An Exploration of the Witness of the Pauline Churches to Christ in the World

An Exploration of the Witness of the Pauline Churches to Christ in the World

LEUNG Chun-ho Bernard

This article considers the social boundary of the earliest Pauline churches as sectarian groups, who aim, on the one hand, to maintain their social identity by being differentiated from the outsiders, and on the other, to keep constant contact with the outsiders to make Christ known to them. Meanwhile, we will give nuances to the meaning of “outsiders” so that the subtle tensions between the earliest Pauline churches and the non-believers in different contexts can be explicated. We will also examine the three ways which the earliest Pauline churches employed to make the Christian faith known to different outsiders: (1) “to evangelise”—actively preaching the gospel to non-believers, especially those not being hostile to the Christian community; (2) “to lead an attractive life”— passively witnessing the Christian faith by adopting a respectable lifestyle, not leaving the public (both hostile and sympathetic non-believers) with a negative impression that Christians fail to meet the moral and social expectations; (3) “to do good to all”— contributing to the common good in the civic life, in particular, assuming charitable responsibility towards all kinds of people (believers or non-believers) who are in need. This article will argue that there is no evidence in the Pauline letters that Paul did ever expect his churches to engage in active evangelism, though some Christians might have been preaching the gospel spontaneously to the local people. This article will also propose that “doing good to all” is not equivalent to observing the law of “love your neighbor” ( Lev 19:18). The implication of this proposal is that Paul tends to apply the “language of love” restrictedly to “insiders”, ie fellow Christians. However, regarding the interaction between the Pauline churches and the outsiders, the more inclusive “ language of doing good” is preferred.