‘A man small in size, with meeting eyebrows and a rather large nose, bald-headed, bow-legged, strongly built and full of grace, for at times he looked like a man, and at times he had the face of an angel’.

The description comes from the second century writing The Acts of Paul and Thekla. Lord Coggan said that it is such an unflattering description that it must be authentic!

Paul, originally known as Saul, came from a deeply religious Jewish family: he gives us his pedigree in Philippians 3:5-6. Born in the Roman city of Tarsus where most of the influences around him were pagan, he was brought up in Jerusalem, where he studied with famous Jewish teacher called Gamaliel.

Acts 22:3. He was passionate about his Jewish faith, so much so that when a new way of looking at faith, arising from the teaching of someone called Jesus, began to be spread around he put all his energy into stamping it out.

And then it happened – the event on the road to Damascus that stopped him in his tracks, and changed his direction for good.

The immediate effect of that event was to confuse people. From being persecutor, he became an ardent evangelist. Christians didn’t trust him, Jews thought he was a traitor. It was all too much, and some of them decided to kill Paul – he only just escaped with his life.

It must have been a relief to everyone when he disappeared from the scene, probably to the desert in Arabia, to give himself time to sort his ideas out.

When he returned, Paul very quickly became an influential thinker and minister in the emerging Church. He devoted himself to helping people find appropriate ways of becoming the Body of Christ in the context of the world in which they lived. He didn’t have easy answers to the problems of living in a society with different cultures – he struggled to discern God’s will.

Sometimes when we read what he wrote, it’s as though we are listening to him thinking aloud – sometimes he got stuck, and couldn’t quite resolve his own difficulties.

It isn’t always helpful to try to transport what Paul said into our modern context – many attitudes in society have changed as we have come to understand more about how people can best relate to each other.

We have to struggle, as Paul did, to discern what God is saying to us in our own day. Paul travelled all over the Roman Empire presenting the Good News of the Gospel, often meeting with opposition from both Jews and pagans.

The description of the riot of the silversmiths at Ephesus is as graphic as reports of industrial unrest in modern times. (Acts 19:21 onwards). Travel was a hazardous undertaking then too – read the description of the storm and shipwreck Paul experienced on his way to Rome to be tried before Caesar. (Acts 27 – 28:16).

As an integral part of his work, Paul put a lot of energy into helping people to develop their inner lives. Put Christ first in everything, Paul said over and again in his letters to the churches.

As we observe the week of Prayer for Christian Unity again, that has to be our aim too. Putting Christ first means letting ourselves be transformed so that Christ is present in us to all whom we meet.

Paul developed the imagery of Christians as the Body of Christ. A body which is un-coordinated, arms and legs all over the place, isn’t going to be very effective.

We need to work together whenever we can, get to know each other well, and appreciate each other’s commitment to serving Christ not just in the churches but outside them too.

For the third thing that Paul says to us is that becoming Christlike is not just for our own benefit but for the sake of the world beyond the churches, for the people who at the moment have no clear picture of who Christ is.

Jesus prayed that his followers would be one so that the world would know God and the power of his love. It is up to us to work together towards that goal.