“Although I am less than the least of all God’s people…” (Eph. 3:8)

Considering that Paul has shaped the history of Christianity unlike any other person other than Jesus Christ, it seems rather insincere that he would deprecate the importance of his wisdom, leadership, and overall Godliness in his epistle to the church of Ephesus while being locked up in Rome.  After being bitten by a viper, beaten, pelted by stones, imprisoned, shipwrecked, whipped, and martyred, surely Paul was superior in terms of importance and morality in relation to homeless Jane who, although loved Jesus Christ, struggled with mental illness and addiction until the day that she died alone on a street within a city of churches.

Of course, Paul was not deprecating his self worth in order to glorify his humility or Godliness like that of the religious Pharisee, but as usual; he was trying to drill the reality of grace into the church of Christ.  Throughout his letters, he is constantly trying to cut the rope than hangs so many Christians who are caught playing around in the gallows of self identity.  In my mind, I hear Paul saying,

 “My fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, stop bragging about your spiritual output, career, good works, compassion, intelligence, good looks, resume, wealth, etc. and stop crying over your weaknesses, past sin, regrets, etc.  Because apart from Christ, you are all evil and subject to the wrath of an angry God.”

Many see this message and reject it because it gets in their face and tells them what they don’t want to hear.

 “For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth.  Because what can be known of God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.   Since the beginning of creation, God’s invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been mad.  So they are without excuse.” (Rom. 1:18-20)

Rather than this wrathful God who hates sin and allows sinners no second chances after they die, they turn to their god of their own making on their own time when it is most convenient.   Such an imagined deity loves everybody, forgives as if sin had no consequences, demands little if anything from its believers, and is ultimately, a crutch for those who fear the afterlife and are so engrossed in defining their identity according to some worldly standard that they either become prideful to the bone or addicted to hopelessness as they substitute false feel goods in order to numb themselves from the constant kick in the face by the prideful that revel in the fact they meet or exceed the standards of this world. 

Nonetheless, the dreadful notion that this god might be the Christian God of revelation rather than the loving god of their imagination, occasionally creeps into the forefront of their minds and convicts them of their transgressions.  At this most uncomfortable moment, if they cannot find some way to ignore its bite, they must search for some weapon in their arsenal of reason and logic to kill this wrathful deity that Bible-believing Christians worship and remind themselves that they confidently know that a god of love could never be so selfish, intolerant, and judgmental.

Thus, to appease the fear of the afterlife and omit themselves from moral accountability, many cling to a god of their own mindful abstraction who, based on my observations of Western society, is usually treated as a whipping boy. When he is doing his job – dishing out blessings right and left, he will either be ignored or at the most, viewed as a faithful servant.  But when he screws up – by not preventing some obstacle to hinder the pursuit of happiness, he becomes the scapegoat of their misfortunes and the excuse for their sin, whether it manifests in the form of bitterness, rejection, legalism, or indifference.  Sadly, this false idol exists within many Christian churches.

Furthermore, as Timothy Keller argues in the The Reason for God,

"The belief in a God of pure love -- who accepts everyone and judges no one -- is a powerful act of faith. Not only is there no evidence for it in the natural order, but there is almost no historical religious textual support for it outside of Christianity. The more one looks at it, the less justified it appears."

Keller goes on to argue that the idea of a loving God comes from the Bible. No other religious text outside the Bible says that God has created the world out of love and delight. Most ancient pagan religions believe the world was the result of divine warfare between opposing gods, and Buddhism does not believe in a personal God at all. Although Islam says that God is merciful and kind, Christianity speaks of God as "our spouse, of knowing God intimately and personally, and of having powerful effusions of his love poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit!" Such intimate terms are considered absurd by most Muslims.

Regardless of how seeker sensitive that I've tried to become, no one wants to hear that they deserve an eternity of suffering because of their sins.  A Biblical conception of Hell cannot be repackaged in a manner that comes off as being ‘not so bad’ because the reality begs to differ – a place without hope is horrific and the wrath of God deserves to be feared.  Recently, out of boredom, I randomly picked out some ugly looking book in the library that was written by Dostoyevsky and opened it to a passage concerning Hell.  Dostoyevsky wrote that although he disagrees with a literal interpretation of hell, people who experience the wrath of God through conscious, eternal suffering will wish for the physical sensation of burning flames so that the burn may distract them from their hopelessness. 

But for those who see the truth and fear God, Paul speaks of the freedom of the Gospel.   You are not saved because of anything of your own doing. You are not saved by the accuracy of your doctrines.   You are not saved by your career, accomplishments, or moral lifestyle.  You are not saved because you have it all together, vote Republican, attend church weekly, give food to the poor, love your children, remain faithful to your spouse, work hard for your money, serve your country…  

You are saved by the grace of God. 

Thus, Christians have ABSOLUTELY nothing else to brag about other than our Lord, Jesus Christ.  With Jesus, our sufferings are always undergirded by rejoicings, worldly standards of value are devoid of meaning, and anxieties and oversensitivities should no longer be worthy of our attention because "the Christian's identity is not based on the need to be perceived as a good person, but on God's valuing of [us] in Christ" (Keller).

The Apostle Paul and sad, forgettable Jane are equally valued in the eyes of God because they have been justified by their faith in Jesus alone.   When they stand before their Maker on judgment day, He will be faithful to his promise – “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow” (Is. 1:18).  When you realize that you obey God because he loved you first as opposed to obeying God in order to earn his love, your view of superstar Paul and sad, forgettable Jane will place no importance on labels such as “superstar” or “sad” or “forgettable” for these terms only find meaning when people of this world evaluate the worth of humans based on worldly criteria.  But rather you will see them through the eyes of Christ, not as being moral or less moral, but as family members.  As a brother and sister saved by amazing grace.

That is why we love those who hate us by boasting Christ, even at the cost of our lives.  We deny our flesh and boast of our weaknesses so that Christ may be more.  We call sinners to repent of sin and refuse to return evil for evil because of Jesus – the motivation of our living, the cornerstone of our being.  Anything less is a waste of our existence.