Shaul, also known as Paul, said that he had a thorn in his side that was placed there to keep him humble.
I think I know what that thorn was.
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Shaul was so educated that he had trouble getting some pretty simple ideas out in a way that they were easy to understand. Even Kefa (Peter), in 2 Peter 3:16, said that Shaul’s letters were difficult to comprehend. He said:
His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
Shaul was the sort of man who had two problems when it came to communicating:
- He couldn’t say a sentence in less than a paragraph; and
- He used Jewish logic when talking to Gentiles.
Now, you may be wondering what “Jewish logic” is, so let me explain: we Jews always answer a question with a question and we will never tell you what something is until we first tell you everything it isn’t.
Here’s an interesting factoid: did you know that scholars believe of the many letters credited to Shaul nearly 1/3 or more of them might not have actually been written by him? They believe that some might have been written by those with him or by scribes working off of his notes. I have done an entire teaching series on the Epistles by Shaul, and if you are interested in looking that over, here is the link: Shaul’s letters.
When reading the letters, if we ignore what we have been told they mean, and read them fresh- as I do- then you can see that he follows a distinct pattern.
He starts off with describing his current situation, a little of what he has done, gives thanks to God and then starts to butter-up the people he is writing to by saying how he has loved them and brags about them to other congregations (although with the Galatians, he gets right down to it).
Then, after putting their minds at ease, he rips into them with what he hears they are doing that is wrong, from being pressured into legalistic observance to having interpersonal relationship problems, and even power struggles within some congregations.
For the record: Legalism is NOT about just obeying the Torah, but doing what the Torah says in order to get points, i.e., to earn salvation. We cannot ever earn salvation: obedience is to be based on faithful trust in God and not only on proper performance (James 2:14-26).
These letters from Shaul are not God-breathed scripture (Shaul never says God told him what to say) but more like managerial directives, pep-talks (so to speak) in order to get these believing Gentiles to learn how to live a faithfully observant life to remain on track, while not saying to reject or ignore the Torah at all.
Look at Romans 2:13:
It is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.
And when Shaul talks about how Abraham was considered righteous because of his faith (Romans 4), there is never mention of Genesis 26:5, where God confirmed his promises to Abraham with Isaac, saying that:
All this is because Avraham heeded what I said and did what I told him to do — he followed my mitzvot, my regulations and my teachings.
Shaul was trying to get pagans who were raised to lead a hedonistic, sexually perverse, and drunken lifestyle to give it all up and act according to God’s rules for righteousness (that is in the Torah) so that after they die they will have eternal joy. Let’s face it, people- that’s a hard sell!
Now, add to that the fact that the men are being told on top of all they have to give up, they also have to get the top of their penis cut off, and you’re got a big NO SALE showing on the register.
James and the Elders in Jerusalem knew what Shaul was trying to do, and so they sent that letter (Acts 15) to support the slow and easy shift Shaul was teaching, going from pagan to Torah observant, by putting just four INITIAL requirements to be immediately part of their conversion. James knew that the Torah would be learned eventually and he even said so, in Acts 15:21 (another verse Christians are never taught).
So, poor Shaul! Between the difficult act of helping Gentiles make a paradigm shift from pagan practices to Torah observance, especially with the external pressures to make immediate and total conversion to Judaism, and being so difficult to understand because he just can’t say something without making it almost impossible to follow, well…that thorn really made things difficult.
And later on, when the Jewish leaders were dead and only Gentiles remained in charge, it was very easy for those who didn’t want to be associated with the Jews (because of the political issues with Rome) and- I believe- because they just didn’t want to give up so much, they misused and misinterpreted those letters from Shaul in order to misdirect people (just as Kefa said they would) onto a path of Torah rejection instead of Torah observance.
And once that misdirection started to take hold, they added completely rejecting the Torah instituting Replacement Theology, and eventually even rejecting God by replacing him with his Messiah!
Even today I hear people say that any Christian who even wants to be Torah observant isn’t really saved because they are “under the law”!
I don’t know if Shaul is able to see how his instructions have been so mistreated, but if he can I have to believe he is really upset with how he has been the reason so many millions of God-fearing people over the centuries have been led into destruction, happily dancing and singing all the way to Sheol thinking they are going to heaven.
If you believe that the Torah is just for Jews, that you only need to believe in Jesus (whatever the heck that is supposed to mean), and that if you are a good person and love your neighbor you will go to heaven, I feel sorry for you and suggest with all my heart, that you read the entire Bible- Genesis through Revelation- and forget what you have been taught. And each time you open it up, first ask God to show you what HE wants you to know.
The only place in the entire Bible where God, himself, tells us how to worship him and how to treat each other is in the Torah- if you follow anything other than what God says, you are rejecting him.
PLEASE! Trust in God, really do as Yeshua did and obey the Torah, and reject any man-made religion. No one can be 100% Torah observant, which is why God sent Yeshua, and just because we can’t do it is no excuse to not try.
We can never be sinless, but we can always sin less.
Thank you for being here and please comment and share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.
That’s it for this week, so L’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!