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Ripping the Scabs Away

This is a rough sketch of a brief speech I gave this morning in Pauline Epistles. I was introducing the subject of "The Psychology of Paul and How it Affected His Message." People always tend to preach the things which are most important to him. The tension of belonging or being left outside has mattered to me for a long time, and so it was a natural subject for me to address.

The Apostle Paul lived in a society where belonging mattered. People defined themselves—they derived their sense of identity—from what gender, family, city, race, or religion they belonged to rather than who they were. A man was only as valuable as the family from which he came. A woman had only as much value as the husband to whom she belonged. A slave had no protection or social status at all apart from the good will and protection of his master. All individual identity was derived from belonging.

In the modern world, the opposite is true. Identity is defined by the degree to which a man can distinguish himself from the pack. Self-sufficiency is seen as the key to successful living, and personal autonomy is the god on whose altar the society’s sacrifices are burnt. The poet Ralph Waldo Emerson captured well the spirit of the age over a hundred years ago with the following words: “Trust thyself, every heart vibrates to that iron string. Discontent is the want of self-reliance. It is infirmity of will.”

As our society has stressed the importance of personal autonomy, we have seen a corresponding loss of any sense of personal responsibility. No one belongs to anyone, and so no one is indebted to anyone, either. We see this spirit at work as fathers choose to abandon their families; mothers choose to abort their children; children choose rebel against their parents. Even the elderly are now demanding the right to be euthanized rather than be abandoned to dependence upon strangers at a nursing home by relatives who feel no sense of responsibility to care for those who once cared for them.

The Bible paints a quite different picture for society to follow. Self-reliance is seen as foolishness (Prov. 3:5-6). To place one’s hope and trust in the Lord is wisdom. Autonomy is also seen as foolish—when Jesus came, he was moved with deep compassion for those who were like sheep without a shepherd. The self-made man in God’s eyes is no more than an easy mark for a wolf on the hillside. To belong to no one is not to be free, but to be estranged from the natural order. Even Christ belongs to God, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians. Man can certainly stand no higher than his master. He must belong to someone, and that someone, Paul writes in the same passage, is Christ.

And so, as we study the psychology of Paul, we study a man who had found in Christ an answer to the question of belonging. This answer strips away all dividing distinctions within humanity, uniting it in broken forgiveness at the foot of His cross. Let us take the time to ask ourselves what petty and worthless things we are allowing to define us, what worthless things we are allowing to scab over the wounds in our lives. And, like Paul, let us be brave and allow Christ to gleefully rip them away. Let them bleed anew, and let God soothe them with the healing balm of his Holy Spirit, assuring us from the inside that we belong to Christ and teaching our spirits to cry, “Abba! Father!”

posted by John Adams @ 6:51 PM