The letters

Letters to a church

From Romans to Jude, many books of the New Testament are letters. Paul, Peter, James and John wrote to real churches and people, answering what they were going through and what they asked. So we look inside a letter for the occasion that prompted it. In 1 Corinthians Paul says that "some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you" (1 Corinthians 1:11), and he rebukes their party slogans, one claiming Paul, another Apollos or Cephas (1 Corinthians 1:12). In chapter 7 he begins, "Now for the matters you wrote about" (1 Corinthians 7:1), and later opens new subjects the same way: "Now about food sacrificed to idols" (8:1), "Now about spiritual gifts" (12:1). We hear one side of a conversation, and infer the questions from the answers with care. The church at Corinth and its city are in the lesson on 1 Corinthians.

Read a letter whole, at one sitting if you can. Its first hearers gathered and heard it read aloud. Paul tells the Colossians, "After this letter has been read among you, make sure that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans" (Colossians 4:16). Memorise one verse on its own, and you can easily lose the train of thought it came from.

Following the train of thought

Connecting words are signposts in a letter, and "therefore" above all. For eleven chapters Romans tells of God's grace and salvation; then it breaks into praise of the depth of God's wisdom and knowledge and ends, "To Him be the glory forever! Amen" (Romans 11:36). The very next verse goes on:

Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

Romans 12:1

The call to a new life stands on the teaching of grace. Matthew Henry, the English pastor, notes that the apostle, "having closed the part of his epistle wherein he argues and proves various doctrines which are practically applied, here urges important duties from gospel principles" Matthew Henry. Ephesians, too, spends three chapters on the blessings given in Christ, then turns: "As a prisoner in the Lord, then, I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling you have received" (Ephesians 4:1). The flow of Romans is traced further in the lesson on Romans.

Read Philippians 2 the same way. In verses 1 to 4 Paul urges the church to do nothing out of selfish ambition, but in humility to consider others more important than themselves. Then he grounds the call in what Christ has done:

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross.

Philippians 2:5-8

One Greek verb, phroneō, comes twice in verse 2 and once in verse 5, tying the mind Paul asks of the church to the mind of Christ Jesus: the BSB's "like-minded" in verse 2 (v. 2) and "this mind" in verse 5 (v. 5). Christ's way goes down, from equality with God to the form of a servant, and down to death on a cross. Then at verse 9 it turns: "Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place" (Philippians 2:9), so that every tongue will "confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:11). This humiliation and exaltation is, before it is an example, the work of the Lord who saves us. In this passage, Henry writes, "we see such motives to self-denying love as nothing else can supply" Matthew Henry. The church at Philippi and its circumstances are in the lesson on Philippians.

What is for all, and what was for then

Most of what the letters teach is for the church of every age. But some instructions answer the needs of one time and place. So we ask what principle an instruction serves, and whether its ground lies in creation and the gospel or in local circumstances. The Westminster Confession of the Presbyterian churches says that there are some circumstances of worship and church government, common to human actions and societies, ‘which are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word, which are always to be observed’ ch. 1.6. Yet what is an abiding rule and what is a circumstance is not always easy to tell.

1 Corinthians 11:2-16 is such a place. Paul writes about a woman who "prays or prophesies with her head uncovered" (1 Corinthians 11:5). Christians read what this asks of us today in different ways. A number of churches and believers, among them the Amish and conservative Mennonites of the Anabaptist tradition, note that Paul grounds his teaching in the order of creation and adds "because of the angels" (v. 10), and they keep the covering of women's heads in prayer and worship as an abiding practice.

Many churches hold that the principle Paul teaches here is for all times, but that the head covering was its sign in the customs of Corinth, and may take another form today. They differ in turn on what that principle is: an order of man and woman, or their distinction and the seemliness of worship (Does the Bible put women down?). Others point to verse 15, "long hair is given to her as a covering" (v. 15), and read the passage as being about the hair itself. All three readings seek to follow Paul's aim: to honour God in worship and to honour one another.

Try it

Open Philippians 2 on the map. In the map under the Jesus tab, open Philippians and tap chapter 2: it has a ‘One-line summary’ and ‘Notes’. Philippians has four chapters, so first read the whole letter at one sitting.

Write down the flow of verses 1 to 11. Begin from the ‘Therefore’ of verse 1, and set the call of verses 2 to 4 apart from its ground in verses 5 to 11: ‘vv. 2-4: consider others more important’, ‘v. 5: the ground is Christ Jesus’.

Trace Christ's way. Note the steps down in verses 6 to 8 and God's exalting him in verses 9 to 11, and keep as a question how they connect with the call of verses 3 and 4. Then put the whole chapter into a one-line summary.

Practice