First John

John was the youngest of the apostles and the last to pass away.  He was especially close to Christ during His earthly ministry, and John refers to himself as the one “whom Jesus loved” in his gospel.  The relationship was strong enough that Jesus entrusted the young man with the care of His mother, Mary, as one of his last acts on the cross.

In this circular letter to the churches, John drops the opening and closing introductions and greetings common to the other epistles. He launches directly into his message.  I find three themes in this book: the incarnation of Christ and true spirituality, knowing the truth, and love.

The Incarnate Christ and True Spirituality

Christianity firmly asserts that Jesus Christ is God and at the same time that He was incarnated as a man.  He lived and died and was resurrected.  He wasn’t resurrected as spirit, he was resurrected bodily.  John adamantly reiterated that this is not only the doctrine of the church, it is something he witnessed personally.

This teaching has consequences for Christian living.  We are not pure, undefiled spirits residing in sinful, depraved bodies.  We are body and spirit together.   The actions we take with our bodies have spiritual consequences.  Likewise, if we are godly in our spirit, it will show in our actions.

John’s writings on this subject may be a reaction to Gnosticism.  It seems that teachers of some form of Gnosticism or some other beliefs were attempting to infiltrate the church.  They taught a strong duality between spirit and body, so that the spirit was pure, good, and untouchable, so one could do as they pleased in the body, which was inherently bad, lesser, and corrupt.  In their view, the resurrected Jesus was as spirit and shed the corruption of flesh to become pure.

Throughout the Bible, you will not find a concept that material is bad and spirit is good.  In Genesis, God called the material world he made good, along with everything, man, animal, plant, and mineral, in it.  Satan and the demons are spirits, but they are evil.  The Bible assures believers that they will be resurrected bodily, like Christ, and that their resurrected body will be everlasting, good, and incorruptible.

Knowing the Truth

Knowing the truth is a Christian’s defense against false teaching.  John writes a lot about knowing in this letter.  That knowing is founded in the revelation of Christ and in God’s Word.  We can know that we know God (Chapter 2).  We can know that we have a new, everlasting life in Christ (Chapter 3).  We can know that God loves us (Chapter 4).  We can know that God hears our prayers (Chapter 5).

Knowing the truth allows us to test ourselves, what we hear, and who we hear it from.  Do we affirm the gospel, including the divinity and bodily resurrection of Christ?  Do we strive to keep God’s commandments?  Do we recognize when we sin and repent?  Do we love others and act on that love?  Jesus Christ said we could know a tree by its fruit, and John is encouraging us to look around and see if the fruit of would-be teachers is good or not.

Love

John is sometimes called the “Apostle of Love.”  Love is a theme of all his writings preserved in the Bible (yes, even Revelation in my opinion).

God loves us and we should love Him.  If we are Christians, we will love Him.  If we love Him, we will obey Him (Jesus said if we love Him, we will keep his commandments).  If we love Him, we will love others, especially our brothers and sisters in the church (Jesus said we would be known know for our love for each other).  Love is the God’s response to us, even when we were sinful and far from him, as evidenced in the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Christ.  The appropriate response to Gods love is to love Him and love the others He loves.

John also wrote the Gospel of John.

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

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Hebrews

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

To my mind, Hebrews is one of the key books of the Bible.  Like Paul’s letter to the Romans, it ties together and gives context to other scripture.

The audience and authorship of this book are not made clear as is typical of most New Testament epistles.  Based on the subject and the many references to Old Testament scripture, it is clearly direct to an audience of Jewish Christians.  Early church leaders and scholars often attributed it to Paul.  Paul’s commission as apostle to the Gentiles might suggest another author, but Paul’s passion for his native people and thorough education in the Hebrew Scriptures point toward him as a likely author.

I find three major themes in Hebrews.  These are: the centrality of Christ and his fulfillment of the Mosaic covenant, how faith was central to salvation even before the Mosaic Law, and encouragement in Christian living.

CENTRALITY OF CHRIST

The first section of Hebrews focuses on Jesus Christ.  It makes the case for the divinity of Christ and His complete humanity in the incarnation.  As a perfect man, Jesus Christ fulfilled every requirement of the Mosaic Law.  This made him the perfect sacrifice for the sins of man.  In addition, because he is divine and eternal, his atoning sacrifice is likewise eternal.

This is not the only role Jesus Christ fills eternally.  He is the first and highest of mankind and exercises the dominion over creation God gave to man, but that we forfeited when we sinned (as God, He is lord of all also).  As the son of God, Christ had priority over Moses, even though as a man He submitted Himself to the law in loving obedience to the Father.  Christ is a priest of a higher order than the Levitical priesthood, namely a priest like Melchidezek to whom Abraham paid tithes and through him all his descendants including the Hebrew priests.

The law and sacrifices of earlier times were signs pointed to the Christ to come.  All of these things are fulfilled and completed in Him forever.  Where many sacrifices were made to temporarily cover ever mounting sins, Christ’s sacrifice suffices forever to remove all of our sins.  Where the priests entered the presence of God once a year, Christ is constantly in the presence of God making intercession for His people.

CENTRALITY OF FAITH

If Christ does all for our salvation and when no longer need to make sacrifices and observe the Mosaic Law, how do we realize this reconciliation through Christ and live morally?  The answer is faith in Christ.  Hebrews makes the argument that the answer has always been faith in God.

Hebrews makes the argument, drawing on many examples from the Old Testament, that God has forgiven the sins of and imputed righteousness to those who had faith in Him.  This predates Abraham, though for an audience of his descendants it is important in Abraham.  It predates Moses, though for an audience born into a religion base on Mosaic Law it is important in Moses.  Even after the law was given, it is faith that God rewarded because no one could live up to God’s perfect law.

The faithful people of the Old Testament looked forward by faith to a day when God would cleanse their sins, make them righteous, and completely restore their relationship to him.  Even in the time of the law, the sacrifices and observances were signs of the things God was going to do.  God’s provision for the cleansing of sin and the raising us to righteousness were completed in Christ, so we place our faith in Him.  They had faith what was to come, even if they didn’t fully understand it, and we have faith in what Christ has accomplished.

CHRISTIAN LIVING

To wrap up, Hebrews includes encouragement for the faithful.  We’ll face troubles just as those in the Old Testament did, but by faith we can overcome and see the day when God will make us perfect and bring us into His eternal kingdom.  In the meantime, the temporary troubles of this world are opportunities to imitate Christ and become more like Him, more holy in practice.  God is working through these  troubles to help and purify us.

As a result of Christ’s work in us, we should love one another.  This should be practical love, taking care of each other’s needs.  Instead of trying to live up to a law our sinful nature wars against, we put our faith in Christ and walk in humility and love.

If you’re interested in this book, you may be interested in the Old Testament, especially Genesis, Exodus, Joshua, Judges, Second Samuel, First and Second Kings, Second Chronicles, Jeremiah, and Daniel.  You may also be interested in other New Testament books, particularly the Pauline Letters and especially Romans.

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The Gospels

The Bible has four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. “Gospel” comes from an Old English word meaning “good news.” The gospels are the good news of the incarnation of Christ, the coming of God to save us from sin and death, to redeem us to Himself, and give us a new, eternal life. They are also biographies of Jesus, summarizing his deeds and sayings.

It may seem redundant to have four biographies of Jesus. Each Gospel emphasizes different aspects of Jesus, and together they give the reader a fuller picture of Him.

-Matthew, traditionally recognized as being written by that apostle, gives particular attention to demonstrations that Jesus is the Messiah, frequently referring to the Old Testament. Jesus had a masterful understanding of the Old Testament, as shown in Matthew’s record of the Sermon on the Mount.

-Mark focuses on Jesus’ miraculous deeds, proofs of His deity. It is the shortest of the four books.

-Luke pays particular attention to Jesus’ character and teaching ministry. It is thought to have been written with a Greek audience in mind, and that may make it more accessible to modern readers than the other gospels.

-John expresses a high Christology, showing Jesus’ claims to deity in His teaching and actions. John devotes more attention to the week leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion than the other gospels.

The gospels corroborate each other. In theological terms, this is referred to as the harmony of the gospels. Matthew, Mark and Luke, collectively called the Synoptic Gospels, track together particularly well.

Some have supposed that Matthew and Luke draw from Mark as a source, or that all have a common source in some unfound book. The more straightforward explanation is that found within the Bible that witnesses of Jesus’ life or their close associates authored the gospels. Matthew and John were followers of Jesus during his earthly ministry. Mark was a member of the early church and new the apostles and others who personally new Jesus. Luke claims to have been closely associated with the apostles and to draw on eyewitness accounts of the life of Jesus. Luke indicates that there were many written accounts of the life of Christ. History (supervised by God) preserved four books that were as authoritative very early by the church.

Calling the gospels biographies of Jesus may set up some false expectations for readers of modern biographies. Ancient biographies were often collections of a famous person’s sayings or a summary of their deeds (Mark is a good example of this); they were not necessarily chronological accounts of a person’s life. The gospels are somewhat chronological, but their middle parts may also be organized along other lines: teachings, miracles, deeds of high character, and other concepts.


If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Genesis
The Holy Bible
John
Luke
Mark
Matthew
Proverbs

The Gospel of Luke

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

The Gospel of Luke is one of the four brief biographies of Jesus’ earthly ministry found in the Bible. Each gospel has a different tone and focus, though Luke and the other Synoptic Gospels cover many of the same events. Luke takes on the tone of a journalist or biographer, setting out to write an “orderly account” of the life and ministry of Jesus. Luke doesn’t claim to have been a follow of Christ during the time covered in this book (unlike other gospel writers Matthew and John). He does indicate (in his other book, Acts) that he was a member of the early church and at different times a companion of Peter and Paul. He based his gospel on the eyewitness accounts of the Apostles and other early disciples he knew.

It’s hard to give Luke or other Biblical books a fair treatment in a few hundred words. Some characteristics of book distinguish it from the other accounts that are noteworthy to me.

Jesus as a person. More than the other gospels, I think Luke brings out the personality and character of Jesus. Luke shows Jesus to be wise, kind, patient, loving, generous, faithful and humble. Jesus is also strong, direct, determined, forceful, bold, tough and uncompromising. These may seem like incongruent sets of characteristic today, but Luke was presenting Jesus as the perfect man. The soft side of Jesus is attractive, but it would have done little good if he lacked the hardness to do what he did and demand what he demanded.

The place of women. All the gospels acknowledge that women were the first to witness the resurrected Jesus. Luke seems to give special attention to recognizing women among Jesus’ disciples both during his ministry and in the early church (in Acts).


Comprehensiveness and modernity. Luke set out to give a careful and reasonably full account of Jesus’ life. As you might expect, it covers Jesus’ teachings, but it also give a lot of attention his early childhood and throughout foreshadows, through Jesus’ own prediction, his death and resurrection. In these regards, it is more reads more like a modern biography than the other gospels.

First Peter

Peter was the most prominent apostle.  We find in the Gospels and other New Testament references to him that he is typically listed first, indicating his position.  The apostles and the early church looked to him as a leader.  In the Roman Catholic, the office of Pope originated with him.

Peter was not a perfect person.  Though he had received a vision showing that Gentiles would be part of the church, he did not move to proselytize them.  That is probably why we see the shift in attention in Acts from Peter to Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles.  Peter fell in with the Judaizers until Paul confronted him.

Though he had weaknesses like the rest of us, he was a bold and passionate man.  He was the first to say aloud that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God.  He stepped out of a boat to walk on the water with Jesus.

This letter is from a mature Peter.  To the passion of his youth he added gentleness and love.  Love is woven throughout the three themes of this letter to persecuted and scattered Jewish Christians: living before God, living before the world, and suffering.

Living Before God

As Christians, we have been bought out of the world and sin by the blood of Christ, who suffered and died to atone for our sins.  Because of this, we should be thoughtful imitators of Christ, seeking to be pure and love as He was pure and loving.  Instead of being dragged back into the sinful ways we practiced before, we should rely on the grace of God, exhibited in Christ, and do our best to do what is right, knowing we have help from above.

Living Before the World

Our relationship to God in Christ does not negate the importance of other relationships.  They are more important because God want to display uprightness, mercy and love through us.  Paul especially addresses relationships of authority and submission.  He reminds his readers to submit to authorities in government, work, and family.  The implication is that authorities should conduct themselves with similar uprightness, though we should do our best even if the authorities don’t.  Husbands are especially called out to treat their wives with understanding and honor.  In general, we should relate to others with compassion and courtesy.

Suffering

The people Peter wrote to were suffering.  They fled their homes because they were persecuted for their beliefs.  Peter says that if you must suffer, suffer for doing the right thing.  In fact, if you do the right thing you probably will suffer, because worldly people are more interested in satisfying there lusts and they will come against anyone who doesn’t go along.  In this, too, we can look to Christ as a model.  Christ endured suffering for a purpose, to save us and to glorify His Father.  Our suffering can also glorify God and purify us if we trust Him, continue to follow Him, and remember His faithfulness, for our suffering is temporary but our new life in Christ is forever.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Proverbs

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

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First Thessalonians

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

Paul covers several topics in this letter to the church at Thessalonica.  The main theme is that Jesus Christ will return and believers should be reassured in that fact.  He mentions the second coming twice before teaching about it in some detail.

Paul praises the church for their faithfulness and godly character in the face of persecution.  Their behavior was a sign to all of their faith in gospel of Jesus Christ.  They could bear troubles with patience because they new He is coming again and He had already rescued them from the judgment he will deliver on His return.

Part of the persecution the church face appears to involve attempts to discredit Paul and the gospel he taught.  He presents two defenses.  First was his conduct during his time in Thessalonica.  He did not try to take advantage of the people, but worked hard to take care of them.  Second, the proof of the gospel was the endurance and faithfulness of the people who believed it.  Paul concludes this section of his letter with another reference to the second coming, stating how much he will delight in them with the Lord at that time.

The letter was prompted in part by Timothy’s visit to Thessalonica and his report on the state of the church there.  Paul is encouraged by what he hears and encourages the Christians to continue in the faith.  It may seem disheartening that he reminded them to live lives of sexual purity, good order, and peace.  A glance around almost any church even today will show how much we need such reminders.

Before wrapping up, Paul gets deeper into the subject of the second coming.  First, he addresses the question of those who die before Christ’s returns.  Is that the end for them?  Will they not be with the Lord?  They though Christ might return in their own lifetime, and were concerned about Christian brothers who had passed away.  Paul reminded them of Christ’s resurrection, and taught that dead Christians would be brought back to life in the same way.  When He comes again, all of His people, alive and dead raised to new life, will join Him.  We don’t need to worry, those who God calls He will keep forever.

The other question about the second coming, one that people still ask, is: When will it happen?  Only God knows.  The rest of us will be caught by surprise.  For Christians, though, this is no cause for fear.  At any moment we could be with the One we long to be with, our God, our Savior, our Helper, with a kind of unveiled intimacy we have barely tasted.  In the meantime, we should live with faith, love, and hope as we have been called.

Paul’s message to these Christians, and by extension to us, is simple.  You believed the truth and God has saved you.  Keep living well.  Don’t worry.  Jesus Christ is coming and we will be with Him.

Paul also wrote

Colossians

First Corinthians

Galatians

Philippians
Romans
Second Corinthians

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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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Faith by Jimmy Carter

President Jimmy Carter is well known for his Christian faith. Excepting a handful of famous pastors, Carter is one of the few Americans who is known as a Christian almost as much as he is known for other things; this is especially extraordinary for a former president.

Faith is the title and subject of his recent book. He addresses religious faith, but other types of faith are important to him as well.

For instance, each person need faith in himself to take action with hope to achieve positive results. We need faith in each other to live, work and trade together peaceably.

We even need some degree of faith in government. If we hope to achieve the ultimate purposes of government, justice, equality under the law and peace, we have to believe it can be done. Especially in a republic we need to believe we can achieve these goals through our institutions, laws and the people we elect to represent us.

“A country will have authority and influence because of moral factors, not its military strength; because it can be humble and not blatant and arrogant, because our peple and our country want to serve others and not dominate others. And a nation without morality will soon lose its influence around the world.”-Jimmy Carter, Faith (quoting a speech he presented in 1978)

There are also personal goals that require faith. Justice and equality may be the highest goals we can expect from government, but we want more. If we also hope for love, humility, generosity and kindness, we need another kind of faith.

For many, including Carter, this is religious faith. We find in religion reasons to believe that things like love are real and worthy of pursuing, even if we don’t always get it right.

For Christians, this faith is founded on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the proof of God’s loving mercy and grace. It all starts with God, and we can hope to be better people through the empowerment of God and our grateful response to His love demonstrated in Jesus Christ. As Carter puts it, “It is not what we do for God that is important but what God does for us. Faith brings about good works, but doing good things does not result in faith."

For Carter, Jesus is worthy of consideration as an example of the ideal in human character. Being like Christ is being a better human being. As a Christian and Protestant, Carter believes he has a personal relationship with an ever-present Christ. The faith that underlies Carter’s career and achievements as a politician, philanthropist and peacemaker is that he does not walk alone, but he walks with a living Christ and with other believers who seek to follow Him and see His good will done in our time.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Defining Noah Webster by K. Alan Snyder

The Faith of JFK edited by T. S. Settel

God and Ronald Reagan by Paul Kengor

Hebrews

The Language of God by Francis S. Collins

Carter, Jimmy. Faith: A Journey for All. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018.

The Gospel of John

The Gospel of John. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

More than the other gospel writers, John emphasized the deity of Jesus--that Jesus is God. The other gospels contain this part of Jesus’ nature, but John stated it explicitly in his opening statement, which mirrors the opening of Genesis, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (NKJV).

After this introduction, John starts his biography of Jesus shortly before He started His opening, with the witness of John the Baptist to who Jesus is. Mark’s gospel begins at this point, too. This would have been an important testimony to John the Apostle because he was probably a follower of John the Baptist before he became a disciple of Jesus.

As Matthew lays out prophetic demonstrations that Jesus is the messiah predicted in the Old Testament, John presents a number of Jesus’ claims of deity. Other witness, most importantly God the Father and John the Baptist, a prophet, corroborate these claims. Other supporting testimony comes from Jesus’ disciples, His family and, surprisingly, evil spirits. His miracles and, ultimately, His resurrection provide additional support for His claims. In John and the other gospels, He is called the “Son of God” and this is clearly understood as a claim of equality to God; it was one of the charges against Him when He was sentenced to death.

Like the other gospels, John gives a lot of attention to the days leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus. The crucifixion is the central act of Jesus’ ministry, in which He suffers all the punishment and death we deserve so we no longer have to pay it and can become recipients of God’s mercy; it is the central act of God’s mercy.

John gives more attention to Jesus’ post-resurrection ministry than the other gospels. His death and resurrection becomes the basis of our reconciliation with God, and this is symbolized especially well in Jesus’ restoration of Peter, which ends the book. Outside the courtroom where Jesus’ was tried, Peter denied being one of His disciples. After His resurrection, Jesus sought out Peter and said, “Follow me,” just as He did when He first called he disciples.


The other gospels are referred to as the Synoptic Gospels because they offer synopses of Jesus’ life and because of the similarities in the material they cover. John covers some of the same material, chooses many episodes that aren’t covered elsewhere.

What may be most striking is that John expresses focuses on Jesus’ highest attribute, His deity, while at the same time presenting the most private and affectionate view of Him. Jesus showed his power over death by raising Lazarus, but He wept because his friend had to suffer death. John showed us Jesus writing on the ground with His finger before showing mercy to an accused adulteress. The apostle who explicitly called Jesus the creator of all things referred to himself as the disciple “whom Jesus loved,” as if they were best friends. It is a radical thing about John’s gospel, and about the teachings for Christianity, that the all-powerful, perfect, sovereign God, creator and judge of the universe, could love us with such tender affection that he could take on humanity and suffer a horrible death to save us and reconcile us to Himself.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Matthew
Mark
Luke
Other books of the Bible

General Epistles

The General Epistles are so called because most are addressed to the entire church. This is in contrast to the Pauline Letters, which are typically addressed to particular people or congregation. They are sometimes referred to as the Catholic Letters, catholic in this case referring to universal or for everyone.

These letters were written by different people at different times with somewhat different intentions. Even so, some common themes can be found in these books. Some themes that I observed are

-the importance of the Gospel taught by the apostles, and a defense against false teachers,

-that Christians should imitate the love and character of Christ,

-that helping others is a particularly important way to of practically emulating Christ, and

-encouragement for Christians, especially those who are suffering or persecuted.

The Gospel

The Gospel was central to the teaching of the apostles, as it is central to the church today. The writings of the apostles particularly emphasized the deity of Jesus Christ, His death on the cross for the atonement of our sins, and His bodily resurrection from the grave as proof of who He was and the authority of His teachings. Even in that first generation, the church was beset with people who tried to alter, twist, or reimagine God’s Word, putting aside the truth to suit themselves and their own agendas. These authors defend the Gospel against false teachers.

Character

Salvation involves an amazing transformation. It is also just the beginning of a life walking with God. God’s Word works in our minds, and the Holy Spirit works in our heart, to change us so we are increasingly more like Christ. The authors of these letters encourage believers to embrace this process and actively imitate Christ. If a person belongs to God, their character will show it, and it will show more as they mature.

Helping Others

One of the most practical ways to show what Christ is like, and to imitate him, is to help other. The authors of these letters encourage Christians to help the widowed, orphaned, hungry, imprisoned and oppressed, especially if there is a fellow Christian in need.

Encouragement

People suffered in the First Century, even as they do today. Christians in those days sometimes faced active persecution. Even where they were tolerated, their new beliefs and behaviors sometimes brought them into painful conflict with family and friends. The writers of these letters encouraged them to stick with the truth. God is with them and will help them overcome. Often it is the character of believers, especially the way they behave in suffering, that is the testimony that touches the heart of a love-one or even a stranger in a way that eventually brings them to Christ.

The General Epistles are

-James,

-First and Second Peter,

-First, Second and Third John, and

-Jude.

If you’re interested in reading these books, you may also be interested in reading

Deuteronomy

Exodus

Genesis

The Gospels

Gospel of John

Hebrews

Leviticus

The Most Effective Organization in the U.S. by Robert A. Watson & Ben Brown

Pauline Letters

Proverbs

The Holy Bible

It is hard to do the Bible justice in a few pages. In this review, I’ll only attempt to provide an outline. In particular I’ll discuss

-the major themes of the book,

-its major division, and

-the types of literature you’ll find in it.

THEMES

The primary theme of the Bible is the relationship between God and man. It’s a broken relationship. The authors of the various books address this in many ways. A couple of metaphors they use that I find particularly compelling are that of a marriage or a parent-child relationship. In these analogies, mankind is depicted as a cheating wife or a child who has run away to a destructive life. God is depicted as the faithful, loving husband or father who is reaching out to redeem, rescue and reconcile the one he loves.

God’s character is on display throughout the Bible. He is just and righteous, and his character is the foundation of morality. He also has great love and mercy. Fortunately, all of these traits are perfectly harmonized in God and shown to man in Jesus Christ. For those who have faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit works from within to recreate this character in them.

DIVISIONS

The major divisions of the Bible are the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament was written before the coming of Christ. It describes the fall of mankind into sin and God’s work to reconcile mankind to Himself with a focus on how this occurs in the formation (and eventual fall) of ancient Israel. The New Testament describes the coming of Christ and the establishment of the church, which is a fulfillment of the promises of God described in the Old Testament.

The major division of the Old Testament are

-history,

-writings, and

-prophets.

The historical books describe the history of man as a moral being, beginning with the fall into sin, and the God’s plan to save man worked out over time. As this plan unfolds, the history increasingly focuses on the Israelite kingdom. The writing are a set of poetic books. The prophets focus on a period of time leading to the ultimate decline of ancient Israel and predict the coming for Christ.

The New Testament can be roughly divided into

-the gospels, and

-the epistles.

The gospels describe the life of Christ and (in the related book of Acts) the establishment of the church. The epistles are message to the church that often deal with the practicalities of living the life Christ called his believers to live.

TYPES OF LITERATURE

The Bible is an assembly of many books, and there are many types of literature in each book. While the highly symbolic language of parts of the Bible get a lot of attention in some circles, most of it is written in a straightforward style. For instance, a lot of the Old Testament is historical narrative and a lot of the New Testament is letters from the apostles to the churches. Poetry is also commonly used. When reading the Bible, it’s important to know if the part your reading is a narration of events, a parable, a poem, or some other literary form.

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

Revelation

Revelation is a difficult book to understand. It has much symbolic and apocalyptic language, and I am far removed from the time and culture in which it was written. I’m not going to clear it up in a few hundred words.

Even so, I’d like to offer a perspective on the book. It seems to me that Revelation is a source of a lot of fear and confusion. So much of the Bible is intended to encourage and edify believers that it is clear to me that fear and confusion are not the intent of the Apostle John or God in the writing of Revelation. As a believer wrestling with this part of God’s Word, however you may feel, do not be afraid.

I’ve seen and heard television and radio program focused on Bible prophecy, particularly Revelation. Some seem particularly alarming or sensational, and others seem to shoehorn current events into a particular interpretation of Revelation and Bible eschatology. Rarely have these programs increased my understanding. Eschatology is important; God addressed the end times, and we should do our best to understand what He said. However, we are not all called to be experts on eschatology, though we are all called to be imitators of Christ.

Some parts of Revelation are easy to understand. In the second and third chapters, Jesus Christ delivers through John messages to seven churches in Asia. Though written to those churches, it is still for us.  Christ’s encouragement and criticisms serve as a mirror into which Christians and churches can still can look to see themselves and how they are.

There are a few other things in Revelation that are plain, especially in light of straightforward teaching found elsewhere in the Bible. Jesus Christ will return. He will judge all the people from all of time; as believers we are already assured of God’s mercy and can expect a much different type of judgment that the one facing those who refused God and continued in their sins. We will all be bodily resurrected; God’s people will be resurrected in transformed, incorruptible bodies to live in God’s presence in a purified and remade creation forever.

Even though it is difficult, I encourage you to read Revelation. It is okay if you can’t understand it all. Ask God to help you understand. Read other books of the Bible; you may be surprised by how they can illuminate Revelation.

John also wrote

The Gospel of John

First John

Second John

Third John

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

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Galatians

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

The church at Galatia was another founded among the Gentiles by Paul. The apostle kept up with the churches, revisiting and corresponding with them, and sent to them letters, like the one we call Galatians, to encourage and correct his fellow believers.

As with his other letters, Paul encouraged the church to stay true to the Gospel as they were taught by faithful messengers, firstly himself. There were people and sects who were trying to reshape Christianity in their own fashion. The same is true today. Paul defended the received faith.

The particular group active in Galatia are called Judaizers. They sought to institute Mosaic Law in the church, especially amongst the new Gentile believers. This included all manner of laws, ceremonies and traditions. The primary practice, symbolic of them all, was circumcision.

To strengthen their case, the Judaizers attempted to undermine Paul. Paul devoted part of his letter to defending his authority and teachings. The main point is this: Paul taught the same Gospel that the other apostles taught and he taught with the approval of the other apostles, though he did not necessarily need it. In addition, the point on circumcision in particular was long settled among the apostles.



As far as I know, advocates of circumcision for religious purpose aren’t active in or around the church today. There are major religions that have borrowed superficially from Christianity to build religions of laws that depart from the Gospel of grace. The Jehovah’s Witnesses and Latter Day Saints come to mind, though they both depart from orthodox Christianity on almost every major point. Even working within the church are those who teach some kind of law or ethic that binds men with hardly a meaningful mention of the liberating grace of God.

Paul sets up this contrast in his letter: law or grace. It depends on us or it depends on God. God’s law is perfect, as is His justice. Imperfect and sinful Christians can’t keep even a portion of the law and can’t compare to the spotless character of God. A person who looks to the law will only find himself condemned by it. The purpose of the law is to push us to the grace and mercy of God, which is revealed in full in Jesus Christ.

The hymn “Jesus Paid it All” sums up the idea of grace. Jesus fulfilled the law, so in Him, the faithful are no longer condemned by the law, but they are made righteous in God’s sight. In Jesus, we are remade as children of God and given God’s Spirit. As children and heirs of God’s, we are not bound, constrained, and coerced by laws. Instead, we are free to live a new life, quickened by a new Spirit, and having faith in the unshakable work of God and not our flimsy works under the law.

Though the Judaizers attempted to undermine Paul’s teaching as aberrant, he shows himself to be both true to the Gospel and a master of scripture. His arguments are substantially founded on exposition of the Old Testament.

Paul presents the question to the church. If we can trust God, having faith in Christ that He has worked out everything to save us from the destruction of sin and gave us a new life of liberty, why on Earth would we trust ourselves to somehow earn God’s approval by submitting ourselves to laws we don’t keep except though self-delusion? If we truly believe the Gospel, how could anything else turn our heads?

Paul also wrote
First Corinthians
Romans
Second Corinthians

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Acts
Genesis
The Gospels
The Pentateuch

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