| PAUL THE TEACHER
The Apostle Paul's teachings are always associated with practical experiences and life. His special interpretation of the Law was only Hillelite application of the Jewish Torah to a new post-Messianic situation. Similarly, his instructions to the churches always derived from practical challenges. In this light we should understand his instructions to Timothy: "Do not let anyone look down on your youth, but be an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity -- watch yourself and your teaching (1 Tim. 4:12-16). The Pharisaic popular revival movement aimed to be an example to others. Psalm 69:6 is very appropriate as every believer's prayer: "Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame because of me, O Lord, the LORD Sebaoth. Do not allow those who seek you to be disappointed because of me, O God of Israel." Paul also said, "We have renounced all secret and shameful ways, so we do not use deception nor falsify God's word" (2 Cor.4:2). This meant that doctrine and life confirmed one another. Paul wished to be "an example for the believers." Therefore there is reason to examine what Paul was like as a man and as a teacher. Paul's Teaching on 'Good Works' When Paul wrote his last letter from Rome, he encountered a new problem in the churches. In emphasising the significance of grace as the only basis of salvation, some of the members of the church had forgotten the obligations of the Torah based on practical love for one's neighbour. Believers should watch over their moral life, their human relationships and also their attitude to mammon -- usually the last place repentance reaches is one's purse. The Western reader seldom realizes how important a matter this really is. Therefore Paul puts emphasis in these final prison letters on "good works" (Gr. erga kala or agatha). He says, "We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them (Eph. 2:10). Christ has redeemed us "to purify for himself a people who are eager for good works." "I want -- those who believe in God to devote themselves to doing good works." "Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing good works, in order that they may provide for daily necessities" (Titus 2:14, 3:8 and 3:14). "If a man cleanses himself," he is "useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work" (2 Tim. 2:21). And Paul writes, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Tim.3:16-17). Here it is not a question of works of the Law commanded by the "Torah" but of the application to everyday life of love for one's neighbour. We have previously quoted Rabbi Gottlieb Klein's observation that such "catalogues of virtues and vices" typical of "derekh eretz" literature, with their individualized instructions, best illustrate Paul's inner world of values. In rabbinic literature the corresponding terms "gemilut hasadim" and "maasim tovim" occur in hundreds of discussions. They teach that man was only created to do good works"; a benefactor does "the deeds of God"; thus he fills "the whole world with the love of God"; and he should do them "from a generous and loving heart" and "in secret." When, for example, some of the pious did their shopping in the market, they always set aside half of it for the poor. Some indeed forbade taking contributions from foreigners, because this increased their merits and slowed down the redemption of Israel.114 We have already stated that Hillel and Gamaliel extended works of love even to the Gentiles "to maintain the peace." And the model for this attitude, according to the rabbis, was Abraham, who entertained foreigners and who had in his tent, as a sign of hospitality, "door-openings to the four points of the compass." Good works included visiting the sick, lodging foreigners in homes, supporting young bridal couples, attending weddings and funerals and, for instance, giving speeches of consolation even to the Gentiles, as Gamaliel taught. This practical interpretation of the commandment of love is also reflected in the Targums. Deut. 6:4-9, which is written in the "mezuzah" on the outside doorpost of Jewish homes, emphasizes that we should love God "with all our heart and all our soul and all our strength" (Heb. be-khol meodekha). This third term is difficult to translate exactly. The Targum of Onqelos replaces it with the word "nikhsekh", that is, "with your property", and the Targum of Jonathan with "memonkhon" or "with your mammon". Mammon too should serve God. In Paul's time it was very common to give tithes to synagogue work. In addition, there were precise instructions for mammon set aside "for deeds of love" (agatha). Gen. 28:22 tells how Jacob promised to give tithes to God, if he had bread to eat and clothes to wear; the original text twice uses here the words "aser a'asrennu," "I separate ten as a tithe." It has been interpreted as meaning that one could give two tenths. On the other hand, a warning is given that one should not endanger the family budget by thoughtless giving. And therefore one is allowed to set apart at a time only twenty per cent of one's entire property. This maximum amount could be given even the following year. But only when he died could a person bequeath all his property to the poor. It was considered important to draw up a will, for thus property would not go to the "godless" Roman state. The minimum amount for these good works was considered to be three per cent. Apparently, the Muslim custom of giving alms is based on this ancient tradition. Gamliel de-Yavneh recommended this maximum limit of twenty per cent. This shows that regulations concerning good works are indisputably from the time of Jesus. The custom described in the Essene Damascus Document 14:10-15 of setting aside "two day's pay monthly" for distribution to the poor may also be of the same origin. In the Temple period there was elected for it in different localities a "havurah" or "hever ir", that is, "city delegates" or a "group" which carried out the collection of relief money. And in the Temple itself there was a "quiet room", where one could donate to the poor intended one's contribution anonymously. It was of these things that Paul hoped that we too "may be careful to devote ourselves to doing good works." Paul's Swan-Song, his Last Will and Testament The historian Eusebius tells that Paul arrived "a second time in this town" of Rome and that he suffered there a martyr's death. And Christians might be "proud that such a man" persecuted them: "for he who knows Nero, understands that he would not have condemned this teaching unless it had been something extremely good."115 Eusebius also drew attention to the fact that 2 Tim. 4:16-17 tells that no one came to Paul's aid at his "first defence" in court -- but the Lord, however, helped and strengthened him, so that he was "delivered from the lion's mouth." At a Roman trial friends and relatives of the accused were permitted to stand beside him supporting him. But now Paul says in this "swan-song" that "I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Tim. 4:6-7). The Greek word meaning "departure" also means "unfastening" and "taking down a tent" or "raising the anchor" when setting off on a long journey. This second imprisonment, which thus would have begun in spring 64, evidently ended in 67 A.D. when he was accused of high treason against Caesar and beheaded. Eusebius tells that Peter's and Paul's names would have been in the Roman cemetery and that their "sign of victory" or commemorative stone might still be seen "in the Vatican or on the Ostian Way." The message of Paul's last so-called prison letters is very bright and serene. He was a fighter on the one hand and a pastor of souls on the other. Hans Lilje, bishop of Germany's confessing church, tells in his book "Im Finstern Tal", that is, "In the Dark Valley", of his own "holy death agony" and the "new depth" which he found in the Tegel prison. Only a fifth of the prisoners of the Gestapo survived. When all human support was taken away, Lilje found that "there is no longer anything to disturb my life or disperse my thoughts. My spirit is entirely at rest and free to receive the more important and essential impressions. The stream of time rolls along in its bed, calm and mighty, unhindered towards God -- it has been granted to me on the shore of time to enter the zone where there already falls the brightness of the world beyond." It may be that it was as a prisoner that Paul was free. And it was amidst the agony of death that he found the depth which his prison letters reflect. The serenity of Paul's personality and his deepest concern appears beautifully in the paternal message of 2 Timothy: "You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others. Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus." -- "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth." --"You know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings -- what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." -- "But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure."116 Truly, Paul's tent dwelling was taken down, the anchor and fastening ropes were already unfastened for departure and he had "entered the zone where there already falls the brightness of the world beyond." We have seen the genuine human portrait given in Acts, its historical
details and the doctrinal issues it deals with. The Apostle Paul said in
Miletus that he did not consider his life to himself of any value, if he
only carried out the "task" which he had received of "testifying to the
Gospel of God's grace" (Acts 20:24). This task he sealed by his death.
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