I've always wondered what it would be like to find a message in a bottle, washed up on the sand from far across the water. I realize email is much more efficient, but it's just not the same. Do you even remember mail—honest to goodness letters from friends and family—words on paper folded into an envelope, addressed and stamped, dropped off at the post office, and delivered to your door—maybe your faraway door? I do, especially when I was in college, having fun with my new grown-up life but still missing just about everything back home.
I've always known, in my head, that many books of the New Testament are letters from Paul to churches he couldn't get to at the moment. I've known it, but I didn't really feel it until I read them one after another. My study Bible says that he usually dictated them to a scribe and then wrote a personal note and signature at the end, in his own handwriting, so the churches would know the letters had come from him. Many of the people in these churches were new Christians, just beginning to understand their faith and wondering if they were doing everything they were supposed to. Can you imagine trying to explain the gift of grace and forgiveness in a letter? Or trying to teach entire churches how to live and work together that way? Of course, Paul and other missionaries visited these churches in person, but travel was slow. The letters came between visits, bridging the gap and holding these early congregations together.
Paul's letters have that same effect today—bridging the gap between the earliest disciples and those of us trying to find our way in a modern world that can be overwhelming. Every age has its challenges, I guess. But the sustaining grace Paul found through Christ and preached through his letters is constant:
I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:12-13
. . . The only thing that counts is faith
expressing itself through love.
Galatians 5:6
Comments