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Wilfrid's Church, Kibworth in the Diocese
of Leicester
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(Updated June, 2008
)
St.
Paul's Epistles (June, 2008
)
This is an archive of
articles on St Paul's epistles that we have published in the Parish Magazine. If you would
like to contribute to our magazine or these webpages, please contact the Webmaster .
In
each issue of the parish magazine this year we plan to offer a brief
introduction to one or more of
St. Paul
’s epistles, the oldest Christian documents we possess.
Although they were not collected together until c. A.D.
90 they are even older than the Gospels and they occupy a major part of the
New Testament.
This
series of ten articles will enable readers to get a glimpse of some of the
places Paul visited as well as the letters that arose from his journeys.
Even during his lifetime Paul, who is ‘the most powerful human
personality in the history of the Church’, was unfairly accused of having
perverted the simplicity of Christ’s original message by shrouding it in
difficult theological concepts. However,
the Apostle recognised the need to relate the revolutionary message of Jesus
to concrete situations. In his
letters he deals with temporary issues in the light of eternity.
Canon
Desmond V Treanor
Last updated 01 June 2008
St.
Paul
and his
letters - An Introduction
(February,
2007)
by
Canon Desmond V Treanor
Although
his parents were strict Jews, Paul was proud to be able to claim the privilege
of Roman citizenship (his father may have been a freed slave) and was
accustomed to speaking and writing in Greek, which was the lingua franca of
the Empire in c. 6 AD when he was born.
As
a boy Saul (his Hebrew name) was sent to
Jerusalem
to study for several years under a famous Pharisee teacher named Gamaliel.
There he conversed in Aramaic (Acts 21. 40 etc), and it was there that he
witnessed the stoning of Stephen (Acts 22.20), the first Christian martyr.
He
was a gifted young student and so zealous for the Jewish faith that the
authorities sent him to
Damascus
to arrest any other men and women who had resolved to follow the Way of Jesus
of Nazareth. However, on the way he was miraculously converted (Acts 22 etc.)
and after a long retreat in the Arabian desert, where he claims to have learnt
directly from Jesus Christ (Gal.1.ll, l2), he was ready for his great work of
proclaiming the Christian Gospel far and wide. ‘I am the least of the Apostles and do not even deserve to be called
an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church’ he wrote (1 Cor.15.9)
In
icons and manuscript illustrations, based no doubt on a second century
description in the apocryphal Acts of
Paul, ‘the Apostle of the Gentiles’ is portrayed as ‘small of
stature, balding and bow legged, with large eyes, eye-brows joining and a nose
somewhat crooked.’ Although unflattering, this is likely to be an accurate
description for the book is actually in praise of Paul, and the author
continues, ‘His appearance was full of grace. Sometimes he appeared like a
man, and sometimes had the face of an angel’.
He himself spoke of his poor sight (Gal.4.15, 6.11 etc.) and of ‘a
thorn in the flesh’ (possibly epilepsy) which hampered him, and had been
given to him to keep him from getting conceited (2 Cor.12.7).
Nevertheless
he undertook a number of extremely arduous missionary journeys during the next
twenty-two years round the northern Mediterranean countries. The area in which
Jesus preached was small (more like a county than a country) but Paul’s
travels must have involved no less than ten thousand miles by sea and thirty
thousand on foot, and they were filled with hardship (2 Cor.11.23 – 28).
The
Apostle speaks of being flogged five times, beaten with rods on three
occasions, being stoned once and shipwrecked three times (once spending 24
hours adrift on the open sea). Often he was hungry and thirsty and was in
continual danger. He passed
many sleepless nights, and was imprisoned in Caesarea, Philippi,
Ephesus
and
Rome
. Everywhere he went, his plan was
to speak first to the Jews and then to turn to those of other faiths or of
none at all; and when he moved on, he usually left a small Christian church
with whose members he kept in touch by messenger and by letter.
We
have more information about Paul than anyone else in the early Church and we
know that he dictated his letters (not all of which have been preserved), but
not in the order in which they appear in our Bibles. In the New Testament they
are printed, more or less, according to their length. All except the epistle
to the Romans were penned specifically in answer to immediate problems in the
lives of people, many of whom he knew personally. His approach to the
difficulties with which he was confronted, clearly reveals his deep concern
for those to whom he writes, and for the health of the young churches to which
they belonged.
Three
years after his conversion, Paul journeyed to
Jerusalem
on at least one occasion, and met Peter and the other apostles. Later, from
Antioch
in
Syria
, which was an important centre for the early Church (and where Jesus’
followers were first called ‘Christians’), he and Barnabas set off for the
latter’s birthplace,
Cyprus
. From there they travelled north to Pisidian Antioch in South Galatia, which
was in Asia Minor (modern
Turkey
) before returning to their starting point.
On
his second journey to preach the Gospel, Silas accompanied Paul, and they
began by visiting the converts in
Galatia
, before moving on westwards and crossing over to Macedonia. He then travelled south to
Athens
and
Corinth
, in
Greece
. Returning to
Syria
after several years Paul set out for another major tour, proclaiming the Good
News and again founding churches all along his route.
Finally he was arrested and taken in chains to
Rome
for trial by the Emperor, and execution c. A.D. 67.
Paul’s
Letters to the Thessalonians
(March,
2007)
by
Canon Desmond V Treanor
Sailing
in favourable weather conditions from Troas in Asia Minor, Paul and his
companions reached
Macedonia
in
Europe
within a couple of days. The
little party, which included Silas, Timothy and Luke, landed at Neapolis and
from there went on to the important Roman garrison town of
Philippi
where they baptised
Lydia
, their first convert (Acts 16). After several weeks (during which Paul was
imprisoned briefly) the missionaries made their way along the
Egnatian Way
to Thessalonica, the largest city in
Macedonia
, and Paul preached in the synagogue there for three Sabbaths (Acts 17). In
this busy port (which is the second city of modern
Greece
) the Apostle made a few converts among the Jews and many in the Gentile
community. In doing so he stirred up the enmity of the Jewish community to
such an extent that they resolved to capture him. However, they failed in
their attempt because he happened to be out when they stormed the house where
he was known to be living. So he decided it would be wise to move on to
Berea
, which is about 50 miles south, and to continue on in due course to
Athens
and
Corinth
.
Paul
had settled down in
Corinth
for a year and a half in the home of
Aquila
and Priscilla and had been instrumental in converting many people, including
Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue. Then Timothy had joined him with really
good news from the newly-founded Christian church of the Thessalonians; so the
Apostle wrote the first of
his letters which have been preserved.
Paul
was overjoyed to receive an encouraging report from Timothy. The welcome news
was that the Thessalonians, who were always in his prayers, had withstood the
pressure of the persecution which had followed his departure. Apparently,
however, they were worried about the Parousia, the second coming of Christ.
They were especially troubled because they had begun to wonder what was going
to happen to their friends who had also embraced the faith but who, through
illness or old age, might die soon.
Will
dead Christians have any part in the glories of the Second Coming?
Will they be able to share in the salvation that Christ will bring at
the end of time?
1
Thessalonians, which Paul wrote about AD 51, is Paul’s answer to that
question. He takes the opportunity
at the same time of dealing with a few other matters relating to conduct and
discipline, practical subjects which were never far from his mind.
The
preaching of the Second Coming had produced an unhealthy situation in which
some people had just stopped working and had abandoned their ordinary way of
life in order to wait expectantly for the arrival of the great day.
But Paul tells them to settle down and get back to normality.
With
regard to any who might die before the Lord came again, Paul explains that
they will miss none of the glory. They are part of the Body of Christ. Jesus
and His members are inseparable, and they will share the glory that is His.
Those who are still alive at that time will be reunited with Him and
with all those who have gone ahead of them. Be assured, he says, Christ will
come again, but not necessarily when we expect Him!
Meanwhile
there was always a tendency among the argumentative Greeks to despise lawful
authority. But this they must not do. There
was also an ever-present danger that some would lapse into immorality, living
as they were among so many pagans, and of disunity among the brethren. Paul
takes the opportunity to instruct the young church to which he writes in
Christian morals.
This
eirenic letter is certainly one of the most personal of all his epistles. He
exhibits great joy and affection for his converts and, although he is
intensely proud of them, he shows that he is well aware that they are by no
means perfect. Like a good father,
he is eager to praise, encourage and comfort, but he is equally ready to
exhort and even to rebuke them.
Within
a few months Paul found it necessary to dictate a second letter (2 Thessalonians) in order to clarify one or two things he had said
earlier. The first letter
points out that the Day of the Lord will come ‘like a thief in the night’
and urges watchfulness. But some
had taken this to mean that they must do nothing except to watch and wait.
The second letter (whose authenticity some scholars dispute) seeks to
get the balance right and explains what signs of the end may be expected.
Before
the Parousia, says
St. Paul
in what is for us one of the most difficult passages in the whole of the New
Testament, there will be a manifestation of anti-Christ which will result in a
great apostasy. Many will fall
away from Christ, and the faithful will see the principle of lawlessness at
work in the world. Indeed, they
see it working in the world already, but there is a restraining power which at
the moment keeps lawlessness in check. It
is not clear today precisely what Paul had in mind, but the pictures he uses
and the terms he employed were perfectly familiar to those to whom he
addressed them and the permanent truth is clear enough.
Undoubtedly
there is a force of evil in the world, but Christians believe that God is in
control and in the end nothing will be able to stand against Him.
Christ taught us to pray ‘Thy Kingdom come’ and in the Creed we
‘look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to
come’.
PAUL’S
LETTER TO THE GALATIANS
(April,
2007)
by
Canon Desmond V Treanor
It
is possible that Paul’s letter to the Galatians may have been written soon
after he had returned to Syrian Antioch at the end of his second missionary
journey in c. A.D. 52. However, it may have been penned a little earlier.
The date, place of composition and even the precise destination are matters
upon which scholars are by no means agreed.
In
Acts 13 and 14 we read how Paul sailed from Paphos in
Cyprus
to
Asia Minor
, landing at Perga in Pamphylia, a prosperous city under the Romans. The
magnificent theatre and horseshoe-shaped stadium there are among the best
preserved in the ancient world. Accompanied by Barnabas, Paul then continued
northwards to Pisidian Antioch and, in due course, journeyed southeast to
Iconium, Lystra and Derbe before they retraced their steps and returned to
Syrian Antioch. In Acts 15 we
read how the pair of them set
out on a second journey, beginning with visits to those churches that they
had founded originally in
Galatia
.
Galatia
is the name that describes almost all of the vast inner plateau of Asia
Minor. The Roman province extended throughout the greater part of modern
Turkey
. But it seems probable that
Paul’s letter was simply intended for the members of the churches in the
south of the region which he had founded on his first missionary journey.
The Galatians were fickle. At Lystra, for example, the multitude could
scarcely be restrained from sacrificing to Paul (because they assumed he was
a god); but soon afterwards they stoned him and left him for dead.
The
letter to the Galatians is an entirely different kind of communication from
those he had sent to the Thessalonians. The main point in those letters had
been the Second Coming of Christ. Here the fundamental point is the supreme
importance of faith in Christ rather than slavish adherence to the Jewish
Law. The epistle to the Galatians shows Paul in conflict with other
Jewish-Christians from
Palestine
who had visited the new churches after Paul had left and taught that his
Gospel was incomplete. They persuaded some of the Galatians that salvation
required observance of the Torah laws, including circumcision. Paul writes
to rebuke and to persuade the Galatians. It was the re-discovery of the
central message of this letter that led to the Reformation.
Clearly
the Apostle was angry and disappointed when he dictated this circular. His
tone is curt and, after the briefest of greetings, he denounces the
Judaizers who were trying to pervert the Gospel he had preached and who were
casting doubt about his apostolic credentials. When Paul learnt what these
later missionaries were up to he was furious, for he knew that their
teaching struck at the very roots of the Good News he was proclaiming
everywhere he went.
In the very first verse of this letter he makes his position clear.
He was “an apostle, sent not
from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him
from the dead.” A little later he says, “I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not
something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I
taught it; rather I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.” When
he had gone to see Peter and the apostles they “gave
me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognised the grace
given to me. They agreed that we
should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews.”
Emphatically,
Christianity is not for a limited few. It is not just a Jewish sect. Hebrew
regulations about kosher food and the like are irrelevant. Christ died for
people of every race. In any case, from his personal experience, Paul knew
only too well that no one could satisfy all the demands of the Jewish Torah.
Even if it were possible to achieve such perfection by keeping every
commandment, that would not result in the salvation that Christ alone
offers. Faith in Him is what is necessary. A person is saved only because he
or she is in union with Jesus Christ. In Christ there is “no
difference between Jews and Gentiles”.
In him we are all one. Baptism is what matters not circumcision. “What counts is a new creation, you are all sons of God through faith
in Christ Jesus.”
For
Paul the Cross of Christ stood at the centre of the Christian faith, as he
made very clear both in this letter to the Galatians and in those which
followed to other churches. There are also many references to the Spirit,
for the Christian lives by inspiration not regulation.
Paul points out that the Galatians had begun with the Spirit. Christ
redeemed us that we might receive the promise of the Spirit. We are born
“according to the Spirit” and we must live in the Spirit, walk in
the Spirit, led by the Spirit and bearing the fruit of the Spirit. He who
sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life.
Paul
often reasoned like a rabbi, and some of his arguments and illustrations
would have been more easily understood by their original recipients than by
modern readers. However, the overall message is clear enough and it is
absolutely central to the Christian Gospel. By faith in Jesus Christ alone,
not by merit, can anyone get into a right relationship with God.
PAUL’S
1ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS (May,
2007)
by
Canon Desmond V Treanor
In
the first century A.D.
Corinth
was the capital of a Roman province, having been re-built by Julius Caesar in
44 B.C. It was an important seaport near the Corinthian isthmus and commanded
two harbours. Lecaion on the Gulf of Corinth afforded sea communications with
the west, while Cenchreae on the
Aegean Sea
faced east. As a result it was one of the most important cities in the Empire
for it served as a commercial bridge between East and West attracting
merchants, traders and visitors from all areas around the
Mediterranean
.
The
population of Corinth was around half a million, and consisted of a mixture of
Greeks, Jews, Orientals, Roman colonists and slaves; whilst its very name was
a by-word for corruption of all kinds. Among its many temples was one
dedicated to Aphrodite which was served by 1000 ‘sacred’ prostitutes.
An early proverb says: “It is not every man who can afford a journey
to
Corinth
”. This cosmopolitan city was Paul’s next strategic stop after he left
Athens
on his second missionary journey, and here he stayed for eighteen months with
Priscilla and Aquila who had already become Christians in
Rome
and who, like himself, were engaged in making tents. (Acts 18)
In
due course Paul sailed with his friends to
Ephesus
from where, towards the end of a three-year residency (c.55 A.D.), he wrote to
the church in
Corinth
addressing a series of practical and theological problems. His desire was to
restore unity to the congregation in which he had heard that cracks had begun
to show in both its religious and moral structure and where various factions
had sprung up. He addressed some of these problems in a letter which is now
lost (5.9).
Paul’s
letters were written on rolls or scraps of papyrus, but however carefully they
were preserved, it was not until c. AD 90 that they were finally collected
together. By then they had been
widely circulated and had been read and re-read many times. It is hardly
surprising then if they have not all been arranged in their original order or
that not all were discovered when the collection was made.
In
what is his First letter to the Corinthians in our New Testaments, he says
that he had resolved to preach nothing but Jesus and the Cross in Corinth, and
he points out that Christ is not divided; so he admonishes his readers for
giving their allegiance to himself, Apollos or any one else.
All leaders of the Church are simply servants of Jesus Christ and
stewards of the mysteries of God through whom converts came to faith.
Emphatically the Church is not a society in which one group of people may dare
to presume that they are superior to another because of their esoteric
knowledge of spiritual mysteries (gnosis).
“The mind of Christ” is given
only by the Holy Spirit. So Paul warns against the foolish wisdom of this
world, and those who imagine that they are spiritually elite and believe that
their salvation is guaranteed by ritual rather than by grace.
Because
its inhabitants came from many different cultural backgrounds, the church in
Corinth
was exposed to a bewildering variety of customs as well as to a corrosive
atmosphere of public immorality.
News of sexual immorality among some new converts had reached Paul, and
he had learnt of lawsuits among the members of the church (5 and 6). On both
counts he roundly rebuked his readers before turning his attention to
questions which he had been asked about marriage, divorce and celibacy since
it was believed that the Second Coming was imminent.
Another real problem at the time in
Corinth
was what to do about buying meat that had been sacrificed to idols, which was
the usual source. Though it may
not be a problem today, Paul’s solution has implications which do concern
modern Christians. To eat such meat privately does no harm (for of course
Christians do not believe in idols), but if others make an issue of it, it
would be wise to abstain. “Be
careful” he says, “that the
exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak” (8.9). Love should be the basis of all conduct.
Having
spoken of the rights of an apostle, Paul then turns to the sacraments –
Jewish, Christian and pagan - and deals with questions about and worship in
general. He assumes that women
will pray in public, but insists that they dress modestly when doing so! The
Apostle chides his readers for the uncharitable way in which they celebrate
the Lord’s Supper (11) and he reminds them of the words Christ used in
instituting the Eucharist, the words we recall at every celebration of Holy
Communion (11.23 – 25). He also made it clear that spiritual gifts are only
to be prized if and when they are edifying to others (12 – 14). Nothing is
as important as love (13).
Paul
suggests that the Corinthians prepare for the time when he hopes to come to
them again by saving for a gift which they can send to their needy brethren in
Jerusalem
(16).
Most
of the problems about unity, marital difficulties, sexual immorality and the
misuse of spiritual gifts about which Paul had to write to the church in
Corinth
are still with us, as of course are questions about life after death. Chapter
15, which is entirely concerned with the resurrection and the Apostle’s
beliefs about the crucifixion (1.18 – 2.2), have profoundly influenced
Christian thought.
Paul’s
song of praise for love (13) and his teaching about immortality (15. 35 –
55) are among the most frequently quoted passages in the New Testament.
PAUL’S
LETTER TO THE PHILIPPIANS (June,
2007)
by
Canon Desmond V Treanor
When
Paul left Asia Minor and sailed for Europe during his second missionary
journey his little party landed at Neapolis and promptly made for the
important Roman garrison town of
Philippi
which was only a few miles away along the
Egnatian Way
, the great highway that crossed
Macedonia
(Acts 16). As the Jews had no synagogue there, and maintained only a temporary
place of prayer outside the city gate near the river Gaggitas, it seems that
very few of them lived in
Philippi
at the time. Yet it was here
during a fairly short stay that Paul baptised his first convert,
Lydia
, exorcised a slave girl and was severely flogged and imprisoned. But he and
his companions were freed from their chains by an earthquake. Local tradition
identifies a Roman cistern as the place of the Apostle’s imprisonment and
the guardian still points to the chains in the walls by which prisoners were
secured. It was several years before Paul returned to
Philippi
(twice, See 2 Cor.2.13 and
Acts 20.6) but he kept in close touch with the little church which he
founded.
Paul
wrote this ‘thank you’ letter from a prison cell. The traditional view is
that it was dictated when the Apostle was imprisoned in
Rome
(1.13,14, 17, 20 – 26; 2.23) some time after AD 63. The mention of the
Praetorian Guard (1.13) seems to make that obvious. However, it is known that
these guards were also stationed in other Roman centres (in
Jerusalem
for example), so it is possible that he wrote to his friends in Philippi from
a cell in
Ephesus
(therefore c. 55) or even, though less likely, from his prison in
Caesarea
(c.58 – 60). He says that he hoped to send Timothy to
Philippi
and that he himself would also come (2.19,23).
From Ephesus Timothy could have reached Philippi and have returned in a
few days whereas such a journey from
Rome
would have taken a month or two.
No
one can be certain now about the place of origin of the letter to the
Philippians. However, what
has never been in any doubt is that this ‘Epistle of Joy’ as it has been
called (for the words joy and rejoice
appear no less than 16 times in these short chapters) is genuinely
Pauline. However, it might be a combination of two or even three notes.
The
whole text is not only a warm, friendly expression of his gratitude for
another gift which the Philippians had sent him by Epaphroditus, but also an
appeal for unity, an encouragement in the trials they were also enduring and a
commendation of their messenger. The poor man had almost died for the work of Christ. So Paul was sending Epaphroditus
back to them and he hoped they would be glad to welcome him home.
At
3.1 the letter seems to be drawing gently to a close. Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord…
But then without warning the tone changes completely with the
exhortation to Watch out for those dogs,
those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh … Some scholars
think that originally there were two letters. Embedded in the letter as we now
have it is a short first letter (3.2 – 4.3), of thanks and warning, sent off
as soon as Epaphroditus arrived with the Philippians’ gift. The second
letter would then be 1.1 -3.1 together with 4.4 – 23 and was sent when
Epaphroditus had to return to
Philippi
. In his own Letter to the Philippians Polycarp, an early Bishop of Smyrna,
says of Paul that ‘when he was absent
he wrote letters (plural) to you.’
The
idea of Jesus as the servant of God is to be found many times in the New
Testament, but nowhere else is it explored so movingly as in chapter 2 of this
letter. Life was very difficult
for the Christians in
Philippi
and Paul refers to their anxiety, to the dangers which they faced and to their
suffering for Christ’s sake. He
also speaks of illness and hunger, of unkind rivalry among them, of a tendency
to grumble and of division among friends.
Amid all their problems he exhorts them to rejoice, to concentrate upon
whatever is pure and positive, to be humble and to put into practice what they
have learnt. This the way to experiencing the peace of God.
Koinonia,
which may be translated as
‘partnership’, ‘fellowship’, ‘sharing’ is a word which crops
up in each chapter, as do the characteristic phrases ‘in
Christ Jesus’ or ‘in the Lord’, which speak of the close personal relationship
each believer must have with the Saviour.
Paul
points out to his readers that you all
share in God’s grace with me (1.7) and
so, as he himself does, he prays that they will press
on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards
in Christ Jesus (3.14). God exalted
him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that
at he name of Jesus every knee should bow… and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, o the glory of God the Father (2. 7 – 11)
Among
many quotations which are totally relevant to our restless, dissatisfied
society today is 4.12, 13 : I
have learned to be content whatever the circumstances…
I have learned the secret of being content in any and every
situation… I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
PAUL’S
2ND LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS (July/August,
2007)
by
Canon Desmond V Treanor
Various
problems in the church in Corinth having been brought to Paul’s attention,
he wrote 1 Corinthians from Ephesus and sent it to the church in that
important city by the hand of Timothy. Like the earlier letter, 2 Corinthians
is almost certainly composed of a collection of fragments of Paul’s
correspondence, most of which were written from
Macedonia
in c.AD 55. It is not an easy letter to read for while on the one hand
Paul’s tenderness and loving concern are apparent; on the other he is
revealed as tough and inflexible. Noting this abrupt change of tone, most
scholars have agreed that in all probability 2 Cor. consist of more than a
single letter.
After
he had sent the letter(s) we call ‘1 Corinthians’ it seems that the
situation in the Corinthian church deteriorated still further and so Paul
wrote what has been described as ‘The Severe Letter’ (2 Cor.10 – 13) and sent it from Ephesus
by the hand of Titus. It contains a brief autobiography and strong self-defence
against the new teachers and heresies, which had arrived recently in the city.
Though the Acts of the Apostles says nothing of such a visit, commentators
point out that there must have been one in order to explain 2 Cor.12.14 where
Paul says, Now I am ready to visit you
for the third time and 13.1 where he says This will be my third visit to you.
Clearly,
after he had written his earlier letter(s) a group of teachers had come to
Corinth from Palestine, infiltrated the church there and attacked Paul (2
Cor.11.6 – 9). They claimed to be Christians (11.23) of pure Hebrew descent
(11.22) and represented themselves as servants
of righteousness (11.15). But
Paul described them, ironically, as “super
apostles” (11.5) and really regarded them as false
apostles… masquerading as apostles of Christ (11.13).
In order to reassert his own authority it appears that he made ‘a
flying visit’ to sort things out. It was a brief, painful visit (2.2).
Unfortunately, it did not achieve the desired result, for about this
time he was further challenged by some unspecified act of disobedience (2.5
– 11). If anyone has caused grief, he
urges his readers to forgive them. If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him…(2.10).
Unable to wait for
an answer, Paul left
Ephesus
(after a riot in the city – Acts 19.23) and continued his third missionary
journey (Acts 20.1), intending to meet Titus in
Macedonia
. When their paths did cross again (probably at
Philippi
) he was overjoyed to learn that the controversy that had occasioned the
earlier letter was over. Filled with thanksgiving he then wrote 2 Cor.1 – 9, ‘The Letter of Reconciliation’, which was
actually his fourth or fifth communication with
Corinth
.
In
this ‘upbeat’ mood he opens his heart to his readers and gives them, in 2
Cor. 2.12 – 6.10, an account of how and why he is preaching the Christian
gospel. He alludes to the blinding
experience, which changed his life completely, as conversion does with anyone
when they come of a personal experience of the risen Lord, and declares that
if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has
come! (5.17).
Soon
after the arrival of this letter Paul himself reached
Corinth
again and began to plan a visit to
Rome
. But first he proposed to return to
Jerusalem
with the money which the Corinthians had collected for the alleviation of the
poor in the
Mother
Church
who had suffered a great deal of persecution (chapters 8 – 9).
Both
1 and 2 Corinthians contribute a great deal to our understanding of the great
Apostle’s life and ministry. 2 Cor. is especially revealing in the insight
it offers into Paul’s personality and his character under stress. The
underlying problem in both letters is especially relevant to a growingly
secular, vice-ridden and violent society! The ideals, the dangers, the
resources and the moral wisdom that such a situation demands, are nowhere more
thoroughly explored than in 2 Cor. The
gospel, which armed and saved many in Corinth, is still Christianity’s
answer to the challenges of our own (and every other) age.
PAUL’S LETTER TO THE
ROMANS (September,
2007)
by
Canon Desmond V Treanor
Soon
after he had written his letters to the church in
Corinth
, Paul reached the city himself. Here in c.AD 57 he dictated a long letter
introducing himself to the Romans, which he sent to the care of a deaconess
named Phoebe. She was a member of the church in the city’s eastern
port
of
Cenchrea
(Rom.16.1), which was an extremely busy place for several centuries (and was
represented at the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in AD 325 by Bishop
Epikletus). Although the coast has been eroded at that point, the ruins of a
Byzantine church with a single apse and nave are still standing there at the
water’s edge.
Most
of Paul’s letters have passages, which demand careful thought, and that is
even truer of Romans than of the rest. Yet Luther described it as ‘the
plainest Gospel of all’, and it has had an immeasurable influence upon
Christians in every century. When he returned from
Jerusalem
, after he had delivered the collection which the Corinthians had made for the
poor in the
Mother
Church
, Paul proposed to visit
Spain
(15. 22- 29). Before setting off he wrote to the church in
Rome
to present his credentials to the church in that city which he had neither
founded nor visited. He hoped the Christians there would support him in this
new mission, both in their own city and far beyond.
The
letter, which it has been suggested must have taken Paul the better part of
100 hours to dictate, has four main sections. While chapters 1 – 8, deal
principally with the subject of ‘righteousness’,
chapters 9-11 relate specifically to the Jews, his own race. Chapters 12-15
are mostly about practical questions of living lovingly, whilst the final
chapter (16), introduces Phoebe and includes a number of personal greetings.
In
almost all of his other letters, Paul is dealing with some problem or
situation that is troubling the church to which he is writing.
But Romans is more like a systematic exposition of some of the
Apostle’s theological views. Its main theme is the Good News of the
salvation offered by God first to the Jews, the
Chosen
people, but also to people of every other race as well (1. 16, 17).
He sets out a closely reasoned statement of the basic Christian
truths, which he had already spelt out in his letter to the Galatians,
beginning immediately with a few words about the Gospel he preaches
everywhere. God’s plan of salvation
and righteousness for every soul depends upon faith in Christ.
Although it was probably not his intention to
make it such, many see Paul’s carefully argued letter to the Romans as a
theological treatise, difficult to understand and definitely needing some
explanation for the modern reader. What
Paul aimed to do was to make clear his Christian convictions. Having been
brought up as a strict Orthodox Jew, he naturally thought of God as
pre-eminently the God of Righteousness. Nothing and no one that was evil could
possibly approach Him. So how could sinful human beings hope to have a close
relationship with Him? The Law
offered one possible answer. If men had been able to keep all the commandments
perfectly then they would have been free from any sin. They would then have
been able to approach God faultlessly and therefore fearlessly.
But, as Paul had proved from his own experience no one, however
well-intentioned, has ever been able to do that.
In
order to solve the seemingly insoluble problem, Almighty God Himself stepped
in and provided the answer. Amazingly, He became incarnate in the person of
Jesus Christ. As representative of all human beings He deliberately accepted
suffering and death, the consequences of evil. Now, God can accept anyone who
sincerely entrusts his life to Jesus Christ by virtue of Christ’s sacrifice
at
Calvary
. As has been said, salvation is far more a matter of ‘believing’ than of
‘achieving’ and the new life in the Spirit empowers man to live as God
wills, righteously (Chapters 5, 6 and 8).
It
is quite a good plan to begin reading Romans at Chapter 5 with justification
by faith, and to continue until the end of chapter 8.
Then turn straight away to 12 before beginning again, at the beginning!
Among the many important subjects upon which Paul touches in this
instructive and inspiring letter are faith,
grace and righteousness, sin
and salvation, justification
and sanctification, death,
redemption and resurrection.
ST.
PAUL’S LETTERS TO THE COLOSSIANS & TO PHILEMON (October,
2007)
by
Canon Desmond V Treanor
Situated
on either side of the river in the Lycus valley, on the great east-west trade
route from Ephesus to the River Euphrates, lay the towns of Laodicaea, to
which one of the Letters to the Seven Church is addressed (Revelation 3.14-
end), and Hierapolis.
Colossae
was twelve miles further up stream. Paul had never visited any of these places
himself, but he implies that the Church there was founded by Epaphras, one of
his converts (Col.1.7 etc). This
was probably at the time when he himself spent three years (Acts 20.31) living
and preaching the Gospel in Ephesus during his third missionary journey so that all
the Jews and Greeks who lived in
the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord.
Little trace remains of the three Phrygian towns (nearly in the centre of
modern
Turkey
), which were about 100 miles east of
Ephesus
, for they were destroyed many centuries ago in an earthquake.
Paul’s
compact circular letter is one of the four ‘captivity epistles’ (along
with Philemon, Philippians and Ephesians) but it is not clear to which
imprisonment the Apostle was referring. It
is probable that it was written after AD 60 and sent in the care of Tychicus,
its main purpose being to refute the heretical teaching that had crept into
the mainly Gentile church at
Colossae
. It seems that news had been brought to Paul in prison (? in
Rome
) that Gnosticism, which denied the uniqueness of Jesus Christ, was beginning
to take hold in the area and it was this that made it important for him to
spell out the true Gospel and its implications. Whereas the Gnostics preached
salvation for a few privileged people who were ‘in the know’ Paul was at
pains to make it clear that Christianity is for everyone everywhere. The basic
question the new teaching posed for Paul was: the significance and powers of
Christ as against the visible forces of the world.
Pagans
believed that God was so remote from their totally evil world as to make it
necessary for a whole hierarchy of angels to act as his intermediaries.
Jesus was just one among many. So the worship of angels, whose help men
needed, coupled with an extreme asceticism had begun to take root. But Paul
had to make it clear that Jesus is the sole mediator between God and mankind.
Chapter
1 must be one of the most important passages in the whole of the New
Testament. Having assured his
readers of his constant prayers and thanksgiving for them, Paul goes straight
to the heart of his theology with his assertion of the supremacy of Jesus
Christ in whom we have redemption (l.14).
He is the image of the
invisible God (1.15; 2.9
etc). By
him all things were created (1.16); God
was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him… (1.19).
Jesus is totally unique. The world and all orders in it owe their origin to
him. No other Pauline letter makes such great claims for Christ in so short a
space.
In
1.24 Paul speaks of the suffering that he shared with the Lord for the sake of
the Colossians and others, so that they might know the mystery of Christ
in you, the hope of glory
(1.27).
He summarises his own role and that of the Faith in 1.28,
We
proclaim him,
admonishing and teaching
everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.
Paul
exhorts his readers to continue
to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in
the faith as you were taught (2.6)
and to be on their guard against those who would lead them astray through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which
depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than
on Christ (2.8).
He then uses a series of vivid pictures to explain what Christ has done for
all who believe in him, and in chapter 3 he offers some moral teaching and
rules for Christian family life.
Chapter
4 presents further instructions, together with requests for prayer, and ends
with a series of greetings from Paul’s faithful companions who include Mark
and Luke, two of the writers of the four Gospels.
Philemon.
Even those scholars who have difficulty in accepting that Paul wrote
the letter to the Colossians are happy to acknowledge that the letter to
Philemon is perfectly genuine, for a forger would have had no motive for
penning this short, personal note which is of relatively little theological
importance. Written at the same time as Colossians, and also dispatched with
greetings from Paul’s companions, this private letter – the only one in
the New Testament – was delivered by Tychicus.
Philemon was a pillar of the church in
Colossae
and, like others, a slave owner. Onesimus was a runaway slave who had
apparently stolen property from his master and was, in consequence, liable to
severe punishment. However, he was both a convert and a valued helper of Paul.
So the Apostle writes not only to ask Philemon to receive his slave back
without punishment but also to welcome him as a fellow-believer, a brother.
The
value of the letter lies not merely in Paul’s plea for the forgiveness of a
slave but on the underlying concept that freedom in Christ overrules physical
slavery that should have no place in a Christian society.
St
Paul’s letter to the Ephesians (November,
2007)
by
Canon Desmond V Treanor
Towards
the end of his second missionary journey, and again on his third, Paul visited
Ephesus
, which at the height of its splendour, was the most important city in
Asia Minor
. He made his headquarters in this cultural centre for three years (Acts 20.31).
Not only was it on the most important trade route in the province, having a
large commercial harbour, but it also housed one of the wonders of the ancient
world, the great Temple of Artemis or Diane. From far and wide, visitors flocked
there with gifts for this ‘earth mother’, the embodiment of all fertility
goddesses. Today
Ephesus
’ colonnaded marbled road, partially restored temples, library, massive
theatre and Roman public toilets (!) stand unrivalled among the ancient sites of
Turkey
.
For
many, the letter to the Ephesians, which is one of the most doctrinal of all, is
Paul’s masterpiece. But the parallels between it and the letter to the
Colossians are evident. Indeed it has been suggested that it might well be read
as a meditation on Colossians 1.20 – 22. Scholars have pointed out no less
than 39 echoes of one short letter in the other.
For example, in the commendation of Tychicus in Ephesians (6.21 – 22)
only two Greek words out of 32 differ from that in Colossians (4.7 - 8). The
letter to the Ephesians does not begin with his customary personal greetings
(1.1 – 3; compare Colossians 1.1 – 2), nor does it contain any local
references. That is quite understandable since Paul had never visited
Colossae
, let alone lived there, but of course he knew
Ephesus
well and had many friends there, so such a formal, impersonal greeting is
surprising. Again there are at least
40 words in Ephesians, which Paul uses in no other letter, and the style of
writing is different also. For these reasons, and because of many similarities
(and differences) between this letter and Colossians, various theories have been
propounded as to who was its author and as to where and when it was written.
Tradition has it that Paul dictated the letter to the
Ephesians in Rome some time after 60 AD and that it was one of the three which
he wrote at that time, Colossians and Philemon being the other two. But most
modern commentators appear to have come to the conclusion that Ephesians, whose
tone is general and impersonal, was written by a disciple of Paul
rather than by the Apostle himself, and
that it was not specifically for one church, but was intended for
circulation throughout the Roman province of
Asia
. This suggestion is reinforced by the fact that the words in
Ephesus
(1.1) do not appear in several early manuscripts and from the beginning
of the 2nd century leaders like Ignatius and Polycarp (writing
from
Smyrna
) knew the letter. Marcion, writing in about AD 150, described it as ‘The
letter to the Laodiceans’. Interestingly however, they all believed that
Paul had written it!
The
first major section of the document (1.3 – 3.22) is concerned with the
ultimate purpose of God. The key verse of the letter is 1.10, to
bring all things in heaven and on
earth together under one head, even Christ. God has done great
things for us, but not simply for our sake. His ultimate purpose is to
reunite all conflicting forces in the world, and the Church is seen in the
light of this Divine purpose. It is Christ’s body.
In 2.5 the author speaks of salvation by grace
and in 2.19 of all believers
belonging to the same extended family. In Christ all barriers have been
broken down and the richness of Christian experience must not be made an
excuse for division.
The
second major section is specifically concerned with the role of the Church,
which is God’s instrument for accomplishing the ultimate unification of
Jews and Gentiles alike. He affirms that there is one body and one
Spirit… one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God
and Father of all…(4.4 - 6). So parents and children, masters
and slaves are all exhorted to live exemplary lives and to arm themselves
with the shield of faith, the helmet
of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God
(6.16 – 17) in order to resist the schemes of the devil.
Paul's Pastoral Epistles
(December, 2007)
by
Canon Desmond V Treanor
The
letters of Paul to Timothy and Titus are invariably known as ‘pastoral’
because they were written to men who had been appointed to care for certain
churches. Timothy, whose mother was a Jewish Christian and whose father was a
Gentile convert, was from Lystra, (in
modern Turkey) was chosen by Paul to help him on his second missionary journey. According
to tradition he was the first bishop of
Ephesus
.
Titus,
who was a Gentile, was another of Paul’s invaluable helpers. He accompanied
Paul on one of his visits to
Jerusalem
and worked with the church in
Corinth
, sorting out local problems and organising a collection for the poor in the
Mother
Church
in
Jerusalem. The final phase of his ministry was in
Crete
where he is still honoured as its first bishop. After his death he was
interred at Gortyna, the ancient capital of the island.
The
three ‘pastoral’ letters, unlike his other ten in our New Testaments, do
not blend into the historical framework of Paul’s journeys recorded in
Luke’s account of the Acts of the Apostles.
Acts ends with Paul’s first imprisonment in
Rome
for two years in his own rented house,
c. AD 62. The details of what followed between his release, re-arrest and
martyrdom are uncertain.
When he was freed Paul
may have gone south to Crete and left Titus (1.5) to appoint elders in every town before re-visiting the churches in
Asia Minor
(Philemon 22). Leaving Timothy in
Ephesus
he then returned to
Macedonia
and spent that winter in Nicopolis, on the western coast of Greece, along with Artemas or Tychicus (Titus 3.12). The Letter of Clement of Rome to the Corinthians (written in AD 96)
states that Paul travelled to Spain
(in the spring of AD 64?), as he had hoped to do, and Cyril of Jerusalem,
Chrysostom and Jerome are among the Fathers who support that tradition. But
there is no scriptural evidence for such a visit (though we learn from Rom.15.
23 and 28 that Paul had hoped to preach the Gospel there).
If he did visit Spain
he
may
have been there when Nero burnt the city of
Rome
in AD 64 which he blamed on the Christians and used as an excuse for
persecuting them.
Where
Paul was re-arrested no one knows but, again, he was imprisoned in
Rome
. This time, however, he was chained up in the dungeon of the Mamertine
prison in the centre of
Rome
, doubtless suffering from the cold and damp (bring
the cloak… 2
Tim.4.13). This second letter to
Timothy reads like the Apostle’s ‘last will and testament’, for he was
close to death. It was written,
in all probability, in AD 67.
The
short letters to Timothy and Titus were clearly intended for circulation and
they have been well described as ‘open letters to all preachers of the
gospel’. Their purpose is to strengthen the ministry of the Church, to
standardise its teaching and to check any deviations from the apostolic
faith that had been handed down to them. However it has
been argued by several scholars that the Apostle himself did not
write them or, if he did, that they were edited by his disciples after his
death. The type of ‘heresy’ which is denounced in these letters is a
more developed form of that which is attacked in Paul’s letter to the
Colossians, and this suggests a gap not of a year or two but of several
decades. Perhaps these letters were compiled from a number of notes which
the apostle had left? They
certainly express Paul’s mind. Salvation is achieved through Christ alone
and eternal life comes by committing oneself wholly to him.
Editor:
This is the last of the series on
St Paul
by Canon Desmond Treanor. We thank him most sincerely for his careful
research and clear exposition. Watch
out for his new series in the New Year.
Last updated on Sunday, 01 June 2008 by the Webmaster.
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