BRUCE C WEARNE kicks off a new series looking at Paul’s first letter to Timothy…
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the commissioning of our God and Saviour, and of Christ Jesus (Himself), our hope; to Timothy, true child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. – I Timothy 1:1-2 (transliteration by Bruce C Wearne)
Letters were a key form of communication for Paul (this is not, of course, the way in which Paul’s letters were written). PICTURE: Aaron Burden/Unsplash.
“Now, of course, Paul is also expecting that these friends will read his letters and show them to others. In that sense they retain a formal character because they are not just private but are intended to be public, to be shared with others in the church fellowship. These are not ‘for your eyes only’ letters.”
When we read the New Testament’s “file” of Paul’s letters, we will note that he begins all of them with initial greetings that are formally expressed. He does not just give a heading: “Paul’s instructions for how to conduct the work of Good News proclamation”. In this formal opening he identifies himself as well as the person who has commissioned him. He also identifies the recipients of the letter. In this letter he explains his relationship to those addressed in the letter.
These two letters to Timothy, along with his letters to Titus and Philemon, have a personal intensity that may prod us to wonder why he would begin them in such a formal tone. Why the formality? Are not these letters to people with whom he is already on friendly terms?
We might even say that these initial greetings are, for a letter, the equivalent to a handshake or a hug. The problem with such a distinction between “formality” and “friendship” is that a handshake does not have to mean cold formality, any more than a hug has to mean warmth and depth of sentiment.
Likewise, having read the contents of these letters, we can plumb the depths of Paul’s affection for Timothy, Titus and Philemon while also sensing something of the reciprocal respect held by these recipients of his letters. Having said all that, we might also begin to wonder whether these opening lines should prod us to think more deeply about the conventional distinctions we often entertain between formal address and a more personal kind of interaction.
Now, of course, Paul is also expecting that these friends will read his letters and show them to others. In that sense they retain a formal character because they are not just private but are intended to be public, to be shared with others in the church fellowship. These are not “for your eyes only” letters.
The New Testament “file” of Paul’s correspondence is confessed by the church of Jesus Christ to be part of the apostolic proclamation of the Good News and thereby God’s word written for us. We can also note how Paul’s “habit” of commencing his letter in a formal way coincides with his polite conclusion as he takes his leave at the end of this communication. And here too we confront God’s word, statements integrally part of the apostolic Good News in their epistolary form.
Why begin this examination of Paul’s letters to Timothy by drawing attention to this formal aspect of the letter’s structure? By so doing we are reminded that a letter, as a means of communication, is an artefact of human responsibility. A letter’s “task” is to give expression to one or other dimension(s) of human responsibility.
Before letters were invented as a form of communication there needed to be a complex process that enabled spoken communication to be translated into what was written down. And so writing implements, writing tablets and parchment and ink had to be developed. The development of such artefacts facilitated the expansion of communication, and so the earth’s resources had to be cultivated and harvested in order to facilitate letter writing. Writing implements had to be designed, surfaces had to be furnished that could retain symbolic inscription and, in time, other media such as inks had to be perfected so that messages could be given written form.
Then of course to have “letters” there needed to be developed transport and travel. Letters travel. They go from one person in one place to another person in another place, and letters these days seem to be on the verge of going beyond envelopes, stamps and postmen. These days, letters are also written and conveyed electronically.
When we write a letter these days we can review what we have written and delete our mistakes and make what is written to read more exactly with what we intend according to the rules of correct grammar. Paul was not writing with a computer or even a typewriter. It seems that for at least some of his letters he had to dictate his words to be written down by an assistant. Then, when the letter was written and ready to be “sent”, Paul had to find a courier who would take the letter to its intended recipient.
These comments are to give a brief outline of some of the features of letter-writing in Paul’s day. We should not exclude these from our reflections when we give attention to what Paul has written. They are also the conditions presupposed by these letters. And so they were part of the everyday “way of life” in which Paul and Timothy lived in those days.
By writing his letters, by using them as a means of proclaiming the Good News that Jesus had commanded him to take to the nations, Paul was involved in “opening up” the life of Timothy and the others he addressed. He was part of this “opening up” by passing on the message of God’s redeeming love. And his letters were also part of this, so crucial for our own understanding of this “way of life” that takes up the cross and follows Christ Jesus.
Clearly, Paul was not the first to use letters to accomplish some worthwhile purpose, but the fact that he did so reminds us of the way in which the Good News develops its impact upon the lives of those who attend to it. Indeed as we read this letter we will come across the taken-for-granted Pauline assumption that letter-writing as a creational means of developing our human responsibilities finds its true focus in Jesus Christ, the Person at the centre of Paul’s letter-writing. Jesus Christ is confessed as the One in whom all letter-writing makes sense, because He is the One in whom all human responsibility and communication “hangs together”.
Christianity is not the Kingdom of God. Wherever the Christian way of life has come to historical expression it has found its coherence as a signpost to the Sovereign Rule of God over all that He has made. The Kingdom of God is proclaimed to us today by an announcement of the redemption wrought by Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. It is in His death, resurrection and ascension that the Kingdom is inaugurated in our lives. And so that is why it is so important that the Good News be proclaimed in our lives to all creation, to every creature, to all the peoples of the world.
OPEN BOOK: PAUL’S FIRST LETTER TO TIMOTHY – FORMAL GREETINGS AND PERSONAL REVELATIONS, PART I
BRUCE C WEARNE kicks off a new series looking at Paul’s first letter to Timothy…
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the commissioning of our God and Saviour, and of Christ Jesus (Himself), our hope; to Timothy, true child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. – I Timothy 1:1-2 (transliteration by Bruce C Wearne)
Letters were a key form of communication for Paul (this is not, of course, the way in which Paul’s letters were written). PICTURE: Aaron Burden/Unsplash.
“Now, of course, Paul is also expecting that these friends will read his letters and show them to others. In that sense they retain a formal character because they are not just private but are intended to be public, to be shared with others in the church fellowship. These are not ‘for your eyes only’ letters.”
When we read the New Testament’s “file” of Paul’s letters, we will note that he begins all of them with initial greetings that are formally expressed. He does not just give a heading: “Paul’s instructions for how to conduct the work of Good News proclamation”. In this formal opening he identifies himself as well as the person who has commissioned him. He also identifies the recipients of the letter. In this letter he explains his relationship to those addressed in the letter.
These two letters to Timothy, along with his letters to Titus and Philemon, have a personal intensity that may prod us to wonder why he would begin them in such a formal tone. Why the formality? Are not these letters to people with whom he is already on friendly terms?
We might even say that these initial greetings are, for a letter, the equivalent to a handshake or a hug. The problem with such a distinction between “formality” and “friendship” is that a handshake does not have to mean cold formality, any more than a hug has to mean warmth and depth of sentiment.
Likewise, having read the contents of these letters, we can plumb the depths of Paul’s affection for Timothy, Titus and Philemon while also sensing something of the reciprocal respect held by these recipients of his letters. Having said all that, we might also begin to wonder whether these opening lines should prod us to think more deeply about the conventional distinctions we often entertain between formal address and a more personal kind of interaction.
Now, of course, Paul is also expecting that these friends will read his letters and show them to others. In that sense they retain a formal character because they are not just private but are intended to be public, to be shared with others in the church fellowship. These are not “for your eyes only” letters.
The New Testament “file” of Paul’s correspondence is confessed by the church of Jesus Christ to be part of the apostolic proclamation of the Good News and thereby God’s word written for us. We can also note how Paul’s “habit” of commencing his letter in a formal way coincides with his polite conclusion as he takes his leave at the end of this communication. And here too we confront God’s word, statements integrally part of the apostolic Good News in their epistolary form.
Why begin this examination of Paul’s letters to Timothy by drawing attention to this formal aspect of the letter’s structure? By so doing we are reminded that a letter, as a means of communication, is an artefact of human responsibility. A letter’s “task” is to give expression to one or other dimension(s) of human responsibility.
Before letters were invented as a form of communication there needed to be a complex process that enabled spoken communication to be translated into what was written down. And so writing implements, writing tablets and parchment and ink had to be developed. The development of such artefacts facilitated the expansion of communication, and so the earth’s resources had to be cultivated and harvested in order to facilitate letter writing. Writing implements had to be designed, surfaces had to be furnished that could retain symbolic inscription and, in time, other media such as inks had to be perfected so that messages could be given written form.
Then of course to have “letters” there needed to be developed transport and travel. Letters travel. They go from one person in one place to another person in another place, and letters these days seem to be on the verge of going beyond envelopes, stamps and postmen. These days, letters are also written and conveyed electronically.
When we write a letter these days we can review what we have written and delete our mistakes and make what is written to read more exactly with what we intend according to the rules of correct grammar. Paul was not writing with a computer or even a typewriter. It seems that for at least some of his letters he had to dictate his words to be written down by an assistant. Then, when the letter was written and ready to be “sent”, Paul had to find a courier who would take the letter to its intended recipient.
These comments are to give a brief outline of some of the features of letter-writing in Paul’s day. We should not exclude these from our reflections when we give attention to what Paul has written. They are also the conditions presupposed by these letters. And so they were part of the everyday “way of life” in which Paul and Timothy lived in those days.
By writing his letters, by using them as a means of proclaiming the Good News that Jesus had commanded him to take to the nations, Paul was involved in “opening up” the life of Timothy and the others he addressed. He was part of this “opening up” by passing on the message of God’s redeeming love. And his letters were also part of this, so crucial for our own understanding of this “way of life” that takes up the cross and follows Christ Jesus.
Clearly, Paul was not the first to use letters to accomplish some worthwhile purpose, but the fact that he did so reminds us of the way in which the Good News develops its impact upon the lives of those who attend to it. Indeed as we read this letter we will come across the taken-for-granted Pauline assumption that letter-writing as a creational means of developing our human responsibilities finds its true focus in Jesus Christ, the Person at the centre of Paul’s letter-writing. Jesus Christ is confessed as the One in whom all letter-writing makes sense, because He is the One in whom all human responsibility and communication “hangs together”.
Christianity is not the Kingdom of God. Wherever the Christian way of life has come to historical expression it has found its coherence as a signpost to the Sovereign Rule of God over all that He has made. The Kingdom of God is proclaimed to us today by an announcement of the redemption wrought by Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. It is in His death, resurrection and ascension that the Kingdom is inaugurated in our lives. And so that is why it is so important that the Good News be proclaimed in our lives to all creation, to every creature, to all the peoples of the world.
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