Jesus and Paul

A couple of days ago I posted about Jesus and Paul.  My Friday group friends evidently had some questions about the post.

Let me say a few more words about all of this.

What prompted the post was a discussion I was having with a nice Methodist lady about how some churches are disaffiliating from the denomination.  She asked me if I would be leaving the denomination.  I told her no, and she asked why.

Well, there are a number of reasons that I am not leaving, but one of them is that I am not leaving because I am no longer hung up on issues regarding homosexuality.  There are several reasons for this, and most of them fall back to how we understand scripture.

I would begin with this question.  When we make our arguments about human sexuality, are we quoting Paul or Jesus?  The answer is Paul, because Jesus says nothing about it.

There are a number of differences between the teachings of Jesus and the teachings of Paul.  It is not the case that the Bible provides a unified, uniform approach to the topics of the day.  Jesus said nothing about homosexuality, but Paul appears to be against it.  [or Paul is against random Roman sexual practices that we have translated into homosexuality.]

At any rate, I told my friend, that I would rather stand with Jesus, who welcomed everyone, than to stand with Paul who was commonly pointing out who he thought the good ones and the bad ones were.

I hope that helps.

It is a beautiful day in God's world, especially if you are included.  It is a more difficult day if you are excluded.  Jesus took everyone in, so if we can follow suit, it is a beautiful day for us and for all others.