The apostle Paul was a great letter writer

The apostle capital of Minnesota was a great letter writer. He supplied fourteen of the earn found in the Christian Hellenic Scriptures of the Holy Bible. Paul curiously encouraged the circulation of his letters, he writing to the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians and Hebrews gener all(prenominal)y.In his letter to the Christians at Colossae, he express in his conclusion, When this letter has been lead among you, arrange that it also be read in the congregation of the Laodiceans and that you also read the one from Laodicea. (Col. 416) sluice the apostle Peter, when he was writing from Babylon in Mesopotamia, spoke of his familiarity with the letters of Paul. All the raise is that those first-century Christians were sharing the word of life with early(a)s in this dying world.Paul, above all else, had a keen appreciation of the honor bestowed upon him to be the apostle to the nations I am grateful to Christ messiah our Lord, who delegated power to me, because he considered me trustworthy by assigning me to a ministry, although formerly I was a blasphemer and a persecutor. Moreover, farthest from being proud because of his office, he humbly asked his br new(prenominal)s to pray for him that he world power entertain the needed freeness of speech to give a good witness.However, one time a ruthless persecutor of Christians, now he was as disconsolate with those whom he taught as a nursing mother with her own children, exhorting was and console them as a father does his children. Nevertheless, he could also express upright indignation, as when he rebuked Peter for his vacillation and those of his fellow citizens who opposed the truth.Though come up educated, Paul did not call attention to himself nor did he need to restore to written letters of recommendations. Those to whom he brought the truth were living letters that could be read by all men. Within chapters six and seven, the book of empyrean Frank Matera entitled New Testament Theology addresses the different issues pointed protrude by Paul in his letters to the Galatians, the Romans, The Philippians, the Colossians and the Ephesians.CHAPTER 6 A theology OF RIGHTEOUSNESS Galatians and RomansThe letter to the Galatians showed how much passion Paul particularly contrive with regards the righteousness of the gospel and how much he detests those who intensely goes against the principles and rules set smashing by the gospel.Pauls exclamation, O senseless Galatians, is no evidence that he had in mind only a certain ethnic populate who sprang exclusively from Gallic stock in the Yankee part of Galatia. Rather, Paul was rebuking certain ones in the congregations there for allowing themselves to be influenced by an element of Judaizers among them, Jews who were attempting to name their own righteousness through the Mosaic arrangement in indue of the righteousness due to faith provided by the new covenant.Racially, the congreg ations of Galatia to whom Paul wrote were a mixture of Jews and non-Jews, the latter being both circumcised proselytes and non-circumcised Gentiles, and no doubt around were of Celtic descent.All together, they were addressed as Galatian Christians because the ara in which they lived was called Galatia. The whole tenor voice of the letter is that Paul was writing to those with whom he was swell up acquainted in the southern part of this Roman province, not to total strangers in the northern sector, which he apparently never visited. The letter reflects many characteristics of the pack of Galatia in Pauls time. Gallic Celts from the N had overrun the region in the third centuryB.C.E., and therefore Celtic influence was loaded in the land.The Celts, or Gauls, were considered a fierce, barbarous people, it having been said that they offered their prisoners of war as world sacrifices. They countenance also been described in Roman literature as a very emotional, superstitious peo ple, given to much ritual, and this religious trait would likely influence them away from a form of worship so lacking in ritual as Christianity.Even so, the congregations in Galatia may have included many who formerly had been like this as pagans, as well as many converts from Judaism who had not entirely rid themselves of scrupulously belongings the ceremonies and other obligations of the Mosaic Law. The fickle, inconstant nature attributed to the Galatians of Celtic descent could apologize how at one time some in the Galatian congregations were zealous for immortals truth. Later, they became an easy prey for opponents of the truth who were sticklers for observance of the Law and who insisted that circumcision and other requirements of the Law were necessary for salvation.The Judaizers, as such enemies of the truth might be called, apparently kept the circumcision issue alive even after the apostles and other elders in Jerusalem had dealt with the matter. Perhaps, too, some of the Galatian Christians were succumbing to the low moral standards of the populace, as may be inferred from the message of the letter from chapter5, verse 13, to the end.At any rate, when word of their warp reached the apostle, he was moved to write this letter of straightforward counsel and strong encouragement. It is evident that his immediate purpose in writing was to confirm his apostleship, misdirect the false teachings of the Judaizers, and strengthen the brothers in the Galatian congregations.It is through this letter that Paul has invoke the people with regards the truth that fraud of beliefs has made their hearts and conscience inure from the possibility of being able to please the one true idol whom they prefer to worship. Consequently, their choice of going against the supposed true and righteous grade has led them to becoming detestable to the eyes of God, thus it is required that they this instant change their views about the said matter.By the time he wrote Roma ns, Paul had already completed two long preaching tours and was well along on the third. He had written five other inspired letters starting line and Second Thessalonians, Galatians, and First and Second Corinthians.Yet it seems appropriate that in our modern Bibles, Romans precedes the others, since it discusses at length the new equality between Jews and non-Jews, the two classes to whom Paul preached. It explains a turning point in Gods dealings with his people and shows that the inspired Hebrew Scriptures had long foretold that the good news would be entitle also to the non-Jews.Paul, using Tertius as secretary, laces rapid argument and an astounding outcome of Hebrew Scripture quotations into one of the most forceful books of the Christian Greek Scriptures. With remarkable beauty of language, he discusses the problems that arose when first-century Christian congregations were composed of both Jews and Greeks. Did Jews have priority because of being Abrahams descendants?Did m ature Christians, exercising their familiarity from the Mosaic Law, have the right to stumble weaker Jewish brothers who still held to antique customs? In this letter Paul firmly established that Jews and non-Jews are equal before God and that men are declared righteous, not through the Mosaic Law, but through faith in Jesus Christ and by Gods undeserved kindness. At the resembling time, God requires Christians to show proper subjection to the various authorities under(a) which they find themselves.