To Encourage You

Acts 15:30-31 “So when they were sent off, they went down to Antioch, and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. And when they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement.”

One of the things we should remember about so much of the Bible is that it was, for the most part, written by persecuted believers to persecuted believers.  So often it was people who were in a life and death struggle for their faith who wrote to churches that were themselves in the midst of life and death struggles for their own faith. Jesus had warned them that “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:18). 

Then we should remember that these were some of the last things Jesus taught His disciples before He was murdered by crucifixion.   Preceding the verses from Acts 15 above, we are told that the letter they are referring to was carried to a church of Gentile believers that had become established in Antioch, which was located in what is modern-day Turkey.  The letter was written by the leaders of the church at Jerusalem and carried to them by “men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 15:26). These facts should help us to consider the weightiness of what was written in the letters they carried. 

We have excerpts from this letter in Acts 15. We find that the letter was dealing with false teachers that had come into the church to tell them that unless they followed certain Jewish religious laws they could not be saved.  In church history these false teachers are often referred to as “Judaizers.” They were similar in many ways to many of the cults today, all of which teach that salvation is not by faith alone, but by something in addition to faith, such as certain religious practices or other religious “works.”  In any event, we find that the church at Antioch, upon reading the letter, “rejoiced because of its encouragement.” They were encouraged by the truth of the gospel which relieved the doubts that the false teachers had raised. That should be a lesson for us today. 

You see, the entire Bible is a series of 66 letters, if you will, written to us by God through the prophets and apostles. In these letters we are told “all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3).  In these letters we are told those things that, if we read them and put them into practice, will bring great encouragement and joy to every believer.  So, do you want to be encouraged in your walk as a believer?  Do you want a life filled with joy?  And do you want a strong defense against those who would try to teach you other things that are designed to cast doubts, sow fear, and divert you from God’s Truth. Then a means to that end is the Word of God, letters from God to bring joy and encouragement to all who would read them, trust what they say, and obey.