EMMAUS SCHOOL OF BIBLICAL STUDIES

This was a sweet book to study. I really enjoyed it. The main idea was to that true spirituality is realized by making love the aim of everything.

In this letter Paul talks about lot and lots of issues in the church. Every issue though when you get to the heart of it is for the reason of love. Women should cover their head in church out of love for the men (this was immodest in their culture to have their hair down). Paul preaches the gospel so that he will receive a reward. What is that reward? Paul says it is simply seeing people get saved: he does it for love of unbelievers. Why should people prophesy in church instead of speak in tongues? So that people could understand and be encouraged by their message.

The famous ‘love chapter’ (chapter 13) is found in 1 Corinthians. In the context though the message is so much more powerful. Every action needs to be done in love, otherwise it doesn’t count in the kingdom. Someone could be healing thousands of people but without love they aren’t really spiritual. Someone could pray 10 hours a day and fast 6 days out of the week, but without these actions being done in love God sees them as worthless. Spirituality in Christianity is defined by how well we love. Let love reign in the church!

This book is a great book on church dymanics and can really speak to us about how we do church today.  The Corinthians were a fairly self absorbed bunch and this comes through strongly in the way they did church and how they treated one another.    They were suing each other over petty matters, leaving out the poor at the Lord’s Supper and using the spiritual gifts to promote themselves in church.

Paul’s solution for all of these challenges is love.  If they want the best for one another they will make sure that the poor in the church are included in the Lord’s Supper.  If they are considering each other they will use the gifts of the Spirit to build one another up.  If they love one another they will lay down their rights and be willing to be wronged from time to time.

There are some challenging issues in this book including the role of women in the church, without being baised because of my sex, I do think it seems clear that Paul wants women to pray and prophesy in church just to do it in an orderly fashion like everyone else.

Again and again I see how our cultures influence how we receive the gospel.   Their view of the world including the spiritual realm effected how they lived out their faith.  Their desire for knowledge at the expense of love meant people in the church were being excluded.  

How often do I want to be right at the expense of loving others?  

Am I willing to lay down my rights so that someone else can be built up? 

Am I being a spectator in church, what is my part? 

Once again the message is clear to me - Love God and love people

First Corinthians was such a GOOD book! It was so interesting! I loved learning all the historical background. It would be so cool to go to Corinth now! But the content was also very interesting, it dealt with so many practical aspects of Christianity and so many important things for life in the body of Christ.

Paul writes to the Corinthians to correct their thinking on some of the issues that they had written to him about and he’d heard through the grapevine of “Chloe’s people” (1:11). He addresses issues such as marriage, divorce, spiritual gifts, the resurrection, lawsuits, and the list goes on. Paul teaches them how to deal with issues within the church and how they need to live these things out in practical ways. The bottom line that Paul presents is that they need to love one another. The body of Christ is there to support, edify, and build up each other. If they do everything else right but don’t love, then it isn’t worth anything. Paul shows them over and over that in every situation what matters most of all, what is the “more excellent way” (12:31), is to love one another. Paul shows them how to do this practically and gives them examples of people who do this. At the end of the book he repeats again “Let all that you do be done in love” (16:14). This is the bottom line, if they do this then everything else will fall into place.

It was cool to see that this theme of love was not just in Chapter 13 but throughout the entire book. Paul shows them how to do this within the church with their spiritual gifts. It was cool for me to realize this amazing gift we have being a part of the body of Christ. The whole point of them having spiritual gifts was to build up the body. In the body of Christ we are supposed to be there for each other, not do things for our own pleasure, but for the benefit of others. This was so cool to see how God designed the body to work together. We are many individuals, but one body. We can’t neglect certain members, if we do we suffer as well. The whole body works together, if one member suffers, the other suffers as well; we are to rejoice together, and mourn together. We are to treat each other as if it was our own body, serving, building up, and supporting each other. Thinking of the body of Christ in this way makes me appreciate this gift God’s given to us, and helps me to see my role in the body. It is cool to see how we all need each other and God gave us this awesome gift to us for our growth and support. I am thankful for his body, how through it he has helped me mature, grow, and be built up.  I am also eager for him to use me in other’s lives as well.

I’ve always loved this book- but coming in to it, I had a lot of questions! I thoroughly enjoyed studying 1 Corinthians, trying to get into their shoes, and applying it to our everyday lives. Funny enough, the struggles of the church in Corinth were not too much different than America today! They, like us, were very egocentric, thinking of themselves first and foremost over anything. Paul wrote the whole letter to basically tell them to snap out of the self-centered living and to live life with love. Paul emphasized, in every issue, to love one another, not think of themselves as so much better than everyone else. True spirituality is loving one another, making love their aim. For God IS love! And love is an action, and do this so that they can build up the body.

Paul uses his famous body metaphor in this book, and it really is such an awesome illustration. Paul’s sense of unity is so much bigger- all believers make up ONE body- and this view should change everyone’s perspective of how to treat others. By looking at the Church as one body, it values each individual, for each person has a part to play and is equally important in the Kingdom of God. But the bigger thing is that we are all one! We have become so individualistic- but the point that Paul is making is that attached to the body, we all have a place, a purpose, a position. When the body is functioning like that, the body can flourish as God intended it- that’s how God designed us to living in community! We are one body- and if one member is taken out or disconnected, it will die and the body will not function as it was made to! Think about our actual bodies—if we have a hangnail- we try to fix it in every way because we value our finger. In Church today, we usually would just cut off the finger. So you can see how this view values each individual but keeps the larger perspective of ONE body. Sitting and thinking on this idea really brought it to mean so much- and I view the “body” differently now.

Other truths we learned were about the head coverings and women being silent in ministry. I’ll just let you know that, by learning about the historical background and looking at the literary context, in my opinion Paul does NOT say that head coverings are necessary and he does NOT condemn women in the church- I think he is a big supporter. If you’d like to know more- just ask me ?

But the biggest message I got from this book is- as Christians, we have freedom in Christ, but in order to build up the body, we may choose to give some of our freedom up in order to build up the body. I need to always think- are my actions, dress, words, etc affecting another part of the body in a negative way? If it will, I need to change so that it will be uplifting. This is true freedom- for I have the choice because both are acceptable, and if you can’t give something up- you’re obviously not really free from that if you can’t let it go. Always remember- the issue is people’s salvation, not our personal rights, freedom or knowledge. But as Christians, love is our aim. Let all you do be done in love.

57 (ish) A.D. Paul writes to the segregated and probably internally hostile church in Rome. The Jews had been kicked out of Rome by Claudious, and had just been allowed back in by Nero. Therefore the Christian church in Rome had been Jewless for 6 years and it had been about 3 years since the Jews had been back. There were arguments and disunity within the church, and this is one of the main reasons that Paul writes the letter. The first eleven chapters of the letter is laced with the underlying argument to show that all of humanity is equal under the same power of sin, same means of salvation, the same spiritual growth and security and the same in God’s plan. Then the last few chapters are practical council on how to live in unity. Paul tells them to welcome each other just like Jesus welcomed them.

This letter addressed the problems between the Jews and the Gentiles. But I believe that some of those same issues of disunity are alive in the universal Christian church today. The Jews and Gentiles were arguing over some petty issues–what not to eat, and which days to observe–and Paul is saying, look guys, God is a merciful and gracious God, who are we to judge one another, we are all sinners and saved under the same faith possessing the same gift of salvation from the same God (paraphrased and reworded by Luke Fears). Our goal should be to glorify God! And one way to glorify God is to unify as one body under Christ, show love to each other, and live in harmony. I think that today, the universal church could be taught this same lesson. There is a different flavor of church on every corner in most communities. I think this is counterproductive and just segregates the Christian. Instead of criticizing different worship styles or tradition. I suggest that pastor of every denomination reach out and try to foster some sort of collaboration within the body of Christ.

…a little note–I have never really understood chapters 9-11. I don’t know if I do now either , but one thing that really helps to know is that the Jews had been having this on going argument: Who is going to be the remnant or the Israel within Israel? Never had they ever considered Gentiles included in this group of eventually saved individuals. And Paul argues in chapters 9-11  (using Old Testament scriptures to support his argument) that in fact the ‘spiritual Israel’ included Gentiles. This must have rocked the worldview of the Jewish Christians, and should have consequently fostered respect within the Jews toward the Gentiles.

This week: Romans. Big intense book. I never thought before that the message of the book is unity. There are some very meaty theological sections to the book, but Paul uses them to show that Gentiles were chosen by God to be part of his family.

When Paul greets the church in Rome, as he always does at the beginning of his letters, he greets them as “all God’s beloved in Rome” not as the “church in Rome”. This is rather strange, but he does this because there are many church groups in Rome all meeting separately, because they don’t get along. From chapters 1-11 Paul is only establishing the fact that Jews and Gentiles are equal. They are equal in their sins. They are equal in their justification. They are equal in their sanctification (becoming like Jesus). And finally they are both chosen by God. God chose those he saves, therefore the believers shouldn’t despise or judge one another.

The believers didn’t meet together because they didn’t agree on some small doctrinal points and cultural expressions of faith. Paul’s solution: he doesn’t tell the them to both have the same doctrine, but not to judge one another – he says “welcome one another!” Let the differences be, but don’t stop fellowshipping because of them. We can apply this very easily to life as a believer today. Do we allow small doctrinal issues or cultural expressions of worship divide us? Are their groups of believers who we don’t associate with?

Romans was written by Paul to the Church in Rome because they were having some serious unity issues.  The gentile church was growing strongly and there were also a number of Jews believers but they had some very different styles of following God.  The Jews were still holding on to their traditions of circumcision, eating kosher and observing the Sabbath didn’t do any of this.  On top of this they were judging each other for their behaviour.

No wonder Paul goes to such great lengths to point out that both the Jews and Gentiles are just sinners who have turned their backs on God and chosen to do things their own way.  If you wan to argue that all people are somehow good check out Paul’s reasoning in Romans and you will see we are not good!  In fact you could say we are dead – sinners who are dead to God.

But Paul goes on to show that all people get saved the same way – Jew or Gentile come to God simply through faith in Jesus.  It is the kindness of God which even brings us to start thinking about him in the first place.  God turns us from dead sinners to people wanting to find life.  That life comes in Jesus – his death on the cross takes us out from under the power of sin and brings us the gospel which is the power of God for salvation.

And good news it is!  Paul shows that with the help of the Holy Spirit who is living in us we are able to work out our sanctification.  Without the Holy Spirit it is is just a battle of the will and the will often loses out to sin.

Paul really challenges the Roman Church to get over their petty squabbles and look to the common things they have in Christ.  Their salvation and the on going work of the spirit which are the same for all.

There are a few part of this book which can be challenging and have given me things to think about.  As I wrestle with these things the thing in the forefront of my mind is that God is good and just.  And even if I don’t know exactly what that looks like it doesn’t change who he is.

Wow. I am so thankful that God gave us Romans. What amazing truths are packed into this book. They overflow like a bountiful treasure chest full of sparkling jewels and gold coins. But they are also hidden like ancient treasures in an archealogical site that must be meticulously searched for and tediously uncovered. Okay so anyway, Romans is a great book. Once again, I never knew that before.

Paul is writing to the churches throughout Rome because he is planning to come visit them. He wants them to support him in his ministry and be sent out by them. The problem is, however, that they are divided amongst themselves. They are despising one another over petty differences between them. Paul is writing so that they may be unified. How does he do this? With the message of the gospel.

Paul lays out the complete message of the gospel. He shows how humanity rejected God, spat in his face, said “we want nothing to do with you” and turned to their own self-destructive ways. Paul’s point in doing this is to show how wicked humanity is and how every person is sinful and is guilty of death. Since the fall humanity is born sinful and deserves God’s wrath. God is just; he repays people according to what they deserve, thus all humanity deserves hell. That is the bad news. The good news is that God didn’t give up on humanity. Because of his intense love for people he saved his wrath and made a plan to make people right with him again. He did this by sending HIS son, Jesus, who laid down his life and received the wrath of God for all humanities sin. Thus, anyone who believes in Jesus Christ is saved. Jesus blood pays for their sin and justice is done. God can then declare the believer justified, because of their faith in Jesus. God doesn’t leave it at that, however, he then deposits his righteousness in the believer. Thus, a person who believes is saved from death, hell, the power of sin, and is given eternal life, righteousness, peace, and joy! God does this all for a people who rejected him, spat in his face, and said ‘forget you!’. After hearing this and really thinking about it, I can echo what Paul is thinking when he says, “O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” Romans 11:33. This just puts a desire in me to know God more and more. His ways are DEFINITELY not our ways. How and why he loves me so much I don’t understand. But I am so thankful for his love, and for what he has done. When I realize this love he has for me, it just motivates me to go and pour that love into others; I want EVERYONE to know this amazing love of God! Wow God. You’re amazing. Thank you.

Wow… Romans is a packed letter from Paul to the Roman church full of truths and answers to controversial topics. I have to admit, I struggled through this book, but it was a good struggle that left me for the better.

Paul is writing to God’s beloved in Rome because the Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians are ununified and despise each other because of their different cultural expressions of Christianity. Throughout the whole book, Paul shows the two groups that they are equally sinful, are equally saved, all grow in sanctification the same way, and are all equally in Christ. Paul challenges the believers to love one andn welcome one another as Christ loved and welcomed them.

During this book, I struggled with the “justness” of God- but through this, I realized that we are all so sinful and NONE of us deserve God’s mercy. And God is just that- merciful beyond what anyone deserves. I can rest in trust in the fact that God is always good, and His ways are more wonderful than I can ever hope to comprehend.

I can just stand in awe of Him for, O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable His ways! For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.

We see a new side of Paul in this 1st letter to the Thessalonians as he uses particular language to get across a much needed message to the church in Thessalonica. Paul uses words such a beloved, brothers and sisters, and a few similes that depicted a very close relationship with those in Thessalonica. From Acts 17 we know that Paul was probably only in Thessalonica for about 3 Sabbaths so this was a very short time to be with these Christians. But from this letter we see that Paul has been encouraged by their faith and standing firm in the midst of persecution. Even though Paul cant be with them knows and loves and shares in the persecution that comes with being identified with Gospel. He encourages them to continue to stand strong and to continue to be known for their love for one another and for the great church in Macedonia. Paul also writes to correct and encourage them to be more set apart and have a eternal perspective. One big issue Paul addresses is this question from the Thessalonians about if the dead in Christ had missed the second coming? Paul assures them in 4:13-18 that they will all be together and with the Lord forever and this list of events that we find in this passage is assuring the Thessalonians of this aspect. The Lord hasn’t and will never forget them. This would be so assuring and of great comfort to Thessalonians and they were living through hardship and persecution. The 2nd coming who give them HOPE when they felt hopeless.

There is so much more to say about this book but I will leave you with this. This is Paul’s prayer and encouragement to these young in the Faith Thessalonians.

“May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this!” 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

This book is Paul writing to encourage the believers in Thessalonica that they had not missed the return of Jesus.  It seems someone had been trying to deceive them by sending letters claiming to be from Paul and they were getting a bit worried and anxious.  So Paul’s letter is intended to clear this up.

The challenge that comes with anything relating to the 2nd coming of Jesus is that we don’t have all the information and it can be a bit confusing.  Paul does layout a rough sequence of events however it seems that the point of this information is to reassure the Thessalonians that they had not missed Jesus and to comfort and encourage them that God is looking out for them.  There are some details of the vengeance of God and I am still trying to figure out how all this comes together in a good God. 

Paul also uses this letter to remind some of the believers that they needed to work.  Perhaps they thought Jesus was coming back tomorrow and so didn’t feel the need to work but Paul is straight to the point – if they don’t work they won’t eat.  Don’t use spiritual things as an excuse for laziness.

Overall I think the main purpose of this book is to remind the believers that Jesus is still coming back and they have a hope and comfort in that.  They can continue to endure the persecution and trials of life knowing that God desires to strengthen and encourage them in his love.

2nd Thessalonians really helped shed light on 1st Thessalonians for me. To be honest, 1st Thessalonians did not really hit me or change my worldview, but I feel that this book did- even though it was shorter- and helped me understand both books better because of it.

In this book, Paul writes to the Thessalonians again to show them that the Second Coming is NOT already here- and gives them a sort of “timeline” to prove that the necessary precedents have not yet come, therefore Christ has not returned. But this whole message centers around one truth- that because we are children of God, we have hope and comfort in His Second Coming. The details don’t matter so much as this truth. We are to have hope and take comfort in the Second Coming for He has promised us eternal comfort with Him.

BUT on the flip side, those that are not believers have eternal destruction to look forward to. This book really paints a picture of their future, and this fact does not make me rejoice in the fact that all the evil, wicked, non-believers out there will have eternal destruction- but the opposite. This fact should make me, and all Christians, sit in a solemn humble awe of the Lord. This gives me a new passion to go share the good news with everyone and bring them to Christ- for God Himself said “I have no pleasure in the death of anyone” (Ezekiel 18:32). We are His vessels on earth- and we should have a sense of urgency to share Christ with everyone so that they too can have the hope of the Second Coming and the promise of eternal comfort. This has changed my worldview on this issue, given me a sense of urgency and humbleness about it, and I pray that if you sit and meditate on this truth, God will move in your heart the same way He has in mine.

2^nd Thessalonians, even shorter than the first, and a similar content. Paul writes to the Thessalonians to encourage them in their faith. He is again very pleased with their walk and wants to give them hope, comfort, and encouragement. He reminds them of the things he taught them before about the second coming, and informs them more they need to know about it. Someone apparently had sent them a letter, supposedly from Paul, that taught them false doctrine about the second coming, persuading them that they had missed it. Paul writes to correct this false doctrine and encourage their hearts.

The thing that stuck out the most to me in this book was Paul’s encouraging words to the Thessalonians. The poor church was strong, but had been so beat up. They were being persecuted, and people were trying to deceive them. I find myself feeling quite sorry for the afflicted people. Paul’s message, however, must’ve been SO uplifting to them. He shows them the truth. That they haven’t missed the second coming, they still have a hope ahead. Paul’s message is so clear. God wants his people to have peace and be comforted! No matter what they are going through they can have peace! God has given them an “eternal comfort”!!!! This message so encourages me that no matter what I go through, there is ALWAYS hope in God!! I can ALWAYS turn to him, trust him (he is so faithful!!!), and find comfort and peace. I can’t say it enough. God wants his people to have peace, no matter what they go through! I’ll let the word speak for itself and leave it at that…. “Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in all ways. The Lord be with all of you” 2 Thessalonians 3:16.

The book of 1st Thessalonians was an interesting one… I have never deeply studied it before. Paul obviously had a great affection for the Thessalonians, which he had only been with for about three weeks. They were undergoing persecution, so Paul wrote to encourage them in their new faith and to give some direction. Paul addresses sexual ethics, work ethics, and he answers their question about the 2nd Coming of Christ. They seemed to be worried about whether those that had already died would miss the Second Coming, and Paul elaborately explains what will happen- that there is hope for the dead and the living. Paul then puts in perspective how to live, becoming sanctified, while waiting for the Second Coming- a fine balance that we struggle with even today.

One truth I learned from this book is reassurance that as believers, when one of our brothers or sisters in Christ pass away, we have the hope and promise that they will be risen from the dead and we will spend eternity together with Christ. They have the same hope and promise that we have while we are alive- and what a reassurance that is! This is why we should not grieve as unbelievers do.

The First Letter to the church in Thessalonica. Paul was pumped when he wrote this letter. Timothy his friend and co-worker went to visit this church (several hundred miles away) while Paul they were in Athens. Paul was hoping to visit them himself, but their may have been a warrant out for his arrest or some other issue, but Paul was prevented from going himself. One of the reasons for Timothy going to visit the church in Thessalonica was that they were a baby church, Paul and his buddies had just planted the church probably less than a year before and only spent a few weeks with them before he was kicked out of the area. The reason for Paul getting kicked out of the region was because of persecutions. So in fact this baby church only received a very little amount of teaching and was immediately thrust into persecutions and suffering. Paul braced for the worst: believers abandoning the faith whole sale. The result: Timothy reports that the church has been growing! Like I said earlier Paul is pumped! He still can’t visit them though, so he writes a heart felt letter.

Paul is an emotional basket case in this letter, for all the right reasons. He pours his heart of love, care and sympathy for the Thessalonians onto the pages of this letter. He compares himself to a loving father and a concerned nurse. He wants the church to know that he can’t stop thinking about them and worrying over them. Paul has this loving heart because God has this heart for the church there. They have a long way to go yet, many areas of sin and problems exist, but Paul is not shy to show his love for this church.

One of the main teachings of the book is about the second coming. The Thessalonians have two main questions for Paul: (1) Will the dead believers miss out on anything in the second coming? and (2) When is the second coming? To the first Paul responds that the second coming will not really be that much different for dead believers compared to living believers. The dead believers will simply get to be with the Lord first, right before the living believers will meet him. Next Paul explains (again, he seems to have told them this already) that the time of the second coming is unknown. He encourages them instead to focus on living out their identity as holy and blameless children of God. All believers will be with the Lord at the second coming, no exceptions! this is our blessed hope.