As we read through Paul's first letter to the Corinthians we find extraordinary breadth of vision and clarity of understanding. He wrote to a church that had remarkable diversity of blessings but had deep rifts between its various groups. Paul as a Jew, brought up in a Greek-Roman environment, was also able to call upon a remarkable understanding of the world around him. Examples of this are his references to the Isthmian games which Jews in Judea shunned. Paul wrote of the training for a race in 9.24‑27; of the whole hearted effort needed in boxing and in running for a prize. There are similar references in some of his other letters. . Paul could use illustrations from Roman soldiery and earnestly sought the brethren to pray for political leaders. He valued his Roman citizenship as well as his Jewish background. What would he make of democracy or the abolition of slavery? He did have something to say about the paid ministry! As we look across the vast areas of thought that he covered (not to mention vast geographical areas) did he give absolute rules that the Puritan way of life or the monastic orders seem to indicate? Did he not rather offer principles that needed appropriate application in a variety of circumstances, situations and time periods? "I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings" (1 Cor.9.22,23 RSV).

We build up our own mental structure of what the Bible says and then squash every statement and description into it. Pilate asked "What is truth?" and because nothing is recorded, we may assume that he was in too much of a hurry or didn't really care; but is that so? Do we lose more than we gain by a mindset?