Paul and People

When Paul looked at the world, he saw people.

In Romans 11 he saw his Jewish brothers and said,

13. I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry 14 in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them.

He had already said in chapter 10,

1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.

He had told the Romans in chapter one,

14 I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. 15 That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome.

He told King Agrippa in Acts 26 that God had called him to rescue the people of the world,

17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them 18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

He saw the people of the world as being lost and needing to establish a relationship with God through Christ. He was what you might call a “people rescuer” and a “people builder.” He said in ICorinthians 3,

5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe– as the Lord has assigned to each his task.

We must never forget that God calls each believer to go out to reach people and build people who will become His church and grow in the local assembly that comes into being.