Faith and the Reign of God

Jim:

1 Corinthians 13
It’s a minor point in a very beautiful passage, but a part of verse 2 caught my eye this morning. “…(A)nd if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” This sounds a lot like Matthew 21:21-22, “Jesus answered them, ‘Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you so what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will do done.’’” So my question is, did Paul know this to have been a saying of Jesus’, or was it perhaps a common saying in those days? It seems too coincidental to have been an accident. I’ve already checked a book of Pauline parallels, that is similar passages in Paul’s letters, and it would appear that this is the only place we know of where Paul uses this expression. But the gospels were not written until after Paul’s letters. So I’m stuck with a question that I will seek answers for from some other sources.

Matthew 10:5-15
Here, in verse 7, Jesus tells his followers, “As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’” That’s the gospel in a nutshell, that the kingdom of heaven, the reign of God, the age of the Lord’s favor has drawn close to God’s people in the person of Jesus Christ. Good news indeed! God is in our midst with the power to heal, teach, call, and encourage.