Primary and secondary colors

In painting, the primary colors are red, yellow and blue. From these pigments all other colors can be derived.

I have been thinking of the Apostles as primary colors from which other secondary colors can be derived. The three that most often come to mind are Peter, Paul and John.

Of course I do not mean color in racial or ethnic terms. I mean their personalities. As God transformed them over the course of their lives, their personalities not only stayed intact, their personalities came into their own.

This is one proof that God is the Creator God. Unlike cultic religion that takes away human identity by turning followers into interchangeable zombies, when a person meets Jesus Christ, he comes into his own according to a design that predated his birth. This does not mean rough edges aren’t chopped off; for example, it is instructive to consider how each of these three men was transformed as they matured.

To the end of his life Peter did not have much tact; he just had more grace. In his senior years he was convinced that the word of the prophets about Jesus had been made “more sure” – this from the man who denied his Lord during the frenetic hours leading up to the crucifixion.

When we first meet Paul, he was Saul, and he was an intellectual zealot who was responsible for the death of Christians. This man went on to write the Epistle to the Romans, without doubt one of the most intellectually rigorous books of Scripture, if not of all of intellectual history. From this book we know that a man is justified by the faith of Christ, and not by his own works. (Paul: you dodged a bullet there).

Now, John was an introvert, and remained one until the end. Not much out of him in the earlier years. Not a world traveler and world changer like Paul. Not a pushy get-it-done worker like Peter. But towards the end of the first century, we have this: “That which we have heard, and seen, and handled … of the Word of Life … this we declare to you so that our joy may be complete.”

To the very end, John was all about the feel of things, which is to say, he was all about the aesthetics of the Christian faith. I do value justification by faith. But these days, I am mostly concerned with the color of it in my life.

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2 Peter 1.19 And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

Matthew 26. 73-75 After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, "Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you." Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, "I do not know the man." And immediately the rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, "Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times." And he went out and wept bitterly.

Acts 7.58 Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.

Galatians 2.16 … yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in (of) Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in (of) Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

(Note: the Greek has “by faith OF Jesus Christ” not by faith in Jesus Christ… διὰ πίστεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ -- DW)

1 John 1:1-4 We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life - this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us - we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.