Spirituality According to Paul: Imitating the Apostle of Christ

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So here's the question that haunts my soul: For those of us who prize comfort, will we ever experience the crucified life? We may see the cross in the lives of others - especially those who have obviously given up everything to follow him - but what about us?

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Can others see the cross of Christ in us? Jan 21, Justin Tapp rated it it was amazing Shelves: This book is the best book on or about the Bible that I have read in a long time and if I had the resources I'd give a copy to everyone I know lending of it is unfortunately not enabled for Kindle. I think every Christian should read it.

I had the privilege of hearing him preach a sermon series on Paul while he wrote this book, and his passion for imitating Paul was quite evident. Reeves does an excellent job explaining the context of Paul's day and the situations of the churches which received his letters.

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He lucidly explains various lines of scholarly thought on confusing passages. Reeves asks thought-provoking questions about how we imitate Paul as we do church today.

What is this "crucified life" that Paul talked about? I think as believers we often think of Paul as the greatest preacher who ever lived, who was wholeheartedly admired and respected by believers he came into contact with--the children's Sunday School version of Paul. We also think of the Church in Paul's day as being relatively undivided--non-denominational. In reality, Paul's letters to Corinth tell us that he was not a great public speaker-- far inferior to the famous Corinthian orators trained in rhetoric. Churches looked at Paul's life of hardship--beatings, shipwrecks, etc.

That's because Paul sounded like a fool to them. They questioned his teachings.

There were plenty of factions and groups who thought their doctrine was superior to others. James and the Judaisers in Jerusalem questioned his Gentile disciples' rights. Paul spent much of his ministry collecting money for the famine-stricken church in Jerusalem even though there were churches in Greece and Asia likely just as impoverished likely to try and unite the factions, particularly Jew and Gentile, but scholars are divided as to whether Jerusalem even accepted Paul's gift.

Yet, Paul's writings and life are such a fantastic reflection of what Jesus' life meant.

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Reeves contrasts Paul's life with the American life-- we're constantly striving to avoid loss and gain security. We're also constantly trying to stand up for our rights. Christians are often quick to judge a person who they see in poor circumstances as "reaping what he presumably sowed" or as suffering due to some secret sin. Reeves reminds us that followers looked at Paul's and Jesus'!

There was nothing about him that looked like success. I can imagine Paul's converts saying, 'If that's what the cross does to a man, I'll try something else'" Loc. Reeves expounds on Paul's teachings on marriage, fellowship particularly the Lord's Supper , legalism, eschatology, and more than I can review here-- I highly recommend reading all of it.

One example of a poignant question Dr. Reeves asks the modern church: Has today's church made "family" an idol?

We're always reading about liberals' "war on the family" and that "adulthood means marriage; marriage means children. Paul urged his disciples to love Christ more than anything, and marriage-- where you have to divide attention among the needs of spouse and children-- was to be avoided given the imminence of Christ's return: W e often misunderstand or completely ignore his advice about marriage because we don't share Paul's eschatological outlook Paul didn't write for posterity, believing one day his advice would become our Scripture. No, he wrote because he believed the time was short" Loc.

Paul presumes that a man will love Christ more than any woman. He thinks that women won't look for fulfillment in a man because they find everything they need in Christ In our attempts to make Christian families ideal, we forgot our most important obligation: As far as Paul was concerned, true love isn't found in marriage" Loc. Reeves imagines what it would look like if Paul were doing marriage counseling. Husband and wife bring their grievances to his office and Paul responds with questions about their individual walks with Christ--the heart of the problem, but sadly missing from most books and counseling on marriage and communication.

In independent-minded America, we often believe we can be Christians by ourselves. That our denomination--our team-- is the "winner. Paul's letters overwhelmingly paint the Church as a united family, what helps one is to help all-- what hurts one hurts all most people never grasp that the "you" in Phil 1: That's the overarching theme of the crucified life-- our old families, customs, beliefs, our rights to ourselves are crucified with Christ. Paul would remind us that we can't be Christians by ourselves. This book is five stars. One complaint I have besides lending being disabled with the Kindle version is that the references aren't hyperlinked for easy flipping back and forth.

Oct 22, Clint Walker rated it it was amazing. Who was Paul really? Many books have been written on this subject of who Paul is, what his viewpoints were, and what he was trying to accomplish with his life and ministry. Reeves asks what Paul's spiritual life was like, and how he believed people were spiritually formed in Christlikeness. All of what Reeves has to say hinges on two concepts, both of which are very biblical.

Spirituality According to Paul: Imitating the Apostle of Christ by Rodney Reeves

The first concept is that Ch Who was Paul really? The first concept is that Christian spirituality and Pauline spirituality are grounded in the paschal rhythm of dying, being buried, and being raised with Christ. The second concept is related to it, and is actually stated first in this text, and that is that Paul presents his life and ministry as a model of this rhythm to those that need further instruction, going to the point of calling people to follow him as he follows Christ.

The entire book follows the outline of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ as a model for understanding Paul and his leadership and spiritual life. In the process, some very important and common matters are discussed such as human sexuality, work, and worship. Reeves also covers some more esoteric concepts such as mystery, spiritual warfare, and the life. In addition to this, Reeves covers some attitudes of disciples, such as self-denial and obedience to God.

I thought throughout Spirituality According to Paul, Reeves did a great job of understanding Paul's spirituality in light of a series of narratives.

He showed how Paul adopted Jesus' narrative as his own and let the Jesus story inform Paul's story. He also showed how Paul's influence in turn encouraged other people to adopt the Jesus narrative, and define their lives by being "in" Christ. Reeves appropriately shares his own story at times, and describes how the concepts communicated in the book find touchpoints in his narrative. I read a lot of books relating to spiritual formation.

This book is a keeper. It is grace-filled, brilliant, and utterly biblical. It will allow those who follow the trends of spiritual formation to return to the basics of Christian spirituality, and it will encourage people to understand that the message of Paul is not separate from the gospels but instead united with it.

Oct 30, Chuck rated it liked it. Several good chapters and a number of moving illustrations. Well-written reflections on key themes from Paul's approach to living in relationship to Jesus. Aug 11, Keith Atkinson added it.

A must read for those who only think that Paul's only ministry to the church was giving us theology. Rodney Reeves looks deeply at how the Apostle shows us how to follow Jesus as disciples and be transformed into his image.

Spirituality According to Paul: Imitating the Apostle of Christ

Jan 01, Marsha Escandon rated it it was amazing. This book was intriguing to me. By the time I finished, my respect and admiration for Paul had grown substantially. Sometimes he gets a bad rap, but once you read this book, you will understand him, his times, and what he wrote much better.

Imitating the Apostle of Christ. What would it look like for a person to take Paul at his word and imitate him, just as he implored his converts to do 1 Cor In Spirituality According to Paul, Rodney Reeves sets out to do just this, describing the various ways in which Paul incarnated the Gospel of Jesus Christ in his daily life. Moreover, the author is able to venture into and allude to the scholarly discussions on Pauline theology without becoming bogged down and sidetracked in the interminable theological and historical debates by offering clear and concise positions to some of the nettlesome questions in Pauline theology.

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The combination of personal stories and theological insights allow the author to deliver incisive critiques against some of the unbiblical aspects of contemporary Christianity, such as our persistent belief that God is not at work in weakness and the ways in which we manipulate Paul into being a champion of our political agendas when he would have brought a much more nuanced position to the table. Nevertheless, the work seems to give a fair, if not provocative, picture of how Paul followed Jesus. In the first section devoted to living out or should I say dying the crucifixion of Christ, the author shows how the Gospel entails loss, which brings death to our Promethean identities and the loss of gratification in our earthly pleasures.

In this section the author also describes the way in which the Gospel calls followers of Jesus to self- denial, whether this self-denial entails forgoing sumptuous food or illegitimate sexual gratifications. In this section, the author contends that being baptized into Christ means that believers are united into a single entity, which should alter the human penchant for factionalism along various lines. The church is to be one place where diverse groups meld into one, a place where each individual puts aside his or her interest for the benefit of others.

Moreover, the resurrection of Christ shapes Christian hope in a particular direction.

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