One letter at a time...

"Give my greetings to the brothers and sisters at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house.  After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea." - Colossians 4:15-16

Church "service" in the first century was very different in some ways than our services today.  In the early (Jewish-only) church in the first 10 chapters of Acts, the disciples would often meet on the Sabbath in the Temple or synagogue to hear Scripture being read.  The Apostles would get up and preach about Jesus, and then throughout the week the disciples would often meet in their homes or in the Temple courts as well.

After the inclusion of Gentiles in the kingdom of God, meeting at the Temple/synagogues became increasingly more difficult as the uncircumcised were not allowed in certain areas, so the church began meeting more frequently in homes.  Reading through Acts and Paul's letters we see more and more the idea of "house churches".  The majority of the New Testament consists of letters written to specific churches and/or individuals by the apostles and prophets in the first century.  These letters would then be circulated (and later copied) among the house churches of the time as we can see from the initial verse above. Paul often names the carriers of the letter towards the end of each one.  Due to the large number of people who were illiterate in those days, one or two persons would often read the letter aloud to everyone (and for those who weren't Greek-speaking, there would be an interpreter into Hebrew/Aramaic).  They would have a communion meal together and pray and sometimes someone would get up and preach words of encouragement or share news about the surrounding sister churches.

This is often very different from how we read the Bible today.  We often read short sections or a few chapters at a time, forgetting that most books/letters of the Bible were intended to be read in one sitting.

Here's a great article by fellow blogger Radically Christian on estimated times it would take to read each book of the Bible in one sitting.

It can also really help you to read the Bible as such if you have an edition with no chapters/verses.  Last year, I bought this one and I love it for numerous reasons:  a more logical order/division of the books and putting similar texts in sections together.   For example, in most Bibles Paul's letters are arranged in order from longest (Romans) to shortest (Philemon), while this Bible puts them in what is most commonly believed to be their chronological order.  Also, most Bibles separate Samuel, Kings and Chronicles into two books, while this Bible does not.  The Bible also takes the logical step of putting Luke-Acts together, since Luke (the doctor) wrote them both as a part I and part II.

I strongly suggest that you carve out time in your schedule to read each book of the Bible in one sitting (except for maybe Psalms and Proverbs, which I don't believe were intended to be read as such - those should probably be split up into sections over several days).
It will change so much of your understanding of the Bible and help you to see connections you have never noticed before.  The first century church read the letters of the NT in one sitting, and even then some folks missed or distorted the meaning of things (see the closing verse of this entry).  How much more susceptible are we to error like that by reading only snippets of the Bible on a regular basis?

Many people like to form an entire conversion doctrine around Ephesians 2:8-9, forgetting that in that same letter Ephesians 4:4-6 and Ephesians 5:25-27 must be taken into account.
The "faith/belief alone = salvation" proponents will often cite Romans 4 and Romans 10:9-13 while ignoring the surrounding context and the fact that Romans 6:1-11 lies between the two in the same letter.  In our next entry, we'll look at the first letter to the Corinthians and how baptism/immersion is referenced there and should be understood throughout the ENTIRE letter.

"Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction." - 2 Peter 3:15-16

Be strong in the grace,

Fenton

P.S.  I apologize about the delay in publishing an article this week.  I actually was afforded the opportunity to preach the Sunday sermon at my home church this past week, and was out of town the first three days of the week. Starting this coming weekend, I will resume my regular schedule of publishing articles on Sundays and Wednesdays.