Why Listen to Saint Paul?

I was recently talking to a fella about some Bible topics. I mentioned a few things from the writings of Saint Paul and he replied, (paraphrasing):

“I don’t go by what Paul said.  Paul was an invasive influence in the early church and his philosophy contradicts was Jesus taught.  I only go by what Jesus said.”

And then, curiously, I ran into this same idea a few more times.  So today I wanted to take on this “Jesus only” ethic and answer the question of why should we listen to Paul.

Who is this guy?

Saint Paul was a brilliant student of the Jewish Torah and a zealous persecutor of the first Christians.  Paul was taking a trip over to Damascus to continue hunting Christians when he received a vision of Jesus, who demanded, “Saul, why do you persecute me!”  [Acts 9:4]

Struck blind and helpless, Paul arrived at Damascus and had a while to think things over.  He was then baptized, received his sight back, and spent the rest of his life preaching, teaching, and writing about the Christian faith alongside the Apostles whom he had once persecuted. 

Paul wrote a lot of letters to the various communities he helped start.  Today those writings make up nearly half of the books of the New Testament.  They address a variety of touchy issues, as a result many people find themselves at odds with his philosophy. 

Some solve this tension by proposing that Paul’s ideology was a corruption of the pure teachings of Jesus.  Thus, we should only go by direct quotations of Jesus in the canonical Gospels. 

Pulling the Loose String:

The person was proposing an idea on how the Christian faith should be passed down and how we can be most obedient to Jesus’ teachings.  However, this theory falls to pieces when you apply it to its own test:  How did Jesus teach that the faith would be transmitted?   

Jesus never wrote down his own philosophy.  Nor did He say to His apostles: “Write four short biographies about me containing all my teachings.  Future generations should only rely on those.” 

Rather, He sent out His Apostles saying:

“Go into all nations and teach them everything I have commanded you”  - Matt 28:19

And:

“whoever hears you hears me”  - Luke 10:16 

Thus, if one truly desires to be faithful to the teachings of Jesus, that person must listen to the Apostles.

The Right Hand of Fellowship:

So what did the Apostles think of Paul?  The book of Acts records that they were a little hesitant, but eventually came to trust him:

“When he arrived in Jerusalem he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple. Then Barnabas took charge of him and brought him to the Apostles, and he reported to them how on the way he had seen the Lord and that he had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus.  He moved about freely with them in Jerusalem, and spoke out boldly in the name of the Lord.” – Acts 9:26-28 

Further, in Peter’s second letter he refers to Paul as a “beloved brother” and indicates he considered Paul’s letters were considered equal to Scripture:

“Our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, also wrote to you, speaking of these things as he does in all his letters. In them there are some things hard to understand that the ignorant and unstable distort to their own destruction, just as they do the other scriptures.” – 2 Peter 3:15-16

So if one wants to be faithful to the teachings of Jesus, that person has to listen to the Apostles.  If one listens to the Apostles, that person must listen to Paul.  And that’s why we can’t simply dispense with Paul when we disagree with him.

Thank you for joining me.