If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God Hebrews We need to be clear here that the author of Hebrews was not concerned about peccadillos or small sins.
He warned his audience severely because for those who utterly turn away from Christ, "no sacrifice for sins is left. And for this reason, they can only have "a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire" reserved for "the enemies of God. As we'll explain in our next lesson, this and similar passages don't imply that true believers can lose their salvation. Rather, this verse refers to those who profess faith and experience many of its blessings, but without regeneration and justification.
In all events, it's evident that some in the original audience of Hebrews were sorely tempted to leave the faith. Now that we've investigated the background of Hebrews by considering the book's authorship and the original audience, we should turn to our third issue: Although the exact date for Hebrews remains uncertain, the earliest and latest dates for this book can be established rather firmly.
We'll look first at the earliest possible date for the book, or terminus a quo , and then at the latest possible date, or terminus ad quem. Both of these dates can be determined with some degree of confidence using scriptural and historical evidence. On the one side, Hebrews In this verse the author wrote:. I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been released. If he arrives soon, I will come with him to see you Hebrews Here we see that "Timothy [had] been released" recently from prison. We don't hear of Timothy's imprisonment anywhere else in the New Testament.
In fact, in the book of 2 Timothy, Paul's last letter written shortly before his death, Timothy was free to travel and bring Paul supplies. Yet, this verse tells us that by the time Hebrews was written Timothy had been imprisoned and released. For this reason, the book of Hebrews must have been written after Paul's death, which took place sometime around A. On the other side, the latest likely date for the book would be around A. In addition, many commentators have observed that, in passages like Hebrews 5: This is important because in the rest of his book the author consistently used the Greek past tense when referring to past events.
So, it's likely that these priestly activities were still going on when Hebrews was written. He explained that in light of the new covenant, these practices would "soon disappear. So, these evidences suggest a date for Hebrews sometime after Paul's death around A. In our lesson on the background and purpose of Hebrews, we've looked at several features of the background of the book of Hebrews.
Now, we're in a position to address the overarching purpose of the book. Why was Hebrews written? It's fair to say that any book as long and complex as the book of Hebrews is written with many different purposes in mind. But for this lesson, we're primarily interested in summarizing the overarching purpose of the book.
Each part of this book has its own emphases, and we'll explore these emphases in our next lesson. At this point, we want to see how the book as a whole was designed to impact the concepts, behaviors and emotions of the original audience. Interpreters have summarized the overarching purpose of the book of Hebrews in a variety of ways.
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But for this study, we'll describe the original purpose of Hebrews in this way:. The author of Hebrews wrote to exhort his audience to reject local Jewish teachings and to remain faithful to Jesus. This description of the author's purpose helps orient us to the main ideas found in the book of Hebrews. As we've just suggested, the author of Hebrews wrote to exhort his audience. Listen to the way the author himself characterized his book in Brothers, I urge you to bear with my word of exhortation Hebrews Notice here that the writer "urge[d]" his audience to receive his book as a "word of exhortation.
The terminology of exhortation implies "to summon to the speaker's side" or "to call for someone to take the speaker's point of view. Interestingly, the phrase "word of exhortation" also appears in Acts It's quite possible that the expression "word" — or message — "of exhortation" was a first-century technical designation for what we call a sermon today.
Well, the author identifies his work as a word of exhortation — this is in And so the use of rhetoric is basically a tool for persuading the audience to be faithful in their commitment to Jesus as the Son of God and as their Lord and Savior. So, the rhetoric in the letter of Hebrews, or the homily of Hebrews, allows the author to elaborate on themes, to exegete Jewish Scriptures — that is, interpret Jewish Scriptures in a way that is meaningful — and then present it in a very forceful way so that the audience understand clearly what the author wants him to do, wants them to do. He wants them to adhere to the salvation that Christ has offered to them, that God has offered in Christ.
Every epistle or letter in the New Testament contains exhortations to its audience. But the book of Hebrews stands apart from other New Testament epistles due to the intensity of its exhortations. To explore the author's purpose, let's look more closely at the intensity of the exhortations that are so prominent in the book. And then, we'll examine the goal of these exhortations, how the author hoped his audience would respond.
Let's look first at the intensity of the author's exhortations to his audience. To look further at what we mean by the intensity of the author's exhortations, we'll look at two issues: Let's begin by examining the frequency of exhortations. The frequency of the author's exhortations helps us understand the urgency of his message. These exhortations are implicit at times, but at least 30 times they appear explicitly. On many occasions, the author used what Greek grammarians call the "hortatory subjunctive.
For instance, in 4: Let us hold firmly to the faith we profess… Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence Hebrews 4: The author also exhorted his audience by using imperatives, which we often translate as direct orders. For example, in Strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. Make level paths for your feet … Make every effort to live in peace with all men … be holy … See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up … See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau Hebrews One of the reasons it's important to keep in mind how often the author directly exhorted his audience is that the book's complex theological reflections often obscure the author's purpose for writing.
He didn't simply want to inform his audience of theological doctrines. He informed them doctrinally in order to persuade them to adopt different attitudes and actions. This is what he meant when he called his book a "word of exhortation. We've seen how the intensity of the author's exhortations is reflected in the frequency with which he exhorted his audience.
Now, let's consider how the author's rhetorical style also reveals his desire to exhort his audience. The book of Hebrews has often been characterized as highly rhetorical. By this we mean that it employs many literary devices that were associated with persuasive oratory or urgent debate in the first century.
Many of these rhetorical devices appear now and then in other New Testament books, but we find them far more often in Hebrews. Hebrews is probably the best example in the New Testament of an author who has strong literary and rhetorical skills, and those rhetorical skills really help to accomplish the author's purpose. He's trying to demonstrate the superiority of Christ and the new covenant over the old covenant, and he does so in part with a very convincing strong literary argument.
And he uses lots of different structural features to accomplish that… So, beautifully structured, using rhetoric to draw his readers in, and then to convince them of the argument that he's making. One rhetorical device, called synkrisis in Greek, is a detailed comparison between two or more things designed to convince audiences to affirm the speaker's point of view.
For example, synkrisis appears in the book of Hebrews in 7: There, the author argued that Jesus was a royal priest like Melchizedek, a priest and king mentioned in the book of Genesis. But rather than simply asserting his belief, the author of Hebrews gave his audience a compelling, eight-point comparison between Melchizedek and Christ: These detailed comparisons were designed to settle all doubts about the claim that Jesus is the great, royal High Priest.
Another rhetorical device in the book of Hebrews is known as exempla. Exempla are lists of illustrations or examples that follow one after the other to build a persuasive argument for a particular point of view. This oratorical technique appears in the familiar list of the faithful in Hebrews There the author listed by name: This long list was designed to persuade the audience that servants of God should remain faithful throughout their persecution. A third rhetorical device used by the author of Hebrews is known by the Hebrew expression qol wahomer.
This expression is well known from both Greco-Roman and rabbinical traditions and may be translated "light to heavy," "less to great," or "simple to complex. It then builds to a more complex conclusion that the audience initially doubts, but can now more easily accept.
Simply put, this argument says that because the simple premise is true, then surely the more difficult conclusion must also be true. Listen to the way this rhetorical device appears in Hebrews Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot?
Here the author began with a premise that the audience understood: Then he pressed his audience further by arguing "how much more" punishment should come to those who "trampled … under foot" one greater than Moses — "the Son of God. These examples help us see the urgency of the author's intentions.
He was convinced that his audience faced a very serious situation and that it was time for them to make some very difficult decisions. So, he did all he could to urge and persuade them to make the right choices. Now that we've seen how the author's purpose was strengthened by the intensity of his exhortations, we should turn to a second feature of the book: As this definition affirms, the goal of the author's exhortations was twofold.
He wanted his audience to reject local Jewish teachings and he wanted them also to remain faithful to Jesus as the Messiah. Let's consider how the author urged his audience to reject local Jewish teachings. We've noted that the audience of Hebrews had suffered persecution and that this persecution was tempting them toward apostasy.
But this temptation was not what we might first imagine. It seems that at the time Hebrews was written, Christians could find safety from persecution if they rejected their distinctively Christian beliefs and identified more closely with their local Jewish community. In the first century, Jews often had to pay special taxes, and they suffered persecution from time to time. But often, Jewish communities in the Roman Empire were free to observe their faith. Early on, the same was true for Christians because they were closely identified with Judaism.
But as time passed, Christian identification as a Jewish sect began to disappear. In fact, the book of Acts reports that even in the days of Paul, Jewish synagogues rejected followers of Christ and encouraged local authorities to mistreat them. In all likelihood, this was the kind of situation facing the original audience of Hebrews. And their prolonged sufferings tempted them to accept teachings in their local Jewish community that were contrary to the Christian faith. Interestingly, the author of Hebrews didn't address the sorts of issues normally associated with Jewish hypocrisy and legalism.
As crucial as these matters were, they're not a major concern in the book of Hebrews. Rather, the author dealt primarily with erroneous beliefs and practices, specifically those that developed in Jewish communities outside the mainstream of Palestinian Judaism. Listen to what the author of Hebrews wrote in Hebrews Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings.
It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat them Hebrews In this verse, the author contrasted being "strengthened by grace" with being strengthened "by ceremonial foods. But notice also that this was just one example of what he called "all kinds of strange teachings. So, what were these "strange teachings" that the audience was tempted to follow? In the second half of the last century, a number of helpful insights into this question came to light with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran.
This long-lost collection of documents included Old Testament texts, but also extra-biblical writings that represented the distinctive teachings of a disenfranchised Jewish community living near the Dead Sea. These books have a number of teachings that closely parallel the theological issues addressed in Hebrews.
Now, it's important to note that these teachings were not exclusive to this community. Other Jewish groups in the Mediterranean world held to similar views. In fact, the books of Ephesians and Colossians deal with comparable issues in their locations. Yet, it will help us understand many of Hebrews' exhortations against local Jewish beliefs if we note some of the similar subjects found in both Hebrews and the books found at Qumran. The Dead Sea Scrolls are fascinating documents found, of course, in the desert in Qumran, and they are the works of a radical Jewish sect who defined themselves over and against the Jewish mainstream, particularly the temple complex.
And so, somewhat analogously to the book of Hebrews, the sectarians at Qumran seem to have regarded themselves as a new temple under a new covenant. Now, there are just as many dissimilarities particularly because some of the more ritual aspects of the old covenant, the Qumran group really wanted to revitalize those rather than let them obsolesce in the way that the writer of Hebrews suggests.
In any case, Paul writes to introduce himself and his message to the Christians at Rome, seeking to enlist their support for the proposed mission to Spain. He therefore employs formulations likely familiar to the Christians at Rome; see note on the confessional material at Rom 1: He cites the Old Testament frequently Rom 1: The gospel Paul presents is meant to be a familiar one to those in Rome, even though they heard it first from other preachers.
As the outline below shows, this gospel of Paul see Rom The consequences and implications for those who believe are set forth Rom 6: Each of these religious faiths claimed to be the way of salvation based upon a covenant between God and a people chosen and made the beneficiary of divine gifts. But Christianity regarded itself as the prophetic development and fulfillment of the faith of the Old Testament, declaring that the preparatory Mosaic covenant must now give way to the new and more perfect covenant in Jesus Christ.
Paul himself had been the implacable advocate of freedom of Gentiles from the laws of the Mosaic covenant and, especially in Galatia, had refused to allow attempts to impose them on Gentile converts to the gospel. He had witnessed the personal hostilities that developed between the adherents of the two faiths and had written his strongly worded Letter to the Galatians against those Jewish Christians who were seeking to persuade Gentile Christians to adopt the religious practices of Judaism.
For him, the purity of the religious understanding of Jesus as the source of salvation would be seriously impaired if Gentile Christians were obligated to amalgamate the two religious faiths. Still others find the theme of Israel and the church as expressed in Rom 9—11 to be the heart of Romans. Its outlook is universal. It is an implicit plea to the Christians at Rome, and to all Christians, to hold fast to that faith. They are to resist any pressure put on them to accept a doctrine of salvation through works of the law see note on Rom At the same time they are not to exaggerate Christian freedom as an abdication of responsibility for others Rom Humanity Lost Without the Gospel 1: Justification Through Faith in Christ 3: Justification and the Christian Life 6: The Duties of Christians As such a student, he was familiar with many of the sayings of classical and contemporary writers.
In addition, Paul was a Roman citizen, being Roman born Acts Because of this, he could appeal to Caesar as a citizen of Rome while imprisoned in Philippi Acts Consequently, Paul was uniquely qualified to be the one chosen to carry the message of the gospel to the Gentiles. Having energetically and consistently persecuted the church of Jesus Christ, while on the road to Damascus, Paul had an encounter with the glorified resurrected Christ, which had revolutionary effects on his life.
Jesus was alive after all! And further, he must be the Son of God. Thus, in the synagogues of Damascus, he proclaimed Christ as Savior. The impact must have necessitated great psychological and intellectual readjustments. This may well account for the period spent in Arabia and Damascus before his first visit to Jerusalem Gal. Then he went back to his home territory and for a period of eight to ten years little is known of his activities. As the letter states, Paul is the author see 1: With almost no exception, from the early church this epistle has been credited to Paul.
A few examples must suffice: Understandably, Paul makes fewer references to himself and to his readers in Romans than in 1 and 2 Corinthians and Galatians, since he had not founded the Roman church and guided its struggles to maturity as he had the others. The only question concerning the authorship revolves around chapter The mention by name of 26 people in a church Paul had never visited and particularly Priscilla and Aquila, who were most recently associated with Ephesus, Acts It would be natural, however, for Paul to mention to a church to which he was a stranger his acquaintance with mutual friends.
Paul did not establish the church in Rome, but as the apostle to the Gentiles, he had longed for many years to visit the believers in Rome Being anxious to minister in Rome, he wrote Romans to prepare the way for his visit It was written from Corinth, while completing the collection for the poor in Palestine. From there he went to Jerusalem to deliver the money, intending to continue on to Rome and Spain Paul did eventually get to Rome, but as a prisoner.
It appears that Phoebe, who belonged to the church at Cenchrea near Corinth Romans was written in about A. This means he had already been at Corinth and since he had not yet been at Corinth when he wrote to that church cf. Unlike some of his other epistles, Romans was not written to address specific problems. Rather, three clear purposes unfold for the writing of Romans. Paul wanted to inform them of his plans and to have them anticipate and pray for their fulfillment A second purpose was to present a complete and detailed statement of the gospel message God had called him to proclaim.
A third purpose is related to the questions that naturally arose among the Jewish and the Gentile Christians at Rome like what does the gospel do to the Law and such Old Testament rites like circumcision? And what about the Jew? Has God set the Jew aside? Had He forgotten His promises to the Jews? In this the apostle shows how God saves the sinner.
Epistle to the Colossians
In these verses, the great themes of the epistle are gathered together— the gospel, the power of God, salvation, everyone, who believes, righteousness from God, Jew and Gentile. Ryrie has an excellent summary of the theme and contents:. The theme of the epistle is the righteousness of God 1: A number of basic Christian doctrines are discussed: Picking out key chapters in Romans is indeed difficult for in this great treatise on doctrine and its application to life, one wants to say every chapter is key.
But certainly two sections of the book do stand out.
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Paul presents Jesus Christ as the Second Adam whose righteousness and substitutionary death have provided justification for all who place their faith in Him. Apart from the introduction 1: That Paul is the author of this epistle is supported by both external and internal evidence. From the first century onward A. The internal evidence is obvious. The writer calls himself Paul in several places cf. Being written to the church at Corinth, this epistle came to be known as Pros Corinthious A , which in effect means First Corinthians.
The A or alpha, the first letter of the Greek alphabet, was undoubtedly a latter addition to distinguish it from Second Corinthians which shortly followed this epistle. Paul first preached the gospel in Corinth while on his second missionary journey, about A. While there he lived and worked with Aquila and Priscilla who were of the same trade, tent-makers Acts As was his custom, Paul first preached in the synagogue but was eventually forced out by Jewish opposition.
However, he simply moved next door to the house of Titius Justus where he continued his ministry Acts Though accused by the Jews before the Roman governor Gallio a charge that was dismissed Paul remained 18 months in Corinth Acts This letter was written about A.
From his reference that he stayed at Ephesus until Pentecost To grasp the theme and purpose, a little background is necessary. Corinth was a large metropolis approximately ,; about two-thirds of whom were slaves located on a narrow isthmus between the Aegean Sea and the Adriatic Sea that connected the Peloponnesus with Northern Greece. As a city, it had a reputation for gross materialism and deep sinfulness. The city was filled with shrines and temples with the most prominent being the temple of Aphrodite that sat on top of an foot promontory called the Acrocorinthus.
In the earliest Greek literature it was linked with wealth Homer Iliad 2. The playwright Philetaerus Athenaeus From the account in Acts it would appear as if Paul had little fruit among the Jews and that nearly all of his converts were Gentiles. Most of these came from the humbler ranks, although there appear to have been some of the nobler class also 1: Marked social and economic differences existed among them 7: Yet as Greeks they prided themselves on their intellectualism, although in their case it had degenerated into a crude and shallow type 1: One can certainly see, then, how the immoral and religious conditions of Corinth had negatively impacted the life of the church spiritually and morally.
This new life in Christ calls for a new way of living through the Holy Spirit 3: Thus, 1 Corinthians was written as a pastoral corrective to the news he had received to the many problems and disorders in the church there. The problems included divisions in the church 1: Undoubtedly, because of their religious and immoral background, aberrant beliefs and practices of an extraordinary variety characterized this church. Chapter 13 , the great chapter on agape love, undoubtedly stands out as the pinnacle chapter of this book.
Certainly, there has never been a greater explanation of love written. The centrality of Christ as the essence, source, and means of the Christian life is stated in 1: Again as indicated in the opening salutation, Paul is the author of this letter. Both external and internal evidence is very strong in support of Pauline authorship. Some critics have claimed that chapters 10—13 were not a part of this letter in its original form because of a sudden change of tone.
A popular theory claims that chaps. Further, there is no evidence for so partitioning 2 Corinthians. To distinguish this letter from the First Epistle to the Corinthians, this letter received the title, Pros Corinthians B. The B represents the Greek letter beta , the second letter of the Greek alphabet. This was then followed by 3 the second letter to Corinth 1 Cor. It should be pointed out that the two lost letters were lost only because they were not intended by God to be part of the biblical canon.
Because of the riot caused by silversmiths Acts In the process, he made a preliminary stop at Troas hoping to rendezvous with Titus 2 Cor. There he met Titus, who brought good news about the general well-being of the Corinthian church but bad news about a group who were standing in opposition to Paul and his apostleship. From Macedonia Paul wrote a fourth letter, 2 Corinthians. Paul then made his third visit to Corinth during the winter of A. In it he bared his heart and declared his steadfast love for the Corinthians even though some had been extremely critical and very fickle in their affection for him.
The major theme is summoned by James K. Lowery in the Bible Knowledge Commentary. What concerned Paul preeminently was the presence of false teachers, claiming to be apostles, who had entered the church. They promoted their own ideas and at the same time sought to discredit both the person and message of the apostle. Second Corinthians was written to defend the authenticity of both his apostleship and his message. As we face the various dilemmas of life, we must all learn to find our comfort in God who is the God of all comfort.
Contained therein are the principles for giving 8: All we need for life is found in Him. In this epistle, we see Him as our comfort 1: Further, his authorship is virtually unchallenged. The date when Paul penned this letter depends on the destination of the letter. Ryrie summarizes this and writes:. The former referred to north-central Asia Minor, north of the cities of Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe; the latter referred to the Roman province organized in 25 B. If the letter was written to Christians in North Galatia, the churches were founded on the second missionary journey and the epistle was written on the third missionary journey, either early from Ephesus about A.
If the letter was written to Christians in South Galatia, the churches were founded on the first missionary journey, the letter was written after the end of the journey probably from Antioch, ca. In favor of this dating is the fact that Paul does not mention the decision of the Jerusalem council that bore directly on his Galatian argument concerning the Judaizers, indicating that the council had not yet taken place. They taught, among other things, that a number of the ceremonial practices of the Old Testament were still binding on the church.
Thus, the apostle writes to refute their false gospel of works and demonstrates the superiority of justification by faith and sanctification by the Holy Spirit versus by the works of the Law. In the first two chapters Paul vindicated his apostleship and message.
Authorship
In these two chapters Paul demonstrated convincingly that his apostleship and his message came by revelation from the risen Christ. Then, in chapters 3 and 4 he contended for the true doctrine of grace, the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Some, however, would immediately claim such a doctrine leads to license, so the apostle demonstrates that Christian liberty does not mean license.
Thus, chapters 5 and 6 show that Christians must learn to live by the power of the Spirit and that the Spirit controlled walk will manifest not the works of the flesh but rather the fruit of the Spirit. In this sense, chapter 5 is a key chapter. Through His death by which believers have died to the Law and through the Christ exchanged life 2: The power of the cross provides deliverance from the curse of the law, from the power of sin, and from self 1: The Experience of the Galatians: Ephesians along with Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon are sometimes referred to as the prison epistles because they were each written while Paul was confined or in chains.
Each of these letters contain references to this situation Eph. Whether he was imprisoned once or twice in Rome is debated, though two imprisonments seem to fit the facts better. During the first, Paul was kept in or near the barracks of the Praetorian Guard or in rental quarters at his own expense for two years Acts He anticipated being released Philem.
These, then, are the first Roman imprisonment letters, whereas 2 Timothy is the second Roman imprisonment letter. The fact these great epistles were written while Paul was imprisoned, either in Roman barracks or chained daily to a Roman soldier in his own rented house Acts It shows how we may be chained and hindered, but that the Word of God is not imprisoned see also 2 Tim. As clearly stated in the opening verse of each of the prison epistles, Paul is declared to be the author. That the apostle is the author of Ephesians is strongly supported by both internal and external evidence.
Twice, the writer calls himself Paul 1: As to external evidence, several church fathers Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Polycarp, Clement of Alexander, and others either quote from or use language closely resembling that found in Ephesians. In recent years, however, critics have turned to internal grounds to challenge this unanimous ancient tradition.
There is some debate as to the title and destination of this epistle. Several things indicate that Ephesians was a circular letter, a doctrinal treatise in the form of a letter, to the churches in Asia Minor. Some good Greek mss. There is an absence of controversy in this epistle, and it does not deal with problems of particular churches.
Since Paul had worked at Ephesus for about three years and since he normally mentioned many friends in the churches to whom he wrote, the absence of personal names in this letter strongly supports the idea of its encyclical character. It was likely sent first to Ephesus by Tychicus Eph. As previously mentioned, the apostle was a prisoner when he wrote this epistle Eph. Though scholars differ on whether Paul wrote Ephesians while he was imprisoned at Caesarea Acts As also mentioned, it is believed that Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon were also written during the same time period cf.
After he was released he wrote 1 Timothy and Titus, was arrested again, wrote 2 Timothy, and was martyred in Rome. No specific purpose is stated and no particular problem or heresy is addressed. Out of this, two great purposes emerge in the epistle. The first is to set forth something of the wealth of blessings that believers have in Christ, and how, through them, the eternal purposes of God are summed up in the person of Christ, the things in heaven and on earth 1: While not written to be remedial or to correct any specific errors, Paul designed this epistle as a prevention against those problems that so often occur because of a lack of maturity or a failure in grasping and applying what believers have in Christ.
While we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ 1: These are common Pauline expressions, but they appear in this epistle more than in any other. By this, we see much of what believers have through their position in the Savior. They are in Christ 1: Both the internal and external evidence again points to Paul as the author. Internally the letter reveals the stamp of genuineness. The many personal references of the author fit what we know of Paul from other NT books.
As with Ephesians, this epistle was written while Paul was imprisoned. His reference to the Praetorian guard Phil. Though death was possible, Paul also seemed confident of his release.
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This suggests Philippians was written after Ephesians later in A. Philippians guards against the failure to practice Christ-provided unity and against the failure of believers to rejoice in their blessings and position in Christ Phil. Paul had several obvious purposes in writing this letter to the Philippians: Chapter 2 is certainly a key chapter in the way it sets forth Christ as our example in putting others before ourselves by having the mind of Christ.
In the process of this, Paul then launches into a grand revelation regarding the humility and exaltation of Christ in 2: No passage is clearer and more declarative regarding the nature, fact, and purpose of the incarnation of Christ as is found in this book, the great kenosis passage 2: Because of the greetings in 1: But the authorship of this epistle has been doubted by some on the grounds of the vocabulary and the nature of the heresy refuted in this epistle. That Colossians is a genuine letter of Paul is not usually disputed.
In the early church, all who speak on the subject of authorship ascribe it to Paul. In the 19th century, however, some thought that the heresy refuted in ch. But a careful analysis of ch. Also, the seeds of what later became the full-blown Gnosticism of the second century were present in the first century and already making inroads into the churches. Consequently, it is not necessary to date Colossians in the second century at a time too late for Paul to have written the letter. Paul wrote all four prison epistles during his first Roman imprisonment.
This means he wrote it in A. The theme is the fruitful and effective power of the gospel message which heralds the supremacy, headship, and the utter sufficiency of Christ to the church which is His body. It is a cosmic book, presenting the cosmic Christ: Chapters 2 is key in that it demonstrates why and how the believer is complete in Christ and needs nothing added to the saving person and work of Christ. Chapter 3 then builds on this as root to fruit or cause and effect.
Because believers are complete in Christ 2: As declared in 1: Those things that characterize Paul are evident throughout cf. The first epistle was written during the earlier part of that period just after Timothy had returned from Thessalonica with news of the progress of the church. The second letter was dispatched just a few weeks or at the most a few months later. Any date assigned will have to be approximate, though probably A. The purpose and burden of the apostle in writing to the Thessalonians can be summarized as follows: Two key words and concepts stand out in this short epistle: The coming of the Lord should not only comfort our hearts, but stir us to godly living.
Chapters 4 and 5 undoubtedly stand out as key chapters because of their teaching on both the coming of the Lord for the church, the rapture 4: When He comes, He will deliver us from wrath undoubtedly a reference to the Tribulation 1: As with 1 Thessalonians, this letter was also written by Paul cf. There is no evidence among the writings of the early church fathers that his authorship was ever doubted. In fact several fathers mentioned Paul as the author of this epistle in their writings. It was not until the 19th century that certain questions were raised about the authorship of this epistle.
Regardless, external and internal evidence support Paul as the author. Objections are based on internal factors rather than on the adequacy of the statements of the church fathers. However, such arguments have not convinced current scholars. Because the historical circumstances are very similar to those of 1 Thessalonians, most believe it was written not long after the first letter—perhaps about six months. While conditions in the church were similar, the persecution seems to have grown 1: Second Thessalonians was evidently prompted by three main developments that Paul heard about: This belief was still being used as a basis for shirking their vocational responsibilities.
So the apostle wrote to deal with the condition of idleness or disorderliness which had increased 3: To meet the needs that occasioned this epistle, Paul wrote this epistle to comfort and correct. In doing so he pursued three broad purposes. In fact, in this epistle, 18 out of 47 verses 38 percent deal with this subject. In 1 Thessalonians, the focus was on Christ coming for His Church 4: Chapter 2 is key in that it corrects a serious error that had crept into the Thessalonian church which taught that the day of the Lord had already come. A major theme of this book, especially chapters , is the return of Christ in judgment when He will put down all rebellion and bring retribution.
Second Thessalonians anticipates Christ, the coming Judge. Apart from the salutation and benediction, the book easily divides up into five sections:. Paul addressed them to Timothy and Titus to guide them in matters concerning the pastoral care of the church, which is the household of God cf. These epistles deal with church polity , policies , and practice , all of which are concerns vital to the pastoral health of the church.
However, the term pastoral is inaccurate in the sense that Timothy and Titus were not pastors in the present-day sense of the term. So what were they? First, they were official representatives of the apostle Paul whom he dispatched to various churches like Ephesus and Crete. Once there, they functioned in an official capacity to deal with special situations and meet special needs. During the interim from the time of the apostles to the more complete transition to elders and deacons, these men were sent by Paul as his apostolic representatives to repel and deal with certain conditions and people who were threatening to hurt the work and ministries of these churches.
Second, Timothy and Titus undoubtedly possessed the gifts needed for pastoral ministry and while there was an element of pastoral care in what they did, they were not elders or pastors who are given by the Lord to various churches for more long-term ministries 1 Pet. Rather, as official delegates of Paul, they were sent to assist churches in establishing their ministries pastorally speaking cf. All in all, in their content, these books are pastoral in nature and give directions for the care, conduct, order, ministry, and administration of churches or assemblies of believers.
This is true whether they deal with personal matters or the corporate ministry of the church. In summary, then, these books were designed by God to aid us in our pastoral responsibilities and in organic development and guidance for the life of local churches. In this regard there is an important observation that might be made. What is so significant about that? Since these books deal with church order, ministry, and organization, why were they not first?
If you or I were doing this especially today we would probably first try to get the administrative organization in order, the structure, and then worry about the doctrine. So here are some suggestions to think about:. Of course, organization and order is important. The church is a spiritual body, an organism, and each believer is a member with special functions and tasks to carry out, but the primary need so essential to functioning as God has designed the church is right theology teaching and understanding of the Word, along with its personal application for Christ-like living. This provides us with the spiritual and moral foundation on which we base our methods, strategy, and administration.
So, while our methods will often vary, they must never contradict the moral or spiritual principles of the Word of God. Giving, for instance, is a corporate and individual responsibility, but our giving and the collection of money must be so done that it does not violate certain biblical principles such as giving voluntarily rather than by methods that employ coercion or manipulation. Organization, or better, the organic and unified growth of a church, must be based on right teaching, which is based on rightly handling the Word, i.
When we try to run an organization based on tradition or background, we end up with an organization that is not only not biblical, but which will lack the spiritual fervor and capacity to function as God intends. These books, then, deal with matters of church order or ecclesiology not hitherto addressed, but before God gave the church directions for church organization or order as specific as those we find in the pastorals He gave us Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians.