1 Thessalonians application

Regarding 1 Thessalonians, how do I apply this to myself?:

   Thanks to the truth of 1 Thessalonians 4:9, I can always praise Jesus that He loves us and works that we might live by His love.

Regarding 1 Thessalonians, how do I apply this to my community?:

   Back in 1998 and 1999, there was a woman who worked at the Family Christian Store on 88th Avenue in the Denver, Colorado, metro area.  During my years living in Arvada, I went there much.  That woman was a really hard worker, and she was extremely helpful to all customers.  She was possibly in her early or mid-twenties and married.  By my estimate, she simply seemed super cool.  She had an old big car, and it had a bumper sticker which read: "In case of rapture, this car will be unmanned."  (When Jesus comes during the "rapture," I think there will be a bit of time before everyone meets Christ in the air.  So there will not be the plethora of crashes which film makers are so fond of.)

   Now that friendly woman seemed like someone who was with Jesus now in Spirit.  And some people in the community probably noticed that.  I sure did.

Hunter Irvine

1 Thessalonians background

1 Thessalonians

Author: Paul

Paul always started off his epistles with his name.

Confirmed by Eusebius in Book 3, Chapter 25, Verse 2, of Ecclesiastical History.

Date: About 50 A.D. (1)

Language: Greek

Place: Writing from Corinth

Purpose: To encourage and instruct Christians in the midst of persecution.

What kind of book?: Epistle, (a letter to a group), regarding a particular occasion.

Reflection: I Thessalonians 4:16-17 is a verse with varied interpretations.  I personally interpret this passage to teach the "rapture," because Paul leads into the statement by talking about the resurrection of Christ.  Jesus, who was resurrected, later ascended into heaven, as is clearly shown in Acts.  Thus taking verse 17 literally is fitting to the context, rather than this being a metaphor for Christians meeting Jesus somewhere else.

   Two key points:

   First, when Jesus returns, which in a sense is in two stages, it will be noticed by everyone.  It will be an epic event seen by believers and people who do not believe in Jesus.  Verse 16 reveals there will be "the trumpet call of God."  Professor Tafoya explained his conviction regarding this in (my New Testament) class, and I really agree with what he said.

   Second, the first stage of the Second coming will be a surprise to those who are not waiting for it.

   I Thessalonians 5:1 teaches the return of Jesus will be a surprise, and obviously the surprise element is for the first stage.  Following the "rapture," there will be an "end times" tribulation.  Anyone who turns to Christ during that tribulation, which I think is meant to be a part of the last call by our loving God, will gain salvation.  And she or he will be ushered into heaven if she or he dies, otherwise she or he will be there for the second stage of Christ's return after the "end times" tribulation, as Christ enters the world in His glory.  And at that time He will rescue Israel!

Hunter Irvine

Scripture Love Blog

(1) J.B. Phillips, Letters To Young Churches (New York: The Macmillian Company, 1947).

Colossians application

Regarding Colossians, how do I apply this to myself?:

Since I am on a roll telling about friends from Salt and Light from The Falls Church back when I was only a lad-in-Christ, I will tell about Rae.  I liked Rae the first time I ever met him.  He was a different person than I, yet he seemed like a sincere and nice guy.  Rae and I were both on an unofficial Salt and Light retreat once to Assateague Island, and he drove me to and from the camp-out.  On Sunday at mid-day, everyone else departed for home, yet we stayed and went to the beach at Ocean City in order for Rae to fly his super cool kite.  He let me try it, and showed me how to maneuver it, but I crashed it.

   On the way home, we were talking, and Rae said something that shocked me.  He said that Jesus was God.  I had always thought of Jesus as the "Son of God."  I was offended a bit!  I do not know if I was more standoffish with Rae that fall, but I think I was.  But then on Christmas Eve, when I still did not have a car, I got a ride from a family member to The Falls Church for the special service.  Yet then I needed a ride home on that cold night.  I did not want to walk so far on that cold night.  Rae found out I was looking for a ride and gladly took me home.  That act alone made me think very highly of Rae, and I was more open to take into consideration what he had said about Jesus being God.  I finally came to learn that the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are three Persons, yet One Being, One God.  To learn this, you have to examine how each One is described in the Scripture.  Jesus is Immanuel, which means God with us.

Regarding Colossians, how do I apply this to my community?:

Gently teach people about Jesus, and keep caring for people, like Rae did for me.

Hunter Irvine

Colossians background

Colossians

Author: Paul

Paul always started off his epistles with his name.

Confirmed by Eusebius in Book 3, Chapter 25, Verse 2, of Ecclesiastical History.

Date: About 62 A.D. (1)

Language: Greek

Place: From Rome while in prison.

Purpose: "This letter is plainly written to refute the false teaching which was poisoning the church life at Colossae." (2)

What kind of book?: Epistle, (a letter to a group), regarding a particular occasion.

Reflection: The identity of Jesus is crucial because if you are going to follow Jesus at His request, you need to know who He is.

Hunter Irvine

(1) J.B. Phillips, Letters To Young Churches (New York: The Macmillian Company, 1947), 119.

(2) Ibid.

Philippians application

Regarding Philippians, how do I apply this to myself?:

When pondering Philippians, I normally think about an email that was sent to me by a friend when I was on a tough business trip in April of 1994.  The note contained Philippians 4:8 - "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things" (NIV).  One thing is for sure in reading this passage: even if not one single thing before us seems excellent to think about in the moment, we can always think about God.

Regarding Philippians, how do I apply this to my community?:

   When I was on the Leadership Team of Salt and Light, we were challenged to memorize twenty Bible verses.  Being a rather new Christian, it was challenging, yet I committed to it.  However, in doing the rope memorization, I was often not soaking in the meaning.  Yet all these years later, I still have a number of those verses memorized.

   One weekend, I wanted to get away after so much stuff at my job.  I drove to Blacksburg, Virginia, and attended the Virginia Tech vs. Syracuse football game.  That night I camped in a field in National Forest land.  By flashlight I read and memorized Philippians 4:6-7.  I am thankful that I have this verse memorized.  And though I think Bible memorization can be of much benefit, I do not think it should be forced on people.  And Bible memorization does not mean you understand it in your heart!  What separates Scripture, which is inspired by God, from other writings is that God always has a message for your heart, and that is what you must have for goodness!

Hunter Irvine

Scripture Love Blog

Philippians background

Philippians

Author: Paul

Paul always started off his epistles with his name.

Confirmed by Eusebius in Book 3, Chapter 25, Verse 2, of Ecclesiastical History.

Date: About 62 A.D. (1)

Language: Greek

Place: While imprisoned in Rome (J.B. Phillips)

Purpose: To acknowledge a gift, and to encourage the believers in Christ.

What kind of book?: Epistle, (a letter to a group), regarding a particular occasion.

Reflection: We can have joy for the reason that God is faithful!

Hunter Irvine

(1) J.B. Phillips, Letters to Young Churches (New York: The Macmillian Company, 1947), 100.

Ephesians application

Regarding Ephesians, how do I apply this to myself?:

"...Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit..." (Ephesians 1:13 NIV).

  I was baptized with water by an ordained minister when I was only about seven weeks old.  However, I was not sealed with the Holy Spirit at that time.  This Scripture teaches you are sealed by the Holy Spirit when you believe!  That is when the baptism of the Holy Spirit takes place, the baptizer being Jesus!  It is not a work of a human, rather a work of God.

Regarding Ephesians, how do I apply this to my community?:

Whenever I hear the last passage of Ephesians, "the armor of God," I think of a piece I read once by my sister-in-Christ, Kathy Kellogg.  When I was a new Christian, and soon became involved with a special singles group, Salt and Light at The Falls Church, there was a woman who served there who was always nice to me.  As someone who was still evaluating "church people," Kathy made a special impression on me.  As I started to do more with the group, she was starting to do less with the group, yet I got to know her a little more as a friend in church.  I really did see her as a "big" sister (though I think I was five days older) because of her Christian maturity.  Along with her Christian maturity was a zeal for living.  She took me to a baseball game in Baltimore once when her date was unable to make it.  We had a super great time.  I remember dancing with her as we tried to get on the jumbo tron.

   Concerning the "armor of God" passage, when I first heard that, it sounded weird to me.  I thought of Jesus as the Prince of Peace, and the military analogies seemed out of place.  Then one month, Kathy wrote the main piece for our singles group newsletter.  It was a piece on the "armor of God."  Here was a woman, who worked for a senator, who wrote about that passage as if she suited up in that armor every morning.  When the plane crashed in 1996 which was carrying a number of people from the Commerce Department on it, including Ron Brown, the Secretary of Commerce, Kathy was on that plane, and she physically died.  When I went to the ceremony at Dover Air Force Base where they took the caskets off of a cargo plane one by one, I struggled to grasp that Kathy's dead body was in one of those caskets.

   Kathy was someone who loved Jesus.  Kathy was someone who realized that the Bible was completely true.  In fact, she was the first person to ever convey that to me.  And Kathy was someone who spiritually suited up in Christ's love.  And now?  Kathy is someone who remains in that Love forever.  Kathy loves Jesus is paradise.

Hunter Irvine

Ephesians background

Ephesians

Author: Paul

Paul always started off his epistles with his name.

Confirmed by Eusebius in Book 3, Chapter 25, Verse 2, of Ecclesiastical History.

Date: About 62 A.D.

Language: Greek

Place: While imprisoned in Rome (J.B. Phillips)

Purpose: To encourage the believers in Christ.

What kind of book?: Epistle, (a letter to a group), to followers of Jesus.

Reflection: Some say Paul did not write this letter, yet he even states "I, Paul" in the middle of the letter at the start of Chapter 3.  And the "household code" seems like just the kind of thing Paul would put in a letter to Christians whose roots were the paternal Jewish culture, yet who were surrounded by Gentiles who were decimating the institution of the family.

Hunter Irvine

(1) J.B. Phillips, Letters to Young Churches (New York: The Macmillian Company, 1947), 100.

Galatians application

Regarding Galatians, how do I apply this to myself?:

Many years ago, as I was on my way to work, I was thinking about doing something I knew I should not do as I walked through the tunnel at the subway station near my basement apartment.  On the second escalator, I prayed that I would not do it. I was enabled not to so that day by God.

Regarding Galatians, how do I apply this to my community?:

Paul's instructions make it clear that I do not need to act "religious," rather I need to be loving.  And the most loving thing a person can do is witness for Jesus, who is Love.

Hunter Irvine

Galatians background

Galatians

Author: Paul

Paul always started off his epistles with his name.

Confirmed by Eusebius in Book 3, Chapter 25, Verse 2, of Ecclesiastical History.

Date: 56 or 57 A.D. (1)

Language: Greek

Place: Probably writing from Corinth. (J.B. Phillips)

Purpose: Some people convinced some Galatian Christians they needed to continue to obey the Mosaic Law.

J.B. Phillips summarized: "Paul warns the Galatians that although they are free, as Christians, from the Law, yet their lives must exhibit the fruits of the inner law of love implanted by God's Spirit." (2)

What kind of book?: Epistle, (a letter to a group), regarding a particular occasion.

Reflection: The Israelites were in a covenant with God, with Moses as the mediator.  It is now termed the "Old Covenant" or "Mosaic Covenant."  I like to refer to this as the "Leading Covenant!"  Jesus then offered the "New Covenant," which is available for Jewish folks and everyone else also.

   For a person in the New Covenant, we do not have to follow sacrificial laws of the "Mosaic Law," which were fulfilled by Jesus.  Nor do we need to follow the civil laws of the Mosaic Law, which were only for Jewish people since the Old Covenant was only between God and the Israelites.  And even Jewish people who receive the Messiah do not need to follow them, since they were specific to pre-Messiah Israelite era.  For example, Christ made possible a priesthood of all believers.

   We still must follow the moral laws, as is obvious because Jesus even furthered them.  Yet there is only one way to be able to obey the commandments of Christ as given in the Sermon on the Mount and in other places in Scripture, and that is to be enabled by the Holy Spirit Himself.  The Spirit of Christ is the One who can enable a person to live by the true love of God.

Hunter Irvine

(1) J.B. Phillips, Letters to Young Churches (New York: The Macmillian Company, 1947), 89.

(2) Ibid.

2 Corinthians application

Regarding 2 Corinthians, how do I apply this to myself?

   In all of the Christian reading I have done, there have been a few times when I read a particular chapter of a Christian book and knew Christ had a lesson for me to apply all my days.  One such time was when I read one of the introduction chapters of The Sermon on the Mount, by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones.  He gave two key to principles for studying the Bible.  First, always take a verse in the context of the passage, and take that passage in the context of the entire chapter and book.  Second, discern the spirit rather than harping on the letter.

   I just learned that he probably got the second point from 2 Corinthians 3:6.  This is helpful for me when studying Paul since his writing sometimes contains poor semantics, and he can go off on tangents.  Yet just as he told people in the church that they were a letter from Christ written with the Spirit of the living God (2 Corinthians 3:3), Paul was a man inspired by the Spirit of the living God, and God's messages are found in his writing.

Regarding 2 Corinthians, how do I apply this to my community?

2 Corinthians 3:18

"And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit" (NIV).

   Many years ago, someone did something hurtful to me in church. Afterwards, I had the opportunity to spend a day with only God, getting healing. The following Sunday, I went to a Bible study I attended every Sunday morning. Later on, a woman who was in that Bible study who also knew what had happened to me, told me: "I had been worried about you, but when you sat down, your face was glowing, and I thought of Moses' face, and I knew you were alright."  In this hurtful world, we followers of Jesus are called to rely on the Spirit of Christ to enable us to show His glory to whoever will notice.

Hunter Irvine

2 Corinthians backgound

2 Corinthians

Author: Paul

Paul always started off his epistles with his name.

Confirmed by Eusebius in Book 3, Chapter 25, Verse 2, of Ecclesiastical History.

Date: Possibly 57 A.D. (1)

Language: Greek

Place: Macedonia (2 Corinthians 1:16, 7:5)

Purpose: Paul is trying to strengthen the repentant. Paul is also trying to convince the rebellious. (Professor Tafoya)

What kind of book?: Epistle, (a letter to a group), regarding a particular occasion.

Reflection: When I was young, when I did something wrong, in addition to any punishment, my mom would often instruct me to say "I'm sorry."  I always did, but I often did not mean it.  I was saying it because I had to.  As one who has received the forgiveness of sins from Jesus, whenever I have told Him, "I am sorry," I meant it.  It is a grand phrase of love for fallible people.  It is an all too rare phrase.  I want to say it more.

Hunter Irvine

(1) J.B. Phillips, Letters to Young Churches (New York: The Macmillian Company, 1947), 68.

1 Corinthians application

Regarding 1 Corinthians, how do I apply this to myself?

   In class we examined the discussion by Paul concerning the "Lord's Supper." I note here the importance of the Lord's Supper for me. There is something about Communion that always reminds me that I have been blessed because Jesus gave of Himself.

Regarding 1 Corinthians, how do I apply this to my community?

   In this book Paul addressed the problem of people taking more than their fair share of the Lord's Supper.  The shortage today seems to be with people who partake in Communion from our community.  On one youth retreat I was on about six years ago, I noticed that many students did not go up front when the Lord's Supper was served during the Sunday morning worship.  In the Anglican denomination, which was running that retreat, you are supposed to be baptized before you can take the Lord's Supper.  And that was gently announced that morning.  Apparently many of those students were not baptized, since many of them were friends with students who were active in Anglican churches.

   First things first, these young people need to be told about Jesus so they can make a decision about whether they will receive Him.  No such public invitation was made to students on that retreat that I recall.  On such youth retreats, students need to be told the Gospel, and they need to be invited to receive Jesus.  For those who believe, they will be baptized by the Holy Spirit.  And then we need to give them an opportunity to be baptized with water!  And then they will have the blessing of partaking in the Lord's Supper the rest of their journey in this world!

Hunter Irvine

1 Corinthians background

1 Corinthians

Author: Paul

Paul always started off his epistles with his name.

Confirmed by Eusebius in Book 3, Chapter 25, Verse 2, of Ecclesiastical History.

Date: 56 A.D. (J.B. Phillips)(1)

Language: Greek

Place: Ephesus (J.B. Phillips)

Purpose: To inform the Corinthian church of their errors, and to give them Christian guidance. (J.B. Phillips)

What kind of book?: Epistle regarding a specific occasion.

Reflection: In the concise write-up regarding his theme of the epistle, J.B. Phillips discussed the 'incredible sexual promiscuity' taking place in Corinth.  An issue that many do not like to talk about, yet which I think needs to be confronted, is the vast sexual promiscuity in our culture today.  Being someone who has been single and celibate for years (and years) {and years} [and years], (O.K. I have never had had sex.  Call me a loser, but I am waiting to make love), I am probably even more sensitive to it.  There is much disregard for the standard held by Jesus that sex should solely be enjoyed in marriage.  There is much disregard for His teaching not to commit adultery.  The word adultery is even a term I do not hear much any more.  Encouraged by the 'casual sex' carried out in movies and talked about on TV, sex outside of marriage is common.  And Christians seem to be having less influence on the culture.  Yet God continues to care just as He did in the time of the Corinth disaster.  God does not want anyone engaging in sex outside of marriage, because God intended for sex to be an expression of romantic true love, and nothing less.

   Now Christians are called by God to love everyone.  Sex is for a special romantic love relationship, and it is for expressing love as much as receiving physical pleasure and having children.  As someone who has waited a long time to be married and make love, enabled only by Jesus to wait so long I assure you, I am willing to say that the cultural acceptance of sex outside of marriage is wrong, and the blessing of making love in the commitment of marriage, God's plan, is good.  I cannot wait to get there! :)

Hunter Irvine

(1) J.B. Phillips, Letters To Young Churches (New York: The Macmillian Company, 1947).