The Apostle Paul offers a different blueprint for life. Instead of recommending preventative bloodletting, Paul starts his letter with prayer. Even as he sits in prison, he doesn't seek a self-achieved freedom. He knows his life is dependent on God. He doesn't pray for his friends to be divinely blessed with private bathhouses. Instead, he sees God pouring love into each of their lives, and this love increases as they share with one another what God is constantly giving them. He doesn't recommend they join a mystery cult to get access to "higher" secrets and ecstatic experiences. Knowledge is not a pathway to power and fortune. It's how we learn to live well. When we understand reality, we orient our lives for the coming day of Christ. He doesn't advocate for a Stoic detachment from circumstances, the psychological life-hacking of his day. Instead, he wants their community to be so filled with the righteousness of Christ that they can faithfully meet any challenge that arises. He doesn't recommend they commemorate statues to his glory, or their own. In a society obsessed with gaining honor and avoiding shame, he gives them a vision of living for God's honor alone. It seems that the way to get ahead in life is to focus on ourselves. But Paul's not trying to be successful. Instead, in prayer, he's opening his life to be filled with God's grace. That's why we call him a saint.