Love Jesus, Love the Gospel

July 1, 2025June 29, 2025 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

It does not surprise me when I find scholars who do not believe the Bible is God’s inspired Word and also have a problem with the Apostle Paul. But it still surprises me to find Bible-believing Christians who view Paul negatively. For some, this is a reaction to his argumentative persona and intellectual presentation of complex truths. For others, the antagonism comes from the feeling that he is misogynistic or overly self-referential.

Where there is a specific criticism based on a particular passage, it helps to study that passage in its context and take into account the rest of his writings as well. But where the criticism is more a general feeling (i.e. he is too argumentative or complex), I think what helps is to try to enter into his world and see Paul in action.

At the beginning of Galatians, we find an extended biographical section that, at first glance, may appear self-congratulatory. However, delving into Paul’s world is a worthwhile endeavour. Not only will we find a brilliant and articulate fighter for the truth of the gospel – perhaps even a hero of the faith – but we will also find a motivation we can emulate. Maybe most of us will never be as brilliant as Paul. But all of us could love Jesus and the truth of the Gospel as Paul did. And if we did, perhaps the global and eternal impact would be beyond anything we have dreamt.

Let me try to give you a taste of this. On Paul’s first missionary journey, as recorded in Acts 13-14, Paul and Barnabas arrived in the region of Galatia, preached the gospel, and saw churches established. They were understandably excited as they headed for home base to report what God had done. But when they arrived, they discovered that others had followed in their footsteps and sought to correct their ministry. The criticism? Paul was not a full apostle, and Paul did not preach a complete gospel message. Perhaps Paul was portrayed as well-intentioned, and his message was seen to serve as a good starting point. But these later teachers were promoting themselves as representatives of the Jerusalem apostles and their Law-based message as a more complete and committed version of what God expects.

Paul was livid! He wrote Galatians to ward off this falsehood and try to win back the hearts of the believers before they were pulled away by this destructive corruption of the good news he had preached.

Why did Paul write with an edge? (No pun intended) Why does he seem to be shouting? Why is Paul so sharp with them? (Ok, that was slightly deliberate for the context!) The answer is that Paul loved Jesus, the Gospel, and the believers in the Galatian churches. Like a parent shouting sharply at a child walking towards a busy road, Paul was desperate to get their attention.

In the latter verses of Chapter 1, he laid out his apostolic credentials. This was not about showing off but about exposing the lies being told about him. He did not derive his authority from Jerusalem. He had barely been there. His authority came from God himself. And in the opening verses of Chapter 2, he focused on his Gospel message. It was a message that he had laid before the Jerusalem apostles. Even under pressure from the same false teachers, Paul’s Gentile companion Titus had not been compelled to be circumcised. The highest council of apostles, the inner circle itself, had affirmed his calling with a hearty handshake and no doctrinal caveats.

When you ponder the world Paul inhabited, it becomes clear that he was driven not by a desire to win arguments or a passion for self-promotion like an early social media influencer. A deep love for Jesus drove Paul, and therefore, a passion for the gospel of God’s grace that truly transforms lives from the inside out. It was that deep love that drove Paul to travel, to preach, to be misunderstood, to be persecuted, to suffer, and eventually, to die for the Lord that he loved. In Galatians 2:11-14, it was that deep love that drove Paul to take a most uncomfortable step: he publicly called the great senior apostle Peter a hypocrite in front of his home crowd.

I’m not suggesting we should be looking for opportunities to poke others in the chest. I’ve seen far too much bombastic finger-wagging on social media. But I’ve also seen far too little courage in person when faced with character and behaviour that compromises the Gospel. Will we be willing to take uncomfortable steps in the face of compromise, or will we be willing to take uncomfortable steps in the calling of missionary need?

We cannot give ourselves a good talking-to and suddenly generate sacrificial motivation for ministry. Neither can we muster up Paul’s level of theological brilliance just because we start to find him inspiring. But we can gaze long and hard at Jesus. We can ponder the wonder of the gospel of God’s grace in Christ deeply. We can ask God to give us a heart-exploding glimpse into the wonder of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. Because if we see Jesus for who he is, if we get a sense of the wonder of the gospel, then perhaps we will start to share in Paul’s motivation for the truth of the gospel.

Why did Paul contend for the truth of the gospel, even in the face of opposition? Two words from Galatians 2:5 – it was so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved “for you.” And by extension, from Galatia down through two millennia, it was for it to be preserved for us. May we be ever more captivated by the glorious good news of God’s great love for us so that we are motivated to preserve it for others.

_______________________________________________________

How Do You Pray for Fellow Believers?

February 28, 2015February 28, 2015 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

There is a strange phenomena in the church when it comes to praying for people. Obviously this is a generalisation, but I have observed it enough to suggest that it may be a pattern.

When people become followers of Jesus our prayers for them seem to change. Before they are saved we pray for God to work in their lives and circumstances, for their hearts to be drawn to Christ, for the spiritual blindness to be taken away, etc. Once they trust Christ and are in the family, then what do we pray for? Often it seems to shift to the more mundane matters of health and career.

This is not just the case in church prayer meetings, but also among leaders too. I know that I am tempted to pray more fervently and more “spiritually” for those who are outside God’s family, or for those who are on the fringes. But for those who seem to be doing well in human terms? It is tempting to assume all is well.

Take a look at Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians in 1:15-23. He begins by referencing how thankful he is for their faith in Christ and love for the saints. These are healthy believers – they have a vertical relationship that is spilling into their horizontal relationships. These are the kind of people I am tempted to bypass as I pray. Not so for Paul!

The One Thing – He goes on to make clear the one thing that he prays for them: that the Father might give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him! That is, Paul prays for these believers to know God. Simple. Or is it profound?

Clearly he doesn’t mean that he wants them to “come to know” God, but to grow in their knowing Him. He wants their relationship with God to go deeper, that the union they have with Christ should become more vibrant and developed. (Remember that “in Christ” occurs almost forty times in Ephesians – union with Christ is a massive theme in the letter.)

I suspect many of us who have a passion to see the lost brought to salvation may fall into the trap of then missing the growth potential that exists for a believer. There is so much more than just getting saved and then telling others, there is massive potential for spiritual growth and maturity.

The Three Things – Paul spells out this one prayer request with three specifics. He wants God to enlighten the eyes of their hearts to know three things.

First, he wants them to know the absolute certainty of their calling in Christ. We have churches filled with people who carry the label of Christian, and yet have all manner of uncertainty and confusion over God’s calling on their lives.

Second, he wants them to know that they are God’s inheritance – an inheritance He considers to be gloriously rich! This is not something new believers readily grasp. Just as it takes a wife many years to truly believe that her husband really loves her, so it is with God’s people.

Third, he wants them to know how much power there is toward them as they trust God for it. That is, is there enough power for a life like mine to be truly transformed by the gospel? Is there enough power for me to be raised from my sinful state of death to do the works God has prepared for me to do? There is if that power is the same power that raised Christ from the dead, seated him in glory, put all enemies under his feet and made him head over the church!

Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians is incredibly encouraging for us to read. More than that, it is deeply challenging to recognize that this prayer was prayed for those who were already faithful and loving. Let’s not bypass those that seem healthy and established in our churches and in our ministry spheres. Let’s pray for them, and for ourselves too, to be growing in our relationship with God, knowing more profoundly the reality of our hope, his inheritance and the abundance of power available!

Book Review: How to Like Paul Again, by Conrad Gempf

December 31, 2013 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

The front cover of this book (published by Authentic, 2013) has a snippet of an endorsement that states, “The best thing on Paul written for non-academics I have ever read.” I agree, although I can’t list a whole lot of other books on Paul written for non-academics, to be honest.

Gempf is engaging and witty, his style draws you in and keeps you hooked. His concern is that Paul has gotten a bad rap and so people judge him without knowing him. I don’t have a negative view of Paul at all, but by the end of this book I liked him and his letters even more than when I started.

This book is like a crash course in hermeneutics, but a genuinely enjoyable course . . . the kind taught by a master teacher who so captures your attention that you don’t realise it is a course in hermeneutics. Each chapter builds on what has gone before and Gempf seems to enjoy a Paul-like rhetorical conversation with his readers.

His method is to select three epistles and work with each one for a few chapters. He starts with Galatians, then moves onto 1 Corinthians. He contrasts the two. Different audiences, different letters. A church in need of 1 Corinthians could be harmed by a slap-dash misapplication of Galatians, and vice versa. I loved the letter to the Galatians from the other side – a helpful feature of a section that gives a clear sense of the danger churches today face in respect to the Law and Christian spirituality.

Throughout the author is convincing the reader of the importance of understanding what it meant back then before pondering what it might mean for us today. A wonderful dose of healthy hermeneutical teaching in a book that reads more like a good novel or biography than a biblical studies text book.

After Galatians and 1 Corinthians, I did put the book down. Busy schedule and a family Christmas. And, to be honest, I thought Philemon might be a weak end to a great book. I was wrong. Philemon was a great place to add another set of dimensions to Paul and his apostolic writing.

This is a great book for new Christians and long-term preachers alike. Maybe you went to Bible school and have preached through Paul’s letters many times. I still think you should read this book. It is refreshing and it will stir your appreciation for the epistles again.

Perhaps your Christmas presents were wonderful, but lacked a gripping book. Why not buy yourself a late gift. In fact, buy two or three because you will be thinking of people to whom you must give a copy. Thanks Conrad, a wonderful book!

To order this book in the UK, click here.