Giving Jesus the Preeminence

 

Maybe this is just me, but there's a name I've been hearing a lot lately that I would like to see take a back seat for a while (despite the fact that I like the actual name quite a lot). 

PAUL. 

Paul, Paul, Paul. Paul said this, Paul wrote that. I mean no disrespect. Paul was a great man. After his Damascus road experience, the Lord showed Paul what he would have to suffer for His name's sake (Acts 9:16) and Paul accepted the call anyway. He was asked to count the cost and still said yes. Could I have done that? I'm not at all sure. 

But Paul also said, concerning "quarrels and factions" in Corinth, "Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul" (1 Corinthians 1:13b)? If the cloud of witnesses can look down on us ("I'll be looking down on you," my grandma always said), what would he think about the ubiquity of his name in the church? I wonder.

Maybe my thoughts started going this direction when, as part of last semester's class requirements, I had to prepare an oral presentation on Paul's reasons for writing 2 Thessalonians. Other students drew other topics, and the result was a lot of "Paul, Paul, Paul." Fair enough, perhaps; we were studying the New Testament and he wrote close to 60% of the non-gospel portion. (Of the whole, Paul wrote more books, but Luke wrote more words.) And thank God for the Scripture He gave us. But is our focus too often drawn from Jesus to Paul? I wonder. 

I feel the need for a palate-cleanse. I want to fix my eyes on Jesus, read about Jesus, meditate on Jesus, remember Jesus. In other words, just now I want to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified--which, of course, are words of Paul (1 Corinthians 2:2). 

Thank you, Lord, for anyone and everyone through the ages who has helped us lift up the name of Jesus. And may JESUS, Yeshua, Ἰησοῦν, be the only name we lift high. 

P.S. Since I drafted this post several days ago, God seems to be speaking more to me about Paul. It's possible that in the near future I'll be writing more about him rather than less. :)