Friday, January 31, 2020
Commemoration of John Bosco, Priest, Founder of the Salesian Teaching Order, 1888

The Judaism [in which Paul had grown up] had become largely traditional: the word of the Lord, the Rabbis held, came to the prophets of old, but we can only preserve and interpret the truth they handed down. Jesus Christ, with a confidence that to the timid traditionalism of His time appeared blasphemous, asserted that He knew the Father and was prepared to let others into that knowledge. He did so, not by handing down a new tradition about God, but by making others sharers in His own attitude to God. This is what Paul means by “having the mind of Christ.” It was this clear, unquestioning conviction that gave Paul his power as a missionary: but he expected it also in his converts. To them too “the word of knowledge” came “by the same Spirit.” He prayed that God would give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. Such knowledge is, as Paul freely grants, only partial, but, so far as it goes, it is real, personal knowledge. In friendship between men there is a mutual knowledge which is never complete or free from mystery: yet you can know with a certainty nothing could shake, that your friend is “not the man to do such a thing,” or that such-and-such a thing that you have heard is “just like him.” You have a real knowledge which gives you a criterion. Such is the knowledge the Christian has of his Father.

... C. Harold Dodd (1884-1973), The Meaning of Paul for Today, London: Swarthmore, 1920, reprint, Fount Paperbacks, 1978, p. 131-132 (see the book; see also 1 Cor. 12:7-11; 8:1-3; 2 Cor. 10:3-6; Gal. 4:9; Eph. 1:17; Phil. 1:9-10; 2:5; Col. 2:2-3; 1 Thess. 1:5; more at Conviction, Friend, Jesus, Knowledge, Missionary, Power, Tradition)

 
Compilation Copyright, 1996-2024, by Robert McAnally Adams,
        Curator, Christian Quotation of the Day,
        with Robert Douglas, principal contributor
Logo image Copyright 1996 by Shay Barsabe, of “Simple GIFs”, by kind permission.
Send comments to curator@cqod.com.

Last updated: 01/23/20

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