The word solicitude is rarely used today in our western cultures. It is a very powerful word. It means a mental and emotional state of anxiety and deep concern for someone or something. Solicitude is a state of attentiveness, disquiet, apprehensiveness, uneasiness and worry about specific attitudes, decisions and actions. In the context of today's epistle, solicitude is the apostle Paul's deep concern, apprehension, dread and misgiving about the spiritual welfare and spiritual blindness of some of his fellow Israelites, who rejected the historical Jesus as Messiah. More importantly, they rejected Messiah's revelation of the previously hidden mysteries and glorious truths about the universal Christ of Faith, God's Presence, Son, Love, Grace and Truth in Messiah's spiritual body and in the spiritual body of all persons (John 1:15-18, Colossians 1:24-29).
As a spiritual gift of administration in the apostolic church, solicitude refers to the anxious concern of a Bishop for the spiritual welfare, spiritual health and spiritual life of his people. Paul always expressed and demonstrated solicitude for the spiritual resurrection, spiritual formation and spiritual life within the churches under his care. Down through the centuries, in the Christian Church, Paul remains the model of solicitude for Bishops and all spiritually awake believers ever since (2 Corinthians 11:26). In 1 Corinthians 11:1 Paul declared, "Be ye followers of me , even as I am of Christ". In the bible, the historical Jesus is frequently called Christ.
Before his repentance, conversion and resurrection from spiritual death, the apostle Paul as Saul vigorously rejected the historical Jesus as Messiah. As Saul he sought to distort and contradict, Jesus' Christ-centered, Holy Spirit based message about the indwelling and incarnation of the universal Christ of Faith, in human bodies. Paul actually participated in persecuting, imprisoning and killing those who chose to follow the historical Jesus. Paul considered himself to be the chief among sinners ( Timothy 1:16).
After his conversion and spiritual awakening, Paul's soul, heart, mind and attitudes were radically transformed. Paul discerned, taught and proclaimed the historical Jesus as Messiah, the Son of Man. Paul discerned and personally experienced the Paschal Mystery. Through his personal encounter and surrender to the universal indwelling Christ of Faith, Paul was forgiven and delivered from bondage and slavery to sin. He passed over into the freedom of God's love, grace and truth, through the indwelling and incarnate Christ of Faith, by following Jesus in living the Paschal Mystery.
Paul recognized and taught that the historical Jesus was the full mental and spiritual alignment, and the full incarnation of the universal indwelling Christ of Faith, in human flesh. He discerned and taught that the universal indwelling Christ of Faith, is God's image and likeness, the Son of God, within the historical Jesus, within himself and within all persons (Genesis 1:26-27, Colossians 1:26-27). Paul recognized in the historical Jesus, the full incarnation of God's greatest gift and full manifestation of mankind's greatest potential, in and through the universal indwelling Christ of Faith, The Son begotten only of God, in the spiritual body of the historical Jesus and all persons (Genesis 1:26-27, John 3:14-21).
Like all who are reading this text, the apostle never met the historical Jesus face to face. He did however have a personal spiritual encounter with the indwelling Christ of Faith, Who came down from heaven and became fully incarnate in the historical Jesus, through Jesus' spiritual body (Luke 17:20-21). Throughout his ministry, Paul passionately followed the historical Jesus' universal command in Matthew 16:42, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me".
Do you believe the historical Jesus is Messiah? Do you believe the historical Jesus was the full incarnation and full manifestation of the universal indwelling Christ of Faith, who came down from heaven? Are you willing to passionately follow the historical Jesus in living the Paschal Mystery? Like the apostle Paul do you have compassion for those who reject the historical Jesus as Messiah? Do you have solitude for those who reject the historical Jesus' revelation of the previously hidden mysteries and glorious truths about the universal Christ of Faith, God's Presence, Kingdom, Love, Grace and Truth in Messiah's spiritual body and in the spiritual body of all persons?
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