The objective of this lesson: to stress the importance to God of the motives of a human act.
In today's text, several things are striking. (1) Paul's pre-Christian adult existence as a Pharisee who violently opposed Jesus and the new Christian movement is striking. (2) The fact that God's grace expressed in Jesus could forgive a violent man like Paul is striking. (3) Paul's affirmation that God's purpose in Jesus Christ is to save sinners is striking. (4) Paul's affirmation that he received God's mercy to demonstrate God's ability to save anyone is striking. Paul said his forgiveness stands as proof that God's mercy expressed in God's patience could extend to any form of resistance if there is repentance.
Call your students' attention to these striking things as well as other such things you might wish to add.
However, there is one statement Paul made in this text that goes beyond striking. It is astounding from every perspective in every consideration! The statement: ". . . I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief" (1:13).
In whatever words are significant to you, make it evident that Paul's use of the phrase "ignorantly in unbelief" is an astounding statement. It verifies God's mercy does not depend on human goodness. If God could not be kind to the sinful, God would express zero kindness to humanity.
To grasp the enormity of that statement, consider some of Paul's background. Was he present at Stephen's execution (Acts 7:58-60)? Yes! Was he in full agreement with Stephen's execution (Acts 8:1)? Yes! Did he begin or enter into a local [Jerusalem] violent persecution of Jews who believed Jesus was the resurrected Christ (Acts 8:1-3)? Yes! Did he extend the persecution efforts against Jewish Christians to a country outside of Israel (Acts 9:1, 2)? Yes!
Let Paul's adult behavior prior to being a Christian be what it was. Do not make excuses for him; he made none for himself. Rather, make his violent behavior as real as it was. Read Acts 26:9-12 to note how passionate and real Paul's hatred of Jewish Christians was prior to believing in Jesus as God's Messiah.
Those things being true, then how could he declare he acted "ignorantly in unbelief"? Since his opposition against Jewish Christians included acts of premeditated violence, how did he act "ignorantly"?
Make it evident that Paul's concept of "ignorant" is different from our concept of "ignorant." Paul did not know God was at work in Jesus because Paul was "blinded" by his convictions. God working through Jesus just did not "fit" his religious convictions.
To understand the "ignorantly" we need to connect it to the blindness of "unbelief" [as does the NAS, the KJV, the RSV, and the NIV]. Paul did not justify what he did before he believed in Jesus' identify. He, as a Jew who did not believe in Jesus' identity, was enraged at what he regarded a deceitful, destructive concept. Did the pre-Christian Paul believe in God? Passionately! Did he believe God acted in Israel's history? Without question! Did he view Jesus as destructive to God's purposes in Israel? Certainly! Was he willing to be violent in his defense of God? Without doubt! Even before becoming a Christian, Paul did what he was convinced God wanted him to do! His actions based on his faith in God knew no restrictions, no boundaries! He dared act on his faith in God in ways we would regard risky.
Paul's dedication to God was never in question before or after his conversion. Paul's issue was not centered in the necessity to yield to God's will, but in Jesus being the expression of God's will. From Paul's view prior to conversion, belief by a Jew that Jesus was the Messiah God promised was destructive to God's purposes and plans. Paul's concept of God's will was incompatible with Jesus being the Messiah sent by God. His ignorance was ignorance of Jesus' identity. It was ignorance created by the blindness of an incomplete understanding.
Did Paul change gods when he converted to Jesus Christ? No! The change was not in his faith in God, but in his understanding of God's purpose. There is a radical difference between thinking God's purpose is accomplished in restoring the physical kingdom of Israel and understanding God's purpose is achieved in a spiritual, eternal kingdom that includes Jews and non-Jews. Paul defended God in both concepts. He simply did not understand God's purpose included Jesus Christ as Messiah to the world until the last understanding. He was "ignorant" because he refused to see God's work in Jesus.
Paul thought God would work in some way through the restoration of the physical nation of Israel. That, in numerous variations, was a common conviction among many Jews in first century Israel. Paul saw Jewish faith in the resurrected Jesus as the Christ or Messiah as destructive to physical Israel and the law God gave Israel. God could not be at work in Jesus because, in Paul's thinking, Jesus did not represent the purposes of God.
In his thinking before he was a Christian, God's purpose simply did not include a resurrected Jesus. Anything that threatened physical Israel and their law threatened God's purpose. His violent acts were not intended as a rebellion against God, but as a protection of God. As he then understood God's will, he was protecting God's will. In his protection, his passion knew no extremes! He did not commit acts of conscious rebellion against God, but acts of commitment to God's ways!
Paul prior to conversion was convinced that the Jewish people needed to get back "in line" with God's purposes and intents. Believing in Jesus was not the way for this to occur! Oddly enough, Paul's violent acts were an attempt to bring Jewish people back under God's control. In his thinking, Paul was helping God, not rebelling against God.
No form of blindness is so severe as the blindness of the mind! Before he was a Christian, Paul simply did not "get it". He was so sure of "how God worked" that he would not let God be God. That is a frightening state of mind! It is possible to be so convinced that "I know" that "I" cannot be taught.
Paul was so confident that he knew "how God worked" and "what God wanted" that it was appropriate to kill the people who were his own flesh and blood to restore God's work. That reasoning is frightening! To misunderstand God so completely that one is committed to destroying people to implement God's will is frightening! Such reasoning produces a horrible blindness!
Paul's actions were not weighed by God on terms of the effect of Paul's acts, but the motive behind Paul's acts. The Christians who were in jail were in jail regardless of Paul's motive. The Christians who were killed were just as dead regardless of Paul's motive. The disruption to God's spiritual kingdom was just as real regardless of Paul's motive. Yet, to God, Paul's motive mattered. The fact his acts of violence against God's eternal kingdom were acts of ignorance rather than acts of rebellion were significant to God.
Use Paul's commitment prior to conversion to illustrate the truth that God considers motive to be part of the act--even if the act is horrible.
How significant to God were Paul's motives? Significant enough to make this man God's apostle to non-Jews [gentiles]. That is an irony! The Jew's Jew became God's apostle to people who were not Jews! How could this be? Paul understood Jesus was God's intent, and he was gifted in explaining that truth/hope to people who were not Jews.
God's use of Paul as an apostle to the gentiles [non-Jews] and a prolific New Testament writer verifies the significance of human motives to God.
We Christians should be reminded of two statements Jesus made. The first was made at the time of Paul's conversion:
And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.' And I said, 'Who are You, Lord?' And the Lord said, 'I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me' (Acts 26:14-18).
Use God's plans for Paul to illustrate God can make use of anyone's gifts if the person is willing to redirect his/her behavior by learning new motives.
The second:
And Jesus said to them, "Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a head of a household, who brings out of his treasure things new and old" (Matthew 13:52).
The better one understands [correctly] God's work in the past, the better he/she understands God's work now. The old makes complete the new. The old predicts God's will; the new implements God's will.
When people of good motives understand God worked and is working through Jesus Christ, they will shutter at the blindness of their past motives and serve in the enlightenment of their new motives.
Understanding God's work in Jesus Christ puts our unconverted life in a totally new perspective.
For Thought and Discussion:
The discussion should include this: prior to conversion Paul was a man of violence guilty of persecution and blasphemy. In the conviction he was furthering God's purposes, Paul opposed God's purposes.
He was blind to Jesus' true identity.
God weighed Paul's acts by Paul's motives. Motives made Paul a candidate for divine mercy and service.
The two statements are Acts 26:14-18 and Matthew 13:52. The first verified Paul's violent behavior arising from his passionate commitment. The second verified the benefit of understanding the old as well as revealing the new.
The discussion should include (1) the person sees his past motives entirely differently and (2) behaves in a new manner because he/she has new motives.
Link to Student Guide
Lesson 7