HPT-01 Paul and His Theology

Have you ever had a friend you thought you knew really well, only to see a side of him you hadn’t noticed before? Something like this often happens when Christians begin a serious study of the apostle Paul. Most Christians are familiar with Paul and his epistles. We hear lots of sermons based on his letters, and we often focus on them in Bible studies. In many ways, he feels like a familiar friend. But when we dig deeper into Paul’s life and theology, we often see a side of him that we’ve never noticed before.

We've entitled this series The Heart of Paul’s Theology. In this series, we’ll explore the centerpiece, or heart, of the apostle’s theological outlooks. This first lesson is called “Paul and His Theology.” And we’ll look at how becoming familiar with Paul’s life helps us grasp the most essential and influential elements of his theology.

We’ll touch on three main subjects. First, we’ll explore some important aspects of Paul’s cultural background to see how his background deeply influenced his Christian beliefs. Second, we’ll look at how Paul’s beliefs related to his ministry as an apostle. And third, we’ll identify Paul’s central theological outlooks, the crucial ideas on which Paul based many of the other things he believed. Let’s begin with a look into Paul’s cultural background.

We all know from common experience that many things influence what we believe about God, about ourselves, and about the world around us. No one has ever developed theology in a vacuum, and this was true of the apostle Paul as well. The Holy Spirit led Paul into the truth of the Christian faith, but the Spirit also used many aspects of Paul’s cultural background in the process of leading him to the truth. And this means that if we want to understand the heart of Paul’s theology, we have to become familiar with his background.

Unfortunately, we don’t know many details about Paul’s personal background, but we do know that he grew up under two strong cultural influences. On the one hand, Jewish culture greatly affected him. And on the other hand, his exposure to Gentile, Greco-Roman culture impacted him in significant ways. Let’s begin by asking how Jewish culture influenced the apostle Paul.