No Other Doctrine-Intro To I Tim Series

The Apostle Paul has always been one of the most loved and most

hated of men. Thousands of books have been written about him,

and many of them seek to blacken his name and cause men to

despise him. For many he is too stern and narrow minded. He tries

to pressure people into his own mold. He tells Timothy to charge

others not to teach any different doctrine. Paul is opposed to

freedom in teaching Christian truth. He felt that the truth has been

revealed by God, and that it was comprehensive and conclusive. If

anyone sought to change it or add to it, he was to be accursed.

Paul is really a thorn in the flesh of those theologians who

delight in speculation. Paul had direct revelation from Christ, and

he was the theologian of the Christian church. Any deviation from

his teaching is a deviation from the truth, and so he had to be stern

about it. We must still test our doctrine today by its harmony with

and conformity to the theology of Paul. Anything we hold as a

doctrine, which is contradictory to Paul becomes a possible heresy.

It was Timothy's task to keep the church of Ephesus on the right

track.

It is just a good principle of biblical interpretation to keep in

mind that nothing ought to be accepted as Christian doctrine if it

contradicts what is taught by Paul. This principle will protect you

from many man devised interpretations. Paul in telling Timothy to

charge certain persons not to teach any other doctrine establishes

clearly that all basic Christian doctrine was fully known by then,

even if it was not fully developed in all of its implications. We want

to consider the character of Paul himself, for he had the authority to

forbid the teaching of anything that he had not taught.

Modern critics do not like Paul because of his big words and

long involved sentences. His opinions about women and marriage

have also gotten him into trouble with many. Paul was not infallible

but men have gone so far in attempts to make him unlikable that

they have even attacked his personal appearance. Renan called him

an "Ugly little Jew," and the idea became so popular that became an

accepted fact that Paul was little of stature, homely, weak, and with

a bald head and bow legs. I had this impression myself until I read a

book called The Character Of Paul by Charles Jefferson.

Jefferson points out that the negative description of Paul comes

from a 3rd century novel, and that it is on this poor foundation that

the enemies of Paul build their case for his unattractive appearance.

The whole case collapses when you consider that when Paul came to

Lystra and healed the lame man the people took him for a god.

These pagans may have been superstitious and foolish, but they were

not blind. All of the Greek gods were graceful and well-formed

Hercules type men, and not bow-legged little homely Jews. If they

could mistake Paul for Hermes or Mercury it is likely he was a real

specimen of a man.

The fact of his surviving the stoning and enduring all kinds of

trials, hardships, and sufferings, indicates that he was a man of

marvelous physical strength. Paul might mean little, but that does

not make the Apostle a little man anymore than it makes Paul

Bunyan a midget. We cannot say that he was a New Testament

Samson, but there is no reason to think that he was not a man as

mighty in body as he was in spirit. Why should I hold a degrading

image in my mind of such a great man when it is based on the

testimony of those who did not like him?

As great as Paul was he was no god, and he knew it. He tore his

clothes when the pagans of Lystra began to worship him. In spite of

his great authority and power he was a very humble man in his own

eyes. When he begins his letters by calling himself an Apostle, you

will notice that he does not take credit for being in such a position.

He always acknowledges that it is by the grace or will of God. It is

God's doing an not his own. He wrote, "I am not worthy to be

called an Apostle." He went even further and wrote, "I am less than

the least of all saints." If Paul is stern, narrow and authoritative

when he writes it is not because he is proud, but it is because of his

office. He has an obligation before God to fulfill the great

responsibility of establishing the church in the world that is based

on sound and pure doctrine.