While growing up and hearing stories of Jesus and his followers, and later reading them myself, the two terms disciples and apostles just kind of mushed together. They were interchangeable, weren’t they? One of the joys of Bible study is learning distinctions that open new vistas that actually make a difference in our everyday lives. […]
“Holy flattery”. That’s how Martin Luther described this shortest of Paul’s seven authenticated epistles since Paul uses every rhetorical technique, including bald flattery, to encourage Philemon to take back his runaway slave, Onesimus. Why Philemon, the letter, has become a favorite for me–especially when reading it aloud in a Bible Study group–is for the insight […]
