E is for Epistle

When I was a teenager and I had left home to work the only way I could communicate with family was to write a letter. Telephone calls were often expensive and not every home had a phone it their home. It meant that there were many times when I had a lot of things to tell my family, my letters would be several pages long. These were considered to be epistles.

Paul, Peter and other disciples would make time to write to those churches that they wanted to share news and thoughts with particularly after they had heard from some travellers that things were not as they should be. In this way they would be able to encourage those members in these churches to keep going. This was particularly important when the Peter, Paul and John were imprisoned because they were not able to talk to the churches in person.