McCheyne’s Bible Reading Plan: Lev 6, Ps 5-6, Pr 21, Col 4
And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea. (Col 4:16)
The epistles in the New Testament were intended to be circulated and read in all the churches, even when they were addressed to one in particular. Paul shows evidence of that here in this letter. And they were circulated and received as the word of an apostle. This was crucial for later arguments from men who sought to shape Christian teaching after their own thinking and thus made claims of which books were to be accepted as Scripture and which were not. Their teaching became the filter by which they made their lists (particularly Marcion). But since the letters of our New Testament today were universally read and received as apostolic, they were viewed as canonical. So in the formation of our Bibles today, we can see that it wasn’t a person’s theology of philosophy or even a council of such that determined the canon. It was the apostolic teaching.
