystrans (10.25-26 and 14.11ff).

It is true that these parallels are scattered through Acts and are not put in direct juxtaposition to each other.  Yet, there they are.  They can hardly be accidental.  Luke surely includes them in his narrative in order to show, by his portraiture of Peter and Paul, that they were both apostles of Christ, with the same commission, gospel, and authentication.  It is in this way that he may be called a “peacemaker” who demonstrated the unity of the apostolic church.

From: The Message of Acts: The Spirit, the Church, and the World by John R. W. Stott; The Bible Speaks Today series (Downers Grove/Leicester: InterVarsity Press, 1990), pp. 28-29.

In the first paragraph above, I have simplified Stott’s syntax by transforming his dependent clauses (originally all separated by semi-colons) into full sentences of their own.  I have also slightly edited a very small portion of his other punctuation.  In no case has Stott’s original meaning been changed.

 

Paul Refutes His Opponents

One of the most interesting things in the inner life of the apostle Paul, as reflected in his epistles, was his practice of refuting personal accusations – and these were, sometimes, of an incredibly mean and spiteful character – by an appeal to high Christian principle.  To the charges of inconsistency and vacillation, for example, which were levelled against him by his enemies in Corinth because he had postponed his promised visit to that city – they alleged, on this ground, that he was an irresponsible trifler who said “yea” and “nay” in the same breath – he does not simply reply that it was surely permissible for him to make a change in his itinerary, for sufficient reasons, without incurring the reproach of moral weakness.  He takes higher ground than that.  His answer is that his preaching was not open to this charge of inconsistency.  There was no “yea” or “nay,” no self-contradictions or uncertainties about his message.  It was marked by the quality of stability because its theme was Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  And the bearing of that fact on Paul’s argument is to be found in the underlying principle that no man can proclaim such a message, can proclaim it at least with sincerity and conviction, without reflecting, in his own conduct, some of the loftiness and stability of his subject.  He cannot use “lightness” in any of the ordinary engagements of life if he is truly separated unto the gospel.  The practical lesson of this fact, for all of us, is abundantly plain.  The way to attain to dignity of character is to be constantly occupied with the great themes.  If our minds are engaged in trivialities, our lives can hardly rise above the level of pettiness.  If, on the other hand, they are filled with the majesty of Christian truth, our conduct will bear a certain recognizable stamp of nobility. 

From: Shoes for the Road by Alexander Stewart (London: Pickering & Inglis, Ltd., 1940), pp. 115-116.

Alexander Stewart (1870-1937) was a minister in the Free Church of Scotland (moderator of the Free Church General Assembly in 1926), magazine editor, president of the Scottish Reformation Society (1931-1937), and a highly regarded author.  Among his other books are: The History and Principles of the Free Church, 1843-1910 (with J. K. Cameron) (1920), A Prophet of Grace (on Elisha) (1925), Roman Dogma and Scripture Truth (1932), and Jeremiah: The Man and His Message (1936).

 

Cappadocia and the Apostle Paul

VI.  CAPPADOCIA. – Crossing the country southwards from the birthplace of Aquila towards that of St. Paul, we traverse the wide and varied region which formed the province of Cappadocia, intermediate between Pontus and Cilicia.  The period of its provincial existence began in the reign of Tiberius.  Its last king was Archelaus, the contemporary of the Jewish tetrarch of the same name.  Extending from the frontier of Galatia to the river Euphrates, and bounded on the south by the chain of Taurus, it was the largest province of Asia Minor.  Some of its cities are celebrated in ecclesiastical history.  But, in the New Testament, it is only twice alluded to, once in Acts (Acts 2:9) and once in the Epistles (1 Peter 1:1).

From: The Life and Epistles of Saint Paul by W. J. Conybeare and J. S. Howson; People’s Edition (Hartford: The S. S. Scranton Company, 1906), p. 214.  Originally published in 1862.

 

Christian Freedom

The freedom of a Christian is not a boundless arbitrariness to do whatever one pleases but the freedom to live rightly in responsibility to the Kyrios.  It is no magical phenomenon that belongs to the natural world but a reality within human history.  It, thus, must be preserved and reaffirmed anew in each concrete situation.  Here, it is the standard of agape that is the point of orientation.  As a dialectic reality, such freedom occurs in dialogue.  When Paul, in discussion with the Corinthian pneumatics, agrees with them in emphasizing the priority of freedom, he still adds the qualification “…but not all things are beneficial” (1 Corinthians 6:12).  Only that is beneficial which does not merely promote one’s own consciousness of freedom but serves the neighbor (1 Corinthians 10:23-24).

From: Theology of the New Testament by Georg Strecker; German edition edited and completed by Friedrich Wilhelm Horn; translated from the German by M. Eugene Boring (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2000), p. 177.  German original published in 1996.

Georg Strecker (1929-1994) was Professor of New Testament at the University of Gottingen (1968-1994).

 

On Paul

Paul was not called to the apostleship because of his personal merit but, being called to the apostleship, he was bound to be zealous, courageous, and laborious in discharging its duties; and the blessedness and honour conferred upon him by his appointment would not only have been lost, they would have given place to the most appalling misery and shame if the responsibilities of his vocation had not been faithfully discharged.

From: The Jewish Temple and the Christian Church: A Series of Discourses on the Epistle to the Hebrews by R. W. Dale; 2nd edition (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1871), p. 165.

R. W. Dale (1829-1895) was a Congregationalist minister and author.  At Carr’s Lane Chapel, in Birmingham, England, he was co-pastor with John Angell James from 1853 until James’s death in 1859.  He was then sole pastor of the church until his own death.