27/04/2026
E100 Week 17
Paul to the Churches
Day 81 Romans 8
Day 82 Galatians 5:16 – 6:10
Day 83 Ephesians 6:10-20
Day 84 Philippians 4: 2 – 9
Day 85 Colossians 1: 1 - 23
As we discovered in our readings from the Acts of the Apostles last week, Paul travelled extensively all over the Roman Empire, preaching the gospel and founding churches. It is somewhat humbling, for those of us who have been to these places as pilgrims, to realise that journeys which take just a few hours on a bus, took Paul many days of hard walking – and he was far from being a young man when he set out. It was an exciting and dangerous mission, but in spite of all the difficulties he encountered, he was effective.
But his church planting did cause other issues. How could he keep these communities of new believers going in the right direction after he was gone? Most of them were planted in pagan cities, complete with idolatry and immorality. Often Paul only had time to preach the basics of the Christian faith before his enemies drove him out of town. There was so much more that he needed to communicate about the gospel, Christian living, the church, and much more besides.
In addition to his enemies, Paul had to contend with false teachers who were roaming around confusing people by trying to discredit him and his ministry. And to compound all this, Paul often ended up in prison, so his communication channels were limited. It must have been incredibly frustrating and worrying to see his life’s work eroding before his eyes. That’s why he was a keen letter writer. In addition to prayer, letter writing was his strategy for strengthening and building the Church.
In these 5 readings, we will cover extracts from Paul’s letters to five different cities – Rome, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae. Each letter contains different advice and comment appropriate to the particular needs of the people he was writing to. But there are also some strong common themes running through all of these letters. Faith was based upon the unchanging Good News of Jesus.
As you read Paul’s letters, ask yourself: what could I do to strengthen and encourage the Christians around me? In some ways, the circumstances Paul was addressing were very different from today. But in other ways, they are surprisingly similar. Ask God to show you how you can join Paul in his mission to build the Church.
Picture: Paul preaching in Athens (Raphael).