I suppose it was as frustrating for Paul, as for us today. Paul had the task of not only bringing the word of the Good News of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, or the pagans; he also had the call of helping them to grow into their new faith. We must never forget when reading Paul, that he wrote his letters to newly-minted Christians. They had not yet developed the character of Christ. They probably did not understand what it was like to have the nature of Christ, or even know how to obtain that character for themselves.

After all, none of them had ever met this Jesus in the flesh. They had not walked with him on the dusty roads of Galilee and Judea. They had not personally witnessed any of the great deeds that the gospel story recorded. And they certainly did not witness the fateful day when Jesus was brutally nailed to the cross. Our witness to the living, resurrected body of Jesus three days later.

They, of course, had experienced the Spirit of Christ released by Jesus’ ascension to the right hand of God, the Father. And they knew that the Spirit having rested on them, had convicted their heart to the separation they had between their Creator due to the sin of selfishness and idol worship that was in their hearts. And they came to know that Jesus died for their forgiveness. That Jesus had died that they would be grafted on to the vine that was Jesus. And that the Spirit that was Jesus would become their Spirit and guide them in their faith, which was not a noun, but was verb. Faith meant that they lived out their daily lives in the character of Christ – that is in faith in the Spirit of Jesus in them. The question was how to obtain that character. As it is today.

So is it a matter of spiritual discipline – or a matter of focusing on the person of Jesus. Or may it be that they are one and the same, or one as the means of achieving the other.