Philippians 3:5-6 — Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
As I wrote about Father’s Day gifts yesterday, I thought today I was going to write about what a man needs to do to deserve those gifts. As I started reading though, I realized something else was happening.
When you write a book or a movie script it’s a good idea to think about the history and context of central situations and characters. That background is called the back story. As I read around the topic of Paul’s view on fatherhood I realized what I was really thinking about was Paul’s back story — which we really know very little about.
It seems probable that Paul was a Roman citizen. He never actually says so, but Dr. Luke tells us several times in the Book of Acts that Paul relied on his citizenship. It’s not all that clear whether Paul’s background was rich or poor. He worked as a tent maker — but he was educated by some of the leading rabbis of his day.
What is clear is that Paul was a diaspora Jew — his family had left Israel for Tarsus. He was raised as a Pharisee, and the Pharisees were a group of very observant and influential Jews in Paul’s lifetime.
So this all set me wondering. How do you think the phone call went? (O.K., I know it wasn’t really a phone call!) “Hi Dad? It’s me, Saul. Listen — I just want you to know, I’ve crossed over. I’ve Joined Jews for Jesus. In fact I’m kind of a leader”. Alright, I know that’s a little silly, but I’m not sure Paul’s Pharisee family would have been thrilled by his road to Damascus conversion.
As I thought about Paul and his family relationships I realized what the application was. We get hints of back stories for Biblical leaders as we read through the gospels and epistles. As well as being apostles and evangelists, they were all people with friends and families. There were interactions between their kingdom work and their private lives. It’s the same today. Everyone who is involved in evangelism and discipleship is going to deal with those same interactions. In fact for many of us it doesn’t take anything more than choosing to become a Christian. Suddenly, like Paul, we’re not who we used to be … and the back story takes an unexpected turn!