Paul [antikvár]

Paul's missionEarly in the sixth decade of the Common Era, Paul, an itinerant missionary of the Christian movement, was in Corinth, mapping out his own contribution to what he saw as the last stage of God's plan for humanity. He looked simultaneously east and west. He wanted to press on to Spain, to preach the gospel where it liad not yet been preached, but first he had a crucial mission to fulfil to the East: he was to take an offering from his Gentile churches, as well as representative Gentile converts, to Jerusalem (Rom. 15: 23-9; for the traveUing companions, see 2 Cor. 8: 1624). While preparing for his journey, and waiting for his ship, he wrote ahead to a way-station en route to Spain: the church at Rome. He intended to prepare them ibr his arrival by sharing with them his message, and he also asked for their supportboth their prayers that his trip to Jerusalem would be successful and aid, probably monetary, for the trip to Spain (Rom. i: 11-15; 15: 24; 15: 3of.).His mind, however, was still filled with conflicts that lay behind him, casting their shadow over his trip to Jerusalema trip that filled him with apprehension. He asked the Romans to pray that he would be 'delivered from the unbelievers' and also that his service for Jerusalem would be 'acceptable to the saints'. That is, he anticipated danger from non-Christian Jews, and he feared rejection by the Jewish members of the Christian movement. His career up to then had been full of contention, including confrontation with prominent followers of Jesus in Jerusalem. As he thought about meeting the Jerusalem disciples, he rethought his past conflicts, and he considered how he could best state his case. Since his career in Asia Minor and Greece was over, he also paused to reflect on the overall progress of the Christian gospel, and he speculated on how it would all turn out.He wrote all this up: both his argument against other1 ,