So What's Up With Paul, Anyway?

I was dreading this week’s readings for Intro to Christian History.  We had to read 1^st and 2^nd Corinthians.  Of Paul’s writings, I had only read Galatians and was deeply moved by quotes such as Gal. 5:6 “the only thing that counts is faith working through love.”  But in First and Second Corinthians I would find out what a homophobic, misogynist bastard he really was.  Or so I thought. 

In Galatians Paul emphasized faith in Christ as redemptive and sufficient for spiritual purity and downplayed the need for rules. The tone of the letters to the Corinthians is certainly different.  He is harsher and more directive regarding rules they should be following. So what gives?

Well, the difference here is not so much in Paul as it is in the community to whom he is ministering.  In Galatians he is ministering to a mixed group of Jews and Gentiles that are fighting about whether or not the Gentiles need to follow Jewish law before becoming Christians.  He knows that focusing on rules will only fracture the group, and so he focuses on faith and love.

The Corinthians are a totally different group.  By the middle of the first century Corinth was populated with the dregs of Roman society—recently freed slaves and peasants.   Imagining they had received a “get out of jail” free card as the result of spiritual wisdom, they believed they’d been released from every law.  They were braggarts prone to malicious gossip that turned their back on the unfortunate.  And they were unconcerned about the consequences of their extreme promiscuity because there would be no consequences: Jesus was coming back any minute to judge (and end) the world.  Some people can’t behave lovingly without threat of punishment; the Corinthians were those kinds of people.  They needed rules because they didn’t know what to do without them.

After reading, a few things occurred to me.  First of all, I wouldn’t want Corinthians for neighbors, and I bet you wouldn’t either.  Even if you’d hate Paul, you’d hate them more.  At least Paul would keep his lawn mowed and he wouldn’t wake you up at 2am with some drunken brawl in the street.  Secondly, Paul spends more of the letter encouraging Corinthians to knock off the nonsense and add value to the world by refraining from gossip and spiritual competitiveness and giving to the poor.  In other words, he wants them to use their remaining time wisely, not “party like it’s1999.” Our focus on his sexual advice is our focus, not his.  Thirdly, the words typically translated as referring to homosexuality are slang terms for which there is no known translation, so how can we really know what he had to say about homosexuals? And lastly, Paul believed Jesus would return to Earth during his lifetime. He wasn’t making rules for future generations to follow because he didn’t think there’d be any.

Paul was wrong about that, so we shouldn’t be surprised he was wrong about other things, too.  Still, though, I have a soft spot for the guy.  He wandered from town to town getting the shit kicked out of him for sharing his gospel of salvation through faith in Christ Jesus because he loved people enough to care about what happened to them, and he believed the end was near.  But Jesus never came.