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What drove Paul to preach to the Gentiles? Some scholars would explain that the Gentile mission of Paul flows from a soteriological insight that since the Law-free gospel must have a universal application, the mission to the Gentiles is legitimate or necessary. Christ died for all, and so the Gospel must be preached to all. This may be a logical conclusion. However, Paul understood his call as a specific personal assignment based on his personal experience with Christ. A belief in the universal access to mission does not lead inexorably to a universal sense of mission. Thus it is better to explain Paul’s “Damascus experience” (conversion) as an encounter with the risen Christ which includes a special commissioning to preach the faith to the Gentiles.

The sense of universalism may not be enough in explaining fully Paul’s sense of mission. While there may be instances when universalistic conviction has generated a missionary impulse, there are other instances when it has not. The attitude of acceptance and of availability may be there but it may not always give rise to a sense of compulsion that characterizes Paul’s missionary outreach. Hence, universalism as theological explanation still leaves unresolved some questions regarding the Pauline mission.

Scholars also point to Paul’s eschatological self understanding in explaining his mission to the Gentiles. According to this view, Paul took his Gentile mission vocation to be connected with the events of the End or consummation. The End awaits the ingathering of the “full number” of the elect among the Gentiles, and to this goal Paul undertook to proclaim the good news before the final day.

Some critique is in order. First, Paul does not see himself as decisive in the ingathering of the Gentiles. Paul recognizes the limitation and the interdependency of his vocation. Many other missionaries, including those outside the Pauline team, are preaching the gospel, and Paul shows his equanimity to the endeavors of his opponents, so long as the gospel continues to be preached (Phil 1:15-18). Secondly, for Paul the eschaton is not uniformly future-oriented. The most decisive event of the End is the resurrection of Jesus Christ and Paul has personally experienced something of it in his encounter and commissioning. For Paul, the End had already arrived, and although its final manifestation would happen at the Parousia, eschatological experience is already happening here. Paul may already be conceiving his Gentile mission as eschatological in nature—the Gentiles joining the people of Israel in procession towards the Lord. Paul defined the purpose of the “grace” given to him, i.e., his conversion and call: “to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in performing the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering up of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the holy Spirit” (Rom 15:16). Paul saw his preaching of the gospel as a priestly act and as having cultic dimension. And Paul might be alluding to the eschatological vision of Isaiah 66:20: “They shall bring all your brethren from all the nations as an offering to the Lord, on horses and in chariots, in carts, upon mules and dromedaries, to Jerusalem, my holy mountain, says the Lord, just as the Israelites bring their offering to the house of the Lord.” Paul recognized his own ministry in this oracle. He did not see himself as the one who brought about the gathering of dispersed Jews, but as a servant who brought the Gentiles themselves as an offering (or as bringing their offering/“collections”) to Jerusalem.

The collections that Paul organized among his Gentile converts and which were an important part of his mission activity could be a “provocation” to Israel. Paul did not doubt that Israel which rejected Jesus would finally turn to him as its Messiah. He furthermore believed that the salvation of the Gentiles would turn out for the conversion of Israel (Rom 11:11-24). The presentation of Paul and his retinue of Gentile sponsors of the funds would make the nation of Israel realize that the Old Testament prophecy that the Gentiles would bring gifts to Zion is now being fulfilled (Is 66:20; see also Is 2:2-4; 60:6-7; Mi 4;13).

Taken from HOMELIFE
SSP Philippines