Why was Paul the Apostle to Gentiles?

What was Paul’s background? Paul was trained to be a Pharisee and he seemed to be top of his class (Ac 22:3; Pp 3:4-6). He was also a Roman citizen (Ac 22:27) which gave him special privileges. Peers would say he had it all—all that any Jew could ever hope for—wealth, special spiritual training, respect of their Jewish leaders and all the privileges that a Roman citizen could receive. Paul also had a zeal for doing God’s work—just misguided. No one else could see his potential, but it was truly clear to God.

So, why was Paul’s background so important? Well, let me ask you. If you were going to accomplish a paradigm shift: going from using a Jewish nation to individuals and not just Jewish individuals but Gentile individuals also, who would you want to help accomplish that? You would need someone who could understand Jewish law and how that now relates to the teachings of Christ. You would need someone that could stand up to criticism of this new paradigm and be able to defend it with Jewish scripture. You would need someone who could gain the respect of the Gentiles as well. What better person than Paul? He had special training in Jewish law. There was no one who could argue he did not know the Jewish Scriptures. He had originally hated the Christians, so he could identify with how the Gentiles must feel going from their current culture to becoming a Christian which would seem rather foreign at first. He would be able to tease out from Scripture what was necessary for the Gentiles and what was optional and was just Jewish tradition. He could tease out the meaning behind the Jewish traditions and not just feel the tradition, in itself, was sufficient. He could put Christ’s teachings into their proper Jewish scripture context and explain it in a way that would make sense to the Jew as well as to the Gentile. Yes, God needed someone like Paul. And Paul did not let God down. Yet, God had to be quite blunt with Paul and stop him dead in his tracks in order to get his attention (Ac 9:1-6). Once on the right road, however, there was no stopping him.

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens