The Letters of Saint Apostle Paul and What Are They about
Fourteen
letters, also called epistles, which are ascribed to the apostle Paul are
included in the holy scriptures of the New Testament Church. We will comment on
the letters in the order in which they are normally printed in the English
Bible and read in the Church’s liturgical year.
Romans
The
letter to the Romans was written by Saint Paul from Corinth sometime at the end
of the fifties of the first century. It is one of the most formal and detailed
expositions of the doctrinal teaching of Saint Paul that we have. It is not one
of the easier parts of the scripture to understand without careful study.
In this
letter, the apostle Paul writes about the relationship of the Christian faith
to the unbelievers, particularly the unbelieving Jews. The apostle upholds the
validity and holiness of the Mosaic law while passionately defending the
doctrine that salvation comes only in Christ, by faith and by grace. He
discourses powerfully about the meaning of union with Christ through baptism
and the gift of the Holy Spirit. He urges great humility on the part of the
gentile Christians toward Israel, and calls with great pathos and love for the
regrafting of the unbelieving Jews to the genuine community of God which is in
Christ Who is Himself from Israel “according to the flesh” (9.5) for the sake
of its salvation and that of all the world.
The end
of the letter is a long exhortation concerning the proper behavior of
Christians, finally closing with a long list of personal greetings from the
apostle and his co-workers, including one Tertius, the actual writer of the
letter, to many members of the Roman Church, urging, once more, steadfastness
of faith.
The
letter to the Romans is read in the Church’s liturgical lectionary during the
first weeks following the feast of Pentecost. Selections from it are also read
on various other liturgical occasions, one of which, for example, is the
sacramental liturgy of baptism and chrismation (6.3–11).
First Corinthians
The first
Christian community in Corinth, was noted neither for its inner peace and
harmony, nor for the exemplary moral behavior of its members. The two letters
of Saint Paul to the Corinthians which we have in the New Testament, written in
the mid-fifties of the first century, are filled not only with doctrinal and
ethical teachings, the answers to concrete questions and problems, but also
with no little scolding and chastisement by the author, as well as numerous
defenses of his own apostolic authority. These letters clearly demonstrate the
fact that the first Christians were not all saints, and that the early Church
experienced no fewer difficulties than the Church does today or at any time in
its history in the world.
After a
short greeting and word of gratitude to God for the grace given to the
Corinthians, the first letter begins with Saint Paul’s appeal for unity in the
Church. There are deep disagreements and dissensions among the members of the
community, and the apostle urges all to be fully united in the crucified
Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit in Whom there can be no divisions at
all (1–3) He then defends his apostleship generally and his fatherhood of the
Corinthian Church in particular, both of which were being attacked by some
members of the Church. (4) Next, he deals with the problem on sexual immorality
among members of the community and the matter of their going to court before
pagan judges (5–6). After this comes Saint Paul’s counsel about Christian
marriage and his advice concerning the eating of food offered to idols (7–8).
Then once again he defends his apostleship, stressing the fact that he has
always supported himself materially and has burdened no one.
The
divisions and troubles in the Corinthian community were most concretely
expressed at the eucharistic gatherings of the Church. There was general
disrespect and abuse of the Body and Blood of Christ, and the practice had
developed where each clique was having its own separate meal. These divisions
were caused in no small part by the fact that some of the community had certain
spiritual gifts, for example, that of praising God in unknown tongues, which
they considered as signs of their superiority over others. There also was
trouble caused by women in the Church, who were using their new freedom in
Christ for disruption and disorder.
In his
letter Saint Paul urges respect and discernment for the holy eucharist as the
central realization of the unity of the Church, coming from Christ, Himself. He
warns against divisions in the Church because of the various spiritual gifts,
urging the absolute unity of the Church as the one body of Christ which has
many members and many gifts for the edification of all. He insists on the absolute
primacy and superiority of love over every virtue and gift, without which all
else is made void and is destroyed. He tempers those who had the gift of
praising God in strange tongues, a gift which was obviously presenting a most
acute problem, and calls for the exercise of all gifts and most particularly
the simple and direct teaching of the Word of God in the Church. He appeals to
the women to maintain themselves in dress and behavior proper to Christians.
And finally he insists that “all things should be done decently and in order”
(10–14).
The first
letter to the Corinthians ends with a long discourse about the meaning of the
resurrection of the dead in Christ which is the center of the Christian faith
and preaching. The apostle closes with an appeal for money for the poor, and
promising a visit, he once again insists on the absolute necessity of strength
of faith, humble service and most especially, love.
Second Corinthians
The
entire second letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians is a detailed enumeration
and description of his sufferings and trials in the apostolate of Christ. In
this letter, the apostle once again defends himself before the Corinthians,
some of whom were reacting very badly to him and to his guidance and
instruction in the faith. He defends the “pain” that, he is causing these
people because of his exhortations and admonitions to them concerning their
beliefs and. Behavior, and he calls them to listen to him and to follow him in
his life in Christ.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the
love of God (the Father), and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
(2 Corinthians 13.14)
Saint Paul’s Hymn to 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. And 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. If I give away all I have, and if I
deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is
patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude.
Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does
not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things,
believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love
never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will
cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For our knowledge is imperfect and
our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass
away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned
like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a
mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall
understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. So faith, hope, love
abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
(1
Corinthians 13)
Galatians
The
letter of Saint Paul to the Galatians, most likely the southern Galatians
(Lystra, Derbe, Iconium), was sent from Antioch in the early fifties. In this
most vehement epistle, the apostle Paul expresses his profound anger and
distress at the fact that the Galatians, who had received the genuine gospel of
Christ from him, had been seduced into practicing “another gospel” which held
that man’s salvation requires the ritual observance of the Old Testament law,
including the practice of circumcision.
The heart
of this letter to the “foolish Galatians” (3.1) is Saint Paul’s uncompromising
defense of the fact -that his gospel is not his but Christ’s, the gospel of
salvation not by the law, but by grace and faith in the crucified Savior Who
gives the Holy Spirit to all who believe. The apostle stresses the fact that in
Christ and the Spirit there is freedom from slavery to the flesh, slavery to
the elemental spirits of the universe, and slavery to the ritual requirements
of the law through which no one can be saved. For the true “Israel of God”
(6.16) in Christ and the Spirit, there is perfect freedom, divine sonship and a
new creation. Those “who are led by the Spirit . . . are not
under the law” (5.18).
The
letter to the Galatians is included in the Church’s liturgical lectionary, with
the famous lines from the fourth chapter being the epistle reading of the
Orthodox Church at the divine liturgy of Christmas (4.4–7). This letter also
provides the Church with the verse which is sung at the solemn procession of
the liturgy of baptism and chrismation, and which also replaces the Thrice-Holy
Hymn at the divine liturgies of the great feasts of the Church which were once
celebrations of the entrance of the catechumens into the sacramental life of
the Church (see Worship, “Baptism”).
For as many as have been baptized into Christ
have put on Christ (Gal 3.27).
Ephesians
The
letters of Saint Paul to the Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians are called
the captivity epistles since they are held to have been written by the apostle
from his house arrest in Rome around 60 A.D. In some early sources, the letter
to the Ephesians does not contain the words “who are at Ephesus,” thus leading
some to think of the epistle as a general letter meant for all of the churches.
Saint
Paul’s purpose in the letter to the Ephesians is to share his “insight into the
mystery of Christ” (3.4) and “to make all men see what is the plan of the for
ages in God Who created all things . . .” (3.9) In the first part of the letter, the
apostle attempts to describe the mystery. He uses many words in long sentences,
overflowing with adjectives, in his effort to accomplish his task. Defying a
neat outline, the main points of the message are clear.
The plan
of God for Christ, before the foundation of the world, is “to unite all things
in Him, things in heaven and things on earth” (1.10) The plan is accomplished
through the crucifixion, resurrection and glorification of Christ at the right
hand of God. The fruits of God’s plan are given freely to all men by God’s free
gift of grace, to Jews and gentiles alike, who believe-in the Lord. They are
given in the One Holy Spirit, in the One Church of Christ, “which is His body,
the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (1.23). In the Church of Christ, with
each part of the body knit together and functioning properly in harmony and
unity, man grows up in truth and in love “to the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ” (4.12–16). He gains access to God the Father through Christ
in the Spirit thus becoming “a holy temple of the Lord . . . a
dwelling place of God” (2.18–22), “filled
with all the fullness, of God” (3.19).
In the
second part of the letter, Saint Paul spells out the implications of the “great
mystery . . . Christ
and the Church” (5.32). He urges sound
doctrine and love, a true conversion of life, a complete end to all impurity
and immorality and a total commitment to spiritual battle. He addresses the
Church as a whole; husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and
slaves. He calls all to “put on the new nature, created after the likeness of
God in true righteousness and holiness” (4.24).
The
letter to the Ephesians finds its place in the liturgical lectionary of the
Church, with the well-known lines from the sixth chapter being the epistle
reading at the sacramental celebration of marriage (5.21–33).
Phillippians
As we
have mentioned, the letter of Saint Paul to the Philippians was written at the
time of his confinement in Rome. It is a most intimate letter of the apostle to
those whom he sincerely loved in the Lord, those who were his faithful partners
in the gospel “from the first day until now” (1.5). In this letter, Saint Paul
exposes the most personal feelings of his mind and heart as he sees the
approaching end of his life. He also praises the Philippian Church as a model
Christian community in every way, encouraging and inspiring its beloved members
whom he calls his “joy and crown” (4.1) with prayers that their “love may
abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment,” so that they “may
approve what is excellent, and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,
filled with all the fruits of righteousness which come through Jesus Christ for
the praise and glory of God” (1.10–11).
Of
special significance in the letter to the Philippians, besides the mention of
“bishops and deacons” (1.1), which hints at the developing structure of the
Church, is Saint Paul’s famous passage about the self-emptying (kenosis) of
Christ which is the epistle reading for the feasts of the Nativity and and
Dormition of the Theotokos in the Orthodox Church, and which has been so
influential for Christian spiritual life, particularly in Russia.
Have this mind among yourselves, which you
have in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count
equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking on the
form of a servant (slave), and being born in the likeness of men. And being
found in human form He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even
death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the
name which is above every name . . . (2.5–9).
Like all
Pauline epistles, the letter to Phillipians has its place in the Church’s
normal lectionary.
Colossians
It is
believed that the letter of Saint Paul to the Colossians, written, as we have
said, from Rome, was expressly intended to instruct the faithful in Colossae in
the true Christian gospel in the face of certain heretical teachings which were
threatening the community there. It appears that some form of gnosticism and
angel worship had crept into the Colossian Church.
Gnosticism
was an early Christian heresy which, in all of its various forms, denied the
goodness of material, bodily reality, and therefore, the genuine incarnation,
crucifixion and resurrection of Christ in human flesh. It made of the Christian
faith a type of dualistic, spiritualistic philosophy which pretended to provide
a secret knowledge of the divine by way of intellectual mysticism. Gnosis, as a
word, means knowledge.
In his
letter, Saint Paul stresses that he indeed wishes the Colossians to be “filled
with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding”
(1.9), and that indeed it is true that in Christ “are hid all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge” (2.3). The real point of the Christian gospel, however,
is that in Christ, through whom and for whom all things were created (1.16),
“the whole fulness of deity dwells bodily” (2.9). It is only through the
incarnation of Christ and His death on the cross and His resurrection from the
dead, in the most real way, that salvation is given to men. It is given in the
Church, through baptism; the Church which is itself Christ’s “body” (1.24,
2.19).
Thus, the
apostle insists to the Colossians that Christ is superior to all angels, having
“disarmed the principalities and powers (i.e., the angels)… triumphing over
them on the cross” (2.15). He warns them, therefore “to see to it that no one
makes a prey of you by philosophy and vain deceit, according to human traditions,
according to the elemental spirits of the uni-verse and not according to
Christ” (2.8). He warns as well that they should “let no one disqualify you,
insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his stand on visions,
puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind . . .” (2.18)
The
content and style of the letter to the Colossians is very similar to Ephesians.
Following the doctrinal instructions of the letter, their spiritual
implications for the believer are spelled out with moral exhortations for a
life lived in conformity to Christ and in total service to Him. Like the other
letters of Saint Paul, the letter to Colossians is read in its turn in the
liturgical services of the Church.
Thessalonians
It is
generally agreed that Saint Paul’s two letters to the Thessalonians are the
first of the apostle’s epistles, and are also the earliest written documents of
the New Testament scriptures. They were most likely sent from Corinth, at the
end of the forties, in response to the report brought from Timothy that certain
difficulties had arisen in the Thessalonian Church about the second coming of
Christ and the resurrection of the dead.
In both
of his letters to the Thessalonians, Saint Paul repeats the same doctrine. He
urges patient steadfastness of faith and continual love and service to the Lord
and the brethren in the face of the many persecutions and trials which were
confronting the faithful. He affirms that the Lord will come “like a thief in
the night” (1 Thess 5.2) when all satanic attacks against the faith have been
completed. But in the meantime, the Christians must continue “to do their work
in quietness” (2 Thess 3.12) without panic or fear, and without laziness or
idleness into which some had fallen because of their belief in the Lord’s
immediate return.
Concerning
the resurrection from the dead, the apostle teaches that as Jesus truly rose,
so will all “those who have fallen asleep” (Thess 4.14).
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven
. . . and the dead in Christ will rise first;
then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in
the clouds to meet the Lord (1 Thess. 4.16–17).
This
entire passage (1 Thess 4.16–17) is the epistle reading at the funeral liturgy
in the Orthodox Church. Both letters to the Thessalonians are included in the
liturgical lectionary during the Church year.
Timothy
The
letters of Saint Paul to Timothy and Titus are called the pastoral epistles.
Although some modern scholars consider these letters as documents of the early
second century, primarily because of the developed picture of Church structure
which they present, Orthodox Church Tradition defends the letters as authentic
epistles of Saint Paul from his house arrest in Rome in the early sixties of
the first century.
The two
letters to Timothy are of similar contents, having the same purpose to teach
“how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the
living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth” (1 Tim 3.15).
In his
first letter to Timothy, Saint Paul urges his “true child in the faith” (1.2),
who was in Ephesus, to “wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good
conscience” (1.18–19). He urges that prayers “be made for all men” by the
Church (2.1) and that “good doctrine” be preserved and propagated, most
particularly in times of difficulties and defections from the true faith (4.6,
6.3). In the letter, the apostle counsels all in proper Christian belief and
behavior, giving special advice, both professional and personal, to his co-worker
Timothy whom he counsels not to neglect the gift which he received “when the
elders laid their hands” upon him (4.14).
The main
body of the first letter to Timothy describes in detail the requirements for
the pastoral offices of bishop, deacon and presbyter (priest or elder), and
offers special instructions concerning the widows and slaves. The rules
concerning the pastoral ministries have remained in the Orthodox Church, being
formally incorporated into its canonical regulations.
Of
special note in the first letter to Timothy is Saint Paul’s confession of
sinfulness which has become part of the pre-communion prayers of the Orthodox
Church.
The saying is sure and worthy of full
acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am
first (1 Tim 1.15).
In his
second letter to Timothy, Saint Paul again urges his “beloved child” to
“rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands”
(1.2, 6). He stresses the absolute necessity for “sound doctrine” in the
Church, calling for a firm struggle against “godless chatter” and the
“disputing over words” (2.14,16) particularly in “times of stress” when the
gospel is attacked by men of “corrupt mind and counterfeit faith” who are
merely “holding the form of religion but denying the power of it” (3.1–8). As
in his first letter, the apostle specifically mentions the need for the firm
adherence to the scriptures (3.15).
The
expression of Saint Paul in this letter, that the leaders of the Church must be
found “rightly handling the word of truth” (2.15), has become the formal
liturgical prayer of the Orthodox Church for its bishops.
Titus
Sections
of the letter to Titus about the appearance of “the grace of God . . . for the
salvation of all men . . . by the
washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit which He poured out upon
us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior” (2.11–3.7) comprise the Church’s
epistle reading for the feast of the Epiphany.
Generally
speaking, each of the pastoral epistles is included in the Church’s continual
epistle lectionary, coming in the Church year just before the beginning of
Great Lent.
Philemon
In his
letter to Philemon written from his Roman imprisonment, Saint Paul appeals to
his “beloved fellow worker” (1.1) to receive back his runaway slave Onesimus
who had become a Christian, “no longer as a slave, but as a beloved brother . . . both in
the flesh and in the Lord.” (16) He
asks Philemon to “receive
him as you would receive me” (17) and
offers to pay whatever debts Onesimus may have towards his master.
Hebrews
Virtually
none of the modern scriptural scholars think that Saint Paul is the author of
the letter to the Hebrews. The question of the exact authorship of this epistle
was questioned early in Church Tradition with the general consensus being that
the inspiration and doctrine of the letter is certainly Saint Paul’s, but that
perhaps the actual writer of the letter was one of Saint Paul’s disciples. The
letter is dated in the second half of the first century and is usually read in
the Church as being “of the holy apostle Paul.”
The
letter to the Hebrews begins with the clear teaching about the divinity of
Christ, affirming that God, Who “in many and various ways . . . spoke
of old to our fathers” has “in these last days . . . spoken
to us by a Son, Whom He appointed the heir of all things, through Whom He also
created the world” (1.1–2).
He (the Son of God) reflects the glory of God
and bears the very stamp of His nature (or person), upholding the universe by
the word of His power (1.3).
Christ,
the divine Son of God, was made man as the “apostle and high priest of our
confession” (3.1), “the great shepherd of the sheep” (13: 20), “the pioneer and
perfecter of our faith” (12.2), whom God sent to “taste of death for everyone”
(2.9).
He Himself . . . partook of the same nature (of human flesh
and blood), that through death He might destroy him who has the power of death,
that.is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were
subject to lifelong bondage . . . (being) made like His brethren in every
respect, so that He might become a merciful and faithful highpriest in the
service of God, to make expiation for the sins of the people. For since He
Himself has suffered and been tempted, He is able to help those who are tempted
(2.14–18).
The main
theme of the letter to the Hebrews is to compare the sacrifice of Christ to the
sacrifices of the priests of the Old Testament. The Old Testament priests made
continual sacrifices of animals for themselves and the sins of the people,
entering into the sanctuary of the Jerusalem temple. Christ makes the perfect
and eternal sacrifice of Himself upon the cross, once and for all, for the sins
of the people and not for Himself, entering into the heavenly sanctuary, not
made by hands, “to appear in the presence of God on our behalf” (9.24). This is
the perfect and all fulfilling sacrifice of the one perfect high priest of God
Who was prefigured in the mysterious person of Melchizedek, in the Old
Testament, as well as in the ritual priesthood of the Levites under the old law
which was “but a shadow of the good things to come” and not yet the “true form
of these realities” (10.1, See Gen 14, Ex 29, Lev 16, Ps 110).
Through
the perfect sacrifice of Christ, the believers receive forgiveness of sins and
are “made perfect” (11.40), being led and disciplined by God Himself Who gives
His Holy Spirit that through their sufferings in imitation of Christ, His
people “may share in His holiness” (12.10). This is effected, once again, not
by the ritual works of the law which “made nothing perfect” (7.19), but by
faith in God, without which “it is impossible to please Him” (11.6).
The
letter to the Hebrews, which is read in the Orthodox Church at the divine
liturgies during Great Lent, ends with the author’s appeal to all to “be
grateful for receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken” and to “offer to God
acceptable worship with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire”
(12.28). It calls as well for love, faith, purity, generosity, strength, obedience
and joy among all who believe in “Jesus Christ (Who) is the same yesterday and
today and for ever” (13.8).
Source: https://oca.org/orthodoxy/the-orthodox-faith/doctrine-scripture/new-testament/letters-of-saint-paul
