The Circulation Principle | Ep6

What is Meditating On The Word?

Join Wayne Burger each week as he explores various topics and scriptures and challenges listeners to meditate on God's Word more deeply.

Jesus promised the apostles in John 16:13, when he, the spirit of truth, comes, he'll guide you into all truth.

They preached that. They were guided by the Holy Spirit, and they began to write down the words that Jesus gave them, the people in the first century. When they received a message from the apostles or prophets, they were concerned to make sure they had it right, and they would like to have a copy of it.

You can imagine the feeling of receiving a letter and being able to say, this is from Paul, this is from the apostle John, and they would read that letter. But, you know, that's only one letter. What would they do? How would they make a copy of it? Particularly before the days of the printing press, it was a major chore.

Someone would sit down with a quill pen and the black ink and begin to copy that letter. You can imagine how long that would take and what it would be. But it became a very vital role in the fact that churches were able to get copies of the Word of God this way.

Paul says in Colossians 4, verse 16, about a letter. He said, when this letter is read among you, have it also read to the church of the Laodiceans, and you, for your part, read my letter that is coming from Laodicea. What I want us to look at here is this.

He's talking about these letters that are circulating. What would happen, you can imagine, is a church received a letter from an apostle or a prophet. They're anxious to see what it says.

They read it publicly, and then because they want to keep a copy of it, somebody sits down and begins to make a copy of that letter and send maybe the original on to the next congregation. This is what we call the circulation principle. The purpose of this is that it enables churches to have a copy of the Bible, of the New Testament, and it wasn't long until all of the churches in that area would have received the Bible, the New Testament, and they would have their own copy.

What we're They simply recognized the letters and books that the church had been practicing and using for years. Think about this passage here in Colossians 4 and verse 16. Paul said, I want you to read this letter.

Well, what do you think they would want to do with that letter? Make a copy of it, and they could send it on. We see this circulation principle so that he mentions here, there's a letter coming from Laodicea. Well, of course, somebody is going to say, where is that letter? Why don't we have that one? Notice that it did not say that it was a letter labeled to the Laodiceans.

It simply was a letter coming from the Laodicean church. Probably it was the letter we call Ephesians. There are several letters in that churches in that area, which is called the Lycus Valley.

There was Laodicea, Hierapolis, Colossae, Ephesus, and probably this letter that is called here coming from Laodicea was probably the Ephesian letter because the Ephesian letter begins to the saints which are at, and it leaves it blank. It's not directed to any one church, but probably circulated to all of those churches. There were three crucial questions that would be asked when a letter was received.

Who received it? Well, we at Colossae, we received this letter, and we know that it came from Paul. That would be the second question. Who wrote it? Well, I'm delivering this from the apostle Paul.

Well, I'm delivering this from Mark, or I'm delivering this from Peter. Then we also would say that the third question they would ask is, does this book contain anything that contradicts a book that we know came from an apostle or prophet? If it did, it was not considered to be a canonical book and would be laid aside. If it did not teach anything that was contrary, then it was accepted as the word of God.

The three questions that are asked when they received the letter is, who received it? What church got it first? Who wrote it? And third, does this letter contain anything in it that contradicts any other inspired word? I want us to note a couple of things with regard to the circulation principle that we can see the Bible was circulating. I want us to go to 1 Timothy 5, verse 18. Paul is writing this letter to Timothy, but notice what he says in this.

I'm going to begin reading in verse 17. The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. Well, the scripture says, you shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing and the laborer is worthy of his wages.

Notice what he said is that these elders could be paid because the scripture says, you shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing and the laborer is worthy of his wages. Well, first off, if we stop and look at it, scripture, that's that special word in the Bible that always has reference to the inspired word of God. And the first part of that quotation comes from Deuteronomy 25, verse 4, that you shall not muzzle an ox while he's working.

But you notice the verse says, the scripture says, not only don't muzzle the ox, but the last part of that verse says, the laborer is worthy of his wages. Where is that found? Well, it is found in Luke 10, verse 7. You see, how did Paul quote that? How did he say it was written? Because that letter of Luke had circulated and Paul had read it. What we see here is that the Bible was circulating.

He quotes Deuteronomy 25, 4, and he quotes Luke 10, verse 7, and he calls both of them scripture. How did it circulate? How did it get to that point? Because every church that received a letter made a copy of that letter, sent it on to the next church, and they made a copy of that letter. And therefore, in that way, soon the churches had all the letters that were being written.

Another passage that could be referred to and shown to be the Circulation Principle is 2 Peter 3, 15 and 16, where Peter refers to Paul as having written some things that were hard to understand. He mentions that Paul had written some things. How did he know? How did he know it was difficult to understand? It simply is the idea that God's Word was circulating as a man would write a letter to a church.

They would make a copy of it. They would send it on to the next church, and they'd make a copy of it. And pretty soon, all the churches in that area would have each book of the New Testament.

The oldest fragment of New Testament that we have is called the John Ryland's Fragment, which is located in the University of Manchester Library in Manchester, England. It's a little two and a half by three and a half inch papyrus. It contains parts of John 18, 31 through 33, and 37 through 38.

It dates by the scholars for around 117 to 130 something. It was discovered in Egypt. And what does that tell us? Well, John's gospel was written probably about 90 A.D. By 115, 120, the church in Egypt had a copy of John's letter.

That's the Circulation Principle. You see that within 20, 25 years, John's gospel had circulated all around so that even as far away as Egypt we know of had the gospel of John. That is the Circulation Principle.

God protected the writing of his Word, and as it passed around from congregation to congregation, you began to have hundreds and thousands of these manuscripts about the books of the New Testament, and so soon all the congregations had God's Word in written form. The councils of men are sometimes attributed to having given us the books of the Bible. They have determined the ones that go in the Bible and those that do not go in the Bible.

No, that's really not the way it was. The councils simply approved and recognized that these are the letters that we know belong to the Bible. The church had already recognized those books, and they were their authority for what they did.

One example of this is in 367 AD, Athanasius, who was a great defender of the faith, listed the same 27 books that we call the New Testament today. So you see by 367, here's a man who lists the books of the New Testament, and they are the exact same books that we have in ours today. Each of these churches would have these books because of the Circulation Principle.

Now, as we stop and think about the application of this, let's look at it in terms of what Paul wrote to the brethren in 1 Thessalonians. In 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 13, Paul said, For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it, not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe. Notice what Paul said.

You have received this letter, and he said, I thank God that you didn't just receive it as the word of men, but that you received it as the word of God. They recognized that it was an inspired book, and therefore he said, I appreciate the fact that you recognize this as the word of God, which you heard from us, and that you accepted, and you didn't accept it just as my opinion or as some man's opinion, but as it really is indeed, it is the word of God. They were also warned in 2 Thessalonians verse 2 and verse 15 to be aware that there were some false letters that were going around.

Paul said in 2 Thessalonians 2, 1 and 2, Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering to gather to him, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure, or be disturbed either by a spirit or a messenger or a letter as if from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. He said, you see, there were some people in those days who were putting their names on circulating letters and saying, this is from us. Paul says, don't believe those folks.

And as we go back to how they tested those letters is, what church received it? Who wrote it? Does it contain anything that is contradictory? So Paul warns them not to be persuaded and to accept any of those things that are not written by an apostle or a prophet. And then in verse 15 of this same 2 Thessalonians 2, So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us. They had the obligation of sorting it out, accepting only that which is done by the apostles or prophets.

They were not to accept those messages that were written by anybody else. And the word tradition there is not just an oral thing, but it is that which is taught over and over, which was the word of God. And so the circulation principle is a valuable message to understand because it tells how various congregations all over the world soon had copies of all the books of the New Testament and that they could be rest assured that they were written by an inspired man, some written by apostles, some written by prophets.

A prophet was simply a man that the Holy Spirit guided the apostles to lay hands on who could also receive revelations and write books, and that those books were just as authoritative as were those written by the apostles. We know probably at least eight New Testament writers. Four were apostles and four were prophets.

Of course, you have Peter and Paul, and you have Matthew, and you have John. All those were apostles. Those who were written by men who were prophets would be Mark and Luke and James, Jesus' half-brother, and Jude, Jesus' half-brother.

The lesson for us is this. We can trust our Bible. There was not books left out that should have been in.

There are not books in there that should not have been in there. We have the word of God. God, through his providential power, sustained and secured that word of God that we would have that written form of it.

It is the best substantiated historical book that's ever been written. There's more evidence for its accuracy than any other historical book that's ever been written. All of that leads us to say, that gives us confidence that we have the word of God.

We need to take the attitude that Paul expressed about the Thessalonians, that we receive it not just as the word of men, but as the word of God, which it is. We need to have confidence in the Bible and confidence for several reasons—to guide us morally, to guide us religiously. The Bible is that instruction book that tells what the church should be like.

It tells us the kind of worship that God desired. It tells us how to live. It also is that book by which we'll be judged in the day of judgment.

John said in John 20 and verse 12, I saw the dead, the small and the great stand before God, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged, and the things are written in the books according to their deeds. Friends, we need to believe that the book we have called the New Testament is the authority for the Christians to follow today. It is the inspired word of God, just like the Old Testament was.

It is that book that will be judged in the last day. Let me urge you and for all of us to go back to the Bible, discard our traditions, discard our great books, and simply go back to the Bible that we have because of that circulation principle we know it is from God.

What a great book. What a great gift. It guides us and directs us.

Thanks for joining us this week and spending time in God's Word. Special thanks to Mac Graham, John Kachelman, and Lightway Media for recording, producing, and making this podcast possible. If you're ever in the Littleton, New Hampshire area, we'd love to have you join us for worship and Bible study on Sunday afternoons at four at the Senior Center. You're always welcome.

For more information about this podcast, visit LightwayMedia.com slash meditating on the Word and find the link there to email me to subscribe to my free weekly newsletter with more information you can use in your personal Bible study. Be sure to like, subscribe, and follow us on your favorite podcast app so that you never miss an episode. And if today's message encouraged you, share it with someone else and consider leaving a review. It helps others find us, too.

Until next week, keep meditating on the Word.