Review of the salutations to churches in chronological order revealed that the omission of "saints" in the intro to Galatians is consistent with the stylistic development in Paul's epistles. This episode addresses a natural follow-up question: why did Paul fail to mention "church" in his salutations in his last 4 letters? Was his address to "saints" an intentional swipe at established churches in preference to the more personal and individual address to "saints?" In Augustinian terms, was Paul preferring the "invisible church" ["saints"] over against the established "visible church?" No evidence in the Pauline corpus indicates a demotion in Paul's mind of the visible church, for Paul seems to presume that visible churches are mostly comprised of genuine saints. And the visible church is the primary means of Christian growth. The five-fold ministry of Christians leadership mentioned in Ephesians 4:11-13 is indispensable for Christian growth. So Paul's omission of "church" in his salutations of his last 4 church letters should NOT be interpreted as Paul's "developing theology" in which the visible church matters less than maverick saints.
