No, Paul doesn’t contradict Jesus

A few weeks ago, a pastor offered a theological statement that elevated the Gospels above Paul’s epistles. Here’s why he was wrong.

Early this month, a clip went viral of a pastor explaining why his church elevates the teachings of Jesus above the teachings of Paul. I think it is a well-intentioned message. Paul’s theology has been, and still sometimes is, interpreted to oppress women and queer people, and in that interpretation, it seems like Jesus’ teachings contradict it. While I think hostility toward Paul is thus understandable, I also think it’s misguided. Pastors should be teaching about how to understand Paul, instead of discarding him.

There’s no question that Paul’s writings have been used to oppress certain groups. It’s also true that, for modern readers, Paul’s writings do not speak clearly against slavery, heterosexism, and for gender equality. There are many resources available that show the contextual meaning of Paul’s letters, especially the portions that have been used to harm others. But throwing out Paul’s letters completely robs us of the good in his letters, and also doesn’t help us critically read the Bible. What’s more, it cedes the territory to Paul’s worst interpreters. It makes matters worse when we herald the Gospels as the pure words of Jesus as though they do not carry their own challenges.

In the video above, the pastor says that he takes Paul seriously, but when Paul contradicts Jesus, he elevates the teachings of Jesus. The irony in that argument is that Paul, himself, elevates the Lordship of Jesus above any other teacher. In fact, even if the pastor is correct, the very idea that he is working with is fundamentally Pauline. Addressing Corinthian loyalty to a certain teacher, Paul rebukes the church and tells them that God—not any individual—gives growth:

“For when one says, ‘I belong to Paul,’ and another, ‘I belong to Apollos,’ are you not all too human?

What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and each will receive wages according to their own labor.”

In a sense, Paul makes the pastor’s point by not elevating the teaching of one person, but elevating God. This pastor misses the mark, because he seems to trade the teachings of Paul for the teachings of Jesus, but in reality, we all submit ourselves to the negotiated interpretation of God in the entire Bible, which includes Paul’s epistles, the Evangelists’ Gospels, and the rest of the Bible, in fact.

Sexist and homophobic interpreters bring their own prejudice to Paul’s letters, and have very much popularized them.  The best strategy is to offer an informed response. I should also add that the “Lutheran view” of Paul is often the most dominant, but scholars offer many other understandings of Paul’s writings that are worth exploring.

Paul offers a very universal view of the church. He envisions the grace of God covering and redeeming all of us. Paul’s Gospel is actually the most inclusive in the Bible. Paul’s goal across writings is to end stratification and treat all as one in Christ, when he falls short of that or is interpreted in another way, we need to go back to the greater principle of his texts, which interpret the harshes passages for them.

In fact, Paul is more generous and more inclusive than the Evangelists are. Written after the fall of the Temple in 70 CE, the Gospels are much harsher and more judgmental. That’s not to say there is something “wrong” with them; they fit their occasion and are useful for us, especially when we face our own apocalypses in modern times. The Evangelists depict Jesus as one who is on the side of the lowly and oppressed, and one who warns oppressors of the coming wrath and judgment of God. The Evangelists, like Paul, also believe God will redeem all, but assure us that the oppressors will face purification before they enter the age to come. Their call is to repent now, or be purified later.

Paul, on the other hand, is the herald of the Messiah to the Gentiles, and in his writing, he is seeking to build a more inclusive body. The passages that are often used to clobber queer people and women are not intended for that modern application. It isn’t that Paul doesn’t hold views that we would consider prejudicial now, but his views are more “progressive” than his counterparts, and also his greater principles show us the way toward a fully inclusive and universal body. Briefly, to address passages that have been interpreted to exclude queer people from the church, not only is our understanding of gender and sexual orientation foreign to Paul (and thus using them against queer people is an anachronistic imposition), the heart of Paul’s meaning when it comes to sexual immorality relates to exploitative relationships with significant power differentials. Similarly, Paul models the uplifting of women in church leadership and as apostles (see Junia). The portions of his corpus that have been used to oppress women discount the very example of his ministry. Cherry-picking Paul’s letters to justify sexism misses the greater point he is offering, that we are all one in Christ. And similarly, discarding Paul for those reasons, does the very same thing. The entire Bible, Paul included, must be reconciled with the negotiated metanarrative of the text, and not cherry-picked to justify our prejudices, or discarded because of that misuse.

The purposes of the Evangelists, which by the way are not uniquely inspired (nor are they the words of Jesus, even if they quote Jesus) are specific and contextual, and the same is true for Paul. They offer us important truths and perspectives, and they can work in harmony, even if they don’t always sing the same melody. We shouldn’t let bad interpreters then rob them of the truth they offer us, nor should we pit them against one another. Both the writings of the Evangelists and Paul’s epistles are valuable, and so is the rest of the Bible. The job of believers today is to negotiate a meaning of the text, while understanding its context. Our interpretation should lead us to faithful lives following God as we discern personally, in our relationships, and in our churches.