Pauline Letters

The apostle Paul wrote most of the New Testament.  His letters to the early churches mix doctrine, biography, advice, and personal messages.  Paul was Jewish and belonged to a sect of zealots called the Pharisees.  He was an up-and-comer with a prestigious education and leadership roles beyond what was typical for a man his age.  He prosecuted the early church, especially congregations of Jewish converts to Christianity.  He gave it all up, though, after having a vision in which he was confronted by Jesus Christ and he eventually became a missionary and apostle to the Gentiles, planting churches in Europe and Asia.

Several themes recur in Paul’s letters.  Some of these are: the Gospel and doctrinal purity, Christian living, and relationships.

The Gospel

Paul was a preacher of the Gospel.  He frequently reminded people to remember and stick to the Gospel he taught with directness and simplicity.  There were a lot of false teachers who taught alternatives, often to draw followers and enrich themselves.  In Paul’s teaching, everything depended on Christ and what He accomplished through His life, death and resurrection; nothing could be added or subtracted from it.

Of course, some tried to add or subtract.  Some of the teachings Paul opposed were Judaizers, Gnostics, and legalism.  Judaizers proposed that to be Christian, one must be Jewish first.  This included conversion to Judaism, including circumcision, and observance of the law of Moses.  According to the Gospel, everything needed was satisfied in Christ.  The Gnostics came from the tradition of mystery religions, taught “secrets” and proposed a Christ who was resurrected as a spirit.  Paul would have none of that either.  The Gospel was plain and all significant events of Christ’s life for our salvation were publicly known, including his physical resurrection.  Both of these groups touched to some degree on legalism.  People wanted to establish rules to live by, either to control people or to aggrandize themselves or to suggest people had a part in their own salvation.  Paul’s Gospel asserted that Christ is all, His sacrifice atoned for our sins and His power in us enables us to do good.

Christian Living

If Christianity wasn’t about following rules, how were we to live?  Could we do whatever we wanted?  Of course, it is silly to think that God would save us from our sins just so we could do whatever evil came to us.  It was equally naïve to think we could, on our own, live up to any rule that is truly pure and perfect.

Instead, a Christian life should be typified by love, humility, gratitude, and obedience to God.  We are to honor Christ our rescuer by imitating Him.  This isn’t to win his favor, but to return the love He showed us and express gratitude for the mercy we did not deserve.  Christ empowers us to live in a new way, knowing Him and doing good instead of sinning and becoming more estranged from God.

Relationships

One of the most important ways we can show our love for God and be Christ-like is in our relationships with others.  Paul wrote about all kinds of relationships: marriage, parent-child, employer-employee (in those days sometimes master-slave), and fellow in the church.  We should treat others with the love, kindness and generosity that Christ shows to us, especially in the church.

The Pauline Letters appear in most Bibles generally from longest to shortest: Romans, First Corinthians, Second Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, First Thessalonians, Second Thessalonians, First Timothy, Second Timothy, Titus, and Philemon.  First and Second Timothy, Titus and sometimes Philemon are called the Pastoral Letters because Timothy and Titus were young pastors.

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Philippians

Philippians.  The Holy Bible.  New King James Version.  Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Compared to some of Paul’s other letters, his message to the church at Philippi jumps all over the place.  Sadly, his more focused an organized letters are organized so out of the necessity of providing teaching and correction to troubled churches.  Happily, the Philippians seemed to need little of this.  Paul writes this letter mostly to share news and encourage a church he had not visited in years.

Paul founded the church in Philippi, a city in what is now Greece, possibly the first European church.  Early on, they had been supporters of his mission, though it appears they had not been in contact for several years.

The arrival of Epaphroditus, a messenger from the Philippian church, prompted Paul to write.  They had heard of his imprisonment and hardships and, though they had long been out of contact with the planter of their congregation, they wanted to take care of him.  Paul doesn’t say what they sent, but it seems that Epaphroditus spent some time in Rome seeing to Paul’s needs before Paul sent him back with Timothy and this letter.

The only note of correction in the book is and admonishment to be humble.  He also wanted a couple of prominent women in the church to settle their differences.

Much of the letter is encouragement.  Paul encourages the Philippians to continue faithfully in the Gospel, assured of their home in heaven.  In spite of his troubles, Paul is joyful and he wants them to be full of joy, too.  He praises their generosity.

A special point of joy is that the Gospel was advancing.  Paul was happy to endure imprisonment because it gave him opportunity to preach the Gospel.  Even people working in Caesar’s palace had become Christians.

The reason for all of this is Christ.  The salvation, assurance, and power to live a new life, for the Philippians and all believers to this day, are from Jesus Christ.  The best a man be on his own is little compared to the perfect righteousness of Christ, which God freely imparts to us His gift.  The temporary hardships of this life, with which Paul was very familiar, were nothing compare to the eternal joy and perfection God has in store for His people.

In many of his letters, Paul opposes those who preach something other than the Gospel.  Often it was Judaizers, but it was sometimes Gnostics or others who would twist the Gospel into something else.  He strongly objected to teachers of false doctrine.  In this letter, though, he mentions people who preach the Gospel for selfish reasons—even to hurt him.  This doesn’t seem to bother him much, his main concern being that the truth of Christ be proclaimed.

Paul also wrote

First Corinthians

Galatians
Romans
Second Corinthians

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