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Category: Epistles – Is his letter to our church?

Epistle of Paul to the Romans 1 - the Apostles sends a church letter to Rome and the local saints of area churches
Epistle of Paul to the Romans

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 

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JUNE 2024 – 2025 —

1 CORINTHIANS 

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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 LETTERS 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 JESUS through your comment, sharing and email to me about this ‘Letter to you?”

Roger@talkofJesus.com

  • Hebrews 11- a Genealogy of Faith

    Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

    Hebrews 11:1 NKJV

    Faith is the Substance

    What is your greatest hope? Your eternal longing?

    ἐλπίζω elpizō – to hope

    How can you be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see?

    Matthew used this same word for hope pointing back to the prophesy of Isaiah.

    “And in His name the [nations] Gentiles will hope.”

    Matthew 12:21 NASB

    Previously the author of Hebrews has called on us to ‘draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.’How do we know that the new covenant in Christ now replaces the old?

    In the same way that our forefathers had hope – by faith.

    πίστις pistis – faith

    Faith is the substance, faith is the reality, faith is the assurance – many descriptions, all showing it as evidence of our hope.

    We may discuss and dissect the reasons for our hope in God, our confidence in Christ. And we may wander from the path of true faith from time to time. Yet its evidence remains as the light of our hope eternal.

    faith – conviction of the truth of anything

    • a conviction or belief respecting man’s relationship to God and divine things
    • the conviction that God exists and is the creator and ruler of all things
    • relating to Christ a strong and welcome conviction that Jesus is the Messiah, through whom we obtain eternal salvation in the kingdom of God
    • belief with the predominate idea of trust (or confidence) whether in God or in Christ, springing from faith in the same

    Our faith is the evidence of things hoped for. Yet some have faith in that which is not reality or truth, therefore the writer of Hebrews follows with evidence from history.

    2 For by it our ancestors won God’s approval.

    a genealogy of Jewish faith

    אֱמֶת = Faith is real and true; faith is truthfulness

    Hebrews 11:

    Without elaboration on the author’s entire genealogy of faith, take a brief look at: the verse – person exemplifying faith – Old Testament verse equivalent.

    6 Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

    Hebrews 11:6 CSB

    13 These all died in faith, although they had not received the things that were promised. But they saw them from a distance, greeted them, and confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth.

    The author of Hebrews takes this genealogy of faith and applies it as evidence that these jewish ancestors had not yet received the Lord’s certain promise. He continues with Moses, who of course recorded these genealogies along with the Law in five books.

    Moses – Mosheh – מֹשֶׁה

    23 By faith Moses, after he was born, was hidden by his parents for three months… reference to Exodus 2:2.

    He proceeds with a more extended biography of Moses relating it to institutions of faith established for a later time, that is, fulfillment by the Messiah. Yes, Moses was a savior of the Hebrews, even when they resisted the Lord. But the Law and Covenants of Moses were imperfect forerunners of the Perfection to come.

    By faith he instituted the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch the Israelites.

    Hebrews 11:28 CSB; מֹשֶׁה

    From Moses to Christ

    30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down … 31 By faith Rahab the prostitute welcomed the spies in peace and didn’t perish with those who disobeyed.

    32 And what more can I say? Time is too short for me to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, 33 who by faith…

    Familiar stories of faith follow (also worth your time in brief here). He races through the generations from the Judges, past King David and to the prophets. Then addition of a prophetic reminder of what these persecuted Hebrews, both Jews and Christians were beginning to experience.

    Persecution by the world

    … Other people were tortured, not accepting release, so that they might gain a better resurrection.

    36 Others experienced mockings and scourgings, as well as bonds and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they died by the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins, in goatskins, destitute, afflicted, and mistreated.

    Are you familiar with the persecution of Jews and Christians by Roman rulers like Claudius, Nero, Domitian and later many others?

    Those who received these letters to the church either needed or would need encouragement due to these cruelties for followers of Jesus. Even in this day Christians suffer and die for our faith.

    According to Open Doors, every month:

    • 255 Christians are killed
    • 104 are abducted
    • 180 Christian women are raped, sexually harassed or forced into marriage
    • 66 churches are attacked
    • 160 Christians are detained without trial and imprisoned

    More Christians died for their faith in the 20th century than in the 1st, yet Christians living in a world of hatred have always suffered for the sake of Christ.

    Christians martyred since the time of Jesus at 70 million

    David B Barrett, researcher, Christian Today

    Returning to the author of Hebrews’ argument for those suffering for Christ:

    39 All these were approved through their faith, but they did not receive what was promised…

    And he assures us that God provided something better for us, in Christ.

    To be continued...

  • Hebrews 10- Come in, Fear not

    Holy of Holies – The Inner Sanctuary

    Dominus autem in templo sancto suo sileat a facie eius omnis terra!

    וַֽיהוָ֖ה בְּהֵיכַ֣ל קָדְשֹׁ֑ו הַ֥ס מִפָּנָ֖יו כָּל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃ פ

    The LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.

    Habakkuk 2:20 VUL, WlC, NIV

    Draw near to meet the LORD

    Hebrews 10:

    8 First he said, “You neither want nor are you pleased with sacrifices and offerings or with animals burned on the altar…

    11 Day after day every priest stands and repeatedly offers the same sacrifices that can never take away sins.

    The author of Hebrews brings the Law and well-known ritual of sacrifices of blood on the altar to compare the old and new covenants. He now asks us to approach the LORD in the sanctuary, the Holy Place.

    It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

    Hebrews 10:31 KJV

    He invites us into the Holy of Holies, a place of the presence of the LORD, a place where the priest offers blood sacrifices to cover our sin, a place so holy that only one high priest will enter humbly just once a year.

    Boldness in the Blood of Jesus

    Therefore, be bold, have confidence – fear not.

    Come into the sanctuary, the Holy Place of the Lord. For before you, Christ Jesus has entered with the Perfect Sacrifice as our High Priest – He IS our Perfect Sacrifice by His own Blood.

    We have climbed the holy mountain, entered the courts of the Temple with thanksgiving and sacrifice. And as the Lord’s chosen we have come to this place to worship the Lord. Our High Priest is no longer a sinful man, but Christ; and He invites us to enter the Temple.

    Walk toward the altar of sacrifice, that holiest of places just past the curtain. (For in fact, by the crucifixion of Christ on the Cross the curtain is torn.)

    Hebrews 10:19-39

    So let us come near to God


    22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith…

    With sincere hearts sprinkled clean, our evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water, because our hearts have been sprinkled clean from a guilty conscience, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.  By the Blood of Christ, hold firmly to our confession of faith.

    Hold firmly, hold fast without wavering, since He who promised it is faithful.

    To do a good deed

    Here is our action and not our obligation or prescribed work for heaven.

    Let us be concerned for one another, to help one another to show love and to do good.

    Hebrews 10:24 GNT

    [CSB] 25 not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other…

    Others in the flock of faith, the congregation of believers, are important. Yet how can the saints encourage each other in Christ if they neglect time together?

    A teacher of the Law asked the Messiah, Christ Jesus, “What is the greatest Commandment?” He responded, ‘love the LORD and love one another.’ Of course the faithful want to love the Lord God, yet the second (a golden rule) often challenges us.

    The writer of Hebrews challenges Christians to incite each other to agape love AND good deeds. It is a personal love of others to do God’s good will. And he cautions of the Day when all will be judged.

    Jesus had warned: “Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold.” – Matthew 24:12 NLT

    Justified or Judged?

    Even in the first century followers of The Way often detoured in their own way. The love of some in the beginning of these last days had already grown cold.

    Sinners in Zion are terrified;
    Trembling has seized the godless.
    “Who among us can live with the consuming fire?
    Who among us can live with continual burning?”

    33:14 פָּחֲדוּ בְצִיֹּון חַטָּאִים אָחֲזָה רְעָדָה חֲנֵפִים מִי יָגוּר לָנוּ אֵשׁ אֹוכֵלָה מִי־יָגוּר לָנוּ מֹוקְדֵי עֹולָֽם׃

    Isaiah 33:14


    Warning against Deliberate Sin

    Heb. 10:26 [NKJV] For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.

    HELL! even for one who has accepted Christ, but turns away.

    [CSB] 28 Anyone who disregarded the law of Moses died without mercy…29 How much worse punishment do you think one will deserve who has trampled on the Son of God, who has regarded as profane the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?

    Scriptural support

    Once again the writer of Hebrews quotes familiar Old Testament scripture to support his teaching of a new and better covenant he introduced in chapter 8.

    30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge His people.”

    Deuteronomy

    32:35  לִ֤י נָקָם֙ וְשִׁלֵּ֔ם לְעֵ֖ת תָּמ֣וּט רַגְלָ֑ם כִּ֤י קָרֹוב֙ יֹ֣ום אֵידָ֔ם וְחָ֖שׁ עֲתִדֹ֥ת לָֽמֹו׃

    Habakkuk

    2:4 הִנֵּה עֻפְּלָה לֹא־יָשְׁרָה נַפְשֹׁו בֹּו וְצַדִּיק בֶּאֱמוּנָתֹו יִחְיֶֽה׃

    Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith. – KJV

    Remember the early days

    32 … you endured a hard struggle with sufferings.

    35 So don’t lose your confidence, since it holds a great reward for you. 36 For you need endurance, so that after you have done God’s will you can receive what he has promised.

    37 For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay.. 38 My righteous people, however, will believe and live..

    We are not people who turn back and are lost. Instead, we have faith and are saved.

    Hebrews 10:39 GNT
    To be continued...

  • Hebrews 10- Sacrifice and Offering

    Offering on the Altar


    I waited patiently for the LORD;
    40:6  זֶ֤בַח וּמִנְחָ֨ה לֹֽא־חָפַ֗צְתָּ אָ֭זְנַיִם כָּרִ֣יתָ לִּ֑י עֹולָ֥ה וַ֝חֲטָאָ֗ה לֹ֣א שָׁאָֽלְתָּ׃

    Sacrifice and offering You did not desire;
    My ears You have opened.
    Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require.

    Psalm 40:6 Masoretic Text; NKJV

    The Perfect Sacrifice

    The author of Hebrews states that in Christ we have a High Priest who does not need to repeatedly make offering and sacrifice. Therefore, the sacrificial blood of the Messiah on the Cross represents a new and better covenant.

    Once again, he logically makes his case supported by the evidence of well-known scripture.

    Hebrews 10:

    Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the reality itself of those things, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year. 2 Otherwise, wouldn’t they have stopped being offered, since the worshipers, purified once and for all, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?

    He refers to the many rules and regulations of sacrifice and offering prescribed in the Mosaic law. Moses gave us a law of better things to come, a mere shadow of true worship. When we finally make the perfect sacrifice, becoming completely purified before the Lord, wouldn’t we then stop making more sacrifices? Wouldn’t our guilt be left covered?

    Sin remains in the shadow sacrifice of the Law, because the blood of bulls and goats cannot cleanse sin perfectly.

    We have awaited a Messiah.. patiently.. a High Priest Perfect for all time. From
    a thousand years before, the writer quotes David’s well known Psalm 40:

    Patience

    I waited patiently for the Lord,
    and he turned to me and heard my cry for help.
    2 He brought me up from a desolate pit,
    out of the muddy clay,
    and set my feet on a rock,
    making my steps secure.
    3 He put a new song in my mouth,
    a hymn of praise to our God.

    Think of this hope in the hearts of faithful Jews when the writer reminds us:

    6 You do not delight in sacrifice and offering;
    you open my ears to listen.
    You do not ask for a whole burnt offering or a sin offering.
    7 Then I said, “See, I have come;
    in the scroll it is written about me.

    Psalm 40:6-7A CSB

    ‘The Lord is trying our patience,’ they must have thought as Rome dominated their land, their city and culture. We wonder why the Lord has not blotted out evil and accepted faithful worshipers only – faithful in these last days.

    Those receiving this letter in the first century would have known the next verses of the Psalm as well. The writer of Hebrews continues:

    Hebrews 10:9 [quote of Psalm 40] he then says, See, I have come to do your will.

    He takes away the first to establish the second.

    The author’s firm reason taken in the second half of verse 9 compare the old and new covenants. He then follows this statement of God’s will with:

    By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.

    Hebrews 10:10 CSB

    The priest of their shadow sacrifices stands imperfectly at the altar day after day.

    12 But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.

    Testimony of the Holy Spirit

    Then the writer of Hebrews then adds even more support from Scripture.

    15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. For after he says:

    16 This is the covenant I will make with them
    after those days,

    the Lord says,

    I will put my laws on their hearts
    and write them on their minds

    Hebrews 10:16 quote from Jeremiah 31
    By Микеланжело Буонаротти - Электронная библиотека.Музеи Ватикана., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2284599
    Jeremiah by Michaelango

    A new covenant – ” Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—

    The writer of Hebrews appeals to scripture of the prophet Jeremiah, 600 years before Christ, for support of the New Covenant where sacrifice and offering will no longer be required.

    He concludes:

    18 Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.

    Enter the Sanctuary through the Blood of Jesus

    Several editors of Hebrews take different directions for labeling the next section of chapter 10, which we will examine in my next post. Again the author quotes scripture known to faithful Jews as he pursues the argument for the Messiah Jesus.

    Note just a few headings for the section to come:

    • How We Should Live? – ISV
    • Hold Fast Your Confession – NKJV
    • Exhortations to Godliness – CSB
    • The Full Assurance of Faith – ESV
    • Let Us Come Near to God – GNT

    All, thoughtful considerations of scriptural application to our lives. If you would like to take a preview, take it from the Greek in verse 19.

    10:19 ἔχοντες οὖν ἀδελφοί παρρησίαν εἰς τὴν εἴσοδον τῶν ἁγίων ἐν τῷ αἵματι Ἰησοῦ

    To be continued...