Ephesians is the great Pauline letter about the church. It deals, however, not so much with a congregation in the city of Ephesus in Asia Minor as with the worldwide church, the head of which is Christ, the purpose of which is to be the instrument for making God’s plan of salvation known throughout the universe. Yet this ecclesiology is anchored in God’s saving love, shown in Jesus Christ, and the whole of redemption is rooted in the plan and accomplishment of the triune God. 

Ephesians emphasize the unity in the church of Christ that has come about for both Jews and Gentiles within God’s household and indeed the key elements of church: one Lord, one faith, and one baptism – and the one God. Yet the concern is not with the church for its own sake but rather as the means for mission in the world. The gifts Christ gives its members are to lead to growth and renewal. Ethical admonition is not lacking either; all aspects of human life and relationships are illumined by the light of Christ.

This letter is considered one of the “Captivity Epistles” along with Colossians, Philippians, and Philemon, It has been dated to an imprisonment in Rome, likely in A.D. 61–63. Some of the key points of the letter are:

• God’s Eternal Plan and Spiritual Blessings (Eph 1:3-14)
• Unity in Christ (Eph 2:11-22)
• The Mystery of Christ and the Church (Eph 3:1-21)
• Christian Unity and Growth (Eph 4:1-16)
• Moral Living and the New Life in Christ (Eph 4:17-5:21)
• Marriage as a Reflection of Christ and the Church (Eph 5:22-33)
• Household and Social Relationships (Eph 6:1-9)
• The Armor of God (Eph 6:10-20)

Colossians is one of the Pauline letters that engages ongoing scholarly investigation. There are debates about authorship and the nature of the letter and we do not have a clear picture of the doctrines of the false teachers that Paul is arguing against.  What we do know is that the overall theological message of the letter stands out clearly enough, with its striking presentation of Jesus as the cosmic Christ and what it means for us as Christians to be free to serve him alone.

The teaching of the letter to the Colossians addresses the “Colossian heresy” which held that Jesus was another deity among their pantheon of deities. Paul, although he never had been in their community, his apostleship was known to them and so Paul took the opportunity to write to them about the unique and perfect work of redemption and reconciliation which Jesus accomplished by his death on the cross. Paul stresses that this is the source of the spiritual liberty enjoyed by all who by faith were united to him.

It has been said that Paul in this letter is doing two things at once: he is acting as the apologist for Christianity to the intellectual world of paganism at the same time as he is defending gospel truth within the church. As apologist to the Gentiles, he may have been the first to meet his pagan opponents on their own ground and use their language in a Christian sense, in order to show that the problems to which they unsuccessfully sought an answer elsewhere found their solution in the gospel

Paul’s first letter to the church of Corinth provides us with a fuller insight into the life of an early Christian community of the first generation than any other book of the New Testament. Through it we can glimpse both the strengths and the weaknesses of this small group in a great city of the ancient world, men and women who had accepted the good news of Christ and were now trying to realize in their lives the implications of their baptism. Paul, who had founded the community and continued to look after it as a father, responds both to questions addressed to him and to situations of which he had been informed. In doing so, he reveals much about himself, his teaching, and the way in which he conducted his work of apostleship. Some things are puzzling because we have the correspondence only in one direction.

Paul established a Christian community in Corinth about the year 51, on his second missionary journey. After 1.5 years he received disquieting news about Corinth. The community there was displaying open factionalism, as certain members were identifying themselves exclusively with individual Christian leaders and interpreting Christian teaching as a superior wisdom for the initiated few. This led to a variety of issues and the community’s ills were reflected in its liturgy. In the celebration of the Eucharist certain members discriminated against others, drank too freely at the agape, or fellowship meal, and denied Christian social courtesies to the poor among the membership. To treat this wide spectrum of questions, Paul wrote this first letter from Ephesus about the year 56. 

The Second Letter to the Corinthians is the most personal of all of Paul’s extant writings, and it reveals much about his character. In it he deals with one or more crises that have arisen in the Corinthian church. The confrontation with these problems caused him to reflect deeply on his relationship with the community and to speak about it frankly. All his argument centers on the destiny of Jesus, in which a paradoxical reversal of values is revealed. But Paul appeals to his own personal experience as well. In passages of great rhetorical power he enumerates the circumstances of his ministry and the tribulations he has had to endure for Jesus and the gospel, in the hope of illustrating the pattern of Jesus’ existence in his own and of drawing the Corinthians into a reappraisal of the values they cherish.

Paul had visited “the Galatians” on his second mission. Given the contents of the letter, it is most likely that this was addressed to a community in North Galatia and area known to be settled by descendants of the Celts who had invaded the area four centuries before – in other words, they were not Hellenized people. The pastoral situation Paul is addressing is that other missionaries have come to the area since Paul’s time and they are preaching “the cross of Jesus” … but they are also preaching that more is needed. The people must come into full compliance with the Law of Moses – that is, become fully an observant Jew.

They were undermining Paul’s authority also, asserting that he had not been trained by Jesus himself, that his gospel did not agree with that of the original and true apostles in Jerusalem, that he had kept from his converts in Galatia the necessity of accepting circumcision and other key obligations of the Jewish law, in order more easily to win them to Christ, and that his gospel was thus not the full and authentic one held by “those of repute” in Jerusalem.

When Paul learned of the situation, he wrote this defense of his apostolic authority and of the correct understanding of the faith. He set forth the unique importance of Christ and his redemptive sacrifice on the cross, the freedom that Christians enjoy from the old burdens of the law, the total sufficiency of Christ and of faith in Christ as the way to God and to eternal life, and the beauty of the new life of the Spirit. Galatians is thus a summary of basic Pauline theology.

Paul first visited Thessalonica on his second missionary journey. The mission was beset with conflict with both the gentile and the Jewish communities, forcing Paul to leave. He sent his companion Timothy back to bolster the community. When Timothy reported back, this was the occaison of the first letter. In an age of itinerant peddlers of new religions, Paul found it necessary to emphasize not only the content of his gospel but also his manner of presenting it, for both attested to God’s grace as freely bestowed and powerfully effected. The letter goes on to describe Christian life, the principles for acting morally, rooted in one’s relationship to God through Christ by the sending of the holy Spirit. Thus, moral conduct is the practical, personal expression of one’s Christian faith, love, and hope.

The second letter is one that encourages the people to persevere in times of persecution, but also corrects some ideas about “the day of the Lord”, closing with an admonishment to the idle among the people.