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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

  • What do I do with this?

    What do I do with this?

    All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

    – 2 Timothy 3:16-17 NIV

    Daily we must remind ourselves that God IS. Daily we must recall that Jesus not only died on the cross for our sins (and oh so many of them), but that Christ rose from death in the body and spirit and Christ Jesus IS. Daily we must seek relationship between our living spirit breathed into us by God with the Holy Spirit sent to us as our counselor by Jesus. The Holy Spirit of the Living God near to our soul, IS.

    All of this seems well and good as we carry our Bibles into a worship service or open the Bible in the privacy of our homes. Yet once we return from worship or Bible study we encounter the woes and trials of everyday life, the challenges of everyday relationships.

    Don’t we ever-so-briefly ask of our Bible verses and stories: “What do I do with this?”

    Bible“All Scripture is God-breathed” or “All Scripture is breathed out by God.” or “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.”

    We know it. God said it. But what do we do with it?

    Think of our everyday life as a brief journey to a place of which we have only dreamed.

    How do I get there? (I don’t even truly know where I am now?)

    I know God wants me in a different place today than where I failed so miserably in sin yesterday. I am lost and have no GPS. In fact, once I leave church or the security of home (though I know this place is a brief shelter for this breathing, decaying flesh of mine), I not only have not sense of God’s direction, I can not even find weak signal of God’s voice speaking direction into my daily life.

    Genesis 12:

    ur to haran to caanan mapNow the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

    4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

    Just suppose you have retired comfortably in your hometown or near to your family and making an amazing promise, GOD asks you to just pick up and move. Will you go?

    I have little understanding of Abram and his lifestyle millennia ago. Yet what same application do I see to my own life when it seems everything must change from how I have always seen my life?

    Everything must go forward in some new direction. How do I get there? Who will help me along the way? What will I find in this new place? I am blind to any knowledge of the challenges ahead, the place where I will go and what I will do when I get there. (And what does Abram have to do with me in this fast-paced life even two millennia after the Cross of Christ?)

    Again scripture provides an answer and encourages us to apply scripture to our every day life.

    Galatians 3:4-6  Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?

    7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

    Sure, I can teach someone scripture or sit under some teaching to the church which I like; but can I apply to the lesson of my life the Voice of the Lord’s Spoken Word?

    If God asks me to leave everything behind for the unseen promise of hope, will I have the faith of Abraham to hear and obey the voice of the LORD?

    How many times has the LORD asked you to do something after you were in the comfortable place?

    Or again, how many times have your own misguided plans brought you to your knees before the LORD asking, ‘Where did I go wrong? What do I do now… Lord? Where do I go with this? Show me the way… please… Lord?’

    And ALL is silent… No answer. And again we cry out to the LORD.

    And the Lord is faithful in His answer. Yet we do not like it. It is not the ‘comfort’ we expected. In fact, it makes us even more uncomfortable and will require even more faith than we believe possible – faith to ‘believe God’ and have it counted as righteousness.

    What next? (Isn’t that always the question from the comfortable place or the house of desperation?) What next, Lord?

    To be continued…

  • And you, who once were alienated

    And you, who once were alienated

    Colossians 1: NKJV 21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—

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    Jesus Christ! Friend or foe?

    No other Name evokes such controversy and alienation: not Muhammad, not Buddha, not Obama, not Putin. The world, your workplace, our government: all oppose any suggestion that Christ Jesus IS Lord; that the Lord will judge sinners, that we are created once to die once, to be raised to the judgment and accountability for our sins against our fellow man and enmity against God.

    Wicked works of our daily lives, evil ideas conceived for our advantage over others, evil efforts to bring pleasure at the expense of others – all are rebellious against ANY man or ANY god being Lord over us.

    We must be in charge of our own destiny.  And so we are; for we have choice between the passions of these evil days, with eternal punishment after death, or accepting Jesus Christ as Lord to serve God in exchange for His righteousness leading to eternal life by His grace.

    Before the Lord mercifully called you to peace of your soul and invitation to worship in the body of believers, were you not indignant that Jesus could command you to NOT do those things you have always done, that Jesus could command you to action of love when you would easily ignore the need of another?

    How wicked are our works and deceitful our hearts. Yet by grace we are saved to His love, the love of Christ Jesus in place of the things of this perishing world and pursuits of this decaying flesh.

    Psalm 36

    How Precious Is Your Steadfast Love

    To the choirmaster. Of David, the servant of the Lord.

     Transgression [rebellion] speaks to the wicked
        deep in his heart;
    there is no fear of God
        before his eyes.
    2 For he flatters himself in his own eyes
        that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated.
    3 The words of his mouth are trouble [iniquity] and deceit;
        he has ceased to act wisely and do good.
    4 He plots trouble while on his bed;
        he sets himself in a way that is not good;
        he does not reject evil.

    5 Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens,
        your faithfulness to the clouds.

    +

    By contrast to our evil, sinful nature, the Lord is good, full of steadfast love. The Lord is faithful, but we are not.

    The NKJV [v.4] says of the wicked: He does not abhor evil. Christians know this to be true of all who surround us in our workplace, where we dine, shop, and are entertained in spectator sports or even casual observation of those all around us. Do you abhor evil? Or has the world convinced you to ‘tolerate’ evil, even in the holy worship place and communion of our Lord?

    Do not hate evil with hatred, but abhor evil with the love of Jesus which also called you to repentance for your sins.

    And lest we paint ourselves into a sanctuary of perceived righteousness apart from Christ, let us recall with humility the mercy God has already shown us, miserable sinners in His sight.

    Romans 2

    Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. 2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. 3 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

     +

    Do you rant and rail against abortion, bold christian, while condoning your teens having intercourse before marriage?

    Do you shout out about marriage between one man and one woman, while divorcing your Christian husband or wife to whom you have made your vows before God?

    Our righteousness is only in Christ Jesus. If He is our Lord, our Lord commands us to be merciful to others, as He has shown us much mercy. Surly our Lord requires continued patience with you and with me, grace for the reshaping of our repentant hearts into the clay of His love.

    The witness of Christ, passed on in truth and in love by His Apostles continues in all the generations until the Lord returns again. Paul and Timothy write in their letter to the church at Colossae:

    Colossians 1: ESV [NKJV]

    3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven…

    13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

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    Paul writes to the church of the transformation which takes place that makes believers in Christ Jesus different from the world. The Apostle Paul cautions continued faithfulness in believers, that we might not fall back into our former sinful and wicked ways so evident in those worldly enemies of Christ around us.

    [NKJV] 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.

    For how did Paul precede this caution? With the contrast of our redeemed life in Christ Jesus.

    21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—

    +

    Do not fail to show mercy to others nor to remember the grace by which we were saved.

  • Conquest of Love; Sin Slain at the Gate

    Conquest of Love; Sin Slain at the Gate

    Philippians 2:

    overlooking jerusalem  And being found in human form,
    8     he humbled himself
        and became obedient to the point of death—
        even death on a cross.

    9 Therefore God also highly exalted him
        and gave him the name
        that is above every name,

    10 so that at the name of Jesus
        every knee should bend,
        in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
    11 and every tongue should confess
        that Jesus Christ is Lord,
        to the glory of God the Father.

    It was neither the conquest nor the King Jerusalem expected. The Messiah would surely take back the Temple and the City centered on the worship of God. He must by His miraculous power from Almighty God reclaim the promise and the land.

    Herod had rebuilt the Temple, just as Nehemiah had prevailed in the land conquered by gentile invaders, evil unbelievers who destroyed the House of worship and enslaved the people once more.

    Centuries had passed with silence from the Lord – not one Prophet until just this time when John had proclaimed the coming of the Messiah.

    Yet Rome would have nothing of trouble-makers like John, though he hid in the desert. And Herod could not remain King with another King of the Jews at the gate.

    A Conqueror greater than David was poised to ride into Jerusalem. He had been there before, a faithful Rabbi who taught with authority. His miracles were well documented and witnessed by many. Now the crowds followed.

    And the gates could not be closed for the most profitable festival of the entire Jewish year. Many would come to the Temple and buy their kosher food for the Seder, overpriced animals required for the sacrifice and souvenirs of the Temple to take back home throughout Judea, Samaria, Asia and even Rome itself.

    Another zealot insurrection could not be tolerated by Centurions guarding the gate and controlling the crowds.

    And Jesus of Nazareth rides a colt down the hillside to the very gate of Jerusalem with thousands shouting: HOSANNA! HOSANNA! SON OF DAVID!

    Five centuries earlier Zechariah had prophesied:

    Zechariah 9

    9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
        Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
    Lo, your king comes to you;
        triumphant and victorious is he,
    humble and riding on a donkey,
        on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
    10 He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
        and the war-horse from Jerusalem;
    and the battle bow shall be cut off,
        and he shall command peace to the nations;
    his dominion shall be from sea to sea,
        and from the River to the ends of the earth.

    11 As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you,
        I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
    12 Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope;
        today I declare that I will restore to you double.
    13 For I have bent Judah as my bow;
        I have made Ephraim its arrow.
    I will arouse your sons, O Zion,
        against your sons, O Greece,
        and wield you like a warrior’s sword.

    The stage of all history is set, the battle prepared, the King has come to Jerusalem.

    To be continued…