Tag: Paul

  • How bad is premarital sex? Is it, like bad, or the worst thing I can do?

    How bad is premarital sex? Is it, like bad, or the worst thing I can do?

    I’m sure you have some thoughts about sex. And they’re totally justified. I mean, you’re super smart and all. And I’m sure you’re confident in your understanding of a Christian position on premarital sex. If the sex ed industry is any indication, it’s clear to anyone that premarital sex pretty much puts you in command…

  • Paul As An Ally – Why His Letter To The Romans Is About More Than Sexuality

    Paul As An Ally – Why His Letter To The Romans Is About More Than Sexuality

    or Why Paul is Anti-Anti-Gay You find yourself stuck in a conversation you don’t want to be in. You hear some pretty outrageous things about GOD and the Bible and homosexuality and it is upsetting. You’ve already talked about love and how Jesus works with people and doesn’t care about that stuff, but still they…

  • With Unveiled Faces

    With Unveiled Faces

    Paul is not an anti-Semite. I think we should start there. When Paul argues that Moses put a veil over his face and all who hear him read are veiled: this should not be read as anti-semitic. Paul was Jewish. It is more like differentiation. While the other apostles were trying to figure out how…

  • No One Can Say

    No One Can Say

    No One Can Say (Day 25 of A Simple Lent)  |  Wednesday In a most compelling turn, Paul leaves behind the abuse which bothered him yesterday to speak instead of what the blessed community should look like–how it should behave. But he centers it around being able to say “Jesus is Lord.” Therefore I want…

  • Idol In the World

    Idol In the World

    Idol In the World (Day 19 of A Simple Lent) Wednesday Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that ‘no idol in the world really exists’, and that ‘there is no God but one.’ What do you suppose is the question Paul is trying to answer? It always helps me to…

  • Trembling to One Another

    Trembling to One Another

    Trembling to One Another (Day 13 of A Simple Lent) People are funny. Sometimes “funny ha-ha”. Usually just “funny strange”. Either way, I laugh. There’s something telling in the Joseph story for today – about these brothers who go down to Egypt to get food to bring home to their father (Jacob) and they encounter…

  • True Wisdom

    True Wisdom

    True Wisdom (Day 7 of A Simple Lent) One of the things I never understood about wisdom is that our word for wisdom is not the same as the word in the Bible. Oh, it is wisdom all right. It just means something totally different. When I think of wisdom, I think of D&D (Dungeons…

  • Belong

    Belong

    Belong (Day 5 of A Simple Lent) Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth is one of my favorite pieces of Scripture. It is hasty and imperfect. It is often obnoxious, and divorced from its context, can sound pretty tough. But given who he is talking to, it makes a bunch of sense. When…