The Watchword 2024

Dear Paul,        
This is a challenging sentence that you wrote at the end of your letter to the church in Corinth!

Almost 2000 years ago, you travelled long distances on your missionary journeys and met a very diverse range of people in many places. This included Corinth, where you were able to live with Aquila and Priscilla, a Jewish-Christian couple, and work as a tentmaker.

You made a great name for yourself as an apostle and are certainly one of the most quoted theologians! When you wrote your letters, you had no idea that they would still be read and discussed in extensive textbooks today. Is it not amazing that I encounter your letters in the Bible as the Word of God? How would you have written them as a modern-day child?

Would you have formulated one or two sentences differently that still divide opinion today?

What I admire about you is that you passionately stand up for what you are convinced of. You were attacked and stoned, your life was often in danger and you were thrown into prison. Nothing could stop you from your mission to invite people to believe in Jesus Christ.

You kept in touch with the young churches through letters. I am amazed that conflicts were already smouldering in Corinth that still occupy our churches and congregations today and lead to divisions.

"What then shall we say to this?" (Romans 4:1) - this sentence from your pen sums up what drove you in your letters and continues to challenge us today to take a stand. You dared to admonish the church in Corinth and address specific issues.

Despite all your endeavours, as a specialist in the Torah and a proclaimer of God's unconditional grace in Jesus Christ, you discovered that without love everything is nothing and is of no use.

In your "Song of Songs" you become a poet. It is one of the most touching texts about the deep dimensions of love, which encompasses the whole of life with all its references. It is divine love …
Hence at the end of your letter:

I do not know how your original addressees dealt with this challenge. I want to face it and I already know that a whole lifetime is not enough. Nevertheless, I dare …

Motive:
Stefanie Bahlinger
www.verlagambirnbach.de

Interpretation text:
Renate Karnstein