Category: Epistles – Is his letter to our church?

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

My Love – 7 – Love never ends…

1 Corinthians 13

The Way of Love (agape)

7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends.

Once again, the ‘love‘ we proclaim though scripture from this letter of Paul to the church at Corinth is the agape love of God. Christ’s love and perfect earthly example should permeate every kind of love relationship we have with others, including of course, the love of a husband for his wife and a wife for her husband.

You can never love too much.

You can love in the wrong way,

but never too much.

Suppose we take the famous scripture of the ‘love chapter’ and put it into the context of ‘The Four Loves’ described by C.S. Lewis of the four Greek words for love. And let’s take this a step further for a moment and begin with the way the world first thinks when the word love is mentioned:

Eros bears all things, Eros believes all things, Eros hopes all things, Eros endures all things. Eros love never ends.

Is this true?

I can testify by my own divorces that eros love (romantic love) often bears little, believes only at first, hopes less and less and indeed Eros love does end. This, of course, is why our vows before God are so important to our Christian marriages.

The same could be said of friendship love or affectionate love. Friendships certainly end and so all-too-often does the affectionate love of a parent for a child or child for parent. These tragic endings fill counseling offices and psychiatrist couches.

Love frequently does end; the other loves fail.

Therefore I caution us that we can indeed love in the wrong way. We often do not, as sinful and unfaithful human souls, look at love from the perspective of God.

We think that we have only so much love we can give – only so much friendship we can give – only so much love for one child or for our mom or for our dad to give – only so much we can endure and hope and believe for the love of our life, the wife or husband of our vows. After all, ‘we are only human.’ We are limited in the flesh; we are limited in our love for one another.

All this would be true, except for the one love for which we were created by God – agape love, which permeates our very being and relationships to every other.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength and all your mind. (Sound familiar?)

Other loves only become timeless in the overflowing love of Jesus Christ when the deep well of God’s love pours forth from our sinful hearts into the love-starved souls of others.

We are made for Him and we are made for each other. We are created to love each and all; but only in the right way and with the love of God pouring from us.

When we are empty, God will give us more.

When we have given all, God will give us more.

When we cannot bear this soul, God will give us more.

When we can no longer believe, God will give us more.

When we have lost all hope, God will give us more.

When we cannot endure, God will give us more.

When we think our Eros romance

or our Philia friendship

or our Storge affection

will end;

God will give us more.

For Agape love is not only unconditional,

the Agape love of God is eternal.

Agape love never ends.

The King James English actually encourages us in God by assuring:

Charity never faileth.

And the NASB & other versions translate agape: Love never fails.

Yes, Paul points out that other signs of God working in the lives of the church may fail at times. (We are just a gathering of His imperfect sinners.)

God gives us His gifts to use in His way in our mortal time.

Pour forth the unfailing love of Christ Jesus. Embrace every soul in His love.

(Love one another, as I have loved you, our Lord commands.)

The love of the church may be evident through varying gifts to different saints (Christians) as different times. Yet Love never fails. God’s own love and charity towards us never fails His purpose.

It is appropriate reminder to us as I conclude this 7-part series on My Love, to remind us of the love of God for me, a sinner, and for you.

God has not failed us.

The Cross of Christ Jesus never fails.

We are saved by the grace of the sacrifice of our Lord, Christ Jesus.

As we near the end of these last days I appeal once more to your faithfulness to the Lord Who IS faithful to those who love Him. Be faithful to God in every kind of love God so richly gives to you from the deep spring of His eternal love.

Have you failed in your love? Have you failed God? Have you failed your beloved to whom you are wed? Have you failed a friend? Have you failed a parent or a child who needs your unconditional love?

ekpiptō – to fall out of, to fall down from, to fall off; to fall from a thing, to lose it; to perish, to fall: from a place from which one cannot keep, from a position, to fall powerless, to fall to the ground, be without effect of the divine promise of salvation

In Christ Jesus, we have God’s unfailing love. By grace we cannot fall. God’s love never fails.

Peter reminds the faithful of the importance of us not failing Christ Jesus, if indeed He IS our LORD.

2 Peter 3: NKJV

10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?

17 You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand,

beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked;

18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.

February 23, 2015
My Love – 6 – If I have not love

‘I’m not happy.’

‘I met someone’

IF you claim to be a follower of the Bridegroom of the church, Jesus Christ and things don’t go quite your way, would you tell Jesus to ‘get out’?

Would you look for someone better, who might make you happy in this world?

(Did God really say, “Don’t eat of the fruit of that tree?”)

IF you are unfaithful to Christ’s love, would it not be adultery?

Though you claim to be a follower of Jesus, so had Judas!

This is the unfortunate false witness of some with a cross in front of their home, ‘christianity’ claimed before ‘friends’ as religion, their stamp of approval before the world. These claim many things by the ‘Blood of Jesus,’ yet their more bold witness of worldly sins again crucifies hope in His body and true Bride, the church.

Some have heard the following, even at weddings, known as the ‘love chapter.’

IF Jesus Christ is your love, listen then to true love, you adulterers of Christ!

1 Corinthians 13

The Way of Love

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

I have heard in churches the noisy gongs of ‘single moms,’ divorced grandmas and others clanging the noise of their own ‘higher’ worship, ‘tongues of angels,’ God’s messengers; as if we should follow these women, rather than Christ Jesus as Lord. Will they who are not bowed down to their husband or any man in Christ not lead the faith astray with their babel?

²And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

I have heard prophesy given in the church. Is it from God? Why then did the church not record the very prediction of God given? Is the prophesy confirmed and witnessed to the glory of our Lord, Christ Jesus? Yes, sometimes; but believer beware of the wolves in our midst.

Have you not endured some claiming such superior knowledge and understanding of mysteries who would teach us of their ‘faith to remove mountains’ in their Sunday school class or church small group?

Did you experience the embrace of Christ’s love in their Pharisaical instruction? Did you hear love for you in their teaching or prophesy?

I, too, have received prophesy and spoken it. The revelation of the Lord is a terrible and awesome thing!

Some prophesy has not yet come to pass. For all I know, I may have been given some spirit of deception to accomplish the Lord’s overpowering purpose. Yet in these last days we must fear the Lord, always listening for the approaching trumpet of truth over the blaring cries of some claiming ‘understanding.’

Read your Bible and pray for revelation by the Spirit of Truth in scripture.

³If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

‘And though I bestow,‘ states the King James; bestow, an interesting word more related to charity as we understand it – charity, agape love of God, used in application throughout these verses of the love chapter.

Bestow: to feed by putting a bit or crumb (of food) into the mouth; of infants, young animals etc.; to feed, nourish to give a thing; to feed someone, feed out to

Feed on God’s word in scripture. Nourish your spirit in prayer.

Does this not also bring to mind the love a father and a mother, given to their child, their teen, their grown adult children, even their spouse given in marriage into your own family? Is this not also the gift of adoption given by our Heavenly Father through Christ to gentile believers (like most of us)?

Are we not all poor and needy, dependent on our Father’s forgiving gracious love?

Though I give to the poor, but have not love…

Is that our charity of witness?

Now that I have shared the seriousness of God’s love for us, allow me to share the more familiar actions of love often and appropriately shared at weddings:

⁴Love is patient and kind;

love does not envy or boast;

it is not arrogant ⁵

or rude.

Are you patient to your spouse, to whom you are joined to each other and God by your vows?

Is your husband (or wife) patient with you – patient for you?

Is your love for your beloved partner until death – kind?

Are you, dear father, and you, dear mother, kind to your son – kind to your daughter – kind to each and all of your children (obedient and faithful, or rebellious and hateful)? Are you kind to your adopted child, your step-child, your child (even an adult child) given into your nurture by God to raise and guide in the Lord, Christ Jesus?

Is your love patient and kind even to your prodigal teen?

Is your love for your spouse, your children, your brothers and sisters in Christ ALWAYS patient and kind? Lord help us, impatient and unkind sinners!

It does not insist on its own way;

it is not irritable or resentful;

it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

Are you just another ‘spoiled child’ of God in your relationships with others in your daily life?

⁷Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Lord: Convict us and forgive us, for the sake of your Son, our loving Savior, Jesus Christ. Help me – help us to love you more and more; help us, miserable saved sinners, to love those you love with your overflowing agape love.

⁸Love never ends.

To be continued…

February 16, 2015
My Love – 3 – Affection
Affection! How hurriedly has this love fled our homes in the hustle and bustle of these last days?

Hardly a child will remember affectionate extended time with both father and mother at home. It is a great failure of our broken, worldly ‘christian’ families. How by our selfish quests for ‘happiness’ in the world ‘christians’ have forgotten not only the importance of our marriage vows, but also the affection and stability needed by our children for this essential love.

The word for this love in Greek is storgē. This love is our natural affection of a parent toward our off-spring and the dependent children toward parents without whom they would not have been born and could not survive as God has intended.

The relationship carries on into the extent of the lives of parent and child even well into adulthood and times when circumstance may dictate a child caring for their aging parent prior to death.

Briefly consider the affection and nearness of the families of Noah, Abraham and Jacob (even when his son, Prince Joseph of Egypt, cared for all of the sons of Israel and their families).

Read how near David remained in his affection, honor and relationship to his father Jesse. See how the families of the Priests and Prophets all lived together in one home or places near to one another as the faithful of God maintained the love and affection of community.

Another antiquated use of this storge love is expressed by a people for their King (even if he ‘did evil in the eyes of the Lord.’) We do not get to choose this relationship of inequitable dependence.

Our children must depend on and require the love and affection of their father and of their mother (and to a lesser extent, the people of their King, Queen, Governor, President or leader). A parent (or King) has duties of affection and responsibility toward each child (or subject).

Look also to the application for widows in this. Look to the needs of their children. See the God-given affection of dependence on family, rather than independence of self-will.

When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, Lazarus was not only a beloved friend but also responsible for his unmarried sisters, Mary and Martha.

What wonderful long-term affection of one in need dependent on a family member to provide or care for them. It is the familial plight of children, widows and widowers, aging parents, handicapped children or siblings. Love provides the compassion they need.

Is it not our God-given duty to love our children with the greatest affection?
- Is your instant message, your text, your clever ‘fb share’ enough affection?
- Is it enough for only a ‘single’ parent to manage this important love God expects from all of us?
Storge (per se) is not specifically used in the Greek New Testament; however this love and affection of family is well documented in many books of the Bible.

The Apostle Paul uses a similar word as direction to those with charge of our church family for some who must submit as children of God as a dependent one of Christ’s body, His church. Please hear the appeal and responsibility for this love (storge) as instructed in Paul’s Letter to Titus, a leader in establishing the foundation of the church and family.

Titus 2

Teach Sound Doctrine
But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. 2 Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. 3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good,

4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

6 Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. 7 Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, 8 and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.

We ought to see a hierarchical dichotomy in this instruction between the expected mature behavior of the older men and older women of the church, in contrast to their loving responsibility to train the younger women and younger men in the will and ways of Christ Jesus our Lord.

The instruction in the King James Version describes these differences with serious gravity.

That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. The aged women likewise…

Would this not also imply a similar duty and affection for the husband and wife of our Christian homes?

And to these instructions Paul adds (as just reason for the older women): … that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;

How are we doing with that, men and woman of Christ’s church, in our Christian homes? Are we, as mature Christians, ‘teachers of good things?’

We can be certain that our affection, teaching and guidance in the love of the Lord in our homes is much needed in this 21st century. (If you don’t believe it, just ask nearly any of our ‘christian’ youth.)

These young men and young women so depend on us and look to us; yet so often as parents and as their mentors of the church we ignore our teens and fail our youth.

Hear once more (in the KJV) what Paul instructs the older women and note once more that it is OUR responsibility to teach them (again, a familial dependent love):

That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,

To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

(I have added links to definitions in the Greek, in some instances root words, and always other uses of the same Greek word in New Testament scripture for your own study.)

Again, I ask us: has this love, this affection been diluted and nearly lost in our Christian homes?

On a personal note, I must confess to our son and our daughters how miserably I have failed in this love and affection so needed in our own now-broken christian home; as I confess to my wife by our vows before the Lord my great failure to show the love of the Blood of Jesus to her and His compassion for the struggles of my own wife in the Lord. For this (like so many broken christian marriages and families) I am truly sorry that WE are no witness of example to the church and to the world.

I pray that the Lord and your personal prayer and study of scripture will convict you in those areas of love where Christ Jesus would have you grow, love even more and be blessed.

Pray also for me, my wife and our broken family – our grown children, yet in need of compassion.

To be continued
February 8, 2015