Your Spiritual Journey
Letters to the People
One of the things that really shaped how I read much of the New Testament was to realize that from Romans through Revelation I was reading somebody’s mail. It’s tempting for us 2000 years later to look at these inspired texts and want to treat them like legal documents containing “doctrine” and “dogma.” And while these letters do contain a lot of wonderful teachings about God and the Christian life, let us not forget that at their very core they were pastoral letters addressing real people and their problems. Understanding this can really transform the way these New Testament books speak to us. No longer is it a legal textbook, but an intimate letter, inspired by God and shared among humans. Knowing this allows the scriptures to come alive for us in a whole new way! Reading it as it was originally meant to be read will help us discern and living out the universal wisdom and truth from God that’s found in these contextualized ancient documents.
Peace,
Houston
