Paul on FB

As I've been reading Paul's letters to the Corinthians, in which he's been very frank about his disagreements with them, including mention of another "painful" letter he wrote but which we don't have, I was wondering about Paul on Facebook.

Would he do what the media companies hope he would do, promote himself and his positions, lingering online for the shrill back and forth from Ephesus to Corinth?  He certainly wasn't afraid to wade into conflict, and he has that direct way of communicating which seems perfectly suited to social media.  And if so, why shouldn't you and I be able to shoot our electronic mouths off, since it appears Paul was doing the same kind of thing in his Corinthian letters?

Paul wasn't arguing with the Corinthians for all the world to see: he wrote a personal letter, just to them, not wanting it to be read in all the churches, as he had asked for in his letter to the Colossians.  It was God Who decided that the letters would eventually be broadcast to all of us, for our benefit, long after the conflict between Paul and Corinth had been worked out.  Also, in the midst of his second letter, Paul says this of public boasting and posturing: I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say (2 Corinthians 12:6).  Paul wants to be taken for what and who he is, not for what and who he makes others think He is.  In his first letter to the Corinthians, he says, by the Grace of God, I am what I am (15:10), not as a statement of others having to take him or leave him, but as a recognition that, with Paul, what you see is what you get.  No image-making, no virtual avatar or online presence for him.  It's a parallel to what he said, also in his first letter, about The Kingdom of God:  it's not just a lot of talk; it is living by God's Power (4:20). 

Let's learn to prefer the actual to the potential, the personal to the electronic, the godly to the worldly, and especially when it involves what we do or say in the world of three dimensions, five senses, and those additional Dimensions added by God Himself.