Verification with Paul

Let’s review a bit and get on to the final application of this mystery.  First, we learned that Prophecy was written to the Jewish people and predicted how God would fulfill many of His covenant promises with Israel.  Taking one of these promises and applying it directly to a Gentiles life is not only dangerous, but it can be frustrating.  For instance if I am taking what Jeremiah 31:33-34 says, “…I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.  I will be their God, and they will be my people.  No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother…”  You might be thinking, “What is wrong with me?  I don’t have all God’s laws in my mind, I need to be taught and I know my neighbor does too.”

Next, we learned that Paul was an apostle to the Gentile and had a supremely unique place in Biblical prophecy.  His message was the most difficult for Jewish people to understand.  First, Paul’s message was not in prophecy at all.  Jesus had a difficult time with the Jewish people (they crucified Him after all) and much of His story was laid out pretty clearly in prophecy.  Image how well Paul was received with a message that was not in the Holy Scriptures, I guess it is no surprise that he was harassed his entire ministry and eventually imprisoned and killed. 

Second, Paul’s unique message was to the Body of Christ, which including any believers in Jesus Christ.  As we studied earlier, in Paul’s message of the mystery there is no distinction between Jew or Greek.  Paul had a huge burden for his Jewish brethren (Romans 9:3), however, due to their unbelief he turned the focus of his ministry to the Gentiles (Acts 13:45-46).  This made many Jewish people angry and jealous of this new message.   

This leads me to the last application of the mystery before 2012, next year I am going to start my blog with my testimony and then move on to talking about faith and our salvation.  So, because of what you know about the mystery, approach the Bible by considering who the audience is for the portion you are studying.  Understand where you are in the Bible, is the portion of Scripture part of prophecy or mystery.  DON’T underestimate the importance of all Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16-17), however, DON’T try to apply the whole Bible directly to your life.  Study the whole thing, apply Paul’s writings.  If you come to a Scripture that seems difficult, see what Paul (Romans-Hebrews) says about it.  In the Old Testament, the Hebrews were given strict rules about what to eat, here is what Paul says about that.  Romans 14: 3-4, “One man has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only.  Let not him who eats regard with contempt him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats, for God has accepted him.”  And so it goes, if you are being taught out of a portion of Scripture that is not part of the mystery just cross reference it to decide if this is a concept I should apply directly to my life, or is this a concept teaching me about God’s character and how He deals with people?  If you feel cheated because I just drastically cut down your Biblical application, don’t be dismayed.  If you could correctly apply to your life all that is in even one of Paul’s books all the time, you would make such an impact on your world, I can’t even comprehend.  If anyone out there is close could you please let me know, I would love to read your blog!