David Bercot on "Apostle" Paul

David Bercot is a Texas evangelical attorney. He advises against reading Jesus through the lense of Paul. He advises us to begin with Jesus, and never lose sight of His teachings.

David W. Bercot, in Common Sense: A New Approach to Understanding Scripture (1992) writes at page 21 [books.google link]:

Likewise, when interpeting any single document, I always start at the beginning. I don't skip down to the middle and start reading.

The same principle applies to interpreting Scripture. When searching for the truths of Christianity, this means going back to the words of Jesus himself. This is a rather obvious principle, yet here the majority of evangelical Christians get sidetracked. They begin with Paul, not Jesus. Many evangelicals virtually ignore Jesus' teachings---claiming they apply to an earlier dispensation, or to the 'kingdom age.' Others reshape Jesus' words to fit Paul's words.

How strange. Jesus said "A disciple is not above his teacher." (Matt. 10:24.) Yet we make Paul, the disciple, greater than the teacher.  We subordinate Jesus to Paul.  We understand Jesus' words only in the context of Paul's writings. In sharp contrast, the early Christians understood Paul in the context of Jesus' teachings. Their gospel was above all the gospel of Jesus.

Principle #2: Start at the beginning with the teachings of Jesus.

Our upside down approach to Scripture is a fairly new tradition. It began with Martin Luther who said that the Book of Romans is "the chief part of the New Testament." We may not use his exact words, but in practice we follow in his footsteps.

Page 22:

However, a common sense approach to Scripture requires us to begin with the Author of Christianity, Jesus Christ---not with Paul. In our illustration of discovering what Scripture teaches about salvation, it means that we begin with the four gospels.

Bercot On Paul in Early Church

David Bercot wrote a book Will The Real Heretics Please Stand Up? (1999) which was an eye-opener for me. It underscored that doctrines of Paul were rejected in the earliest church through the end of the Patristic era, ending 325 A.D. Bercot touched lightly on the problem of Paul, only saying that it was better to see the early church did not put Paul up on a pedestal in interpreting Jesus' words:

"The early Christians didn’t put Paul’s letters to the Romans and Galatians up on a pedestal above the teachings of Jesus and the other apostles. They read Paul’s words about grace in conjunction with...Scriptures [where Jesus requires endurance for salvation, Matt. 24:13, doing the will of God for salvation, Matt. 7:21, the resurrected will be those who have done good, John 5:28, 29, etc.]." (Bercot, Will The Real Heretics Please Stand Up (Texas: Scroll Publishing, 1999) at 63.)