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Colossians 4:16
16 And [kai] when [hotan] this epistle [epistole] is read [anaginosko] among [para] you, [humin] cause [poieo] that [hina] it be read [anaginosko] also [kai] in [en] the church [ekklesia] of the Laodiceans; [Laodikeus] and [kai] that [hina] ye [humeis] [anaginosko] likewise [kai] read [anaginosko] the epistle from [ek] Laodicea. [Laodikeia] KJV-Interlinear
16 And when this letter is read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and you, for your part read my letter that is coming from Laodicea. NASB
In order to receive a copy a of a letter, and then be able to read it or hear it being read, back in Pauls day, folks had to wait months and even years. After all, there aren’t that many books in the New Testament, which was not even an organized set of books back then. And yet, these letters were circulated by hand, and folks waited for them with anticipation and enthusiasm.
Today, a person can find volumes and volumes of literature written about the Bible. And while this information is freely and voluminously available almost instantaneously on the internet, and the ease with which folks have the opportunity to grow up in their spiritual lives, and with greater rapidity, is unmatched in history, and yet in our present day, indifference holds most folks hostage.
Folks back then would have loved to have been able to read and study the scriptures using the tools that we have available to us today. However, folks today seem more bent on making the planet green, rather than making their entire essence complete for all of eternity. How would anyone of us acted if we had lived back then? Perhaps with the same indifference or even more so, and never having had the opportunity to grow up in any type of spiritual life.
One blessing that you should be forever grateful for, is that you live in our current day, rather than back then. Because even with indifference, you probably will have more of a spiritual life, now, than you would have had, if you lived in a different era in history.
One of the many things that people overlook in their life, is the time in which God inserted them into history. We all live at the time in history which most benefits us. And although most of us may not be the best of humanity, God does many things for us, that we do not even think about. And our entrance onto the human history scene is one of them.
Not that there weren’t spiritually negative people back then, because there were, but of those who were positive, their wait and their growth had to advance on a very slow track. Something that we in our present day would not have the patience for.
And yet most folks even with our fast paced and information rich era, still grow up slowly only because they do not pursue their spiritual life with vigor. So it still takes many decades to grow up, if at all. And we have a longer expected life span than those folks had back then. We have advantages now that they could not even imagine.
The letter mentioned here is not identified, but it was probably the letter to the Ephesians, since it was written at about the same time as this letter to the Colossians. But the specific letter is not the issue here, as the method of delivery and the time it took, are more indicative of how people learned back then.
