Lesson 43 · Unit 7 · Reading Every Genre
The Letters: Reading Someone Else's Mail
You are reading someone else's mail - so start with who it was for, and why.
Open
On the train, the man beside you takes a call. You are not trying to listen, but he is loud. "...no, that won't work... I know it's been hard on him, but rules are rules... don't tell Mom yet." For twenty minutes you hear half a conversation, and you cannot help filling in the other half in your head: something has happened in the family, someone is asking for mercy, and the old woman does not know. He hangs up as the train pulls in, and only then do you remember: that other half, you invented.
Reading the New Testament letters is listening to that kind of half conversation. We hold Paul's reply, and we cannot hear what the Corinthians or the Galatians originally asked, or fought about. Anyone who reads a letter well starts by admitting that he is reading someone else's mail.
Scripture
One of the shortest letters in the New Testament: an old man in prison, pleading for a runaway slave. Notice how he opens, and what he stakes. (Philemon 8-21, WEB)
8Therefore though I have all boldness in Christ to command you that which is appropriate,
9yet for love’s sake I rather appeal to you, being such a one as Paul, the aged, but also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.
10I appeal to you for my child Onesimus, whom I have become the father of in my chains,
11who once was useless to you, but now is useful to you and to me.
12I am sending him back. Therefore receive him, that is, my own heart,
13whom I desired to keep with me, that on your behalf he might serve me in my chains for the Good News.
14But I was willing to do nothing without your consent, that your goodness would not be as of necessity, but of free will.
15For perhaps he was therefore separated from you for a while that you would have him forever,
16no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much rather to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
17If then you count me a partner, receive him as you would receive me.
18But if he has wronged you at all or owes you anything, put that to my account.
19I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it (not to mention to you that you owe to me even your own self besides).
20Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in the Lord.
21Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even beyond what I say.
See
Every letter has something on fire
The letters are occasional: there is a specific writer, a specific reader, and something that will not wait. Corinth is splitting into parties, Galatia is unsettled by another gospel, Philippi has sent a gift. A letter is an answer sheet - and if you do not know the question, the answer is easy to read crooked. So the first three questions for any letter are always: who wrote it, who was it written to, and what had happened? Add one habit of reading to that: these letters were meant to be read out whole in a gathering and passed between churches - "When this letter has been read among you, cause it to be read also in the assembly of the Laodiceans" (Col 4:16). Read the whole letter first, then talk about single lines. And that God let these family letters travel all the way down to us means he has counted us into the family too (Rom 15:4).
Walk one through: reading Philemon as a letter
The writer: old Paul, in prison. The reader: Philemon, a householder in Colossae, with a church meeting in his home. The situation: his slave Onesimus has run away, possibly with money (v. 18), and has met Paul in prison, come to faith, and is now walking back with this letter in his hand. Now watch how grace writes. Paul has the authority to command, and "for love's sake I rather appeal to you" (vv. 8-9). He does not paper over the loss; he takes the debt onto himself - "put that to my account" (v. 18). And he gives the broken relationship a new name - "no longer as a slave... a beloved brother" (v. 16). Twenty-five verses, and the whole logic of the gospel is inside them.
The most common misreading: a favorite verse runs away from home
"My God will supply every need of yours" (Phil 4:19) gets treated as a universal cash card; back inside the letter, it is a promise of supply spoken to people who had just opened their own wallets for the gospel (Phil 4:15-18). "Things which an eye didn't see, and an ear didn't hear" (1 Cor 2:9) gets preached as scenery in heaven; the very next verse says "But to us, God revealed them through the Spirit" - it is about now. There is nothing wrong with the verse. What is wrong is that it ran away from home. A verse has an address, and the address is written in the whole letter. Send it back to its own paragraph and it will actually say more to you, not less.
From their letter to ours
What gives a letter written to one church two thousand years ago any authority over me? The same old road - original meaning first, application second. Ask what gospel truth this instruction was protecting in that situation, then ask where the same truth lands now. The form of washing feet can change; the heart that stoops to one another does not. The etiquette of greeting can change; the warmth of welcome does not. Which is also why the Spirit preserved these letters all the way to today: the questions change, but the household setting them is the same household.
Deeper
Occasional documents
the letters were written for specific churches with specific problems; reconstruct the question before you read the answer.
Indicative before imperative
Paul's letters usually announce what God has already done (you are...) before issuing commands (therefore...); the command always grows on the grace.
Public reading and circulation
letters were written to a group, read aloud in the meeting and exchanged between churches (Col 4:16); they are by nature books to read together.
The guarantor's bill
"put that to my account" (Philem 18) is the gospel in miniature; Christ said the same sentence for us at the cross.
Story
Cheng Jia and her husband run a small processing workshop. In their early years a partner made off with a large payment for goods; the lawsuit went nowhere, the man disappeared, and the debt became a word no one said at home. Two autumns ago that man sent a message through an older believer at church: he had come to faith, he wanted to apologize in person and pay the money back - only, ten years on, he could afford half.
Cheng Jia's small group happened to be reading Philemon just then. When they reached "receive him as you would receive me," she sat silent for a long time: the older believer carrying the message had put himself in the middle, exactly like that. On the day they met, her husband took the half, tore up the old note, and said, "The other half goes on the Lord's account." Cheng Jia says that meal was the first time she watched a two-thousand-year-old letter walk, alive, into her own living room.
Respond
Reflect — alone, or talk it through together
1Paul plainly had "all boldness... to command" (v. 8) and chose to appeal instead - what did he lay down and what did he stake to do that?
2How does "put that to my account" turn this short letter into the gospel in miniature? Where is its connection to the cross?
3Is there a relationship waiting to be received, or an account never settled? What is this letter's next step for you?
Saved on this device only — visible to no one but you.
Pray together
Lord Jesus, who took my account onto yourself: what I owed, you said to put on your bill; when I ran, you sent someone to bring me home. Thank you that you did not only forgive me but gave me a new name - no longer a slave, but a beloved child. When I read the letters, let me first hear the heartbeat of that day, and then receive today's instruction; and in my hardest relationship, let me be willing to learn from Paul and stand in the middle myself. In Jesus' name, amen.
Walk
This week's actionabout 15 min
Read Philemon straight through twice (it takes under five minutes each time) and write four lines: the writer, the reader, the situation, and one sentence of the main point. Then write down the name of one person it made you think of.
Mark it when it happens — this week, at your pace.
Spiritual practice
Before you quote a favorite verse this week, read the whole paragraph it sits in and ask: what is this line's address inside the letter?
Memory verse · Philemon 1:16
nolongerasaslave,butmorethanaslave,abelovedbrother.
Walk further
Onesimus himself; the hymn to love as a chapter written to a quarreling church; Paul the writer; the theme of forgiveness; and a reading plan to walk through with a companion.