paul – Page 3

These are the openings of all of Paul’s letters, except Galatians. Please don’t skip, read them through.

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:3-6).

I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, 5 that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— 6 even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— 7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:4-9).

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. … Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. (2 Corinthians 1:2,7)

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers… (Ephesians 1:15-16).

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven (Colossians 1:3-5).

We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, 3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 1:203).

We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring. (2 Thessalonians 3-4).

To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. (1 Timothy 1:2).

To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. (2 Timothy 2:2-4).

To Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. (Titus 1:4).

To Philemon our beloved fellow worker 2 and Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints, and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ. For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you. (Philemon 1:1-7).

A hallmark of Christianity is love.

By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:35).

Barnes Notes says of the John verse,

That is, your love for each other shall be so decisive evidence that you are like the Saviour, that all people shall see and know it. It shall be the thing by which you shall be known among all men. You shall not be known by special rites or habits; not by a special form of dress or manner of speech; not by special austerities and unusual customs, like the Pharisees, the Essenes, or the scribes, but by deep, genuine, and tender affection. And it is well known it was this which eminently distinguished the first Christians, and was the subject of remark by the surrounding pagans. “See,” said the pagan, “see how they love one another! They are ready to lay down their lives for each other.”

I think it’s clear that Paul genuinely loved his people and cherished his overseers. His letters were full of approbation for them. He had high regard for his fellow workers, and wasn’t shy about saying so.

Wouldn’t it be lovely to receive a letter like Paul’s? Wouldn’t it be great to be received in person the way that Paul greets his friends? It would, on both counts. I fail the standard Paul sets here, both in reaching out with loving, personal messages to warmly encourage as Paul does, and in displaying a genuine love in person for the believers “in the common faith.”

How about you? Is there something more you can do to ‘boast of a friend’ to other friends? To pray for them earnestly? To visit with them in love, exulting in your common love of Christ?

Please re-read the letter introductions, and think of someone you can love and encourage today. I know I will.

Kay Cude poetry. Used with permission. Click to enlarge. Artist’s Statement:

There is not one of the Apostles of Christ whom I do not love, and I am so grateful for their love and dedication to Christ, as well as to us the redeemed who have loved the truth of their teachings about our Lord and Saviour.

But there is one Apostle whose enduring love and willingness to give of himself to us, beyond measure, the profound greatness of Christ’s love and the Sovereign, loving heart of God to forgive and reconcile mankind (and me!) to Him, brings my heart to bow and praise God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Paul.

And then there is C.H. Spurgeon, although not an Apostle, reminds me of Paul by his intellect and abiding love of Christ and his desire that all mankind receive Christ as Lord and Master. When I began composing, I kept returning to how blind we can be, even when access to God’s Word is so easily accomplished–there are Bibles everywhere! (At least at present; I’m not sure when the government of this nation will ban the Bible as “hate” material, but surely it will.)

Then my thoughts jumped to those many false teachers, preachers and prophets who give false instruction and promote their vain imaginings to the lost, the deceived and the spiritually immature–to those with “scales” over their eyes. This is a burdensome ache in the hearts of those who have allowed Christ to remove the blindness, to witness “those” who name Christ as their “Lord,” when He is not, while they spout heresies about Him, His Nature, His Will and He and The Father’s predetermined plan to rescue mankind eternally.

This present age now witnesses the too many evangelical churches that are led and taught by preachers and teachers accepting the “imaginings” of false doctrine to be valid; they promote “another” gospel without recognizing that “another” gospel is man’s vanity (self). These deceptions are cleverly intertwined with “some” Scripture, but manipulated by “add-to’s and “removed from’s.” This is confusion and the unwary can be easily deceived. “Personal” interpretations abound, yet they are without the evidence of God’s Breathed Word, His Holy Word.

I’ve added Spurgeon’s “Scales Taken From the Eyes,” No. 3205, Vol. 56 (www.spurgeongems.org) as a reference source. This sermon is so to-the-point and packed so tightly with truth that I cannot imagine anyone reading it and not experiencing a shouting of “Amen” within their spirit, or a change in attitude, even a correction in one’s life-style and heart-thoughts. It surely affected me…

Tag: paul

Paul’s warm letters

Kay Cude: Paul and the scales on our eyes