The ‘epistles’ or letters were written by some of the very first Christians, to churches which had only just started and which were trying to follow Christianity for the first time. The people had no experience of church life, and had not been Christians for very long, so the letters were written to explain to them the right ways for Christians to live and to behave towards one another. Christians today still find these letters a valuable source of advice about right and wrong.
Most Christians believe that the Bible is full of the truth, and that reading it is one of the best ways of learning the right answers to moral problems. However, they do not always agree about how the Bible should be understood. Some Christians believe that the Bible was written word for word by God, and that every part of it is equally and perfectly true. Other Christians believe that the Bible was written by people who were inspired by God to use their own understanding and write in their own words, and that some of their writings are more suitable for the time in which they were written than they are for today.
- Some moral problems today did not exist when the Bible was written. For example, issues relating to fertility treatment for couples who are having difficulty conceiving children, or to nuclear weapons, or to global warming, are not addressed in the Bible at all, because the Bible was written before these situations were possible. Christians have to use Biblical teachings to try and work out for themselves what the right answers might be - and they do not always agree.
- Sometimes the Bible is not completely consistent about a moral issue. There might be a passage in one part of the Bible which teaches that it can be right to fight in a war, for example, while another passage tells people to love their enemies and to respond to evil with good.
The Bible is believed to have great authority.
All Christian church services use the Bible as an important part of the worship. A passage of the Bible is read to the congregation and, often, the priest or minister will use the passage in his or her sermon. The passage will be explained, and the preacher will try to show the members of the congregation how they might use the teaching of the Bible in their daily lives.
Even though Christians use the Bible regularly and talk about what it means for modern times, they do not always come to the same conclusions. Different Christians Churches sometimes disagree; for example, the Roman Catholic Church and the Methodist Church do not have the same opinions about whether it is right to use contraception. Even within one church congregation in one town, there will probably be a wide range of different opinions about moral issues.
