the information that he dispenses and the process of thinking that he shares. Our responsibility is to make sure that we read carefully and understand what has been asserted. The rhetoric of command is much more prevalent in the epistles than we usually think. To confirm that statement, all we need to do is browse the epistles with an eye on the type of material that is presented (the format of this chapter). When we do, we will be surprised by how much of the material is presented as something