Bible In A Year: Introduction To Pauline Epistles

The New Testament epistles are letters written by the apostles to instruct, correct, encourage, and strengthen believers and churches. Each letter addresses specific situations, questions, and challenges faced by its original audience. The apostles teach sound doctrine, faith in Christ, holy living, unity among believers, and perseverance in the gospel. Understanding the context of each epistle helps readers follow the author’s message and apply its biblical truths faithfully.

Transcript

Welcome And Where We Are

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You're listening to Teach Me the Bible podcast. Our mission is to help the people of God understand the Word of God. Join us each Monday and Thursday for new episode releases. Listen to our full library of content at teachmethebible.com or by downloading the Teach Me the Bible app from any app store. You're listening to Teach Me the Bible Podcast.

SPEAKER_03 0:27

Welcome back to Teach Me the Bible Podcast. My name is Alex Wolf. I'm here with Dr. David Klingler. If if you don't already know, if this is your first time joining with us, I want to encourage you to go on over and check out teachmethebible.com and check out all the other resources we have. So right now, what we're doing is one thing that we have. And so you're tuning in to uh part of that beyond halfway. And so we encourage you to go back to the beginning and start in Genesis and follow along with us. But also encourage you to go check out some of the other things. We have book studies where we're taking deeper dives into various books of the Bible. There's all kinds of resources over there, question and answer, um uh blog posts and things for your uh enjoyment and for your growth and understanding the word. And so uh check that out. We uh have just finished going through the gospels. So we've recently gotten to the New Testament. Um, and now today we want to take uh a little extra time and uh introduce what we call the Pauline epistles, the letters of Paul, and just sort of orient our minds to what it is uh what are epistles in general, um, and how should we be thinking about these things in relationship to the story of the Bible? And how do they really contribute to the story? Because unlike what we've been reading mostly so far, they're not narrative, they're not storytelling necessarily. Right. Um, so how is it that we uh should understand these before we actually jump into the individual letters?

Dr. David Klingler 2:09

Yeah, so we're yeah, we're gonna take a week, yeah, uh take this this time just to talk about um talk about letters, Paul's letters, and kind of a bunch of topics here, but but things that are very important to kind of set the set the stage, set the frame so that we can clearly understand these epistles. Uh the

Why We Quote The Epistles

Dr. David Klingler 2:29

these epistles, let epistle means letter.

SPEAKER_02 2:31

Right.

Dr. David Klingler 2:32

Um these are probably some of the most familiar, at least where you where you probably have getting uh some of your most familiar verses. Right. Okay. Right. Um what's interesting to me is outside of uh, you know, I'll see you can you do this out outside of John 3.16, how many verses from the gospels can you quote? There's not many.

SPEAKER_02 2:59

Right.

Dr. David Klingler 2:59

Um Jesus wept. That's the one I remember. That one, but I don't know where it is, right? I can't quote it. I don't know where it was, but it's in there. Jesus wept, right? He did it. In other words, uh most of our quote verses in the New Testament come from epistles. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Uh and so um, you know, to live as Christ, to die as Gammon. There's just so many of them, but they all come from epistles, other than John uh 3.16. I I often ask students, you know, how many of you know John 3.16? Now they all know John 3.16. I say, what about John 3.15 or John 3.17? They're going, yeah, no, they don't know.

SPEAKER_03 3:44

And start dropping.

Dr. David Klingler 3:45

Yeah, yeah. Um, because uh we we tend to want to quote verses. Uh and yeah, uh and most of the verses we quote uh are verses from epistles. Why is that? Well, and it's not random verses from epistles. Uh you ready for this? It's verses we like. They're pretty, they sound good. They they either fit our theology, yeah. And so if you hold to a certain brand of theology, you will have your list of verses for your personal belief defense, right? Yeah, and so that's one reason why we quote verses. Another reason is application. You know, ver we like them, right? Um, and so, you know, I know the plans I have for you. You know, that that has nothing to do with what's going on in the Old Testament. Uh I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. You know, that's a very encouraging sounding verse, right? Um, but you know, you talk to people, they have no context to that verse. And so so many of your theological views, if you're you know been around church for a while, um, or your um applicational verses come out of the epistles. Yeah. Um,

Not Written To You Personally

Dr. David Klingler 5:01

so these are letters, but let's state the obvious. Now, this is a shocker to most of our students. Uh these letters weren't written to you. Uh-oh. Uh so Paul writes several letters. Um, there they are arranged in order from longest to shortest, basically. Uh, and Paul writes the first letter that we would consider is the book of Romans. Paul writes Romans to the Romans. See, see how that works. And we kind of go on, no kidding, dumb. Yeah, right. Uh he wrote uh the uh Galatians to the Galatians and and Philippians to the Philippians and Colossians to the Colossians, and he wrote first and second Timothy to Timothy, and he wrote Titus to Titus and Philamon to Philamon. We're kind of making a joke of it. Uh, but in all seriousness, this is very important because Paul is going to say you or y'all, right? And when he says you, or he gives a command to Timothy, he expects Timothy to do it.

SPEAKER_02 6:04

Yeah, right. Absolutely.

Dr. David Klingler 6:05

Um look out for Alexander the coppersmith and bring me my cloak and parchments before winter. And there's all kinds of things that Paul's going to tell Timothy to do. Um, so letters, uh, you know, we we live in a time where you can shoot off an email. An email is even um takes some time and thought, right? But a text, you can just you know bang thumb, you know, little little picture thing. I don't know what that's gonna be. Doesn't matter if anything spelled right, yeah. Grammar's up to it. It doesn't matter, really easy. But when you send out an email, particularly an email to someone to address an issue, you you there's some thought that goes into it.

SPEAKER_03 6:42

Yeah, pull yourself together a little bit.

Dr. David Klingler 6:44

Yeah, you know, and and you know, you kind of word craft and edit and that type of thing. Uh think about a letter that's going to be handwritten and carried by hand to a people a long ways off, um, and that's going to be your communication. And the and and you're not just writing a letter back in that day to say, hey, you know, just want just checking in and see how you're doing.

SPEAKER_03 7:05

Right. It was not pinpound.

Dr. David Klingler 7:08

No, this is very expensive, very costly. Yes. Uh it took a lot of time to not only write it, expensive to buy the materials, but then it took time to deliver it, right? And so uh an apostle writing a letter is to address a specific situation, right? There's a problem that is at the church in Rome. There's a problem at the church in uh in Galatia, there's a problem in Colossi, in Thessalonica, in Ephesus with Timothy. Timothy's going through some issues. Uh and so Paul writes to Timothy to address the problem with Timothy.

SPEAKER_02 7:46

Yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 7:47

Um there's a situation that has come up on the island of Crete. And Paul writes the letter to Titus to address that problem.

SPEAKER_02 7:58

Yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 7:59

And so letters are very specific, they address very specific situations. Um, so so you know, let's back up a little bit into the book of Acts. And so the book of Acts, uh, we'll refer to the book of Acts as we go through some of these uh Pauline letters because the book of Acts records, it's really Luke. Acts is really Luke's uh, you know, traveling with with Paul, at least at the end of the of the book of Acts. And um uh and so the book of Acts really uh records Paul's journeys. Yeah first missionary journey, second messenger, and so and so forth and so on. Uh and so uh so we know where Paul went, we know when he interacted with these people, and the the book of Acts gives us a little situation into what Paul did there. Luke wasn't with Paul on the first missionary journey, for example. Uh, and so the only way that Luke knows what Paul did is Paul had to have told him. And so it gives us a little bit of a backdrop, a little bit of backstory into what has happened. And so we'll refer to some of that as we go. First missionary journey, second missionary journey, third missionary journey of Paul. That's recorded in the book of Acts. And these letters were written along the way, but these letters all address specific situations. Everything in the letter addresses that problem and nothing else, right? Uh so these letters weren't written so that 21st century believers would have a nice verse to apply to our lives. Right. Right. Uh I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Uh, Paul is saying that to the Philippians for a specific reason in a specific context. Right. Uh these uh these verses weren't written so that we could defend our dispensational Calvinist covenant, whatever theological view you have, right? That's not why Paul was writing these letters. They were written to address a specific situation in their day, right? So Paul uh and uh Timothy uh weren't debating Calvinism versus Arminianism, okay? That's going to come over a thousand years later, okay? It's irrelevant to Paul. Paul doesn't care who John Calvin is, and he's not writing about Calvinism, okay, or Arminianism, or lose your salvation or not lose your salvation, or dispensationalism, or covenant, whatever. Um, and so we want to understand these letters first.

Pronouns And Responsible Application

Dr. David Klingler 10:38

What was Paul saying to those people at that time? Yes, what was the specific issue? How does Paul address it? Uh why why does he say what he says? And how do we put all that together? Now, um, when we start to understand what he was saying to them, what the situation was, and how he addresses it, now that's informative of us because we're going to experience some of the same situations, not all, but we don't have uh, for example, the problem of the uh that was going on in Galatians or the Galatian church. Nobody's trying to circumcise. We don't have the Jewish believers being persecuted by Jewish unbelievers for hanging out with Gentiles, and so the Jewish believers are trying to get the Gentile believers circumcised, so they're not persecuted by the Jewish unbelievers. Okay, that's not uh everyday common occurrence uh in the 21st century church. It was in the early church. This was a central issue. Okay. Uh and everything that's written in Galatians uh addresses that issue. But the way that Paul addresses that specific situation, uh the the theology that he brings to present to address that situation is very informative uh to us in our theology, particularly our theology of uh of salvation.

SPEAKER_03 12:03

Yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 12:04

Uh and and so there's a lot to be learned and understanding of the law as well.

SPEAKER_03 12:08

Yes.

Dr. David Klingler 12:09

And so we can agree with Paul uh when you know he says to Timothy that scripture is uh you know it's it's good, it's useful for correction, for uh, for rebuke, and training in sound doctrine. And um and so these letters were not written to us, but they were written for our instruction, yeah. For our application. But we have to get there in the correct way. Um so let's talk about that application for just a second. So so whenever Paul gives an imperative to the Romans, Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, or Philamon, whatever, um, he expects them to do it. It's direct application. Um, bring me my cloak and parchments before winter. Right. How is Timothy supposed to apply that to his life? Um well, he's supposed to bring Paul his cloak and parchments before winter. What does he mean by cloak and parchments? Some spirituality. Paul tells Timothy, preach the word. Well, what's Timothy supposed to do? How's he supposed to interpret that? I don't know. Uh preach the word, right? Do the work of evangelists. That means do the work of evangelists. It's it's straight, okay. Um but Paul isn't talking to us. Okay. So when Paul says you, he's not me. He's not talking to David Klingler, 21st century.

SPEAKER_03 13:39

Right.

Dr. David Klingler 13:39

When he says you, Timothy, he means you, Timothy. Yeah. When he says y'all Corinthians, he's talking to the Corinthians. I'm not a Corinthian. Yeah. Okay. Uh and Paul's not addressing a problem in life, my life, he's probably he's addressing the problem in the unity of the church in Corinth.

SPEAKER_03 13:56

Yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 13:57

Uh and I can learn from that. Right. And so one of the things that we talk about a lot, especially in uh the epistles, is the use of pronouns. Yes. Oh man.

SPEAKER_03 14:09

That's a big deal.

Dr. David Klingler 14:10

So um here's what I always tell the students if there's a we group and a you group, the we group is not the you group. If the we group was the you group, you wouldn't need the you group.

unknown 14:25

Right.

Dr. David Klingler 14:25

There would just be a we group. A we group, yeah. Right. And so when Paul says we, and then he addresses the audience as you, you plural or you singular. Even in the same sentence. In the same sentence, yeah. We isn't you.

SPEAKER_02 14:38

Yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 14:39

Right? I I'm not you, right? Uh, why not say as some slanderously say that we say? Right? Um that that's you know, that's uh out of out of Romans. And and Paul's being accused of being in a group that's saying things. Uh, this is in chapter 3, verse 8. Why not say as we are slanderously reported, and some affirmed that we say, let us do evil, the good may come. Their condemnation is right. Um you know, so that this is what they're saying about Paul. What we do is we grab a verse and we make it about us. Now, we've mentioned this verse a few times already today. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Now, that that is in Paul's letter to the Philippians.

SPEAKER_02 15:31

Right.

Dr. David Klingler 15:32

Notice that Paul doesn't say y'all can do all things through Christ who strengthens y'all. You know, that that would be a little more justifiable to say, yeah, justifiable to go grab that thing.

SPEAKER_03 15:46

Yeah, right.

Dr. David Klingler 15:46

But why if Paul wanted to encourage the Philippians in thinking they can do all things through Christ who strengthens him, and that may be the case, but that's not what he says. He says, I, Paul, can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Then the question becomes, well, what is Paul doing or able to do through Christ who strengthens him? And does that have any relation to my life? Right? Maybe he's, you know, talking about his plight as an apostle. Uh maybe he's talking about, I don't know, you know, you so you've got to have a context within which to understand that statement before I can go apply it to my life or think that it it relates to me.

SPEAKER_02 16:27

Yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 16:28

Um, there's other places uh where uh Paul will say things uh that you agree with theologically, but he's not taught, he's not saying what you think he's saying. And the reason why we know this is because of the argument he's making. So, for

When Famous Verses Change Meaning

Dr. David Klingler 16:46

example, this is a good one in 2 Corinthians, in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Here's a theological verse, and you may have heard this verse. You may you may even quote this verse. Uh, he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that that we might become the righteousness of God in him. And we're going, oh, that that's substitutionary atonement, that's Christ's substitutionary work on the cross. That that aligns with my theology. But but Paul isn't saying this of the Corinthians. Why do we know this? Uh, because we read the first five chapters, all the way up to verse 20, and we pick it up in chapter six, verse one, the next verse, and we read to the end of the book. And Paul is not including the Corinthians in anything Paul's doing. Yeah, in fact, Paul's confronting them, right? Uh, and so Paul is explaining, defending his ministry again. Paul uh is a very unique character in this story. And this is important for us to understand all of Paul's letters that Paul was the apostle chosen by God to take the gospel to the Gentiles. Okay. And so they better listen to him. Right. Uh, we apostles, right? Uh we uh uh, you know, Paul and uh and Timothy, you know, uh we um uh you know who are writing to you, right? So so in chapter one of 2 Corinthians, Paul and Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and Timothy our brother. And so Paul and Timothy go together. Uh and uh and you know, we have this ministry, we are um uh ministers of the new covenant, right? Uh therefore we are ambassadors for Christ. Okay, we were chosen specifically, I in particular was chosen to take the gospel to you. And if you reject my words, you're in big trouble, right? And so all the way through this, the the you know, many of the verses that you have uh are quoting or or you might know, they're not saying what you think they're saying. And because you think they're saying something they're not, it inhibits it, it really enables your ability to understand what the letter is actually doing. So the letter is addressing a situation, uh, and Paul is writing to address that situation. Paul the apostle, from his authoritative position as apostle, is addressing the problem that exists among y'all, Corinthians, right? And so he says, um, therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, right? Uh we are not commending ourselves again, are we? Of course not. So uh, you know, he all the way through the these these letters, this 2 Corinthians in particular, uh, it's we, we, we. Uh, and so therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. He's explained his ministry to them as though God were entreating through us, we beg y'all. Corinthians, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Uh, for he may he made him who knew no sin to be sent on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him, and working together with him, we urge y'all. Now, if you read those three verses, yeah, it's clear that the middle verse, 21, he's not talking about the Corinthians. They're not in that group, they're not in that group. And then he quotes Isaiah 49. And in Isaiah 49, the suffering servant Christ lays down his life for the servant Israel, so the servant Israel would serve him in taking the gospel to the Gentiles. Right, yes. And so Paul is identifying himself as a servant of Christ. Right? So he was rescued by the servant to serve him in taking the gospel to the Gentiles, therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. These are key points to understand the epistles because um we have this we've been trained to do it. Yeah. Um, you see it modeled all the time in sermons, all the time in Bible studies, all the time. We just kind of throw ourselves in there, right? Right? If we like the verse, it's about us.

SPEAKER_03 21:08

Yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 21:08

If we agree with the theology, it's our verse. We quote it, we put it on our bumper stickers, on our refrigerators, and above our mantle, right? As for me in my house, we will serve the Lord. You see it everywhere all the time. Uh be strong and courageous. Be strong and crazy. Be strong and crazy. That's right. Well, you're not going to go take the land. Yeah. Okay. So that you that you're you're that's you know, um, but we like those little snippets that we can assassinate the context and make it about us and then apply it to our lives however we want.

SPEAKER_02 21:41

Yes.

Dr. David Klingler 21:41

Uh the problem is that's not how it works. Years ago, I was um just going through seminary, just starting, and and we were in a um uh I was reading this little thing we had in the house. It was called God's God's Little Promise Book. And yeah, and I'm this is a bunch of garbage. None of these things were promises to me.

SPEAKER_03 22:00

Just recording every promise in the Bible.

Dr. David Klingler 22:01

Yeah, a promise to Abraham isn't a promise to me. A promise to David isn't a promise to me. A promise to Jesus certainly is a promise to me. Uh Paul's instruct, uh, you know, God's instruction to Paul isn't God's instruction to me. Right. Uh, you know, but that's what we do. So we go in there and we grab the verses we like, and then we make them mean whatever we want them to mean. So we read, we, we, we assassinate the context. Uh, and then we go, boy, this is hard to understand. Well, don't do that. Look, if you were walking through a parking lot, right, of a school, let's say, and I don't know if the little kids write letters anymore, but let's just say for the for them to make the point. Or you intercepted an email. Someone, you know, sent you an email and it showed up in your account, but apparently, in reading this, it's a it was an email from little Johnny to little Susie, right? And little Johnny's expressing his love for little Susie, you wouldn't say, you know, Johnny really loves me.

unknown 23:01

Yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 23:02

Uh well, you're you're not you're not Susie. Right. So so no, he he he doesn't love you, right? Um, if you're sitting uh in a booth at a restaurant and this little Johnny is talking to little Susie, and Johnny's explaining to Susie how much he loves her, uh, and then you're sitting there going, boy, he he really loves me. What they would haul you off. You're nuts, right? But that's it, that is exactly what we do what we do with the Bible. Yes, it is. Okay. Um now uh there's obviously a difference, you know, that this is the Lord, but but the you know, so the Lord is uh is speaking through his apostle to these people, address their situation. Right. If we understand that, yeah, uh then we can understand, hey, we have a similar situation.

SPEAKER_02 23:50

Yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 23:51

Um, and so this the theology that Paul uses, the theology that Peter or James or or John or whoever uses to address that situation is sound theology for where we also are in the story.

SPEAKER_03 24:06

Yeah, we're in a similar place. Yeah, yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 24:08

Um now if it's old testament, well we're we're not in the same place. And so we're not being asked to go, you know, slaughter the you know, the Passover lamb, or well, you know, whatever. You know, um, we're not at being asked to present uh sacrifices in uh in Jerusalem. And and you know that intuitively, but but w where we misinterpret most uh is uh is in the epistles. Yeah. Uh at the seminary, I'll give examples. I'll give uh uh we do this, uh you've done this, the Deuteronomy Project where we we do Deuteronomy and you say, okay, here's how Deuteronomy impacts all of these different places in the Bible. And it's interesting to grade that. Uh in the Old Testament, they don't have a problem with saying, you know, Moses tells Israel that they need to da da da da da da da da da. And then they go to the passage over there and says, and and Ruth does this, uh, or Naomi does this, and that's wrong, right? Per the law. When it comes to the epistles, it's God tells us that we need all of a sudden they've just thrown themselves in there and go, wait, whoa, whoa, wait a second. How all of a sudden did you just jump in there and say this is all about me? Because most of our pastor's sermons are from the epistles, right? They are, they are, and because they're the easiest to understand and the easiest to communicate. Right. But we also have tools, things like you know, some of these Bibles that are written to you know tell you you need to just put your name in in every verse. You know, this is God's love letter to you. Uh well, let me just say, no, it's not. This isn't the Bible's not God's love letter to you, it is God's revelation to us, yeah, uh, to the church, to his people. But none of these, not a single book in the Bible was written to us. It was written for our instruction, but it wasn't written to us. Now, if we were Old Testament Israel, we could say all these books were written to us.

SPEAKER_03 26:03

Well, yeah, and and another point, too, is if you have anything written to you, you know, in large parts of the biblical story, it wasn't necessarily a good thing. Especially these letters, yeah. Yeah, you didn't want to get a letter from Paul. Yeah. All right, now yeah, yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 26:19

Let me let me fix y'all's mess. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:22

So you don't want to, you don't want to have a letter.

Dr. David Klingler 26:24

Yeah, yeah. And so as we're going through these epistles, so yeah, so um the let's sum this up a little bit. So, so Paul, the other apostles, uh, the writer of Hebrews, first and second, Peter, first, second, third, uh, John, Jude, James, uh, they're writing these letters to specific, a specific person or specific people to address a specific situation. So there's an occasion that causes the author to write.

SPEAKER_02 26:54

Yes.

Dr. David Klingler 26:54

And the author is writing to address that situation and really nothing else. They're not saying, oh, by the way, I want you to know about um, you know, the uh the the five points of Calvinism, you know. T U or justification, or uh and oh, by the way, I just want you to know you could lose your salvation. Now back to the they're not doing that, right? Uh and so everything they're saying is addressing that situation. And and and once you see it, you can't unsee it. Right. And so uh and so the author is writing to communicate to the reader to address a specific situation to get a specific response. Now, here's another place where we go wrong is we put application in places where the author did not intend, didn't state application. So letters are easy to apply because there's imperatives, right? Do this, walk in a manner worthy. Husbands, love your wife as Christ loved the church. Children, obey your parents. I wonder what Paul wants children to do. Uh obey your parents. I can say it's slowly, yeah, yeah. I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you, right? So it's very direct. Now, the reason why you are to do what you're supposed to do, the the here, you know, Titus, is because of the why. Yeah. So most of these letters are structured as he's gonna explain why. Yeah, here's the problem, here's how y'all are not thinking correctly about this problem, here's the solution, and here's what you do with it. And that's how he's gonna address the issues and problems for them. Now, if we understand what was going on then and there, now it informs us of who we are and how we are to live here and now. Yeah. Right. And so we will get to application.

SPEAKER_02 28:48

Right.

Dr. David Klingler 28:49

How does this relate to us uh you know, in the 21st century, you know, in the in the church? Yes. Uh, but that is after we have understood what the author was saying to them to them. And it's going to ruin some of your verses. But make them better. Well, if you're going to understand them, that's right. And let me give you a perfect example.

Romans 3 Case Study And Next

Dr. David Klingler 29:14

Um, and we'll pick this up next week. We'll probably talk about this next week when we start Romans. Uh, if I were to ask uh students, I mean it's univers, it's seminary students. These aren't people that don't know the Bible, they they have some Bible experience. And and I ask him, uh, is it true that they're an unrighteous, not one? Every single student in the class will say, Yes, that's true. I mean, 100%. And then one will say, Well, except for Jesus. Right. And then the rest of the class will go, Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Except for Jesus, yeah, except for Jesus. Of course, Jesus, of course, Jesus. Uh and I say, Really? There's one still. Yeah. And I say, Well, did you know Paul is going to say that in Romans 3? You know, our little Romans row, there's unrighteous, not one, and we have all these little things that we do. But uh, you know, I'll point out, you know, if you keep reading in Romans, if you just go a little further down in Romans, actually, in the very next chapter, just a few verses later, Paul's going to argue that Abraham was righteous.

SPEAKER_03 30:16

Yeah, that's right.

Dr. David Klingler 30:16

That David was righteous, right? And and you watch these students' faces and they just like, uh wait, what? What are you saying? Uh and then and then you say, uh, do you see what is so this is in Romans chapter 3, verses 10 through 18. He's actually quoting a bunch of psalms. Psalm 10, Psalm 5, Psalm 14, Psalm 53. There's several psalms that he quotes through here. In every single one of those psalms, there are not only righteous people, but righteous generation, for God is with the righteous generation. Um, Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his day. Noah walked with God. Job was righteous, Abraham was righteous, David was righteous, Lot was righteous. Lot, righteous lot, Peter is going to call Lot righteous. Paul is not saying there are none righteous, not one. He's quoting a verse out of a psalm. And in the psalm, uh, there are none righteous, not one who don't call on the name of the Lord. There it is. That's the psalm. That's uh Paul's argument. And so what he's addressing, the situation he's addressing in the Romans, is the Jews who think they're righteous simply because they're Jews. We're Jews. The law makes us righteous. He says, No, it doesn't. The law condemns you. There's only one way to be righteous, and it's through faith, through calling on the name of the Lord. So that's just an example of how um when you understand um what Paul is saying in the argument, in the message of the letter, yeah, and what he's quoting, and you go to all of those passages. Um I love I one of my students gave me a shirt. Uh, it's uh an eagle montoya. I don't know if you don't know. What's that from uh uh uh Principal Pride? Principal, yeah. Yeah. Uh and it says, you keep quoting that verse. I don't think that verse means what you think it means. And it's actually one of our uh of our students and uh uh who gave me that. He's actually using it in his uh in his church. That's great. And that's exactly right. And so uh it's not that the verse is a problem, uh, it's that your understanding of the verse doesn't fit into anything the author's saying. Yeah he's quoting you know, if they're quoting Old Testament passages, that Old Testament passage has to be understood in this context, and then all of a sudden it makes sense. Yeah. Here's where you're gonna we're we're gonna get pushback. You're gonna say, well, yeah, that makes sense, but it goes against everything that I've been taught, everything I've learned, everything I think. I said, well, why haven't I heard this before? Yeah, why haven't I heard this? Well um that's why you don't know the Bible. That's why you don't understand the Bible, it's why you can't just open up and read it and it makes sense because um you're reading things out of context. Yes. And everybody talks about context, but I think what they mean is their their theological context, right? But not what the author is saying to the audience, right? And so so that's what we're gonna do. That's what we have in front of us. That's fun. Uh we'll talk about the uh Paul's um, you know, the background a little bit with the book of Acts and this his missionary journeys. Uh, but we're gonna be we're gonna make very specific and intentional uh focus on uh pronouns. What who who's Paul saying this about and why is he saying it? How does it address the specific situation that Paul is addressing in the letter? Uh, and then what does he tell them to do in light of it? And then finally, lastly, how does this relate to us? Yeah, and so that's that's our our plan of attack as we go through the epistles.

SPEAKER_03 33:56

Yeah, good. Well, uh I'm excited about the epistles. Uh I think this is a a fun process, especially because when I was new to the faith, I I think I approached these like most people do today, and you know, they're theological textbooks. You're reading it for theology. Um, and I didn't understand that that each of these um is well, most of them are written to address a problem, right? They're they're all addressing situations, most of them are problems. And and the interesting part is um Paul doesn't always just come out and say, Well, here's the problem I'm addressing. You know, sometimes it's fairly clear, but you know, we have to sort of discern the problem as we read this. And so as we get into these uh books week after week, um uh that that's really what we're gonna do, be doing. So why did why did Paul choose to why is he writing this book? What is he addressing? And that really just changes everything, like we've been saying. And so I want to encourage you uh to lean into that, to to join in with us over the next uh several weeks as we go through these letters of Paul and we understand why why did he write this? Um, and that's really gonna make these come to live to you in in the sense that you'll you'll understand them for the first time if you haven't already. So um it's gonna be fun, it's gonna be exciting. I'm really looking forward to it. Um well, join us next week, then as we I think begin with the book of Romans. We're gonna jump into Romans and uh see what it is uh that's going on in this book and how we can understand why Paul is writing it.

SPEAKER_00 35:30

Um see you next week. For more resources, visit teachmethebible.com or download our app from any app store. You can partner with Teach Me the Bible in helping the people of God understand the Word of God by subscribing and sharing with others. Thank you for listening to Teach Me the Bible Podcast.