Pauline Epistles

The 13 epistles that bear Paul’s name represent the plethora of Paul’s writings. As an apostle for Christ, Paul came to Christianity from a Jewish skeptic’s worldview, and it took a powerful encounter with the living Jesus for Paul to be converted to Christianity. But just as hard as he persecuted the fledgling church, so also he devoted his life to proclaiming Jesus to the known world.

He is most noted for his missionary work with Gentiles, which caused him much heartache with his native people. But God used his well-trained mind and fervent heart to explain some of the deeper things of God. At times, you will find Paul deep in theological debate, and at other times, he is worshipping Jesus as his heart for the Church serves God’s loving kindness.

No writer has written more books of the Bible than Paul, the persecutor-turned-apostle. Of the 13 letters, most are to churches, but some are to individuals. Paul discusses everything from theological principles to how to apply these principles. In almost all of his letters, he has a pattern of telling us the background (what is happening), the theological framework (what should be happening) and how to get there (the application). Paul's unique education and journeys made him a superstar apostle for Christ's kingdom, and his letters spur all believers on to greater life in Christ.

Toward the end of his ministry, while in prison under house arrest in Rome, Paul wrote four prison epistles (Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and Philemon). The first three letters have similar subject matter and wording. He wrote these letters at the same time. He also wrote the Pastoral Epistles (1 & 2 Timothy, and Titus) in which he encourages young leaders and talks about church leadership.

Epistles are easy for us to understand. They have prayers, commands, principles, and straight and plain language for us to easily understand without much study. Epistles were written to address a particular issue or occasion. We do not receive a systematic approach to theology or church and Christian issues. Epistles have two audiences: the original audience they were written to in the first century, and us when we apply them to our context for our day.

Epistles had a literary structure and were a specific form of communication. They contained six parts: (1) Name of the author, (2) Name of the recipient(s), (3) Greeting, (4) Prayer wish or thanksgiving, (5) Body of the letter, and (6) Final greeting and farewell. But some of Paul’s letters look more like an essay or treatise and don’t follow this rigid format. They are still letters because they address an audience, deal with an occasion or issue, and have other parts of an epistle.

No matter where Paul went in his ministry, he was dogged by the Judaizers, a group of Jewish false teachers who distorted his teachings and called Gentile churches to follow Mosaic law to the letter after converting to Christianity. We can see Paul’s rebuttal of these false teachers in Galatians, 2 Corinthians, and Colossians. Toward the end of his life, he was counseling Titus and Timothy on Greek and Roman false teaching that crept into the churches.