Some Keys to Reading and Understanding the Epistles
(Adapted from How to Read the Bible for All It's Worth,
Fee and Stuart, pp.45-77)
The Nature of the Epistles
All the New Testament except the four Gospels, Acts, and Revelation
are considered as some form of Epistle. While some of these books
take on the form of personal letters (Philemon for example), others
were intended to be read before entire congregations of Christians
(the Corinthian letters). The form of the ancient letter is often
exemplified in the New Testament epistles:
1. name of the writer (e.g., Paul)
2. name of the recipient (e.g., to the church at Corinth)
3. greeting (e.g., grace and peace to you from God our Father…)
4. prayer wish or thanksgiving (e.g., I always thank God for you…)
5. body
6. final greeting and farewell (e.g., The grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ be with you…)
While not every epistle contains all of these elements, enough of them do to tell us that the New Testament writers were lead by the Spirit to generally conform to the style of the day.
Two things that the epistles share in common is that: 1)- they were written for a specific occasion and 2)- they were penned in the first century. The occasion for most of the epistles is something that was happening with the reader; usually some type of behavior that needed correcting, a doctrinal error that needed to be set right, or a misunderstanding that needed to be clarified. We then are privy to only one side of the dialogue and sometimes find it hard to figure out what questions elicited the responses given by the letter writer.
We must be careful not to expect each epistle to be a complete statement of God's will for us. God has left them for us as a body of material for a reason; that reason being that each epistle does not necessarily stand alone theologically. It is important as always to be aware of the context of the epistle.
The Historical Context
When approaching any of the epistles we must first determine just
what situation caused the Holy Spirit to inspire the writer. What
was going on in the church that called for a letter? How did the
writer come to learn of the situation? What previous relationship
did the writer have with the recipients? What attitudes are displayed
by the writer and inferred to the readers? How do we begin to
answer these questions?
1. Consult a Bible dictionary or introduction to a reliable commentary
to find out as much as possible about the recipients of the letter.
What is known of their environs, their government, and their
religious background?
2. Read the whole letter in one sitting. You'll need an hour or
less to do this. This how a letter (including a Bible letter)
is designed to be read. As you read through the letter jot down
some notes relating to the big picture such as: who were the recipients,
what were the writer's attitudes, specifics of the occasion that
prompted the letter, and the natural divisions of the letter.
3. Attempt to outline the letter yourself. This can be refined
as you study the letter further, perhaps taking some hints from
the commentators as you go. However, you must agree to the divisions
and not just take a scholar's word for it.
4. Now begin to refine your outline further by studying the divisions
of you outline separately. Look for repeated keys words and phrases.
The Literary Context
Once you have a handle on the problem being addressed by the writer,
begin to follow his argument paragraph by paragraph, jotting down
phrases as you go. Try to answer the "what" and "why"
of each paragraph in your notes.
1. Try to understand the point of the letter within the text of
the letter.
2. Look for anything in the text that does not seem to fit the
problem as you have perceived it.
3. Does your thinking make perfectly good sense compared to the
text?
Breaking Down "Problem Passages"
After much personal study you may be perplexed that you cannot
find the meaning of a passage. Here are guidelines for further
study:
1. What God wants us to know He has told us. There are some things
we just might not be able to discover and we have to be content
with that.
2. Just because we do not have all the details does not mean we
cannot glean the point of the passage.
3. Concentrate on the certainties of the passage.
4. Here is where a reliable commentary can help. The good commentators
give you the variety of interpretations to choose from when it
comes to the difficult passages of scripture. Note that when there
are over four viable options as to how to view a certain passage,
even the scholars are guessing.
Making the Application Today
What part of the Epistle applies to us today and what part is
to be left in the first century? When was Paul just talking to
Timothy and when was he saying things that also apply to us? What
preconceived notions are we bringing to our study in regards to
our theological heritage, our religious traditions, our cultural
norms, and our existential concerns? All of these play a part
in our coming to an understanding of what a passage means to us
today.
Guidelines for Application
1. The Basic Rule: A text cannot mean what it never could have
meant to its author or its readers. While this rule does not always
lead us to what a passage means, it does verify what it cannot
mean.
2. Rule Two: Whenever we share our similar specific life situations
with the first-century setting, God's word to us is the same as
God's word to them.
Problems of Modern Application
Problem of Extending the Application
Changing God's intent of His word is dangerous. Applying passages
meant for the church to individuals or passages meant for individuals
to the church have caused all types of division within so-called
Christian denominations as well as within the Lord's church itself.
Once again we return to the context and the clear teachings of
other bible passages to clarify whether our extended applications
hold water or not.
Problem of Particulars That Are Not Comparable
Will we be asked to join our pagan neighbors in partaking of a
feast of meat offered to their idols? Can an apostleship be called
into question today? Are we likely to buy meat at the market
that has been sacrificed to idols? Paul addresses all these questions
in 1 Cor. 8-10. These problems do not really exist in the Protestant
western culture, with the exception of an occasional "David
Koresh" type character claiming equal apostleship with Paul
and the Twelve or the Pope standing in apostolic succession.
Other highly improbable happenings: getting drunk at the Lord's
Supper or forced circumcision. We can apply some things from these
passages if:
1. A principle is stated or implied that transcends the time-span
between the first-century and now.
2. This principle can only be applied to genuinely compatible
situations.
How do we distinguish things are matters of indifference?
1. It appears that all regulations regarding food, drink (with
the possible exception of alcohol), and observance of days are
matters of indifference.
2. These matters of indifference are cultural as opposed to moral
(e.g., circumcision).
3. The sin lists of the Epistles do not contain the things mentioned
above (Rom. 1:29,30; 1 Cor. 5:11; 6:9,10; 2 Tim. 3:2-4).
Problem of Cultural Relativity
How do we leave "a little wine for your stomach's sake,"
women's head coverings, and "the holy kiss" in the first
century and bring forward women silent in the church, and "no
homosexuality allowed" from the same contexts? How do we
pick and choose the items that are culturally relative to us today
and still leave the veil in the first century?
1. What is inherently taught as moral in the New Testament and
what is not? For example, homosexuality is not condemned on cultural
grounds, but on moral grounds; while abstaining from meat sacrificed
to idols is discouraged on cultural grounds and not moral ones.
2. Check to see if a uniform teaching of the New Testament exists.
This is clear to see on topics such as strife, hatred, murder,
homosexuality, drunkenness and sexual immorality.
Problem of Task Theology
We must be careful in applying passages of scripture that were
written for an occasion (task) that does not exist today.
1. We must reiterate here that scripture has given us all we need,
but not all we want. There are just some things that we might
not be able to understand when it comes to the particulars of
a certain passage. 1 Cor. 6:2 says that the "saints will
judge the world." Do you know exactly what that means?
2. Sometimes our problem with the texts of the Epistles is that
we are trying to answer our questions with passages that were
designed by God to answer their questions. Let us then be about
obeying what we can hear and understand.
QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS
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