Preamble to the Letters
Greeks thought they were the most logical and rational people on earth. But when they ordered the bible books, their logic seems most illogical. It looks like they grouped the books into categories, then each category from largest to smallest book. This is certainly not helpful when we come to these letters, especially when we try to see the thoughts in God’s mind, or even watch Paul’s maturing as a Christian. So how should we look through these books? Paul progressed in his Christian faith and ministry, as anyone else would. His concerns change as the Churches changed. His advice changed as the Churches matured or met new challenges. When you teach a child to ride bike you start with stabilizers but when they have learned to steer and peddle, you can take the stabilizers off and concentrate on balance and road sense. Jumping around in Paul’s letters while they are out of chronological order gives us the impression he just went with the moment.
If the Old-Testament concentrated on the nation of Israel and its mission, the New-Testament concentrates on the Church and its mission. It is not about the kingdom of God for itself, it is about staying in tune with God as He fulfils His purposes on the earth through the Church. Two key verse must be taken in conjunction throughout the scriptures:
‘Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven129
No one has gone up to heaven except the Son of Man, who came down from there.130
The New-Testament is not about Church Strategy as some would like us to believe. Doing things by the same method as the early church is not ‘good strategy’. Seeing the way the early church discerned the mind of God, is far more profitable than trying to do things the way they did things back then. It is about God’s strategy as revealed by the Holy Spirit. Only Jesus who came down from heaven has full insight as to what goes on in Heaven. All we know is what He told us. Progressing through the book of acts shows us, when the early church made mistakes, the hand of God brought it back into line. But it did so only because the early church had the flexibility to allow Him to do so. It was never a case of, ‘try it and see’.
We might use different metaphors for it, ‘Preparing the bride for her groom’, or, ‘Inviting guests to the banquet’, but at heart, it is about God longing for the day when Heaven and Earth are united under the Kingship of Christ. From the day God expressed his desire to come and dwell among his people, first to Adam, then to Moses in the wilderness, we meet an obstacle, His pure Holiness and our sinful nature. Moses tried the elaborate separation by the rituals and procedures of the temple, but we left the Old-Testament with Zechariah seeing the Glory of God leaving the Temple, and we enter the New-Testament with the destruction of the temple altogether in seventy AD. Joel prophesied the weeping over it131 and Josephus records the fulfilment of it132. Even today the Jews line up in thousands to weep at the remaining wall. That barrier was broken down in the New-Testament when the Holy Spirit came upon the people, and they fulfilled two conditions; they met together to discern the Holy Spirit, and they obeyed the Holy Spirit. David’s cry ‘Take not your Holy Spirit from me’, is just as relevant today as it was then.
We are dealing primarily with the present heaven and present earth. One day we are promised a new Heaven and a new earth, but not until the purpose of present time is fulfilled. Then we will have new bodies to suit the new heaven and new earth. In the meantime God’s overriding heart is to see those who share His passion for the reconciliation of Heaven and Earth in this present age.
We saw the heart of God while we skimmed through the gospels. The parable of the prodigal son is, at base level, about the heart of God. He longs to see, not only the lost son returning, but also the heart of the older son rejoicing within the Family, Both sons needed to understand, the father’s heart is to reconcile the whole family. It is not about a reluctant son waiting for his inheritance but a father rejoicing at the prospect of reconciliation to the family in both his sons.
Even if we only see the parable of the sower as sowing seed, it is not just on good ground. Jesus was just as delighted when he saw the struggling seed in cracks or crannies, along the road. He saw a different dimension of the Holy Spirit. Sowing seed is not a work Christians do, it is the fruit of a Christian, naturally dropping seed where they walk. The seed will drop, be it in a nutritious field, or the crack in the path, dropping seed cannot be helped if the pilgrim is maturing in Christ no matter where he or she is happens to be. Now that is the root of New-Testament Strategy.
Again, the parable of the lost coin is not just about seeking the coin that was lost, it is about the sweeping and dusting of the environment to let the light in so seed can grow. If the Church is doing its job properly, while God is seeking the lost, the Church is sweeping the floor, letting light shine in dark places. But as we shall see, there are times when the Church syncretizes with the world and allows the world to muddy the windows. Again the parable of salt that has lost its saltiness. When Jesus told that parable, He was by the Dead Sea where they would collect the salt, extract the minerals for fertilizer and discard the remainder on the roads as filling between bigger stones. Paul warn believers you lose saltiness by stepping out of line with the Holy Spirit.133
In the book of Acts, we will see this is not an automatic trait in a Christian to keep in step with the Holy-Spirit, that has to be learned. The leadership of the Apostles was not primarily about holding a church together, Primarily it was about discerning the Holy Spirit and teaching Church to do the same. That is why Peter is hard on church members. Ananias and his wife Sapphira, or other such members that Paul hands over to Satan are part of the learning curve for the whole church134. I suspect today, we would rather keep the membership numbers up under the modern notion of the term ‘God is love’. God was love then too but his love was not an excuse for church syncretization.
With that in mind I have rearranged some letters of Paul into chronological order. Hopefully it will take our mind off the controversies about, ‘what Paul really meant here …’, to concentrate on, ‘What is God doing here through his Holy Spirit’?
We are left with one other matter helpful to understanding the general letters. Peter, Paul, James and John hold to a similar structure which holds true to the general letters.
After the common courtesy introduction135 and a recognition of those to whom the letter is sent, there follows a doctrinal basis on which the reason for writing rests. Too often, what follows that, is viewed as a list of behaviour changes the writer expects the reader to work on. If you come out of church after the sermon, thinking the preacher has just given you another set of things to put right in your life, the preacher has failed. These letters were never meant to have chapters and verses, they were meant to be read from start to finish, aloud among the congregations136. That is how the early church received them. To take the verses from the second half of a letter without explaining the doctrinal base in the first half, can give rise to the misunderstanding that these are required works on our part. Not So! These are fruits of the spirit that grow out of the doctrines explained in the first half of the letter.
To pick one example, one-Corinthians-thirteen is held to be a chapter about love. So it may be, if taken out of the context of the whole, In the context of the letter Paul is talking about growth in the kingdom of God. It is about a comparison of the two kingdoms. Love is one fruit that underpins, but there is also hope and faith which are dealt with within the context. All three working together bring about natural kingdom growth. But, each term needs to be explained within the context. Paul’s short sermon comes in chapter-two and it is entitled, ‘The mystery of the power and wisdom of God’. It is about being born again, into the Kingdom of God. The letter compares and contrasts the understanding of two Kingdoms.
129 Matthew 6: 10.
130 John 3: 13 .
131 Joel 1: 13.
132Antiquities of the Jews — Book XI
133 1 Thessalonians 5:19– 22 ; Romans 15: 13, 1 Corinthians 12: 7 ; Romans 8:15–16; Galatians 4:4–7
134 1 Corinthians 5: 5 ; 1 Timothy 1: 20
135 The writers name is at the beginning to save unwinding the scroll to see who it from then rolling it back up.
136 Sermons were not the expected form of early assembly but a scriptural reading followed by the appropriate explanation from the Didache , Mishnah or Talmud. Paul’s letters were treated in this way,