Last week while scrolling social media I came across a parenting hack. A mother explained that whenever she needs to ask her children to do something she thinks they won't do, she writes them a letter. She excitedly boasted, "When I write a letter, my child does what I ask every time!" She went on to describe an example of just how her method works. After she wrote her daughter a note asking her to clean up, it was like the young girl had temporarily been put under some sort of obedience spell. She read the letter, then raced off to pick up her toys. I couldn't help but wonder whether this would work with my boys. After all, my oldest son, Winchester, had just started reading and writing — and he could read the letter to his younger brother! Whether it was about the toilet seat being left up or the pile of Legos covering their bedroom floor, there was always something I could ask my boys to do. I also wondered whether this letter-writing hack would work with chores. I was sick of reminding them to feed the goats. So I put my newly discovered parenting hack to the test. My husband and the boys were all taking a long nap, and I was downstairs working. I often don't hear them when they wake up, but my husband was exhausted from a long day of teaching and preaching and I wanted to make sure they would remain quiet so Daddy could keep sleeping. I grabbed a piece of printer paper and wrote with a red colored pencil, "Dear Win and Sutt, Daddy is sleeping. Your mission is to play quietly in your room! Try not to wake Daddy up! And maybe clean up your toys!" I added some colorful washi tape to the note and taped it to their door so they wouldn't be able to open the door without seeing the note. I felt so clever. Maybe they'd really lean into this idea, play quietly, and even do some cleaning while I kept working on my book. A few minutes later Winchester walked into my office, groggy-eyed, and snuggled up onto my lap with the note in hand. Inside he had written back: "I'm too tired." As funny as it is now, I really thought this hack would work on my sassy six-year-old and his younger brother. I share this story because this exemplifies how letters can be misunderstood, twisted, and disregarded. The problem is that letters tend to be personal and contextualized. They are also bound to a specific culture, time period, situation, author, and recipient. The letter I wrote to my sons would not apply to my husband. It "works" only with children who are willing to accept the challenge, and it may be a cute keepsake, but it doesn't apply to all of time, like every time they wake up from a nap. So why should we treat the letters in the Bible any differently? Why are letters in the Bible in the first place? It's important to understand that though there were many other letters written among the apostles and the early church, the letters, called epistles, we have canonized in our Bibles today are there because they are authoritative for all the church through all time. While there are verses that are highly contextualized and not particularly applicable today,1 we can still see the heart of God in them and learn from an example of how we are to live to Him. As we move into the discussion of the epistles in the Bible, note how different these letters are from our modern-day messages. After all, as far as we know, the church never wrote back to Paul: "I'm too tired." Keep reading on our blog. |
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How would you feel if your church received a silver-plated letter from its founder, who happened to be an apostle who had met — and had been sent by — Jesus Himself? |
How would you feel if your church received a silver-plated letter from its founder, who happened to be an apostle who had met — and had been sent by — Jesus Himself? |
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Epistles Epistle is basically a fancy word for letter. That is why you'll typically find in an epistle a greeting,2 a closing benediction,3 and tons of references to real people,4 locations,5 relationships,6 and previous conversations.7 You'll find the epistles exclusively in the New Testament, and they are attributed to Paul, Peter, James, Jude, or John (plus whoever wrote Hebrews). It's notable that these letters were written by the apostles8 to the early church. These aren't random letters from Aunt Sally to Uncle Billy Bob. The Bible also doesn't include every letter the apostles wrote. These are the letters deemed authoritative for the church that have been shared, copied, and preserved (eventually leading to their canonization, to oversimplify it a bit). These letters held significant weight in the early church, and that is why they were passed around from church to church. The epistles, which are typically shorter in length than books such as Genesis or Psalms, are real documents that were written and read aloud to the church. Letter Structure It is important to study what the typical epistle framework looks like so we can note when an epistle breaks from the typical format. When they break from the expected pattern, it is always for a reason. For example, Galatians is known for its odd beginning. Instead of opening with a typical greeting and kind words like "Grace and peace to you," Paul jumps right out of the gate defending his apostleship. He says the letter was written by "Paul, an apostle"9 instead of "Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus."10 Typically, greetings were long and personal, but here Paul skips over a typical greeting so he can get right into theology. Also, typical greetings contained an acknowledgment of the author and the recipient, an extended greeting or blessing ("grace and peace"), and some type of thanksgiving ("I thank God for you"). Epistles also tend to have the same type of ending: a benediction,11 an acknowledgment of the letter's authorship,12 and any additional greetings that the author wanted to pass on.13 The acknowledgment of the person writing the greeting is notable, because often secretaries were used. These secretaries would do the writing, but their involvement in the recording of thoughts and choosing which words to use tends to be highly debated.14 These secretaries had an unknown involvement in the authorship of the letters, but what we do know is that the letters were approved — and sometimes personally finished — by the author. Either way, no matter who was involved in which aspect of the letter writing, we can know that this is God's Word. Knowing this shouldn't challenge our view of the reliability or inerrancy of Scripture, because that is based on God working in, through, and despite us. The reliability of the epistles isn't dependent on who was behind the human authorship; the divine authorship is sovereign over every detail. As you can see, there are many misunderstandings around letters and their historical origins that enter into our own readings of the epistles. While we understand a letter to be something that is fairly casual, there wasn't much casualness in these first-century letters that are now canonized in our Bibles. Because these letters were incredibly expensive to write and copy, their length alone is a visual and physical representation of the importance of the church receiving the gospel message. How would you feel if your church received a silver-plated letter from its founder, who happened to be an apostle who had met — and had been sent by — Jesus Himself? It would be your claim to fame, and it would be read aloud over and over again — shared, memorized, and cherished by everyone in the congregation. There wasn't much that could be considered casual about these letters, which were delivered by hand to their churches. They were then read aloud to the church and copied by hand for other churches to read. It's important to understand these details so that we don't belittle the choices the authors made. They were carefully composing well-thought-out letters about important topics that would be shared with many. These are not rushed text messages that would be quickly deleted and forgotten. When Paul rushed through the greeting in Galatians to get straight into defending the gospel, that was done on purpose. He didn't have time and money for niceties; he needed to get right to talking about the important gospel. And when he sent the letter to the slave owner Philemon to plead for Onesimus's freedom15 — basically saying, "You owe me a favor"16 — this wasn't like a modern-day text. Paul was spending serious money, time, and energy on the message because he believed this was a gospel issue. He was willing to risk his relationship with Philemon by speaking boldly. The form of a first-century letter informs the way we read it and understand its intention. There is no word that is thrown in as fluff, nor is there any letter that did not have significant thought behind it. When you read the epistles, you need to recognize that every paragraph, every verse, every word holds significance. This is true of every book of the Bible, but it is especially true of the epistles, which were so costly, yet so cherished. It is important to note that the epistles could be divided into those that were written to a church and those that were written to individuals, though I do not find it extremely helpful to do this because that implies they are to be exegeted17 and applied differently. What we will find is that letters written to both churches and individuals are rather similar in application today (that is why they are canon). Both types of epistles are binding over our personal lives and the life of the church. All of the verses in them are authoritative. While some letters (such as those written to Timothy) pertain more to church leadership and organization, and therefore might feel less applicable for the average believer, they still are profitable for us to read and study because we have all been sent out to preach the gospel. Paul outlined for Timothy what it looks like to lead, preach, and minister, and we are doing similar things in our homes, Sunday school classes, workplaces, and even communities as the light of the world. Therefore, we are not exempt from the message of any letter in the New Testament. They all hold equal value and weight. |
- See, for example, the focus on the collection in 2 Corinthians 8. This may not initially seem applicable to our lives, because it is bound up in a historic gift offering to a historic church in a time of need. But we can see godly generosity exemplified, and we can apply this same generosity to our own lives.
- See Ephesians 1:1–2; Philippians 1:1–2; Colossians 1:1–2.
- See Galatians 6:18; Ephesians 6:23–24; Philippians 4:23; Jude 24.
- See 1 Thessalonians 3:6; Colossians 4:7–9; Philippians 4:2; 2 John 1.
- See Titus 1:5.
- See 2 Timothy 4:9; Titus 3:12; Philemon 10–16.
- See 1 Corinthians 5:9; 2 Timothy 2:2; 2 Thessalonians 3:17.
- These are people who have been sent by Christ to preach the gospel, and they are always those who have met Christ, with most having been his disciples.
- Galatians 1:1.
- Romans 1:1.
- See, for example, 1 Thessalonians 5:23; Jude 24–25; Galatians 6:18.
- See, for example, Galatians 6:11; 2 Thessalonians 3:17; Hebrews 13:22; 2 John 12.
- See, for example, 1 Corinthians 16:19; Colossians 4:7–17.
- For more on this, I recommend E. Randolph Richards, Paul and First-Century Letter Writing: Secretaries, Composition and Collection (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004).
- Philemon 17.
- Philemon 19–21.
- Exegesis is how you interpret the Bible. Pastors do this in their sermons when they say, "This means..." but we also do this every day in our own Bible studies. Everyone does exegesis every time they read the Bible. Exegesis is shaped by our hermeneutic, which is what we believe about the Bible and how it is to be interpreted.
Excerpted with permission from No More Boring Bible Study by Faith Womack, copyright Faith J. Womack. * |
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Even though they were written to ancient communities, the biblical letters are valuable tools for us today because the Word is alive and active! Learning more about them is a great way to study the Bible and hear God's voice. ~ Devotionals Daily |
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Why Taking Scripture Seriously Is Easier and More Exciting Than You Think |
No More Boring Bible Study |
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The Bible can feel overwhelming, but studying it is easier and more exciting than you think. Christians are supposed to love the Bible, right? They're supposed to tell Bible stories, explain their beliefs, and recite favorite verses from memory. But Scripture is sometimes hard to read! It can be complex, boring (yes, you can say that), and difficult to apply. Many of us carry secret shame about how little we read the Bible. We want to grow as Christians, but we don't know how. Faith Womack understands those feelings. Growing up in a home where Bible verses were used to control her, she yearned to grow close to God but found the Bible confusing and boring. After a spiritual wakeup in college, she discovered the life-changing power of real Bible study. Free of the spiritual abuses of her past, she has devoted her life to helping readers like you get excited about Bible reading. |
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In No More Boring Bible Study, you will: - Learn quick, easy study methods
- Get energized by the story of Scripture
- Grasp new concepts that bring the Bible to life
- Have fun (yes!) doing close study
- Grow closer to God
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Change your entire day by how you start your morning. In The Great Morning Revolution with Tara Beth Leach, you'll go from scattered to spiritually centered—before the day begins. Using the GREAT framework—Gratitude, Reflect, Exalt, Ask, Trust—you'll build a gentle, flexible morning practice to deepen your relationship with God Join The Great Morning Revolution Online Bible Study and get access to six teaching videos and other helpful tools—all FREE when you sign up! |
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