Reading Someone Else's Mail...?

In my younger years, I've had some pretty interesting roommate situations.  I lived off-campus most of the years I attended college.  One of the room-mates I had was a snoop. I'd leave for class and intentionally close my bedroom door, and when I returned, it was open. 

On multiple occasions, I had the distinct impression that roomy had "borrowed" a pocketknife, CD (those are physical disks that contained digital music for those too young to remember what life was like before streaming music services), or a tool.  At one point, I found my toothbrush in my roommate's cup in the bathroom, and I am pretty sure I didn't put it there. 

No, I didn't use it, I went straightaway to the grocery store to buy another.

The last straw came when I caught roomy reading my mail.

Seriously, who reads someone else's mail?

Well, now that I am a Christian, I realize that I do it all the time.  Many of the New Testament books are actually letters written to particular churches in geographic locations (like the book of Romans) or to individuals (like the book of Titus).  The book of Acts is one of those books.

"In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God."

(Acts 1:1–3 ESV)

Acts is a letter to a guy named Theophilus. 

Now I'm the roomy reading someone else's mail.

Or am I?

I happen to be in the camp of those who think that Theophilus is a personification that Luke (who wrote both Luke and Acts) uses to address the church. I believe this because of what Theophilus means.

Theo is a form of the word Theos (θεος for those of you who will be impressed at my ability to type in Greek). Philus is a form of the word Phileo (φιλεω), which means love. In Greek, there are many words for love. This one means to have affection for, to demonstrate approval of, or to treat affectionately (welcoming someone as a guest, for example.) Luke may well have been writing to those who love God, and he wrote to inform those who love God about the life of the early church.

He wrote about how they lived, the persecutions they faced, the way they dealt with diverse people coming together in one church, and how they worked together to carry out the Great Commission that the Lord gave to them. All of this was done in the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit. The reason the book of Acts came to have its title (remember, the book names were added much later) was because it was a chronicle of the acts of the apostles of Jesus Christ. In other words, it was a book that told the life-story of those who have been sent by Christ with a message of the gospel.

We may not be big "A" Apostles, those seats have already been filled by the 12 Jesus appointed (we will look at the abdication of Judas' apostleship in future posts), but we are still little "a" apostles to the extent that the word apostle (αποστολος) means "one who is sent with a message." In a sense, the story of Acts is our story as much as it was the story of the early church, as we do the same work and encounter the same challenges. We must also witness to others, endure persecutions, welcome diverse peoples, and work together to carry out the Great Commission in the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit.

So, we aren't reading someone else's mail after all.

Keep safe, be well, and stay encouraged.

Brian