Apostle Paul the Best Teachings

Apostle Paul

The best teachings of St. Paul that could be used today with a group of young adults that they too would "get it" come from his Letter to the Romans. The key elements in his letter are from 2:10 to 2:16, where St. Paul emphasizes that while "there is no partiality with God," "as many as have sinned without law will also perish without the law. As many as have sinned under the law will be judged by the law." Paul teaches here that it is possible to sin without necessarily being subject to the law. This is a key statement in today's society when referring to today's youth.

Paul was mentioning the law in relation, in fact, with Moses's and the Israelites' laws, however, in today's society, it gains more sense as a general meaning. What St. Paul refers to is that one is subjected to sin even if he refuses the law or declares himself to be outside it. Somebody who will recognize himself to be a non-believer and to rely on moral subjectivism and relativism will not be exonerated from sin if he commits those actions that will be recognized as sin. Even more so, not only denying, but simply ignoring the Christian law will not mean that there will be a different set of terms against which the individual is likely to be judged.

Another argument that can be brought to the youth is the eschatological argument. St. Paul is perhaps one of the most authoritarian voices on Christian eschatology and his vision is that, on Jesus Christ's return, all those saved spirits would rise to Heaven (the saved spirits would have included both those who had already passed away and the live bodies). However, the spirits would be judged based on their accomplished and on how they had lived their lives. Lives of sin would have obviously been punished with eternal damnation.

Certainly, this is not necessarily the message that will most likely convert the youth today to Christianity. In the 1st century AD, the idea of eternal damnation was strong enough to be imposed in any community. At the same time, one needs to consider that St. Paul created the Christian mythology basing many of his assertion on the human reactions, most notably on their fear. It is more difficult, nowadays, to promote the idea of fear of the afterlife in a period where technological advancements create more reasonable and rational answers.