Contemporary Examples of Critical Doctrines

Often times, at the end of Paul’s Epistles, he mentions various people by name, usually sending greetings from or to them. Other times, such as in the case of our present text, he also provides the recipient of the letter with pieces of relevant information about the people he
mentions. And sometimes, this information tells us a bigger story, which serves to provide us with very “real to life,” present, tangible examples, that help to place a particular emphasis on a particular doctrine (or particular doctrines) given in the letter itself (or in the Scriptures in general). Some of the men mentioned in our present text, serve such a purpose, and will be the topic of our consideration for this morning.