The Condition of the Church or the Christians: the Purpose of the Epistle - Research Paper Example

The paper is all about the Book of Philippians and the Book of James that can be found in the New Testament of the Holy Bible. The first part of this paper is all about the book of Philippians which is categorized as the “Prison Epistle” particularly addressed to the church of Philippians that Apostle Paul has written when he was imprisoned and the second part of this paper is all about the book of James which is categorized as the General Epistle which is addressed to the Jewish Christians. The papers contain and discuss the occasions and conditions the letter was written. It also discusses the purpose of the letter and some characteristics of the letters. It will also tell what would be missing incase these two epistles were left out from the Bible. Lastly, it discusses one important lesson learned from each letter and the impact of the lesson learned to someone’s life. Epistle means a literary letter which was planned to be published and read by the general public. The Prison Epistles are the letters that can be found in the New Testament of the Holy Bible. One of the Prison Epistles written by Paul during his imprisonment in Rome is the Prison Epistle to the Philippians. According to the New International Version Holy Bible (1984), Paul had been mobbed in Jerusalem, arrested there, and transferred to Caesarea, and finally, when he requested to the Roman imperial court that a decision or judgment to be changed and appealed as a Roman citizen, he had been removed to Rome for trial. When the Philippians heard this situation, they prepared to stand by him, raised some money for him to use in his trial and sent Epaphroditus, a member of the church in Philippi in Macedonia, to wait on Paul, to devote one’s services to Paul, and to stay with him until his problem were solved. So Epaphroditus went with the gift given by the church and for the purpose of telling Paul about the interest and excitement of the church to know some news about his situation and the result of his trial before the Roman imperial court. Paul took this chance and this occasion to write to the Philippians with three reasons namely: (1) to thank them for their gift and thank them for their fellowship in the gospel, (2) to tell and comfort them about his situation in Rome and about his trial, telling them that the effect of his imprisonment has turned out for the advancement of the gospel, and lastly (3) especially to encourage them and strengthen them in the hope and joy that was theirs in Jesus Christ. He also wrote that he is going to send Timothy soon, that he may know of their condition and send Epaphroditus back to them because Epaphroditus longs for all of them and that he has the feeling of great worry or unhappiness because the church heard that he is ill but God has been so merciful to him. He told them that he is more excited to send Epaphroditus back to them so that they may be glad that Paul might have less worry or fear. The other purpose of the letter was to stop the Judaizers from encouraging the Philippian Christians to submit to circumcision and the last purpose why Paul wrote to them was to encourage the Philippian believers to stop the misunderstanding among them especially the two women involved namely, Euodia and Syntyche that they need to agree with each other as sisters in the Lord or be united. He also asked his faithful partner to help these two women for they have worked hard with him to spread the gospel. The key characteristics of the letter were (1) the Epistle is a letter and not a long and serious piece of writing on a particular job. It is just a simple letter to personal friends which has no theological discussions, no fixed outline and no formal development, (2) it is a letter of love, Paul’s message has nothing but praise or the Philippians and prayer that their love may be rich, (3) it is a letter of joy, despite being imprisoned, he is still full of joy. After reading the book of Philippians, 20 times that Paul uses the words joy, rejoice, peace, content, and thanksgiving. It is a letter full of love and full of joy, (4) it is of great importance theologically. Paul tried hard to persuade the Philippians the quality of being humble. In Philippians 2:5-11 (New International Version), it says here that Jesus humbled himself and he didn’t consider his equality with God instead he emptied himself, became a servant and became obedient to death on a cross. The result was God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name above every name, that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. This passage is the most theological in the epistle. It is the perfect and complete message concerning Jesus in the Pauline Epistles. It symbolizes Pauls most mature thought upon this theme. In case the epistle was left out of the Bible, the Christians today don’t have any idea about the characteristics of the church of Philippians, about what happened to Paul when he was imprisoned and how did the gospel spread throughout the Roman soldiers. The lesson learned from the epistle to the Philippians is in every event that is happening in someone’s life there is always good purpose behind it. Just like what happened to Paul, he was imprisoned and yet that was the open door for the word of God to be spread to the prisoners. He said in his epistle in Philippians 1:12-14 (New International Version) that what happened to him has advanced the gospel. He said that throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone that he was in chain for Christ and this situation encouraged the believers to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly. The impact of this lesson to someone’s life is that it will give hope especially in times of distress and in times of problems. When someone encounter big problems and there is no way out, this lesson will remind that whatever the situation a person is in has a purpose, not to destroy someone totally but also for a new opportunity to come to that person. The General Epistles are books in the form of letters in the New Testament. They used the word “general” because these letters were addressed to Christians in general instead of a particular person or congregation like the Prison Epistles and the Pastoral Epistles. One of the General Epistles is the Epistle of James. The condition of the church or the Christians during the time that James wrote the General Epistle were Jewish Christians were under the authority of persecution and temptations, and the poor were treated in a cruel and unfair way and not given the same freedom, rights by the rich that, possibly, did not belong to the circle. The Jewish Christians did not stand these temptations with the essential patience, but were influence by doubt. They even have the feeling of wanting the possessions of the world and preferred the rich with loss or damage of the poor. In their daily lives, they did not follow the help or advice that was given to them so that their faith was barren which means not producing any fruit especially the fruits of righteousness. The purpose of the epistle deals with different themes, which gives the importance upon practical aspects of the Christian life. Some of the subjects include on how to deal with trials and temptations, exercising pure religion, having the knowledge between faith and works, the appropriate use of the tongue and to show the true wisdom. The key characteristics of the letter are (1) the Epistle of James is the most Jewish writing in the New Testament. The word “gospel” does not exist in the epistle. The teaching throughout the letter is all about morality which aims at the fulfillment of the requirements of the Mosaic Law. It is Jewish in feature throughout. For example, the epistle is addressed to the 12 tribes, the meeting place mentioned was “your synagogue”, Abraham is mentioned as “our father”, God is given the Old Testament name, “the Lord of Sabaoth”, can be found in James 5:4 (New International Version), the law is not to be spoken against nor judged, but to be obeyed. These are only some examples that will show that the letter is Jewish writing in the New Testament. (2) The writer of this letter speaks as one having authority. It can be seen that the writer isn’t on his protection, no apology presented and that he is sure of his standing about his message. He speaks with authority, as a messenger of God, and lastly (3) the letter is interested in a person’s behavior in a particular situation more than in principles or religious beliefs. It has very little prepared theology but insists upon practical morality throughout like teaching on good works with love to God and to man, it ask for freedom, being equal of both rich and poor, support and being friendly to all, advises about humility, fair treatment of people and peace most especially it requires obedience to the law, control of the feelings of man and control of the tongue. In case this epistle was left out of the Bible then we will not have any idea about the teaching on faith with works and doing what is moral. We don’t have any idea about the teaching that encouraged most of the 12 tribes that were spread around the world. The lesson learned from the letter is every man ought to practice what he teaches. Just like what James has written that listening and doing go together because anyone who listen to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in the mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. The impact of this lesson to someone’s life is that someone would be able to value every word and action a person does which will lead him to a better life. It is the same with saying that says “Action speaks louder than words.” If a person knows how to apply whatever the person is telling, people will fully respect that person. Read More