Paul's Priority

Paul was writing to this group of Christians, while he was in prison. The Jews seized Paul, while he was in Jerusalem. And roman soldiers "rescued" Paul,  thinking he was a wanted criminal. And when they found out who he was, they held him, and sent him to Rome.

And what was Paul's perspective concerning the fact that he was being unjustly held in prison? (He had not committed a crime. The Jews seized him simply because he believed in, and proclaimed, Jesus.)

Paul realized that the most fundamental issue with humanity was its separation from God. It is the re-connection of God and man that fixes what is broken in the world. So, people understanding the problem, the solution, and all the results from it, became his foremost focus.

So, rather than viewing prison as a loss of opportunity, because it is a loss of freedom, he views prison as access to a new audience he would not have otherwise. He was able to share God's message to all of the soldiers, who were in Caesar's guard, as well as all of the staff.

Moreover, many other believers have gotten motivated to proclaim God's message.

Some received a fresh revelation of what re-connection to God means for individuals, and the world. So, they became strongly motivated to communicate God's message to people, who did not know him.

And Paul heard about others, who were trying to gain increased status from sharing the gospel. Paul was not worried about this. He agreed these people did not have pure motives. It would be infinitely better to share from love of God, and love of people.

But the foremost fact is: God's love is getting communicated to people, who do not realize it, know it, or experience it. Now, people have the opportunity to move into relationship with the Father, and to live as God designed.

God wants his family — as a whole, and as individuals — to communicate his love for all people, and his message, which is the answer for a broken humanity. And there are multiple reasons why this doesn't happen.

There are methods of proclamation that can only be done after special training, or with great expense, and preparation, which cannot be copied by most people. Many, who have gotten the training, or paid the cost, has gotten discouraged, because too much work was required for too little results.

Many Jesus followers do not emphasize what Jesus emphasized. There are different groups, who stress different parts of what it means to follow Jesus. These parts have been given priority. I don't want to minimize people's different convictions, or areas that God has revealed to different parts of his family. God is restoring his image to his people. Each of these areas is important to that process. But we do need to remember Jesus' priorities.

Jesus said that love demonstrates who are his disciples. And he said that unity in his family demonstrates that God really, and truly, did send Jesus. it is these areas that God's family needs to major in. It is these areas that God's family needs to be well-know for. God has other standards we need to proclaim, other truths we need to affirm. But these are number one. We need to affirm number two, and number five, without forgetting number one.