Phillip Stuckey works with the Robison St. church of Christ in Edna, TX. He can be reached at philstuckey@gmail.com.

The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, "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 competent, equipped for every good work" (2 Tim. 3:16-17 ESV). Within Scripture God teaches us who He is, what He has done for man and what He continues to do that man might have an eternal home with Him in heaven. Within Scripture God teaches us through a variety of ways. As Bible students we must always be open to learning what God desires to communicate to us through His written word.

When we come to study God's word we can use several approaches. We can study an individual book or passage, overview the entire Bible in sequence, study a particular doctrine, word, or theme, or study of a Bible character.

Character studies are an interesting way to engage the Bible text. They involve analyzing a person's life, work, and character and his relationship to the Bible story. The character study involves noticing all the passages that deal with a particular person. From these we notice his strengths and weaknesses, his virtues and vices, his successes and failures, and the circumstances that surround them. The fruit of such studies are lessons that help us to live more holy and godly lives. The character study is an illustration of what happens when someone either fails or succeeds in putting God's will into practice in his or her life.

There are numerous characters whose lives are recorded for us in Scripture. Some were faithful and some were not. Some struggled and persevered through the trials and temptations of life while others failed. God has preserved a wonderful variety of figures for us to consider.

While there are many major characters we might spend time in studying, there is another group of characters that is worthy of our consideration. We might call these "minor" characters of the Bible. Many of these appear in the Old and the New Testaments. Sometimes there are very few verses concerning them but with careful and diligent study we can find gems of wisdom and knowledge that God has preserved in their stories. In this special edition of Truth Magazine, we are going to examine eight of these minor characters from the New Testament.

In his history of the early church in the book of Acts, Luke introduces us to a number of interesting characters. A Levite from Cyprus, whose name was Joseph, was better known as Barnabas, the son of encouragement (Acts 4:36). He was a prominent member of the early church and a companion of the apostle Paul early in his work (Acts 11:24-30).

Sapphira, the wife of Ananias, was a member of the church in Jerusalem (Acts 5:1). While her name means "beautiful," her life as recorded in the New Testament is anything but. She and her husband were both struck dead for lying to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:2-11).

Stephen was among the Hellenists who were appointed to take charge of the widows that were being neglected in the daily ministration (Acts 6:1-6). He was martyred for his faith, precipitating the scattering of the saints from Jerusalem (Acts 11:19).

Simon the sorcerer was converted during Philip's work in the region of Samaria (Acts 8:5-13). He is best known for trying to purchase the power of the Holy Spirit from the apostle Peter (Acts 8:18-19).

We will also consider the life of John Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. He was a traveling companion of both Barnabas and the apostle Paul and is also considered to be the author of the gospel of Mark (Acts 12:15, 25; 13:5; 15:37, 39).

After Paul arrived in Philippi he met a woman named Lydia who was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira (Acts 16:11-15). Though her name was Greek, she was described as "a worshipper of God." After her conversion, she took Paul and his companions into her home while they stayed in Philippi.

During Paul's third missionary journey we meet Tychicus (Acts 20:4). He accompanied Paul on his final trip to Jerusalem. Along with Onesimus, he carried Paul's letter to the Colossians and is mentioned in several of Paul's other letters (Col. 4:7-9; Eph. 6:21-22; 2 Tim. 4:12; Titus 3:12).

We will also notice another one of Paul's companions, Demas. He was with Paul during his first imprisonment and sent his greeting in the letter to Philemon and the Colossians (Phile. 24; Col. 4:14). Demas is most remembered as having deserted Paul during his second imprisonment because of his love for this world (2 Tim. 4:10).

I commit these character studies to you and commend the writers who invested their time and effort to contribute to this special issue. May God bless us as we diligently seek to learn more about His will and about how to live as shining lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation (Phil. 2:15-16).