Epistles: Reading Somebody Else's Mail

Have you ever "accidentally" read someone else's mail, email, or

text?  It can be a bit weird because you don't have a context for what they were talking about. 

This is a little bit what it is like to read what is called "the Letters" in the New Testament (also called the fancy term "The Epistles"). 

Here you are basically reading someone else's mail.  A chunk are written by Paul to groups of people in different cities.  For example, Ephesians is a letter from Paul to the Jesus followers in Ephesus.  Most of these are cities he had visited and spent time in.  Others are letters to specific people, like two letters he wrote to a young guy named Timothy. 

Paul, by the way, was a guy who never met Jesus while he was on earth.  Paul was a Pharisee, a particular type of Jewish religious scholar.  He tried to stop the Jesus movement, actually.  On his way to rat out some more Jesus people, Jesus himself blinds him in some crazy vision and tells him to visit a certain guy.  After Paul does this, he starts to follow Jesus himself and starts telling people all over the place about the message.  You can find this whole story in the book of Acts.

What's helpful to know about most of Paul's letters is how they're set up.  After his initial hellos, he spends a good portion talking about what is true (about Jesus, about people, about life, about the Father, etc.).  Then he often has a switching point where he goes basically, "Okay, since this - what I just wrote - is true, this is how it can affect how you live." 

But remember, you are reading someone else's mail.  When he makes some recommendations to the people in Corinth, for example, in 1 Corinthians, it doesn't mean that's God's answer for you.  They

had specific situations that Paul was addressing.  However, ask the Father how these letters relate to you.  He can use the texts to speak to you specifically, even though your situation may not be the same, nor the answers the same, as the ones in the letter.

There are several other letters in the New Testament too.  Three are written by John and two by Peter,
both Jesus' disciples.  One is by Jude, an early Jesus-follower.  We don't know who wrote Hebrews, but it's a great letter to some Jewish Christ-followers that explains how Jesus fulfilled the Old Covenant.  Finally, James wrote one, though it's not the disciple James.  It's most likely one of Jesus' younger brothers.  So Mary and Joseph were his parents. 

Well, I hope that gives you a little background on reading the Letters.  They are "somebody else's mail", but for centuries, people have found that Father speaks through them to create mail just for us.