In Colossians 4:16 Paul mentions a letter that he had previously written to the church of Laodicea. The brethren at Laodicea were some of the closest brethren of the Christians at Colossae. Paul encourages an exchanging of letters with this congregation. Our interest is not only in the absence of this letter, but the possibility of others as well, and whether this constitutes a serious problem for us today.
An often overlooked and great starting point for this discussion is to acknowledge that we have a very small portion of the inspired words of the first century. Upon the apostles being filled with the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, they, as well as others (shortly thereafter), had the ability to speak and write as they were moved by the Spirit (see 1 Cor. 14:37; 2 Pt. 1:20-21). There can be little doubt that the apostles would have spoken by inspiration on a daily basis following the Spirit’s descent in Acts 2, and others who had such a gift through the laying on of the apostle’s hands. (See Acts 8:18; 19:6; compare 1 Cor. 14 and Eph. 4.)
With that in mind, consider what we have in our New Testaments. We have twenty-six books (or letters). About half of these correspondences were authored by one man, Paul. The writings of Luke (The Gospel of Luke and Acts) actually fills more space in our New Testaments than the writings of Paul. So Paul and Luke alone are responsible for a large portion of the New Testament. John, who wrote the Gospel of John, 1, 2, 3 John and Revelation, would be next. This only leaves: Matthew, Mark, the Hebrew writer, James, and Peter and Jude. That is only nine total authors, and that is if the Hebrew writer was not Paul or one of the other writers.
What is the point? The point is that we do not even have writings from all of the apostles, not to mention others who received the miraculous ability of revealing the word of God. It seems very evident that we certainly do not have all of the words which God inspired in the first century. This, however, is no reason for the Christian to question the completeness of what God has preserved for today.
A STATEMENT FROM JOHN
Consider what John said in his Gospel account: “Now Jesus did many others signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (20:30-31). Note that John acknowledged that a small “sampling” of the miraculous works of Christ were recorded in his Gospel account. We could imagine then what could be said about all of the words Jesus spoke! We can actually open our New Testaments and read every word of Jesus within a couple hours or so! Imagine all of the teachings of all of the apostles and others over a period of a few decades! It quickly becomes apparent that the New Testament does not claim to record every inspired word. That was never God’s design. Perhaps we should be thankful to God for providing us an amazingly concise and complete rendering of heaven’s will for our lives and eternity!
THE LETTER TO THE LAODICEANS
We have already acknowledged that Paul indeed wrote a letter to the Laodiceans. It should be noted that some believe this to be the same as the letter to the Ephesians. In my view, this proposal has strong difficulties. In short, it would seem a bit strange for Paul to refer to the same folks as being from Ephesus one time and then Colossae in another (compare Eph. 1:1 with Col. 1:1). We also note that these two localities were separated by around 100 miles. Other theories abound, but as was noticed earlier, perhaps the greatest difficulty is acknowledging that God never intended for us to have every word or letter that was produced by inspiration in the first century.
THE MISSING CORINTHIAN LETTER(S)
There are two particular texts in the Corinthian letters that should be considered regarding this matter. The first is 1 Corinthians 5:9 where Paul states, “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.” Paul clearly indicates that he wrote a letter to the Corinthians before the book we call 1 Corinthians, yet, of course, it is not found in our New Testament.
The other passage is 2 Corinthians 2:3-4, where Paul states, “And I wrote as I did, so that when I came I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice, for I felt sure of all of you, that my joy would be the joy of you all. For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.” Again Paul indicates a previous writing. The question here becomes, is he referring to 1 Corinthians, or a book that we do not possess? In this case, I personally think it points to 1 Corinthians, but in the end, it really doesn’t matter.
THE COMPLETE REVELATION OF GOD
If we have solid reasons to trust God and trust the Word which we do have in our possession, then we can trust that we have everything that God intends. Paul said in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” Though speaking of the Old Testament in particular, if we hold that the New Testament of Christ is Scripture (and we should!), we know that this Scripture completely equips us for God’s intent. (See also 2 Pt. 1:3.) Near the end of the New Testament, Jude states, “Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).
The faith, the Gospel system (“the pattern” – 2 Tim. 1:13) which has been delivered to us today is “the perfect” (see 1 Cor. 13:10) revelation of Christ, given through the inspiration of the Spirit (see Jn. 16:13; 14:26; 1 Cor. 2:12-13; 2 Pt. 1:20-21), preserved for us through the power and providence of God (see 1 Pt. 1:23-25). God seeing to it that His will for mankind has been perfectly preserved was not a problem whatsoever! These “lost books” of the Bible, should not, therefore, present any problem for us!
Daren Schroeder