March 18, 2016. What if Paul was a Pedophile?
Was the Apostle Paul a pedophile? I don’t think so, but considering the possibility has made me look at this great leader of the Christian faith in a new light.
Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” (2 Cor 12:7-10) intrigued me when I was a teenager. Since he referred to his flesh, I assumed it was something physical. I heard speculation that he might be nearly blind; that’s why he sometimes finished his letters in his own writing with very large print (Gal 6:11). Whatever he struggled with, he saw it as a form of weakness.
When I was a young man suffering debilitating pain from Crohn’s Disease I wondered if the Apostle Paul might have suffered from some form of chronic pain. I pleaded with God to heal me from this painful infliction which rendered me weak. Paul could have had a similar physical affliction, but now I think it was much more likely spiritual.
When Paul refers to the “flesh” he’s always talking about human sinful nature. I’m not aware of him using that term anywhere to refer to our physical bodies and the physical ailments we suffer. So I’m convinced that he struggled with some unmentionable temptation. Everyone seems to have some forbidden sexual desire. I’m certain that no man so mightily used by God would actually be a child molester, but it’s quite possible that he struggled with sexual desires of pedophilia, or maybe homosexuality.
Paul never married. (1 Cor 7:8) If his struggle was with attraction to adult women he surely would have married. (1 Cor 7:9)
He often referred to “sexual immorality” (Rom 13:13; 1 Cor 6:13, 18; 7:2; 10:8; Gal 5:19; 5:3; Col 3:5 1 Thes 4:3; Jude 1:7) without referring to a specific type. Paul may have been thinking of his own struggle, very much aware that people had other unmentionable desires so he used this general phrase to encompass them all.
He clearly struggled with some sinful desire that he never named in spite of his humble willingness to admit his own faults and weakness. (Romans 7:14-25) I imagine he resisted the temptation to act on the desire, but may have fallen into lustful thoughts routinely.
He harshly condemned homosexuality (Romans 1:26-27; 1 Tim 1:9-10), perhaps because this was a sin he struggled against.
These thoughts have been bouncing around in my head for a while now, so I began to wonder if anyone else has had similar ideas. Through a quick internet search, I discovered that I’m not alone in my musings about the possibility that Paul could have been a celibate homosexual, but I found nothing on pedophilia. People have used the gay possibility to paint Paul as a tortured soul and discredit his writings, or simply to be more accepting of homosexuality. My thoughts went an entirely different direction.
Like most men, I’ve lived my life constantly bombarded by sexual desire. As a devout Christian I resisted these desires from the time they first arose in my adolescence. Throughout my life I’ve been surrounded by attractive ladies at school, work, home; everywhere I go, and images of beautiful women everywhere in the media. Through all this exposure to something very desirable to me I remained celibate when single, and then faithful to my wife. (Being married doesn’t diminish the intensity of this struggle.)
I believe this life-long effort to remain pure in the face of impure desire has made me a much stronger person in many ways. In fact, I think everyone is strengthened through the life-long effort to behave appropriately even though they live with constant desires that are forbidden by their personal values or cultural norms. There are many diverse things that people struggle with, but the basic dynamic of self-denial on some level is common to all of us.
If Paul had homosexual desires, or pedophile desires, he lived with a struggle that was particularly shameful in his own eyes and the eyes of the Jewish culture that he lived in. Whatever his struggle was, the discipline he practiced in resisting what he craved surely made him a more effective apostle.
That same discipline is still available to us today, but a lot of people are missing it. We live in a society where almost anything goes when it comes to seeking pleasure and happiness. Pop culture screams, “Satisfy your desires; pursue your pleasures.” As long as you only involve consenting adults, you’re fine. Many of the traditional values that contemporary culture is rejecting served to make society stronger by encouraging a life of self-denial and self-control. Yes, self-denial can be taken too far. It’s okay to enjoy life’s many pleasures. But many short-term pleasures actually lead to suffering in the long run. Resisting some of our most intense desires actually makes us strong.
My advice is to follow the example of Paul. He put serving our creator above satisfying his private cravings and found great joy in the good and pure things of life. (Matt 16:24; Philippians 4:4-13)