Jonathan Worthington

In the Beginning, Paul: How the Apostle Applies Genesis 1–2

ABSTRACT: Learning to read Genesis 1–2 through Paul’s eyes cuts through the stalemate of contemporary debates about the age of the earth and mode of its creation, for Paul turns readers’ attention instead to the glory of the triune Creator and the given goodness of what he has made. Paul applies creation theology to practical church issues, the nature of sin, the doctrine of bodily resurrection, and the glory of the created order as he calls Christians to worship their Creator in wonder, joy, and hope.

For our ongoing series of feature articles for pastors and Christian leaders, we asked Jonathan Worthington (PhD, Durham University), Director of Research at Training Leaders International, to explain how Paul interprets and applies Genesis 1–2 to the life of the church.

Creation. “In the beginning.” Genesis 1. Such words stimulate surprising passion in some who crave debating about “days” and “literal” and “science” with people they long to humble. Some good can come from these debates. Meanwhile, avoidance stirs in others, perhaps because of experiences with some from the former group.

For me, however, joy and hope emerge. Joy surges as I deeply engage the lovely Creator and his creation as expressed in Genesis 1–2. And hope rises mainly because I explore the beginning from an unusual angle — through someone else’s eyes.

Creation Through Paul’s Eyes

Picture a church infested with sexual sin. To help, the pastor brings up Genesis 1–2. The same church is tearing itself apart over disagreements about food and conscience. The pastor brings up Genesis 1–2 again. The members disagree about how men and women should act during gatherings. Genesis 1–2 again. Some demean others based on their “gifts.” Genesis 1–2. Some smirk with seeming sophistication at the idea of bodily resurrection. The pastor gives them a long talk about — yes, Genesis 1–2. Meet the Corinthian church and the pastoral apostle Paul.

Whenever I mention that I explore how Paul interprets and applies Genesis 1–2, I am immediately asked — almost without exception — “What did Paul believe about the ‘days’?” Paul doesn’t tell us. Rather than bogging us down in endless debates, looking at Genesis 1–2 through Paul’s eyes helps us form a more robust understanding of creation and its application to Christians in practical life struggles.

In this essay, we will focus narrowly on God’s creation of the world through Paul’s eyes. The apostle comments at least as often on God’s creation of humanity — image, dominion, male and female, dust, and more — but we will save those for elsewhere.1 God’s creation of everything is the context to understand humanity, so we will begin there — in the beginning. We will then focus on the phrases “let there be light” (Genesis 1:3), “and it was so” (first in used 1:7), “according to their kinds” (first used in 1:11), and finally “very good” (1:31). Why those phrases? Because as he pastored struggling Christians, Paul locked onto those phrases regarding God’s creation of the world.

‘In the Beginning’

“God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). Is this a record of God’s first act of creation (with light his second),2 with “the heavens and the earth” referring to elemental matter or the bare structures of the two realms? Or is 1:1 a summary of all God does in 1:2–31, like a title with its mirrored conclusion in 2:1?3 This question is debated, but Paul does not help us answer the question.4 What Paul does reveal is a profound and applicable interpretation of God’s creation of “all things.”

From, Through, For

While writing 1 Corinthians (perhaps in early AD 55),5 Paul engages the believers’ disagreement about eating idol meat, challenging them about their interactions with saints whose consciences clash (chapters 8–10).6 Twice he introduces creation.

In 1 Corinthians 8:4, 6, Paul inserts the gist of Genesis 1 by packing prepositional phrases with a powerful metaphysical punch:

As to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.” . . . For us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

Some Corinthians were using monotheism to justify eating food sacrificed to idols (8:4). Paul agrees with their underlying monotheism, of course. In fact, toward the end of this complex argument, Paul outright states in 1 Corinthians 10:25–26 (quoting Psalm 24:1),

Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. For “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.”

In Psalm 24, the earth and everything in it belongs to the Lord (24:1) because he created it (24:2). For Paul, because the Creator owns everything, it is truly — as an abstract idea — not wrong to eat what is sold in the market, regardless of its past associations. But for Paul, abstract theological truth is not all that the church needs, and he plants this seed at the beginning of his argument.

In 1 Corinthians 8:6, Paul points out that the one Lord God of the Shema — “the Lord [Yahweh or Kyrios in the Greek translation] our God [Theos], the Lord [Kyrios] is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4) — is the Father and Jesus.7 (And, of course, the Spirit too, though this context is not about the Spirit.) Paul writes that we have “one God [Theos], the Father . . . and one Lord [Kyrios], Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 8:6).

What is more, this one Lord-God created everything: all things are “from” the Theos (God the Father) and “through” the Kyrios (Jesus). Even we exist “for” this one Theos (Father) and “through” this one Kyrios (Jesus). This mysterious creational monotheism deeply affects our relational practices. For the Lord through whom everything (even we) exists is the same Lord who died — the Kyrios-Creator willingly died — for those with poor theology and thus weak consciences (1 Corinthians 8:11). Truly knowing the Lord God of creation — who includes the Lord who died for all believers — must affect how we treat others, even those who disagree with us,8 as well as how we formulate our theological opinions.

Creation Reflects His Glory

About a year after Paul wrote his meaty moral letter of 1 Corinthians, he wrote a massive missional letter to the Roman Christians (perhaps in AD 56). He sought to knit back together their ethnically torn communal fabric so that they could function as a sound and God-honoring trampoline to launch his mission further west.

With this aim, Paul quickly draws their eyes to the Creator in Romans 1:19–25:

What can be known about God is plain to [humans], because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. . . . [They] exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. . . . They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!

When Paul looks at creation and thinks about the Creator of everything,9 he does not debate the age of the earth. Rather, looking through Paul’s eyes, we immediately see the Creator’s own nature and value. In the beginning, God. God said. God made. God called. Paul’s eyes fix on the Creator’s eternal power, deity, imperishability, eternal blessedness, as well as how he alone deserves to be honored, thanked, venerated, and worshiped as he truly is. What is more, Paul considers that all humans, simply by looking at the things God has made, are morally culpable — “without excuse” — for not glorifying, thanking, venerating, and serving this God, and only this God, as he clearly deserves.10

Imagine a synagogue attendant handing Paul the scroll of Genesis to preach from chapter 1. Oh, the majesty of God that would be on high display, and the human moral humility demanded! And there is more.11 Don’t forget Jesus — Paul certainly doesn’t.

The Exalted Image

Half a decade later (possibly in AD 61), Paul was in prison writing to the Colossians. They needed their eyes firmly readjusted. So, in Colossians 1:16, Paul mentions the creation of everything and its relationship to Jesus — the King, the beloved Son.

Virtually every phrase leading to Paul’s confession of creation in 1:16 highlights the royal supremacy of God’s beloved Son — the resurrected and enthroned King Jesus — and the saints’ inheritance in him (1:12–14). Continuing in the vein of Jesus’s reign, Paul writes, “He is the image of the invisible God” (1:15). Paul’s listeners might naturally think of Adam, the visible image of God who was to have dominion over God’s kingdom (Genesis 1:26–28).12 Adam even ruled as God’s son (see Genesis 5:1–3; Luke 3:38).13

Paul then calls the enthroned Jesus “the firstborn of all creation” (Colossians 1:15) — the chief inheritor with rights of authority.14 Though this would be another fitting title for Adam, God actually used a phrase like it for King David and his anointed descendant-kings: “I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth” (Psalm 89:27). This “firstborn” would even rule God’s kingdom as God’s son (2 Samuel 7:14; Psalm 2:7).

Depictions of King Jesus as the new Adam and Davidic king are glorious, but not surprising. The surprise comes in Paul’s next statement. King Jesus is these because

by him [en autō]15 all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things were created through him [di’ autou] and for him [eis auton]. (Colossians 1:16)

At this point, while listening to Paul’s letter, a Colossian believer might think, “Wow — ‘like’ Adam and David in some ways, but infinitely better!” Another might respond, “Everything created by, through, and even for Jesus? That sounds fitting only for the one Lord God of Genesis 1!” Still another might add, “And of Isaiah 45:5–7!”

This human-King-divine-Creator, Jesus, is enthroned where our hope is laid up (Colossians 1:5). Surely nothing in Colossae or in all creation can hamper his blood-bought peace. It is worth pausing and worshiping Jesus, our King and Creator. But don’t pause indefinitely, for Paul has more light to shed on life under this Creator.

‘Let There Be Light’

Light often describes God in Scripture.16 It portrays “the glory of the Lord” (Isaiah 60:1; Ezekiel 1:26–28), specially seen in God’s face (Numbers 6:25) — the seat of relational knowledge. As the Lord talked with Moses face to face like a friend (Exodus 33:11), even Moses’s face mirrored God’s glory by shining visibly for a time (34:29–35).

“Even though Paul has a robust doctrine of the fall, he still sees creational glory everywhere.”

For Paul, Moses was the greatest figure in Israel’s fallen history. But he was not the goal. Even before the ages, God had wisely predestined Jesus for our glory (1 Corinthians 2:7). Moses’s glory, like Adam’s in the beginning,17 was a true glory (2 Corinthians 3:7–11); it was perfect (flawless) for what God intended Moses to be and do. But God never intended Moses’s glory to be the perfected (full and final) glory (3:7–4:6). Like Adam’s glory, Moses’s glory could even be considered “no glory” when compared to the surpassing face, mirror, and image of the preordained, resurrected King Jesus (2 Corinthians 3:10–11).

So, Paul shades Moses’s fading face from the Corinthians’ view and turns their attention to God’s brightness in the resurrected, Spirit-giving Jesus, the fullest and final “image of God” (3:12–4:5). And in 2 Corinthians 4:6, Paul lights a cosmic fuse: “The God who said, ‘Out of darkness light will shine’ shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (author’s translation).

For Paul, God’s two creations (original and new) are in some ways similar.18 It is the same God planning and doing both, after all. Genesis 1:2–3 says, “Darkness was over the face of the deep . . . and God said . . .” Paul writes, “The God who said, ‘Out of darkness . . .’” Genesis 1:3 says, “‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” Paul writes, “Light will shine,” and “[he has] shone . . . light.”

Paul is far from the first to use light and darkness to challenge or encourage God’s people. The prophets often portrayed God’s judgment as his de-creation of light, removing the sun and moon of Genesis 1:14–19 and the light of Genesis 1:3,19 and his salvation as God’s re-creation of light, reinserting light and life into darkness and death (Isaiah 9:1–3). Indeed, in the very end we will be “enlightened” not by sun or moon but by “the light” that is “the glory of God,” for the Lord himself will be our “everlasting light” by his Spirit (Revelation 21:22–25; Isaiah 60:19–20).

As Paul calls the Corinthians back to the Speaker of light, he speaks of the light of God’s glory with an Isaianic accent,20 which adds a note of profound hope in God’s display of glory. For even “the god of this world,” who blinds unbelievers’ minds (2 Corinthians 4:4), cannot prevent the Creator from illuminating our hearts with Christ’s face (4:6).

‘And It Was So’

What God says, he does. The first divine words in the Bible are elegant in simplicity and powerful in effect (Genesis 1:3). God said, “Let there be light,” and light came about. After that first occurrence, Moses rhythmically impresses upon his listeners even the feeling of perfection with another six occurrences of “and it was so” — or, clearer, “and it came about in this manner” — making a perfect seven.

The Corinthian church needed a large dose of order and humility. Paul brings this perfectly (sevenfold) rhythmic aspect of the Creator’s character to bear on them in force in 1 Corinthians 15.

Some in the church doubted the bodily resurrection, and Paul promptly dispels that foolishness (15:12–34). He then focuses on two narrower questions. Here is Paul’s logic in 15:35–49 (with the places he mentions creation in bold):

In 15:35, Paul raises their further questions: “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?”
In 15:36–43, Paul gives a preface, saying (in effect), “How? Consider the Creator — don’t you know him? — how he has always structured fleshes, bodies, and glories exactly as he wanted in Genesis 1.”
In 15:44a, Paul gives his direct answer: “[In what body?] It is sown a soulish [psychikon] body;21 it is raised a Spiritual [pneumatikon] body” (author’s translation).22
In 15:44b–49, Paul gives his explanation, saying (again in effect),

Look at Adam’s body in Genesis 2:7. It was created “a living soul” (psyche), so Adam’s physical (created) body was a psychikon body. And look at how Adam’s created bodily “image” was passed to those in him (due to the creative principle in Genesis 5:3).

Compare the last Adam’s (Jesus’s) body in his resurrection. It was resurrected by “the Spirit” (pneuma), so Jesus’s physical (resurrected) body is a pneumatikon body. And the last Adam’s resurrected bodily “image” will be passed to those in him (due to the same creative principle).

In 1 Corinthians 15:36–38, Paul plants a seed that prefaces his answer to their questions about the mechanics of the resurrection:

Foolish person! . . . What you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.

Even though Jesus was raised, what about those loved ones who die in Christ and have rotted away — unlike Jesus himself? “How” and “in what body” can they be raised? Well, have you considered the God of Genesis 1?23 Everything God did perfectly came about in the manner God wanted. As Paul words it, “God gives it a body as he has chosen” (15:38). So too in the resurrection (15:42).

‘According to Their Kinds’

Genesis 1:11 describes “plants yielding seed . . . each according to its kind,” a notion Moses rhythmically repeats a complete ten times. The Creator is completely wise in his organization. Paul writes that God gives “to each kind of seed its own body,” whether “of wheat or of some other grain” (15:37–38). Paul is not done with creation yet.

In 15:39–40a, Paul lets God’s sovereign wisdom with seeds and plants explain the whole cosmos:

Not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies.

If we look around with Paul’s eyes, wearing the same Genesis 1 lenses, we see all bodies “in heaven” and “on earth” as distinguished, each according to its own kind, each sovereignly given by God, each just as God wisely desired.24 And all this matters when we contemplate beloved Christians whose bodies are no more.25 What’s more, because of Genesis 1, Paul sees “glory” everywhere.

‘It Was Very Good’

We have already seen a few examples of how Genesis 1:1–2:3 uses rhythmic repetition to create not just the knowledge of God’s complete perfection but even its feeling:

“And God said” — ten times.
“And it was so” (or “and it happened in this manner”) — seven times.
“According to . . . kind” — ten times.
“Day” — fourteen times (two sevens).
“God” — thirty-five times (five sevens).26

God is thoroughly sovereign and wise in creation. Is he also good? Far too many people experience rulers with extreme power (sovereignty) and even extreme cleverness (a type of wisdom), but who are evil — and this is terrifying. This is not our Creator.

Six times, Moses records God’s evaluation of his own creative works: “it was good.” But Moses is not one to leave any repeated important phrase of Genesis 1:1–2:3 hanging incomplete,27 so he concludes God’s entire workweek with the seventh as a climax: “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). Paul picks up on this goodness, and it is glorious.

Glory Everywhere

Even though Paul has a robust doctrine of the fall, he sees creational glory everywhere. By the time Paul gets to the issue of resurrection bodies in 1 Corinthians 15, he has already used the term “glory” with reference to creation in Genesis 1–2: a man “is the image and glory of God” and a “woman is the glory of man” (1 Corinthians 11:7–9). In 15:39–41, Paul cosmically extends such creational glory:

Not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.

I used to think Paul’s reference to “heavenly bodies” referred to angelic beings. And it is easy for us to assume that “earthly bodies” refer to something like purple mountains’ majesty. But Paul clarifies what he means by “heavenly bodies”: sun, moon, and stars. And Paul has just described the types of “earthly bodies” he has in mind: humans, animals, birds, and fish. These all have “glory.” Of course sun, moon, and stars have glory. But Paul also sees glory in animals, birds, fish — and, yes, even contemporary (and fallen) humans.

According to Paul, the physical things — bodies, fleshes — were created by God so exceedingly well and to be so exceedingly good that they (we) remain with “glory . . . glory . . . glory . . . glory . . . glory,” even despite all the groaning of creation under our wretched sin and mortality (Romans 8:19–23). How can our groaning and glory both be true? Our sin is awful. But because God gave us our bodies, fleshes, and glories just as he chose, even our personal and global sin and corruption cannot eradicate this beauty and value — this glory, this goodness.

Teaching the Next Generation

Six to ten years after writing that letter to the Corinthians, and after much suffering, Paul still saw God’s creation as good. In fact, Paul counsels his protégé Timothy that this high esteem of God’s creation has practical import for training others in Ephesus. Paul writes,

The Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer. (1 Timothy 4:1–5)

Teach about our Creator, Timothy. Teach about his good creation and what it implies for life.

God’s activity in Genesis 1 forces Paul to reject any teaching in the church that would diminish, whether in theory or practice, the goodness of what God did in creation. Yes, sin, corruption, suffering, and death have entered our world since God created all things exceedingly good — don’t forget that. But the fact that everything God created is good should still affect our actions and teaching now. That is who our good Creator is — be thankful and enjoy.

Applying Creation with Paul

Joy and hope come from reading Genesis 1 through Paul’s eyes and seeing how he applies it to struggling churches. And we have only scratched the surface.

There is a from-the-Father-ness of creation and a by-and-through-Christ-ness that should increase our corporate (and individual) glorifying, thanking, venerating, and serving of this one Lord-God as he deserves. There is even a direction to everything in creation: a for-the-Father-ness and a for-Christ-ness. And this should affect our treatment of fellow Christians, even those with whom we disagree.

We must embrace how damaging and evil and awful and ugly and violent and corrosive humanity’s sin is — including ours — and all the consequences of sin. But there is a type of wisdom and goodness built into the very fabric of creation — even into our own flesh and bodies — that God has sovereignly given that has not and cannot be eradicated. And this profoundly matters practically and relationally.

I pray that as you view the creation of the world through Paul’s eyes, such treasures as joy, humility, glory, and hope rise up in you and overflow to others.

Mature Together: The Task of Teaching in Missions

ABSTRACT: Baptizing new believers captures just the first half of Jesus’s Great Commission; the other is to “[teach] them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20). Moreover, the apostle Paul’s missionary example shows that teaching is no quick or simple task. Paul taught not only unbelievers and new believers, but he continued to teach established believers through repeated visits and letters. He also helped Christians in every church learn how to teach one another under the leadership of duly appointed leaders. At every stage, Paul labored for more than mere conversion — he labored for the full maturity in Christ that comes from ongoing, Christ-centered teaching.

For our ongoing series of feature articles for pastors, leaders, and teachers, we asked Jonathan Worthington, vice president of theological education at Training Leaders International, to explain the task of teaching in missions.

I really wanted to prepare my missions update for a supporting church, probably from Acts. But not yet; I needed to “get through” my devotional reading in 1 Thessalonians. (Yes, I admit it.) But then I read, “For now we live, if . . .” I paused. Were Paul, Silas, and Timothy not really living yet? Perhaps not feeling fully alive before — what?

I expected something like, “if we are in Christ,” or some equally rich Christological and salvific theme. Such would certainly be true. But that is not what they wrote.

For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 3:8)

These Thessalonians — some Jewish synagogue-goers, “a great many” devout Greeks, “not a few” leading women (Acts 17:4) — already trusted Christ. They were secure in his righteousness; they had peace with God and eternal life (1 Thessalonians 1:6, 9; 2:13). Yet Paul and his coworkers were not satisfied. Not until Timothy returned with good news (euangelion): the saints are maturing together in faith and love (1 Thessalonians 3:6). Now there can be deep comfort, even life.

Mission: Maturity Together in Christ

In Paul’s missionary mind and heart, as well as in his strategy and actions, the conversion of people is not completely satisfying. Maturity together in Christ is. As we trace Paul’s missionary practice below, a glorious dimension will complement what many Christians traditionally mean by the word missions.

Some Christians speak of missions only as cross-cultural evangelism.1 Others expand the idea of missions, recognizing that the church’s mission is discipleship, which is bigger than evangelism (Matthew 28:18–20),2 though they may still reserve the term missionary for those directly engaged in the type of evangelism, church planting, and/or discipleship that crosses frontier boundaries.3 Still others commend any believer as a sort of missionary insofar as he or she participates in God’s purpose, activity, and goal — God’s mission — by playing whatever part God has given and equipped the believer to do.4

Paul’s sense of participating in Christ’s mission manifests in numerous connected layers. As we notice the connective impulse and end-goal of all the layers, the word mission(s) — in this article, at least — will appear with this general sense:

God’s mission for his people includes carefully designed tasks, jobs, or roles that God gives to one or a group of his people so that his unified purpose is furthered and moved toward his intended global end-goal.

Every stage of Paul’s ministry included maturity together as Christ’s mission. And teaching played a crucial role in layer upon layer.

Layer 1: Teaching in the Initial Missional Vision of Paul

To focus, we begin with how Paul considered his initial missionary endeavor, specifically among the Galatian Christians (Acts 13–14).5 Even this initial layer is bigger than many realize.

“Every stage of Paul’s ministry included maturity together as Christ’s mission.”

Paul and Barnabas helped start many Gentiles and some Jews as disciples of King Jesus during their first missionary journey from their sending church in Syria’s Antioch. They worked east through the “unreached” areas of Pisidia’s Antioch and Galatia’s Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe (Acts 13–14). People believed. Churches were formed.6

Some brief clarifications are already necessary. First, Paul may not have considered Acts 13–14 his first missionary journey, but just his first missionary journey from that sending church. He had already been doing the stuff of such missions in Damascus (Acts 9:19–25), Jerusalem (9:28–30), his own hometown of Tarsus (presumably: cf. 9:30 and 11:22–25), and Syria’s Antioch itself (11:26). Also, in light of Pentecost, it may not be best to use unreached to refer to the people and regions in Acts 13–14 (as I have done before). As the list in Acts 2:9–11 shows, Jews from these regions had already embraced the gospel, and likely had shared the gospel with others back home. Nonetheless, Paul and Barnabas’s missionary journey established the gospel’s presence in southern Galatia far deeper than before.

After Paul and Barnabas reached Galatia’s eastern border (Acts 14:21), they stood on the cusp of a tactical missions decision. Turning northeast, they could bring the gospel into the land of Cappadocia. Delaying that movement would result in some Cappadocians dying in their sins, without hope. Or they could travel southeast through Paul’s hometown of Tarsus and around the coast to their sending church. What was their tactical missions move? Neither.

Even as “frontier” or “pioneer” missionaries, they knew that their King’s commission — and thus their mission — was not yet complete in southern Galatia. The task wasn’t finished. True, the region was not “unreached,” and churches were formed throughout. But they were not satisfied with this; none of it meant their royal mandate for that place was over.7 Therefore,

They returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed. (Acts 14:21–23)

Teaching disciples in various forms was integral to the initial layer of these missionaries’ commissioned mission — strengthening, encouraging, kingdom speaking. So too was establishing formal leaders in that local community of faith to carry on the discipleship process, the mission. (We will see more about this layer below.)

Layer 2: Teaching Again and Again

Paul’s sense of participation in God’s mission did not stop with that initial stage, even though it included all three legs of the missional stool: new converts (evangelism), new communities (church planting), and nurtured churches (discipleship).8 Teaching the same disciples and churches remained vital in Paul’s mission well beyond the initial frontier.

For example, Paul continued to teach the believers in Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, as well as in the smaller towns from a distance, by sending them a theologically and practically robust letter: Galatians. Would Paul have viewed this letter as separate from his initial missionary work there, as if one was missions while the other was not? I see no evidence that Paul thought like that.

Within this layer of Paul’s mission to the Galatians, he taught about massively important themes: justification by faith in Christ; how this relates to the Mosaic law in God’s wise redemptive-historical plan, culminating in Christ at the fullness of time; using freedom in Christ for loving each other; practically and ethically walking by the Spirit, particularly in community.

Paul’s epistolary teaching displays his passion and goal: “I am . . . in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19).9 Paul’s sense of mission plays the long game: maturity together in Christ. This is why Paul’s mission continued from initial layer to further layer — and on to further layers still.

For example, Paul and Barnabas wanted to visit those Galatian churches in person again (Acts 15:36). Why? Their explicit reasoning for another Galatian missions trip was “to see how they are” and to strengthen the churches (15:36, 41).

As Paul revisited those already-reached, already-engaged, already-churched people of southern Galatia — with Silas now instead of Barnabas, and the Galatian Timothy from Lystra onward — he delivered still more teaching. On this trip (Acts 16), his teaching involved, among plenty of other topics I’m sure, delivering the theological and practical decisions made by the council of apostles, elders, and other appointed representatives (from 15:2). As his Master’s mandate specified, Paul’s teaching in his missionary trips was geared toward obedience, not bare belief (16:4).10 Again, just as Paul had hoped and strategized, “the churches were strengthened in the faith,” even growing “in numbers daily” (16:5).

“Paul’s teaching in his missionary trips was geared toward obedience.”

And we are still not done with Paul’s sense of mission to the Galatians! Paul went back again to the Galatian churches, again “strengthening all the disciples” (18:23). It seems Paul’s missionary mind and heart were profoundly committed to strengthening churches — that is, with helping believers keep maturing together in Christ — in addition to helping others come to know Christ Jesus, join the local church, and mature together.

Paul’s missional trajectory is unified, borderlessly transitioning from the unreached frontier to the same reached and engaged area, and still beyond to those same established churches and Christians so they are further and further taught. What is more, it continues still beyond.

Layer 3: Teaching Through Letters

Galatians was sent to a young cluster of churches. But Paul continued to send such letters to churches even if they had been firmly established for years. We do not have any of Paul’s subsequent letters to the Galatians (I imagine he sent some). But we can get a glimpse of the types of teaching Paul’s missionary mind and heart would unfold to longer-established churches. Take 1 Corinthians, for instance.

First of all, in 1 Corinthians — as in Galatians and all his letters — Paul organically weaves throughout clear teaching about the good news, the gospel. Jesus is King (Messiah, Christ). He died for our sins, remedying its guilt, shame, and power. He rose for our justification and glory. He is enthroned. He sends his Spirit to equip and empower us for daily life and relationships. He is going to raise us bodily and cause us to reign with him in the new earth.

What is more, Paul teaches that all this must affect life now. So, Paul teaches the Corinthian Christians about functioning as the church gathered (e.g., chapters 11 and 12–14); engaging each other as small or large clusters of Christians in the marketplace, or at dinner parties at a patron’s home, or even with pagan friends in the public or rented rooms within the various temples (chapters 8–10); daily living even as smaller Christian units or as individual Christians in the privacy of their own homes (chapter 5) or at evening parties (chapter 6); how any Christian should think and hope and act in relation to the impact Jesus’s bodily resurrection has on our present and future bodies (6:13–15; chapter 15). That is a lot of practical discipleship training!

As Paul continues teaching the believers through his letters — often bringing coauthors into this part of the mission — he consistently pursues this missional end: stand fast, mature together in Christ. As he and Sosthenes write, “My beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58). And as he and Timothy write, “[Christ] we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ” (Colossians 1:28). And Paul extends this mission still further.

Layer 4: Teaching Through Helpers

Paul continued his missionary trajectory through sending helpers like Timothy or Titus to further establish clusters of churches. His goal was that local leaders — using terms like elders (Titus 1:5), overseers and deacons (1 Timothy 3:1, 8), pastors and teachers (Ephesians 4:11) — would be raised up and established solidly for the long haul. Why? To carry on the mission of maturity together in Christ. Therefore, Paul taught Timothy and Titus to teach the churches and their budding leaders (2 Timothy 2:2) about how the Scripture-saturated Christ and the Christ-centered Scriptures must deeply affect their daily lives, regardless of their sectors of life or spheres of influence, such as home or work or church (see all of 1–2 Timothy and Titus).

In a helpful recent study, Claire Smith found a high number of words involved in education in ancient religious communities in 1–2 Timothy, Titus, and 1 Corinthians: for example, teaching, “traditioning,” announcing, revealing, commanding, correcting, remembering.11 And there is a notable difference between these early Christian communities and the roughly contemporary mystery religions and voluntary associations: namely, a much heavier focus on teaching and learning among the Christians.12 From Paul’s language, then, early Christian churches were not only considered “worshiping communities” — though they were that — but could even be characterized as “learning communities.”

Some brief clarifications are necessary. Many readers will be from the world’s “weird” population (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic). We make up only 12 percent of the global population, substantially less when considering population throughout history. Yet we are notoriously adept at making sweeping, even universalizing assumptions and applications from our own particularized set of experiences and values.13 Many of us will “naturally” (culturally) assume that “teaching and learning” looks like individualized text-focused study (where everyone has his or her own Bible) and tends toward cognitive skills. (We weird Christians have even been known to unthinkingly impose our assumptions of teaching and learning on non-Western groups in missions.)

But early Christian communities, who most likely had only communal copies of their texts — Old Testament Scriptures, some of Paul’s circulating letters, perhaps other Christian writings (some Gospels, other letters) — primarily would have engaged Scripture and theology through oral (speaking) and aural (listening) forms and in communities rather than individually. What is more, much teaching and learning happened in less formal relational modeling, as in life-on-life or apprenticeship. And the point of it all was not aimed at cognitive knowledge per se but character formation14 — and that regarding both the individual’s and the community’s character.

As a layer of the mission, Paul sent and taught helpers to teach and establish local leaders. And these Paul envisioned carrying on the same mission toward maturity together in Christ, with equally robust teaching and learning.

Layer 5: Teaching Through Local Leaders

As we have seen, Paul deemed it important to help establish elders in the churches in Galatia (Acts 14:23). Paul deemed it important to send helpers to further establish people in the local offices of elders (whom he also called overseers and shepherds/pastors in Acts 20:17–35) and deacons (see 1 Timothy 3:1–13). Paul also deemed it important to teach communities of believers who already had various types of local leaders, whether offices or otherwise, that they had such leaders precisely because the enthroned Jesus himself is still on the same mission — that is, toward maturity together.

“It seems Paul’s missionary mind and heart were profoundly committed to strengthening churches.”

According to Ephesians 4:11 (on which we will focus, rather than on broader ecclesial constructions), Jesus graciously gives “the pastors and teachers” to the saints for a reason — as if sending them on a mission. Jesus gives them “toward the preparing [or equipping] of the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ” (4:12). And how long does this layer of the mission last? And toward what end? Precisely until everyone is mature together in Christ and standing fast together in him (4:13–16).

Paul’s word equipping or preparing (katartismos) is a concrete word with numerous metaphorical applications. Matthew and Mark use it concretely for mending nets (Matthew 4:21; Mark 1:19), and Paul himself uses it for the preparation of clay vessels (Romans 9:22). Both concrete actions have to do with manipulating an object in such a way that it is thereby fit for its purpose.

The way Paul describes Christ’s mission in Ephesians 4 includes Christ sending local pastors and teachers to handle and work with (manipulate, if you will, but in a positive sense!) the saints in such a way that the saints are fit for their purpose. And what is the saints’ proper purpose (their mission)? Using two prepositional eis phrases,15 Paul describes what the pastors and teachers are to make the saints fit “for” (or unto): namely, for “the work of ministry,” for “building up the body of Christ” (4:11–12).

This mission of the enthroned Christ in his churches is exactly what Paul craves to participate in. Standing fast. Maturing together. This is why he goes back time and again to the same Christians on his missionary journeys. This is why he writes them letters. This is why he sends helpers to them. This is why he encourages their local leaders to be faithful to Christ’s mission to equip the saints. For the saints also have a role in this mission.

Layer 6: Teaching Through the Saints

In Ephesians 4:12–16, Christ’s mission extends well beyond Paul, his letters, and his helpers. It extends through “the pastors and teachers” in order to help the saints better

build each other up in Christ;
help each other mature in Christ;
help each other be unified in their trust in Christ;
help each other be unified in the knowledge of God’s Son;
help each other not be moved by false doctrine;16
speak to each other the truth of Christ in love;
do their part in growing and building up Christ’s body in love.

Worded differently, as Paul writes to nearby churches, “Let the word of Christ dwell among you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom” (Colossians 3:16).17

Notice how it is only when the saints themselves take seriously their part of Christ’s mission that the deceitful and false teaching will stop battering them around so (Ephesians 4:14). And the missional goal for the saints is the same as Paul’s in every layer of his missional trajectory: believers maturing together in Christ, standing fast in the faith together (1 Thessalonians 3:8; cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:15; 1 Corinthians 16:13).

If the saints are to sound like Paul in his missionary mind, heart, strategy, and action, they (we!) can be regularly asking questions like these: Are we all helping each other grow into the head, Christ? Is the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16; Philippians 2:5) and even Christ himself (Galatians 4:19) being formed within and among us all?18 Are we all maturing together in Christ in ordinary life: in family dynamics, in how we eat and drink together, in the market, with Christian friends, with pagan friends, in our gathered church? What about when no one is looking except that prostitute? What about in daily work, whether leather tanning, or working in the city’s treasury, or selling fabrics, or serving as a jailer or soldier? Are we all being fully discipled in God’s mission toward maturity, which involves (in Paul’s language)

being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the Creator (Colossians 3:10; cf. Ephesians 4:23–24)
as we are being conformed to the image of King Jesus (Romans 8:29; cf. 2 Corinthians 3:18),
who himself has dominion over heaven and earth precisely as the resurrected and visible image of God (Colossians 1:13–15; cf. 2 Corinthians 4:4),
who will share his reign over the earth with us forever (2 Timothy 2:11–12; Romans 5:17; see also Revelation 2:26–27; 3:21; 5:10; 22:5),
and so train us in such reigning and judging now (1 Corinthians 6:1–3)?

For Paul, teaching and learning in the early Christian communities involved the saints carrying on the same mission Paul has been on since his initial missional work, and in his returning and re-returning missional work, and in his letters, and in the helpers, and in Christ’s formal church leaders. As Paul makes clear, maturing in Christ together involves reflecting (imaging) God ever more accurately as we proclaim and portray his character and kingship in Christ through our mental, affective, bodily, individual, and communal activity — all of which perfectly aligns with God’s first great commission (Genesis 1:26–28).19

End-Goal of God’s Mission

God has an end-goal, a telos, for every aspect of his mission from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22 and beyond. For one, the global glory of God is the end-goal of missions — even cosmic worship.20 Yet there is more to say, for God built an eternal means into this eternal worship. In short:

God decided (1) he will be globally worshiped forever (2) as his people sit enthroned with Christ forever, perfectly mature together in him.

This two-pronged end-goal of God’s mission is portrayed throughout Scripture: for example, compare Daniel 7:13–14 with 7:27 and ask who exactly is reigning to the worship of the Most High,21 and compare Luke 22:29–30 and Matthew 19:28; 25:1–34 with this passage in Daniel.22 In the end, though, God makes it an abundantly clear and present glory. So the resurrected and enthroned Jesus says to his people,

The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. (Revelation 2:26–27; alluding to Psalm 2:8–9)

The kingship, the authority over the nations, and the rod of iron of Psalm 2:8–9 apply to Christ himself (Revelation 12:5; 19:15). Here in Revelation 2, he applies them to his overcoming followers.

Our enthroned Lord reiterates:

The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. (Revelation 3:21)

What is more, worship is given to this royal Lamb who shares his throne and authority with his triumphant followers (Revelation 5:8), for he has made the ransomed people from the whole world “a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth” (5:10).

God has wed worldwide worship with the co-regency of his people with his Son. As in the very end:

No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in [the new heavenly earth], and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. (Revelation 22:3–5)

God has eternally purposed and temporally orchestrated in creation and history (1) that he will be worshiped precisely (2) as his children reign with Christ, mature together in him.

Everything God has done and will do — not just regarding redemption and reconciliation from Genesis 3 to Revelation 20, but even regarding the very fabric of creation and new creation from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22 and beyond — is heading toward worship of him through co-dominion of us with Christ. And detailed teaching encompassing all of life is a major contributor.

The second great royal commission (Matthew 28:18–20) nestles into and naturally nudges along the fulfillment of the first great royal commission (Genesis 1:26–28). Paul saw them linked. And every aspect and layer of his missionary impulse and activity — including so much teaching — drove toward helping God’s people stand fast, mature together in Christ, and even endure so that “we will also reign with him” (2 Timothy 2:11–12). Missions: matured together in Christ and trained to reign — all glory be to God.

Teaching Toward Maturity

As I considered Paul’s language and heart in 1 Thessalonians 3:8 — “now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord” — I realized I fell so far short of the glory of God’s mission for his people, even as a leader in a missions agency! And that prompted some challenging personal questions, which I continue to pursue and which I leave with you and your communities of faith.

Can we really live if those in our spheres of influence — at home and abroad — are not yet holding firm, not yet standing fast, not yet helping each other mature together in Christ in order to bring him worship by reigning with him forever?

Or do we, like Paul, find ourselves unable to really live if the mission is not yet done? Not “done” in the sense of others having heard the gospel, even if such hearing is all over the world. Not “done” in the sense of planting churches at home and abroad and helping new believers start the journey of faith together. Not even “done” in the sense of “discipled” if we have not taken seriously enough the true height and breadth and depth of whole-life training in individual and communal character development in Christ.

Because that is what is involved in the mission from Paul’s perspective. Over the long haul. In layers upon layers of teaching. Including equipping and passing on the missional torch to the saints themselves in this royal co-mission toward mature reigning together in Christ. And all by Christ’s Spirit of power and wisdom for the Father’s glory.

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