Category: Epistles – Is his letter to our church?

Epistles ἐπιστολή or Letters

I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read to all the holy brethren.

Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians

FEATURED SERIES

JUNE 2024 – 2025 —

1 CORINTHIANS

First letter after ACTS of the Apostles:

Epistle of Paul to the Romans Church

Letters – Is he writing to me?
The short answer: YES.

In their epistles or 1st century church letters the Apostles and other men sent out by Jesus build up the saints [small – ‘s’] or members of local first century churches.

A Disciple or other witness of JESUS would write it. Messengers then delivered these church letters to many isolated worshipers.

Followers of Jesus Christ receive these letters as a major encouragement to their personal faith. Then leaders read them to worshipers of their church.

Although the Epistles 0r Letters to the Church were originally written to churches of the first century,

Romans through Jude will seem like letters to your 21st century church.

What do Peter, Paul, John and others tell us we must do?
Is he talking about an issue in your 21st c. church as well?
How does the writer’s advice, warning, or encouragement to the 1st c. believers apply to you as well
Is the writer of this letter talking about something you need to address in your 21st century ‘christian’ life?

Contemporary Application of the Letters (Epistles)

Most New Testament writers take on specific issues confronting faithful followers of Jesus Christ. These same issues continue to confront believers until the Lord’s coming again in these last days.

Certainly Christ our Lord will come again to those God has chosen for eternal life.

Believers currently suffer more than most of you who know Christ in your local church can imagine.

In other lands Christians continue to suffer by the hand of the ungodly.
Go into all the world

A 21st century Common Era church can see and hear nearly any atrocity of man or artificial imagination of sinful man’s mind, yet ‘christians‘ dare not speak of any absolute truth of the Lord God or talk of JESUS CHRIST.

Will YOU comment on Scripture and share the Gospel?

I invite you to read the inspired word of Scripture written in these LETTTERS TO THE CHURCH.

YES, He IS writing to YOU.

Beloved brother or sister in Christ Jesus,

Will you read this ‘CHURCH LETTER’ and talk of JSUS through your comment, sharing and email to me about this ‘Letter to you?”

Roger@talkofJesus.com

To have and to hold Christian Love
Dearly beloved, Paul writes earlier – a greeting of agape love NOT inappropriate for a marriage, but the Apostle’s intent in this section addresses spiritual gifts and love of the CHURCH specifically.

we have the mind of Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:16 KJV

ἔχω – echō
- to have, i.e. to hold
- to have i.e. own, possess
So think of it this way:

WE (referring to the Church) hold the mind of Christ. And WE possess the mind of Christ as HIS body, the Church.
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AND, of course, don't miss this application to our vows of Christian marriage as well, (not to mention our relationship to a dearly beloved local church family). 
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Do our marriage vows model a Common Era witness of christianity to an uncommitted world? 
 
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to HAVE and to HOLD

used of those joined to any one by the bonds of natural blood or marriage or friendship or duty or law etc., of attendance or companionship

Strong’s G2192 – echō

Dearly beloved,

Do you take this bond of your church (etc.) to:

have and to hold?

OR do WE just want to try out relationships of LOVE and church es — NOT having or holding any commitment to Christ Jesus and His body the Church?

But because of sexual immoralities, each man is to have^G2192 his own wife, and each woman is to have^G2192 her own husband.

Paul has already pointed the Corinthians to a higher standard.

Abide in Marriage, Singleness and Christ – 1 Corinthians 7

Yet HERE the Apostle continues to apply this love to the body of the CHURCH.

So what is this agape LOVE?

The Lord Jesus had warned those who would follow:

And because iniquity shall abound, the love G26 of many shall wax cold.

Matthew 24:12 KJV

The Apostle had opened this section by listing what agape LOVE is NOT.

Love’s clear contrasts in the love of believers
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Paul now proceeds to list a few of the insufficient adjectives which describe the love of God in Christ Jesus - both what LOVE is and what agape LOVE is NOT. 
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Love Charity
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◄ 1 Corinthians 13:4 ►
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- is patient
  - long-spirited
  - forbearing
  - suffereth long
  - is long-suffering,
- is kind
  - gentle
  - gracious
  - benevolent
  - desires to do good to others
- does not envy
  - zeloi or jealousy
  - burn with zeal
  - 1 Cor 3:3
- does not boast
  - brag
  - vaunt itself
  - employ rhetorical embellishments in extolling one’s self excessively
- is not proud.
  - puffed up
  - inflated with self-importance.
  - arrogant
  - 1 Corinthians 5:2
◄ 1 Corinthians 13:5 ►
- Doth not behave itself unseemly
  - behave rudely
  - act unbecomingly
  - dishonor others
  - is not disrespectful
  - or inconsiderate.
- It is not self-seeking
  - seeketh not her own
  - himself, herself, itself, themselves
- is not easily provoked
  - irritable
  - resentful
  - angered
  - gets annoyed
  - aroused to anger
- thinketh no evil
  - does not keep an account of a wrong suffered
  - no record of being wronged
  - love that forgives and forgets
◄ 1 Corinthians 13:6 ►

it does not rejoice at wrongdoing,

but rejoices with the truth.

1 Corinthians 13:6 ESV
- ἀδικία – wrongdoing
  - injustice, of a judge
  - unrighteousness of heart and life
  - a deed violating law and justice, act of unrighteousness
The Greek word for “truth” is “aletheia,” which signifies not only factual accuracy but also sincerity and integrity.

In the biblical narrative, truth is often associated with God’s character and His revelation to humanity.

John 14:6

source: BibleHub Study Bible

Agape rejoices with the truth;

It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

1 Corinthians 13:7 BSB
- It always protects,
  - always trusts,
  - always hopes,
  - always perseveres.
- Love never gives up,
  - never loses faith,
  - is always hopeful,
  - and endures through every circumstance.
ἀγάπη agapē never fails,

1 Corinthians 13:8a
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And again, the Apostle's list and concern is for spiritual gifts.
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If I.. How NOT to worship

BUT..
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Paul continues, 
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- As for prophecies,
  
  they will pass away;
- as for tongues,
  
  they will cease;
- as for knowledge,
  
  it will pass away.
- 9 For we know in part
- and we prophesy in part,
- 10 but when the perfect comes,
  
  the partial will pass away.
1 Corinthians 13:8b-10 ESV
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And let's not forget, the Apostle's instruction to the Corinthians is to contrast these to our agape love in Christ as His body the Church. 

Now Paul, their teacher for a year and a half concludes his settling of their differences by essentially telling the Corinthian saints to:
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Grow up!

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child;

but

when I became a man, I put away childish things.

1 Corinthians 13:11 NKJV

Have YOU, dearly beloved, 21st century saint?

For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face.

Now I know in part,

but then I shall know just as I also am known.

1 Corinthians 13:12 NKJV

Take a look in the mirror

TalkofJesus.com post [2 min.] from September 11, 2013

and now abide
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νυνὶ δὲ μένει
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menō – not to depart
- to continue to be present
- to be held, kept, continually
to remain as one, not to become another or different
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These are just a few of the meanings when the Apostle pleas with his beloved church to have and to hold Christ -- the love of God for saints chosen to abide in the love of the Lord. 
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What Paul writes here sounds like a benediction — a closing thought. But is not since the Apostle has more to say about spiritual gifts.

And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love [ἀγάπη agapē].

1 Corinthians 13:13 NKJV
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NEXT: (with an interruption for Lent 2025 CE) in chapter 14 the Apostle Paul will conclude this section of his epistle on order in worship and spiritual gifts.
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Comment on Scripture + Share the Gospel
March 4, 2025
If I.. How NOT to worship
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, …

Modern Translations of 1 Corinthians 13:1

And though I have .. so that I .., but have not love, I am nothing.

Classic Translations 1 Corinthians 13:2

and if I give away all .. and if I give up my body.., and do not have love, I am profited nothing.

Literal Translations `1 Corinthians 13:3

IF I – Paul’s conditional approach to God’s love & ours

WE worshipers typically overlook conditional statements where WE ought to evaluate and discern OUR own approach to Jesus Christ, worship and others in OUR church.

In fact, the Apostle’s entire first letter to the Corinthians seeks to heal divisions between factions of Corinthian saints of Christ by exposing the conditions of our spiritual refining in the Lord.

Before we get to OUR favorite part of Paul’s letter (so often emotionally recited over christian marriages), let’s look briefly at where the Apostle fits love into the overall themes of his instructive letter to the saints of Corinth.

First Corinthians overview

John MacArthur :: Bible Introductions – 1 Corinthians

This epistle was most likely written in the first half of A.D. 55 from Ephesus. His departure for Corinth was anticipated even as he wrote
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The Apostle Paul ministered  in Corinth for over a year and a half (Acts 18:11)
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Unable to fully break with the culture from which it came, the church at Corinth was exceptionally factional, showing its carnality and immaturity.

John MacArthur commentary

So far Paul has addressed:
- His Calling and Benefits of Sainthood for the Corinthians
- Disunity in the Church
- Immorality in the Church
- Marriage in the Church
- Liberty in the Church
Are ANY of these challenges for YOUR 21st c. Common Era christian CHURCH?

NOW (as MacArthur points out), the Apostle’s focus moves on to:

Worship in the Church (11:2–14:40)
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with focus on three separate, yet related points
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1. Roles of Men and Women in the Church
2. The Lord’s Supper
3. Spiritual Gifts (12:1–14:40)
  - 3 chapters, in which so far we have only covered 1 Corinthians 12.
What IF YOUR fruit is rotten?
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First of all,  ἐὰν - IF.. which the Apostle uses in this letter 48 times!
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For if^G1437 you were to have countless tutors in Christ,

1 Corinthians 4:15

If G1437 I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

1 Corinthians 13:1 LSB

ἐάν;
I. a conditional particle (derived from εἰ ἄν), which makes reference to time and to experience, introducing something future, but not determining, before the event, whether it is certainly to take place;

Each of the Apostle’s conditional references here point toward the evident sweetness of what ought to be the fruit of our salvation in Christ.

If I speak..

λαλέω – A prolonged form of an otherwise obsolete verb

Yet we do speak G2980 wisdom among those who are mature.. But we speak G2980 God’s wisdom in a mystery..

I Corinthians 2:6a,7a LSB
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And you mature saints will likely know some translation of this to which Paul will proceed soon:
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When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

1 Corinthians 13:11
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AND note: this too points to a conditional change. 
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Human or Angelic tongues

Though I speak with the tongues of men [the KJV translates] and of angels,

Men [anthrōpos – both men and women] of course have tongues [glōssa] in order to speak [regardless of what language].

and angels [angelos ] – a messenger, envoy, one who is sent, an angel, a messenger from God

If I shall speak with every human and Angelic language and have no love in me, I shall be clanging brass or a noise-making cymbal.

1 Corinthians 13:1 Aramaic Bible in Plain English
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"If I shall speak with every human and Angelic language.." 

Perhaps like me you had never read this translation; making the conditional connection so clear. 

The 'IF' we speak -- even messages supposedly from God -- conditionally connects to the sound that proceeds into the ears of others.
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ἔχω – the familiar sounding echo

to have and to hold…

13:1 – Though I ..have G2192 not charity,

13:2 And though I have G2192 the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have G2192 all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have G2192 not charity, I am nothing.
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It's ALL conditional -- Spiritual Gifts yet no fruit
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Spiritualities – ‘I would not have you ignorant’

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have G2192 not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

1 Corinthians 13:3 KJV
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AGAIN, It's ALL conditional --
EVEN IF YOU have Spiritual Gifts 
BUT bear no fruit, which is the love and charity of God and Christ. 
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ἀγάπη – agapē

the LOVE of Paul’s “love chapter”

LOVE is so misunderstood by 21st c. C.E. ears that I have recently addressed agape as ‘Biblical jargon’ READ more

agapē a fruit of Love from a Higher Branch

By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love G26 one to another.

Gospel of John 13:35 KJV from the command of Jesus – fruit

What will ye? shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love, G26 and in the spirit of meekness?

1 Corinthians 4:21 KJV

Knowledge puffeth up, but charity G26 edifieth.

1 Corinthians 8:1b KJV

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, G26 I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians 13:1 – KJV

Charity [ἀγάπη – agapē] suffereth long..

KJV translation of 1 Corinthians 13:4a

MORE on agape love

NEXT time, God-willing, concluding the LOVE Chapter of 1 Corinthians 13 in the apostle’s instructions about spiritual gifts, we will THEN be ready to apply these fruits to the WORSHIP of the Church the Apostle will address in 1 Corinthians 14.

Comment on Scripture + Share the Gospel
February 28, 2025
Members in Christ’s body the Church
And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

1 Corinthians 12:11 KJV – Paul quoting the Lord Jesus

Paul now draws a picture of the human body in order that members of the body of believers might see our own part in the larger Church in Corinth and all places where the saints gather in Christ’s Name.

Spiritualities – ‘I would not have you ignorant’

Previously, when we departed from here in the Apostle’s instructions to the Corinthians, Paul instructs:

And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.

1 Corinthians 12:5 KJV

One Body, many Members, different spiritual Gifts

Now to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit, for the common profiting.

1 Corinthians 12:7 BLB

The first implication of this: EACH member of the body of your church and mine will show (manifest) some fruit of the Spirit.

But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.

1 Corinthians 12:11 LSB

Who belongs as members?
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IF someone in your church does not yet manifest any fruit of the Spirit, is it possible that the Lord has not given them the Spirit OR made these a part of His Body - a member of His Church? 

Are even the best spiritualities of faithful jews and religious adherents of Islam connected to the body of our Lord Christ Jesus? 

Do the best of Hindus Buddhists and other pagan worshipers not oppose Christ? 

Yet some are drawn by the Spirit. 
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The Body of Christ

For just as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of the body being many are one body, so also is Christ.

1 Corinthia n s 12:12 Berean Standard Bible

Jews and Gentiles
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What is the overriding context of this epistle Paul writes to a church on the Achaian peninsula of Greece ? 

The Apostle to the Gentiles (Hellenists or Greek or Roman) -- seeks to heal long-standing differences in this large Roman city of Corinth situated in the philosophic and cultural center of ancient Europe. 
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- To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom – v.8 (quite Hellenist)
- to another faith.. to another gifts of healing v.9 (the One God of the Jews and ignored signs of the Messiah)
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12:13 NKJV

Invisible fruit pictured in the body

For the body does not consist of one part, but of many. 1 Corinthians 12:14 BSB

If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body?

And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.
- If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be?
  - (Now think of the body of Christ, the church.)
- If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?
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Laughable! Hyperbole, yet logical.
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But now hath God set the members

(And the Spirit of God has distributed your spiritual gifts.)

But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.

How strange a body would be if it had only one part!

1 Corinthians 12:18 KJV and 12:19 NLT
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Do you get both the seriousness and Paul's practical ridicule of members di-vi-ded by spiritualities God granted to others? 
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The Apostle to the gentiles continues his illustration: 
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- The eye cannot say to the hand, “I do not need you.”
- Nor can the head say to the feet, “I do not need you.”
Here is Paul’s appeal to draw near to your members divided by opinions concerning spiritual gifts and an order of regulating the body (so to speak).

On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts we consider less honorable, we treat with greater honor. And our unpresentable parts are treated with special modesty, whereas our presentable parts have no such need.

But God has composed the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its members should have mutual concern for one another.

If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

1 Corinthians 12:22-26 BSB

Has the Great Physician not set the parts of the body into their proper place?

Appointment of the Greater Gifts
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The Apostle sent out to the Corinthians, Achaeans, Greeks, Romans and displaced Jews suggests an order of importance in the A.D. first century church. Yet Paul has just instructed the saints that it is the Spirit which places us in our place in the Church -- and that spiritual GIFTS are not ours to choose. 
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27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each of you is a member of it. And in the church God has appointed
1. first of all apostles,
2. second prophets,
3. third teachers,
4. then workers of miracles,
5. and those with gifts of healing, helping, administration, and various tongues.
A local (Corinthian) understanding of roles and spiritual gifts

Acts of the Apostles 1-28
1. ἀπόστολος – apostolos
2. προφήτης – prophētēs
3. διδάσκαλος – didaskalos
4. δύναμις – dynamis
5. χάρισμα – charisma
Apostles, Prophets and Teachers

ἀπόστολοι (apostoloi)
Noun – Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong’s 652: From apostello; a delegate; specially, an ambassador of the Gospel; officially a commissioner of Christ.

Am I not an apostle?^G652 am I not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? are not ye my work in the Lord? If I be not an apostle^G652 unto others, yet doubtless I am to you: for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord.

1 Corinthians 12:1-2

1 Corinthians 12:28 – And God has set…

You’ve just studied the list.

So what does the Apostle Paul (#1 on the authoritative list) ask as he further questions the Corinthian saints of differing opinions about their own roles in the local church?

1 Corinthians 12:29-30
- Are all apostles? (#1)
- Are all prophets? (#2)
- Are all teachers? (#3)
- Do all work miracles? (#4)
- Do all have gifts of healing?
- Do all speak in tongues?
- Do all interpret?
  - (these 3 grouped in #5)
SO WHERE DO I FIT IN?

and Who is in charge of who, here in our local gathering of saints in Corinth?

Perhaps in the hearing of Paul’s first letter being read to the Corinthian Church these saints might have wondered what the APOSTLE would prescribe next as a solution to OUR divisions.
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READ the literal Greek text below.
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12:31 ζηλοῦτε δὲ τὰ χαρίσματα τὰ κρείττονα Καὶ ἔτι καθ᾽ ὑπερβολὴν ὁδὸν ὑμῖν δείκνυμι

But covet earnestly the best gifts: – 31a KJV

Now eagerly desire the greater gifts. – 31a NIV

But earnestly desire the higher gifts.- 31a RSV

But now let me show you a way of life that is best of all.

1 Corinthians 12:31 b – NLT

NEXT – Paul’s connection of GIFTS

Beloved fellow saint, you may know where the Apostle proceeds in his much-quoted list from 1 Corinthians 14.

Perhaps with love in mind you may have a COMMENT here on what the Apostle Paul has instructed us so far.

Comment on Scripture + Share the Gospel
February 26, 2025