Primary Authors & Sources
From the Corinthian correspondence through the captivity letters, Pastorals, and catholic epistles, students read the church’s doctrine in letter form. John Calvin’s commentaries on Corinthians, Galatians and Ephesians, and the Pastorals remain the Reformed baseline for Pauline theology in the congregation. J. B. Lightfoot’s Galatians, Philippians, and Colossians (with Philemon) set the classic English standard for the shorter Paulines. Charles Hodge’s Ephesians and Second Corinthians press church and apostolic authority with Princeton clarity. B. F. Westcott’s Epistles of St. John open the Johannine letters for love, truth, and assurance. John Peter Lange’s Biblework on James represents the general epistles’ call to living faith. Together they serve teaching that builds the house church from the apostles’ mail.
What You Will Study
Students exegete Pauline epistles beyond Romans and General Epistles including Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Pastoral letters, Hebrews, James, Peter, Jude, and Johannine epistles with Greek support where applicable. The course examines ecclesial doctrine, ethics, eschatology, and perseverance through diverse literary situations and rhetorical strategies in apostolic correspondence. Readings employ Reformed commentaries emphasizing grammatical exegesis, canonical coherence, and application to church order, marriage, wealth, suffering, and false teaching. Students analyze Pauline and catholic epistles for complementarity in teaching faith and practice for scattered congregations. Weekly exegesis assignments rotate through epistolary genres preparing pastors for preaching entire New Testament letter corpus over ministry career.
Course Objectives
Objectives include exegeting assigned epistle passages with attention to Greco-Roman letter conventions and Old Testament background, explaining Pauline and General epistle teaching on church offices, sacraments, and holiness, resolving apparent tensions between Paul and James on faith and works with confessional harmony, and preaching epistles for edification rather than mere doctrinal abstraction. Students will identify false teaching addressed in Colossians, Timothy, and Jude for contemporary parallels. The course cultivates epistolary preaching that respects occasional context and timeless truth. Students will produce exegesis papers and pastoral application memos on assigned pericopes. Assessments include comprehensive epistle summary charts and sermon manuscripts.
Ministry & Life Application
Epistolary exegesis supplies pastors with apostolic instruction for every congregational crisis from division and immorality to persecution and doctrinal drift. House church elders across the Florida Keys learn to apply Paul's household codes, Peter's suffering exhortation, and James's practical wisdom in concrete community situations. Pastoral ministry matures when shepherds preach epistles as personal letters from Christ through apostles to today's churches. This course completes New Testament exposition before eschatological climax in THEO-402. Congregations grow in love and knowledge when leaders teach epistles as Spirit-breathed direction for ordered, holy common life under Christ.