Edward Donnelly

All of Paul’s letters are pastoral letters. They are all written by a pastor to churches in specific contexts. What can we learn as pastors for our work from the way Paul the pastor does his work? I would like for us to look at Paul’s letter to the Galatians. The theme that we are going to look at I have entitled “Contending for the Gospel.”

Contending for the Gospel

We are gospel ministers. Paul writes to the Romans saying that he and we have been “set apart for the gospel of God” (Rom. 1:1). He says to the Thessalonians, “we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel” (1 Thess. 2:4). And as gospel ministers there is no book of the Bible more vital than Paul’s letter to the Galatians. The commentators fall over themselves in trying to describe it in exalted and graphic terms. It has been called the “Magna Carta of religious freedom”: the Christian declaration of independence, the battle cry of the Reformation. Luther said, “The epistle to the Galatians is my epistle; to it I am as it were in wedlock. It is my Katherine.” John Bunyan wrote that Luther’s commentary on Galatians was his favorite book, next to the Bible.

Continue reading Help for Today’s Pastors Part V →

Edward Donnelly

Reconciling Believers

Let us come to Philemon. Our subject this morning: reconciling believers. This is of course the shortest of all Paul’s letters, 335 words in Greek. I find it intensely depressing that a new commentary on Philemon has just been published which is apparently over 560 pages. This is evangelical scholarship gone mad. I mean that brethren. That strikes me as quite absurd. Paul was satisfied with 335 words.

He must have written many letters like this. Perhaps dozens or hundreds of letters like this were written by the apostle. This is the one the Holy Spirit has chosen to place within the Scripture. It is often neglected because it is so small. Lenski says, “It is the loveliest epistle written by Paul.”1 Rabbi Duncan said, “It is the most gentlemanly letter ever written.”

Continue reading Help for Today’s Pastors Part IV →

Edward Donnelly

We speak of 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus as the pastoral epistles, but all of Paul’s epistles are pastoral epistles. He always writes as a pastor to the people of God, and he is always pastoring them. All his theology is pastoral theology.

Living in the “Not Yet”

If you can keep this title central in your minds I think this will give us the theme to hold us through the inevitable passage of a great deal of material: Living in the “not yet.” That’s what we need to teach our people. Paul once wrote of “my deep concern for all the churches” (2 Cor. 11:28), and certainly with respect to Corinth that was no empty phrase. Paul had given nearly two years of his life to building this church, and it was now causing him deep concern. The basic problem was that some of the members were being too influenced by the surrounding culture. Now that’s a problem with which we immediately identify: the culture from which they had come and the culture in which they still lived. Corinth has been described as “the Vanity Fair of the Roman Empire.” And that city in which they lived was having its impact upon some of these Christians.

Continue reading Help for Today’s Pastors Part III →

Edward Donnelly

We turn in this second hour to Colossians, one of Paul’s shortest letters written from prison in Rome to the young church in Asia minor. The founder and the pastor of the church, Epaphras, has visited Paul in Rome and he has told the Apostle that there is much in the church for which to be thankful, but these new Christians are threatened by danger, potentially by a very serious danger, and the young pastor needs help from the wisdom and insight of the senior man. This is Paul the Apostle’s response to Epaphras’s account of the situation in the church which he serves. This brings us to the famous question of the Colossian heresy. What was it? Scores of trees have been felled to produce paper to discuss the Colossian heresy. Peter O’Brien in his recent magisterial commentary on Colossians tells us that forty-four separate suggestions have been made as to what this heresy is.

Continue reading Help for Today’s Pastors Part II
Colossians →

Edward Donnelly

Our general topic is Help for Today’s Pastors: Case Studies from Paul. Paul’s value for pastors has always been recognized. Three of his epistles are called pastoral epistles. Passages such as his address to the elders of Ephesus in Acts 20 are packed with advice and counsel for pastors, and there are many other passages of his writing that are of the utmost value regarding the work of the pastoral ministry. These are an absolute treasure house of information and guidance.

It seems to me that one aspect of Paul has been somewhat neglected; that is to look at his epistles as case studies in applied pastoral theology. It’s rather like listening to a medical lecture on one hand as a student, and on other hand, going round the wards with the physician and watching him at each bed dealing with each individual case, learning from his approach with individuals. That’s what we want to attempt this morning.

Continue reading Help for Today’s Pastors Part I
Romans →