Talk of JESUS . com

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 

Don’t  miss our recent FEATURED SERIES

JUNE 2024 – 2025 —

1 CORINTHIANS 

———————————————————-

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

  • Are you Christ’s? Or are you NOT?

    Are you Christ’s? Or are you NOT?

    Hebrews 6:4-6 NKJV 

    4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.

    Going forward, do we backslide?

    This question of our christian life, as witnessed by the church and especially others is most serious.

    What does it mean that we “were once enlightened?” Do you, fellow believer have the saving knowledge of the cross of Christ Jesus? If so, you are also enlightened.

    Have you been offered the heavenly gift of grace, forgiveness from your sins of the past? Have you tasted the good word of your redemption in Jesus Christ as your Lord IF you follow Him? Do you follow OR did you just hear of it once or more?

    Here is the point of the sharpened word (in verse 6): IF you or any fall away, it is a most serious matter of your salvation. You do NOT have salvation and eternal life (you cannot lose it, IF you have it) if by not ‘following’ Christ you actually sin against the Cross of Christ by your worldly unrepentant actions.

    Yes, christians are NOT covered by the grace of Christ’s cross IF we will not repent of our former lives of sin and turn back from our worldly ways of the flesh. Die to the flesh and live as Christ! Christ Jesus must be our Lord. We must be obedient to Jesus as our personal Lord. (It is not enough to just say that we are christians, while in fact we witness against His Holy Sacrifice on the Cross.)

    Repentance of such christians is a most serious matter for Christ’s church; for an unbeliever might be persuaded that your unholy life is one acceptable at the judgment seat where He will say to these, “I never knew you.”

    Let us, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, look to the context of this important teaching for us as we look forward into a new year (and hopefully not backward onto our sinful nature, before our commitment to follow Christ Jesus as our Lord) – personally, and in every aspect of our lives.

    Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do if God permits.

    Do you, unrepentant christian sinner, sit in church week by week as a kindergartner who ought to be held back?

    Is your desire to learn the doctrine of Christ so immature that your daily life is constant witness to a grace without foundation?

    Christ’s church, His bride for whom He will return, is His constant love. Christians have a relationship of love – a constant and loving relationship with Jesus, the Groom and our Lord. And as members of His perfect royal family, Christians have constant and loving relationships with one another – this is the doctrine of His love – this is the maturity of our witness.

    This is the essence of our vow and witness: Jesus IS Lord.

    4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

    How are you ‘celebrating’ this New Year?

    Are you Christ’s? OR are you NOT?

    Happy New Year OR Blessed New Year (as our Lord would say in the Beatitudes: blessed are you).

     

  • Respect

    1 Timothy 5:1 Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father…

    I recently had an unfortunate experience of misunderstanding at a time when I needed encouragement from a brother or sister in the Lord or anyone else.

    If you look closely above my own smile you will see much white hair. 🙂 Yes, in some instances (even if I don’t like to admit to all of my 6+ decades) I am an older man.

    Of course, none of us likes rebuke. As parents we have given many rebukes of improper behavior to our children. As husbands, we have heard proper rebuke from our own wife (and they, from us). IN THE LORD, with His love I would hope.

    Just yesterday I had to rebuke a young man for a wrong attitude toward Christ. He said, “We go to church, etc., as an excuse of calling themselves ‘christians’ like those faithful to Christ Jesus by the truth of the fruit of our lives. My point to him was that “We are the church, etc.” and must live as Christ commands and live by His higher standards for us.

    Paul writes to Timothy of these higher standards for our lives.

    Christians are NOT supposed to look and behave like just anybody. We must be a man like Christ or a woman like Christ in our relationships to others — especially other Christians — our new family and His.

    Take a look at some of these standards for the church, that is: you and me.

    1 Timothy 5

    Instructions for the Church

    Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, 2 older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.

    3 Honor widows who are truly widows. 4 But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God. 5 She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day, 6 but she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives. 7 Command these things as well, so that they may be without reproach. 8 But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

    “Everyone needs compassion, a love that’s never failing…”

    During difficult times I nearly weep at the very hearing of those words.

    Think of all the deserted older men and older women in nursing homes at this time of the year. Their grown children (even christian children) often abandon them in favor of the hustle and bustle and worldly priorities of their own lives. Once, we took care of our aging moms and dads in our own homes as long as we were physically able. We sacrificed and honored our mother and our father all the days of our lives.

    Once, christians honored marriage and would never break up a home for their own ends (let alone continue to call themselves christians); but now christian divorce, hated by God, rebuked by Jesus, and a breaking of our own covenant to God and witnesses “until we are parted by death,” is as prevalent as with those who would never claim Christ as Lord. Our Christian marriages are the very symbol of Christ’s relationship He desires for His bride, the church. [SEE: Ephesians 5: ]

    Ephesians 5: 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

    32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

    33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

    As you, dear Christian brother, dear Christian sister, approach this turning of the year from the passing old to the new, consider the nature of how we are called to have changed by our taking up the cross to follow Jesus Christ, to witness His love in our relationships with others and by our own personal shining example to all others.

    Put On the New Self

    If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

    5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming.

    7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.

    9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator…

    12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

    14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And letthe peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.

    And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

    Rules for Christian Households

    18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

    19 Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.

    20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.

    21 Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged…

    23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.

    You are serving the Lord Christ. 25 For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.

    My dear, beloved family of Christ Jesus,

    We live a new life of sacrifice and obedience to scripture, truthfulness of our word, and witness to our Lord and Savior, who offered Himself as acceptable sacrifice for our many sins. Do not live, dear brother, dear sister, in your over-bearing selfishness of your own flesh. Humble yourselves before our Groom, you His church and His Bride.

    Be Holy, as our Lord is Holy.

    Love one another, as I have loved you.  – John 13:34

  • Nun danket alle Gott

    Nun danket alle Gott

    “Now thank we all our God” is a popular Christian hymn. It is a translation from the German “Nun danket alle Gott”, written circa 1636 by Martin Rinkart (1586–1649), which in turn was inspired by Sirach, chapter 50 verses 22–24, from the praises of Simon the high priest. It was translated into English in the 19th Century by Catherine Winkworth.

    Modern Christian songs of praise and worship paint a joyful enough picture of Christianity for us and focus well on the grace of Christ and the joy of heaven to come. Now thank we all our God is a 17th century text that comes to us from a time of religious wars resulting from the Protestant Reformation.

    Giving thanks to God in all circumstances is not always easy. Worship of God is not always our first reaction to difficulty. Rinkart experienced such difficulties, as have many faithful Christians of all denominations throughout these last centuries.

    You do not need the word of a Pope, a Bishop or other authority to understand that the Bible, God’s Word, is often at the center of religious controversies and even wars. Some Protestants will not even recognize the source of this popular hymn as one inspired from the Canon and Apocrypha of the Bible of some churches; however none will dispute the truth of the worship in these verses.

    Apocrypha: Sirach Chapter 50

    22 Now therefore bless ye the God of all, which only doeth wondrous things every where, which exalteth our days from the womb, and dealeth with us according to his mercy.

    23 He grant us joyfulness of heart, and that peace may be in our days in Israel for ever:

    24 That he would confirm his mercy with us, and deliver us at his time!

     

    German pastor Martin Rinkart served in the walled town of Eilenburg during the horrors of the Thirty Years’ War of 1618-1648. Eilenburg became an overcrowded refuge for the surrounding area. The fugitives suffered from epidemic and famine. At the beginning of 1637, the year of the Great Pestilence, there were four ministers in Eilenburg. But one abandoned his post for healthier areas and could not be persuaded to return. Pastor Rinkart officiated at the funerals of the other two. As the only pastor left, he often conducted services for as many as 40 to 50 persons a day—some 4,480 in all. In May of that year, his own wife died. By the end of the year, the refugees had to be buried in trenches without services.

    Pastor Rinkart’s text was once well-known in many languages and musical settings. It is well worth our consideration in this season of Thanksgiving, a thankfulness for God’s harvest and our very souls by the mercy and grace of Christ Jesus.

    German Text (verses in bold print set by Bach)

    English Translation – source: http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Texts/Chorale134-Eng3.htm

    1

     

    Nun danket alle Gott
    Mit Herzen, Mund und Händen,
    Der große Dinge tut
    An uns und allen Enden,
    Der uns von Mutterleib
    Und Kindesbeinen an
    Unzählig viel zu gut
    Bis hier her hat getan.

     

    Now all thank God
    with heart, mouth and hands;
    He does great things
    for us and all our purposes;
    He for us from our mother’s womb
    and childish steps
    countless great good
    has done and still continues to do.

    2

     

    Der ewig reiche Gott
    Woll uns bei unsrem Leben
    Ein immer fröhlich Herz
    Und edlen Frieden geben,
    Und uns in seiner Gnad,
    Erhalten fort und fort
    Und uns aus aller Not
    Erlösen hier und dort.

     

    May God who is forever rich
    be willing to give us in our life
    a heart that is always joyful
    and noble peace
    and in his mercy
    maintain us for ever and ever
    and free us from all distress
    here and there (both on earth and in heaven).

    3

     

    Lob, Ehr und Preis sei Gott,
    Dem Vater und dem Sohne
    Und dem, der beiden gleich
    Im höchsten Himmelsthrone,
    Dem einig höchsten Gott,
    Als er anfänglich war
    Und ist und bleiben wird
    Jetzt und immerdar.

     

    Glory, honour and praise be to God,
    to the Father and to the Son
    and to Him, who is equal to both
    on heaven’s high throne,
    to the triune God,
    as he was from the beginning
    and is and will remain
    now and forever.

    1 Peter 1:

    Born Again to a Living Hope

    3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

    6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

    8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.