Emphasis Preaching Journal

The beautiful well-read language of Scripture often hides by our familiarity with it the actual situation that Paul faced (What the Germans call Sitz im leben). On the one hand, we have the Christians, on the other we have the pagans outside the Law. What does this really mean? Let us suppose that Paul were a black preacher preaching to a white congregation. The issue, as old as the Bible, is that of integration -- of pagan and Christian. There were those in the early church who believed that the true Christian must first be circumcised.