Epistle: Letters to Real Churches

Today's Reading

Read 1 Corinthians 1:1-17: Paul's opening to a deeply divided church — factions forming around different leaders, quarrels threatening to tear the community apart.

Then read Philemon 1:1-25 (the entire letter): Paul's shortest letter, a personal appeal on behalf of a runaway slave named Onesimus.

Reflection

The epistles — the letters of Paul, Peter, John, James, and others — make up a large portion of the New Testament. They are also the genre most often misread, because we forget a crucial fact: we are reading someone else's mail.

Every epistle was written to a specific community (or person) dealing with specific issues. Paul did not sit down to write timeless theological treatises. He wrote to churches in crisis — churches dealing with divisions, sexual immorality, food offered to idols, disputes about circumcision, false teachers, and conflicts between members.

N.T. Wright emphasizes this situational character:

"Paul's letters were addressed to particular communities facing particular problems... To understand any of them properly, we need to reconstruct as best we can what was going on."

Consider the two letters you read today. First Corinthians opens with Paul addressing factions: "I follow Paul," "I follow Apollos," "I follow Cephas." The Corinthian church was treating their leaders like celebrity brands. Paul's response — "Is Christ divided?" — only makes sense when you understand the problem he is addressing.

Philemon is even more situational. It is a personal letter about a single issue: Paul is sending Onesimus, a runaway slave who has become a Christian, back to his owner Philemon — but with a request that is quietly revolutionary. Paul asks Philemon to receive Onesimus "no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother." Without knowing the situation, the letter makes no sense. With it, the letter becomes a breathtaking demonstration of the gospel's power to transform social relationships.

J.I. Packer captures the nature of the epistles:

"The epistles apply the gospel to the circumstances and needs of the churches. They are not systematic theology in the abstract but pastoral theology in action."

Going Deeper

When reading an epistle, always ask: Who wrote this? To whom? What problem were they addressing? What would the original recipients have heard? Only after answering these questions should you ask: How does this apply to me and my community today?

The epistles are not less authoritative because they are occasional. They are more vivid — because they show us what the gospel looks like when it hits the ground in real communities with real problems.