Thirteen letters in the New Testament carry the name of Paul, and they are the part of the Bible new readers most often find dense. Usually the difficulty is a category mistake: they are being read as theological essays when they are correspondence.

They are occasional documents

Each was written to a specific congregation about specific trouble. Corinth had factions, lawsuits and chaos at the Lord table. Galatia was being told that gentile converts must keep the Jewish law. Philippi had a quarrel between two named women.

You are reading one side of a conversation. Sentences that seem abrupt are usually answers to questions that are not printed.

Practical consequence: before studying a chapter, read the whole letter in one sitting. Most take twenty minutes. The argument makes sense as a whole in a way it never does in fragments.

The usual structure

Paul typically opens with a greeting and thanksgiving, sets out the theological ground, and then turns to conduct, often at a hinge word such as therefore. Romans is the clearest example: eleven chapters of argument, then a therefore, then how to live.

This order is itself the teaching. The instructions are consequences of the gospel rather than terms for obtaining it, and reading the second half without the first turns Christianity into moralism.

Which to read first

Philippians: short, warm, written from prison, and about joy. Then Ephesians for the big picture, then Romans when you are ready for sustained argument. Leave the pastoral letters until you have read the others, since they assume a working knowledge of church life.

The difficult passages

Some passages are historically contested — on women, on slavery in the Roman household, on government. Three habits help.

Read what surrounds them. Ask what situation is being addressed. And read what the same author says elsewhere, since Paul both permits and constrains in ways that any single verse will flatten.

Christians who take Scripture equally seriously reach different conclusions on some of these. Knowing that is better than pretending the questions are simple.

One thing to watch for

Paul argues. He uses rhetorical questions, imagined objectors and long chains of reasoning. When you meet a startling sentence, check whether it is his own position or the objection he is about to answer. A surprising number of misreadings are quotations of the other side.

Ask about a specific verse in our questions section, or read alongside others — the directory is where to find them.