Week 10 summary:
Paul completed his first of three missionary
journeys in 46-48 A.D. After the
churches have been established, false teaching starts to enter the
picture. And so to combat that false
teaching in those early churches, we will start to see letters being written to
the people in those areas.
Day 1: James (entire book)
The book of
James is suggested to have been written in 49 A.D. to Jewish Christians
residing in the Gentile communities outside Palestine. The author, James, is Jesus' brother and a
leader in the Jerusalem church. James
was addressing people who professed to be God's people but weren't acting like
it. In other words, they say the right
things but they contradict that with the way they live their lives. We have this problem today. One of the issues non-Christians have with
“church” is that they don't see changed lives on the part of Christians. In other words, genuine faith should
inevitably produce good deeds/changed lives.
Here is a key
verse from James 2:18 (NLT): “Some
people have faith; others have good deeds.
… I can’t see your faith if you don’t have good deeds, but I will show
you my faith through my good deeds.”
Day 2: Galatians 1-3
Several sources indicate that
Galatians was written by Paul to the general region of Galatia (and its
associated churches) in 49 A.D. prior to the Jerusalem Council that is
documented in Acts 15 (see Day 4 reading).
Since a lot of early Christians were first Jews, there were believers
that believed that gentile believers must first become Jewish and follow the
Jewish laws in order to be saved. (This
would include the rite of circumcision.)
Paul refutes that in this letter. This could have been the first (or one
of the first) of the many letters written by Paul recorded in the New Testament.
Most letters we see in the New
Testament and were written in that time period start with some words of praise,
a prayer, or other pleasantries.
However, Paul gets right to the point as to how serious this issue
is. Look at Galatians 1:6-9. The Message paraphrase says it this way: 6 “I
can't believe your fickleness—how easily you have turned traitor to him who
called you by the grace of Christ by embracing a variant message!” Paul is very concerned about this heresy and
needs to correct it fast.
A key verse: “… For if we could be saved by keeping the
law, then there was no need for Christ to die.”
Galatians 2:21 NLT
Day 3: Galatians 4-6
Key verse: “So
Christ has really set us free. Now make
sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the
law.” Galatians 5:1 NLT
With the subject of Paul’s letter, he is also warning us
about false teachers. “You were running
well – who stopped you from obeying the truth?”
Galatians 5:7 CEB
We are free from the law but that doesn’t mean we should
do anything we want from our selfish desires.
Paul compares the things that we do from our selfish desires with those
things we should do if we are following the leading of the Holy Spirit. (See Galatians 5:16-26)
Day 4: Acts 15-16
Acts 15 records what is called the Jerusalem Council that
occurred in 50 A.D. The leaders of the
church put to rest any requirements for new gentile believers to first be
Jewish and follow Jewish laws (specifically the rite of circumcision) before
being saved.
Acts 16 records the start of Paul's second missionary
journey (50-52 A.D.) which sent him through Galatia (visiting some of the
churches he established on his 1st journey) and then he went on to
Macedonia which includes cities like Philippi.
You might notice something peculiar in Acts 16:3. Timothy was going to go on Paul’s missionary
journey and Paul had him circumcised.
Didn’t the Jerusalem Council just say in Acts 15 that circumcision was
not necessary? Yes. However, Timothy, being half Jew and half
gentile volunteered to be circumcised to overcome any barriers that would arise
as he witnessed to Christ, especially to Jewish believers. We’ll see more of this behavior (fitting in
with the culture in order to witness to Christ without abandoning following
Christ) from Paul explained in 1 Corinthians 9:20-22 next week.
Day 5: Acts 17-18:18
In Acts 17, Paul is in
Thessalonica, establishing a church there.
Paul goes to Corinth in Acts 18.
He will later write letters to the churches in these cities.
Written by
Paul to the church at Thessalonica in 51 A.D. and 51-52 A.D. respectively. The Thessalonian church was young, probably
only 2 – 3 years old when these letters were written. These letters were written to encourage the
new believers (some believers were being persecuted) and to also clear up
issues surrounding the second coming of Christ.
Day 7: rest
