52 Weeks in the Word - Week 49

 Welcome to Week 49.  You may have noticed that reading through the New Testament has been moving at fast speeds like the days until Christmas.  This week alone we will be reading in 6 different books from the New Testament.  The chapters are shorter in comparison to many of the chapters from the Old Testament.  However, you may desire to break up your reading and do some in the morning and some in the evening if you find it too much information at one time.  This week we will finish reading 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and 1 Thessalonians.    

This Weeks reading: 2 Corinthians 8 - 1 Thessalonians 5.

I will provide a small amount of background information for these books below:

Galatians  

It is believed that the Galatians was Paul's first letter written around 49 or 50 A.D.  (This is a reminder that the New Testament is not organized by when it was written.)  Several of the cities that Paul visited, such as Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, and Pisidian Antioch, were in the southern area in the Galatia Providence.  At the time Paul visited, Galatia was part of the Roman Empire in what is now central Turkey.  Before being conquered by the Romans in 51 B.C., Galatia was controlled by the Gauls, a Celtic group from northern Europe.  Interestingly enough, they were described as tall, muscular, with light skin, light hair, light eyes, and long hair.  They followed a polytheistic religion, and remnants of the Gaul culture were still seen more than a century later in Galatia.  

 Ephesians

Paul wrote this letter to the church in Ephesus around A.D. 60.  This book celebrates the beauty of the church, the Bride of Christ.  Ephesus, originally named Apasa, was established in about 1000 BC, the same time that David and Solomon reigned in Jerusalem. When Paul arrived, Ephesus's population was about 200,000. It was considered one of the greatest cities in the Roman Empire. According to Dave Stotts, "The cult of Artemis dominated Ephesus for hundreds of years until the influence of Christianity started replacing it during the two centuries after Paul. The Goths – a tribe from present-day Germany – finally destroyed the temple in 262 AD, and the worship of Artemis faded into history."

Philippians

Paul also wrote Philippians about A.D. 60.  It was Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke who were together on the first trip to Philippi.   It was mostly Macedonian, Greek, and Roman soldiers who settled the area as a Roman colony.  Because there seemed to be no Jewish synagogue in Philippi for Paul to visit, he went to the river instead. There, Paul met Lydia, a Gentile who became Paul’s first Christian convert in Europe.  We can read about this trip in Acts.  This was also the place where Paul and Silas were thrown in jail and the mighty earthquake happened.

Colossians

The following is taken from Dave Stotts' Bible Backroad series on Colossians:

Paul wrote his Letter to the Colossians from a prison in Rome sometime between 60 and 62 AD. Most Bible scholars believe Paul wrote Ephesians and Colossians around the same time and had them sent to the churches at Ephesus and Colossae by the same messenger. As far as we know, Paul never visited Colossae himself. The Colossian church probably grew out of Paul’s two-year ministry in Ephesus, where it appears he had quite a few students and co-workers. In fact, Acts, Chapter 19, tells us that Paul’s ministry in Ephesus was so effective that he and his team reached the entire region with the Gospel, “so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.”

1 Thessalonians

The following is taken from Dave Stotts' Bible Backroad series on Thessalonians:

Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonian church was written in about 51 AD. The first verse indicates that it was written by Paul, with help from his co-workers, Silas and Timothy. Known as “First Thessalonians” in our Bibles, the primary purpose of the letter was to provide encouragement, express gratitude for the Thessalonians' strong faith, and address concerns and misconceptions about the second coming of Jesus Christ.

  

 Have a blessed week in the Word!