[Biblemat] A) QUESTION AND ANSWER

[J5827Sasser at wmconnect.com]

Brethren and Friends, Jim Sasser here.  A very good Monday
morning to each and everyone.  May God bless you and yours.
Here is a question and answer from my files:

QUESTION:  -- Why do people place more emphasis on what
                        Paul wrote than what Jesus said?  Christ is our 
Savior, not Paul.  Christ is Lord, and Paul is only a man.
And it is clear from his writings that Paul was biased against
women (1 Cor. 14:34; 1 Tim. 2:11,12).

ANSWER: -- I don't believe people place more emphasis on 
                    what Paul wrote than what Jesus said.  It is true
that only Christ is our Savior (Acts 4:12), He is the only Lord
(Eph. 4:5), He is the only Mediator between God and man (1
Tim. 2:5).  None of that is true with Paul, and I don't know any-
one who believes that it is.  But maybe the querist has in mind the fact that 
we refer often to Paul's writings in our teac-
hing.  This should not seem strange, for Paul wrote about 
half of the New Testament Scriptures.  But are these really 
the original words of Paul?  Let us see:

     Jesus promised the apostles, "He that heareth you hear-
eth Me" (Lk. 10:16).  But how is that possible?  Let the Lord
Jesus explain:  "These things have I spoken unto you, while
yet abiding with you.  But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit
Whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all
that I said unto you" (Jno. 14:25,26).  Again,  "Howbeit when
He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He shall guide you into all the
truth" (Jno. 16:13).  The Holy Spirit was to guide the apostles
"into all the truth."  Even the words which Jesus spoke while
on the earth were to be brought to their remembrance by the
Holy Spirit.  So, what Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wrote
as they recorded the life of Christ was what the Holy Spirit
revealed to them.  Those were not their words, but the words
of Jesus Christ.

     But this was also true with the writings of Paul, James, and Peter and 
any others who wrote the Scriptures.  "For who among men knoweth the things of 
a man, save the spirit
of the man, which is in him? even so the things of God none
knoweth , save the Spirit of God.  But we received, not the 
spirit of the world, but the spirit which is from God; that we
might know the things that were freely given to us of God.
Which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but 
which the Spirit teacheth; combining
spiritual things with spiritual words" (1 Cor. 2:11-13).  Please
note that even the "words" used by the apostles were words
provided by the Holy Spirit.

     Peter later declared the means by which the Word of God
came to man:  "For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men spake 
from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Pet. 1:21).  The apostle Paul 
explains the result of
that guidance, "And for this cause we also thank God without
ceasing, that, when ye received from us the Word of the message, even the 
Word of God, ye accepted it not as the
word of men, but, as it is in truth, the Word of God, which also worketh in 
your that believe" (1 Thes. 2:13).  Paul never
preached "the word of Paul."  He preached, and wrote, "The
Word of God" as given to him by Jesus Christ through the 
Holy Spirit (Gal. 1:12).

     It is not possible to array Paul against Jesus, or Paul against James, 
or Paul against Peter.  What each of these
wrote was the Word of God.  When you read Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John, you are reading the words of Jesus Christ.
When you read the books of Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinth-
ians, Galatians, 1st and 2nd Timothy, Hebrews, James and/or
1st Peter, you are reading the words of Jesus Christ.  What
Paul wrote is no less the words of Christ than what Matthew
and John wrote.  The word of Christ is found in every book 
from Matthew to Revelation.  Those writers wrote His words,
as they were guided by the Holy Spirit.  They never wrote
their own ideas.  That was true with what Paul wrote in 1 Cor.
14 and 1 Tim. 2.  And if you don't like what Paul wrote, your
argument is not with me or with Paul; your quarrel is with God!  (Any thing 
that Paul wrote concerning women he wrote
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  He spoke very highly
of several women in his writings.  He never spoke unkindly
of any of them. JWS).  ----- Clem Thurman, in Gospel Minutes
Vol. 56, No. 42, Oct. 19, 2007.   </HTML>
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