Wednesday Bible Study: People of the Epistles part I

 

Today I will be flying by the seat of my pants, because, I had a PLAN for the next wave of posts.  I don't think it was God's plan, though, and the morning I type this I said to myself, "You've been knocking your head against this for a week now, and what are you LEARNING?"  I learned so much from the Judges series by letting it teach me.  So now I'm going on a new tack, one I think God wants me to learn from.  The idea is not to re-preach the epistles (and I think that's where my idea wanted to head) but just go through and pull out the concept of WHO the writer was talking to, so we can see WHY he was saying what he did.  And we start in Romans.

Just by doing my flyover, I can see that you really need no other book than Romans, doctrinally.  So much wisdom and power in Paul's words, it's hard not to get lost in them.  So I'm putting a tether around my conceptual waist, so not to dive too deep and miss my point.  And that is, who were the Romans he was talking to?

Well, for one, they were believers, with a good reputation...

Rom 1:7  To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Rom 1:8  First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.

And for another, they were not a church founded by Paul...

Rom 1:11  For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you--
Rom 1:12  that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine...

Rom 1:15  So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

Now, my paper Bible mentions that who they were has been a matter of contention, noting that, "Tradition says the church was founded by Peter, but this is contradictory to the evidence."  And I agree, because the evidence is- from what Paul goes through in the letter- that they have heard the word and been baptized, but NOT fully instructed.  Some say they were among the people, in Jerusalem for Passover, that heard Peter's first sermon- and some may well be, but not all.  Because this was not written to a purely Jewish audience, however the first ten chapters make it seem....

Rom 11:13  Now I am speaking to you Gentiles...

 

But what the evidence does tell us, is that Paul is not convinced they have the bedrock down.  This is not an uncommon problem in those days...

Act 18:24  Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures.
Act 18:25  He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John.
Act 18:26  He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him and explained to him the way of God more accurately. 

And this is the first big lesson:  That knowing the Word is good, but being grounded in a church TEACHING it is better.  What was it Peter said...

2Pe 1:5  For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge...

And he really starts with the basics- why this came from the Jews, and not the Gentiles, and why the Jews did nothing with it?  Thus, we know that a) it is a church starving for knowledge, and b) it is a church of mixed Gentiles and Jews.  And by the way Paul lays it out, we know another thing about it- that the Jews find themselves superior for their Jew-ness, and the Gentiles resent them for that.  And the driver of the problem is obvious because Paul spends from chapter 2 clear into 11 trying to convince the Jews to LET GO of their Jew-ness...

Rom 2:28  For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.
Rom 2:29  But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God. 

 

But only a bit of time convincing the Gentiles not to fret it...

Rom 11:12  Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!
Rom 11:13  Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry
Rom 11:14  in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them.
Rom 11:15  For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?

Having established these points, he returns to teaching them unity...

Rom 12:1  I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Rom 12:2  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

One thing that is curious; this is a church he cautions many times about being judgmental.  Not only about the people in the church, but the way they do things...

Rom 14:4  Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
Rom 14:5  One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.
Rom 14:6  The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.
Rom 14:7  For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself.

I see a lot of this on Catholic social media posts, fighting about the proper way to sing, to hold your hands during prayer... "this is respectful, that isn't respectful..."  And this is the problem you get when you let others do your Bible reading for you- you miss what has been clearly taught in the Word, and fight about stupid things.  This is what Paul was trying to crack down on, and apparently one of the first we fail to pay attention to.  For every Catholic post about 'hands in worship', there are a dozen evangelical post busting on the historicity of Halloween and Christmas.  None of them take into account Romans 14.

So here is the next big lesson to learn from these Romans... let me put it to you as Solomon did...

Pro 4:5  Get wisdom; get insight; do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth.
Pro 4:6  Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you.
Pro 4:7  The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight.