Prayers Devotionals

What is Reformation Day? Reformation Day is a Protestant religious holiday celebrated on October 31. It recognizes the day German monk Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Church in 1517. This act is commemorated as the official starting point of the Protestant Reformation. Officially, Reformation Day has been commemorated since 1567. Exact dates for the holiday varied until after the two hundredth celebration in 1717 when October 31 became the official date of celebration in Germany and later expanded internationally. Within the Lutheran tradition, Reformation Day is considered a lesser holiday and is officially named “The Festival of the Reformation.” Most Lutheran churches (and others who celebrate this day) commemorate it on the Sunday prior to October 31. The impact of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation has been enormous on global Christianity. In contrast to the extra-biblical traditions and works-based practices of Roman Catholicism, Luther ...

New Testament Letters (Literary Context) Have you ever tried reading the letters in the New Testament and found yourself lost or asking, “What on earth is Paul talking about?” You’re not alone! Even the apostle Peter found Paul’s letters difficult to read (see his comments in 2 Peter 3:15-16). But with an understanding of the literary context, you can learn to read these letters with more wisdom and insight. It’s important to remember that in the first-century world, most people did not read, so the apostles designed these letters to be read aloud (see Colossians 4:16 and 1 Thessalonians 5:27). The letters would have been read by the people who delivered them, like Phoebe in Romans 16:1-2 or Tychicus in Colossians 4:7 and Ephesians 6:21. They read more like written speeches, which actually gives us a helpful angle on how to read them. The apostles adopted and adapted the common first-century letter format by beginning their letters with a greeting, a prayer of thanksgiving, or a blessi...

What is the meaning of 2 Timothy 4:3? Many preachers today use clever clichés, and add to, or take away from, verses of Scripture to make them mean something that people want to hear, rather than what they actually say. They seem to prefer popularity with people, rather than the perfect will of God. This has left the church with the task of separating one preacher’s viewpoint from another’s viewpoint; and this has subsequently left many Christians choosing one preacher over another. All this has unfortunately produced misguided souls following men and doctrines, rather than following Jesus. These things were foretold by Paul in 2 Timothy 4:3-4, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths.” We are most assuredly in those days now. in contrast A true man of God reveres the ...

New Testament Letters (Historical Context) The New Testament letters are some of the most accessible parts of the Bible. They were written by early Christian apostles (or representatives of Jesus) who were appointed to spread the good news about him to the ancient world. And they are addressed to a "you," which makes any reader feel like they are being directly spoken to by the people who were closest to Jesus. What could be better? But if you read these letters at any length, you know that they are full of sections we may experience as inspiring (Paul's bit about the foolish wisdom of the cross in 1 Corinthians 2), puzzling (Paul's discussion of hairstyles in 1 Corinthians 11), or off-putting (Peter's depiction of obedient slaves and wives in 1 Peter 2-3). Passages like these remind modern readers that these letters are ancient texts written in a language and culture vastly different from our own. However, it's precisely by honoring the historical context of ...

 "After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, etc." — Matthew 6:9 This prayer begins where all true prayer must commence, with the spirit of adoption, "Our Father." There is no acceptable prayer until we can say, "I will arise, and go unto my Father." This child-like spirit soon perceives the grandeur of the Father "in heaven," and ascends to devout adoration, "Hallowed be Thy name." The child lisping, "Abba, Father," grows into the cherub crying, "Holy, Holy, Holy." There is but a step from rapturous worship to the glowing missionary spirit, which is a sure outgrowth of filial love and reverent adoration-"Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Next follows the heartfelt expression of dependence upon God-"Give us this day our daily bread." Being further illuminated by the Spirit, he discovers that he is not only dependent, but sinful, hence he ent...

The Nature of Conviction John 16:7-11 Jesus assured His disciples that it was to their advantage that He go away so that the Helper could come (John 16:7)--God sends Him to convict people of their sin. Since the Holy Spirit is unlimited by time or space, He can reach out to every individual on the planet. However, His work differs with regard to believers and unbelievers. With regard to unbelievers, God's Spirit penetrates the heart and brings awareness of wrongdoing. He reveals that according to God's holy standard, they have sinned and stand condemned by their transgression. Unbelief is the greatest sin against God, so every prick of the heart is meant to point out their need for the Savior. As for believers, the Holy Spirit deals with them on the basis of their relationship with Jesus Christ and convicts us of disobedience to Him. In other words, He makes us aware of specific sins and the Lord's attitude about them. But He also prompts us to be accountable before Christ ...

Biblical Law If you have ever tried to read the Bible from the beginning, you may have noticed that at 69 chapters into the story (at Exodus 19 to be exact), the story slows way down to make room for the laws given to ancient Israel. And there are over six hundred of them! Why are they in the story? Are Bible readers supposed to follow them or respond to them in some way? And how do they relate the New Testament part of the story when Jesus shows up? These are huge questions that we will explore in today’s video, but here are some helpful starting points: 1. The Old Testament is not a law book. Rather, these laws given to Israel constitute the terms of their covenant relationship with the God who rescued them from slavery in Egypt. The covenant ceremony is found in Exodus 19-24, where we find the 10 commandments, plus 42 other commands that illustrate the principles of worship, justice, and community life that Israel was to follow. 2. These laws were given to appoint Israel as a “kingd...

Spiritual Poverty “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3 NLT) The Bible doesn’t commend poverty, but neither does it condemn wealth. Rather, the Bible says, “For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows” (1 Timothy 6:10 NLT). When Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” He wasn’t saying, “Happy are the poor.” He wasn’t suggesting that we live in complete poverty so we’ll be happy.  Rather, the word Jesus used for “poor” means “to shrink, cower, or cringe,” as first-century beggars did. However, Jesus wasn’t speaking about physical poverty. He said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:3 NLT). In other words, blessed are those who see their spiritual state before God. Before we can come into a relationship with God, we must realize that we are spiritually destitute. We must...

Though Christian charity sounds a very cold thing to people whose heads are full of sentimentality, and though it is quite distinct from affection, yet it leads to affection. The difference between a Christian and a worldly man is not that the worldly man has only affections or ‘likings’ and the Christian has only ‘charity’. The worldly man treats certain people kindly because he ‘likes’ them: the Christian, trying to treat every one kindly, finds himself liking more and more people as he goes on—including people he could not even have imagined him- self liking at the beginning. This same spiritual law works terribly in the opposite direction. The Germans, perhaps, at first ill-treated the Jews because they hated them: afterwards they hated them much more because they had ill-treated them. The more cruel you are, the more you will hate; and the more you hate, the more cruel you will become — and so on in a vicious circle for ever. Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That ...

FALSE TEACHERS CONDEMNED Sadly, it isn’t hard today to think of popular teachers who claim to be Christians yet make statements that directly oppose God’s Word. Many of them have best-selling books and huge internet followings. They encourage the church to bend with the culture and accept practices that the Bible clearly calls sinful, twisting the Bible to support their personal beliefs. Their influence is misleading and destructive. These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. 2 PETER 2:17 In today’s reading, Peter has harsh words for these false teachers. He colorfully describes their sinfulness and their menace to new and weak believers. These teachers were familiar with the gospel but turned their backs on it, becoming worse than ordinary pagans. In a sense, it would have been better never to know the truth than to reject it (vv. 20–22). These people are so immoral that they “carouse in broad daylight” (vv. 13–16). They have no shame and revel “in their pleas...

Apocalyptic Literature Entire sections of the Bible are devoted to describing strange dreams or visions that reveal something vital to humans in the story. These visions uncover God’s realm and change how the visionary sees their earthly circumstances. The biblical word used to describe these is translated as “apocalypse.” But these passages often get misunderstood because of our current understanding of what an apocalypse is. In contemporary culture, the words “apocalypse” or “apocalyptic” refer to the catastrophic end of the world. The dictionary definition of the English word describes it as, “the complete and final destruction of the world, as described in the biblical book of Revelation,” or “an event involving destruction or damage on an awesome or catastrophic scale” (Random House Unabridged Dictionary). This is not what these words mean in the Bible, and this popular definition leads us to drastically misunderstand and misread apocalyptic literature. In the biblical definition,...

 Paul has four of these "faithful sayings." The first occurs in 1 Timothy 1:15, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." The next is in 1 Timothy 4:8-9, "Godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation." The third is in 2 Timothy 2:12, "It is a faithful saying—If we suffer with Him we shall also reign with Him"; and the fourth is in Titus 3:8, "This is a faithful saying, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works." We may trace a connection between these faithful sayings. The first one lays the foundation of our eternal salvation in the free grace of God, as shown to us in the mission of the great Redeemer. The next affirms the double blessedness which we obtain through this salvation—the blessings of the upp...

The Books of Solomon What is biblical wisdom literature? Technically, this term can describe the entire Hebrew Bible (see Psalm 119:98-99; 2 Timothy 3:15), but wisdom literature also refers to a specific group of books connected to two things: 1. King Solomon - Proverbs - Ecclesiastes - Song of Songs (Song of Solomon) 2. The themes of wisdom, the “good life,” and the fear of the Lord - Proverbs - Ecclesiastes - Job Though biblical wisdom literature is connected to these specific themes and the work of King Solomon, the main ideas are rooted in the narratives of Genesis and, specifically, in the garden of Eden in Genesis 1-3 and the story of Abraham. These stories introduce and unpack the core concepts of good and bad, blessing and curse, death and life, and the fear of Yahweh. The wisest king of Israel, King Solomon, is associated with three books of the Bible: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs. Each book offers a unique perspective on how humans can rule with wisdom and th...

FALSE PROPHECY  Ahab, king of Israel, and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, were trying to decide whether to go into battle together. Ahab kept 400 so-called prophets on staff, who dutifully “prophesied” victory. Unimpressed, Jehoshaphat asked if there was an actual prophet of the Lord. Reluctantly, Ahab sent for Micaiah, who prophesied their defeat (1 Kings 22:1–28). “I can tell him only what the LORD tells me,” Micaiah said (v. 14). There will be false teachers among you. 2 PETER 2:1 There are still false teachers in the church today (vv. 1–3). We cannot minimize this issue. A heresy is any teaching which contradicts God’s Word. These teachers mislead many into believing ideas that are not from God. How can we know false teaching when we hear it? False teachers will in some way deny Christ and His redemption (v. 1). In addition, they will be marked by depraved conduct, greed, and “fabricated stories.” The result for them will be condemnation and destruction. God will destroy false teac...

True Colors God carefully watches the goings on of all mankind . . . —Job 34:21 (TLB) There is an old story that tells about a pig. . . . The farmer brought the pig into the house. He gave him a bath, polished his hooves, put some Chanel No. 5 on him, put a ribbon around his neck, and put him in the living room. The pig looked fine. He made a nice and companionable pet for a few minutes. But as soon as the door was opened, the pig left the living room and jumped into the first mud puddle that he could find. Why? Because he was still a pig at heart. His nature had not been changed. He had changed outwardly but not inwardly. . . . You can take a man—dress him up, put him in the front row in church, and he almost looks like a saint. He may fool even his best friends for a while, but then put him in his office, or in the club on Saturday night, and you will see his true nature come out again. Why does he act that way? Because his nature has not been changed. He has not been born again. Pra...

 

The Prophets The books of the Hebrew prophets are some of the most challenging books of the Bible to read and comprehend, but they are also some of the most beautiful books! Learning to read them takes some effort, but it is totally worth it. The fifteen prophetic books are a mosaic collection of narratives, poems, and essays that represent the message of the Israelite prophets. These collections have been expertly crafted over a long period of time, and they were eventually integrated into the larger collection of the Hebrew Bible. Here are some fun facts about the prophetic books: 1. The prophetic books take up as much page space in the Bible as the entire New Testament (27 percent). 2. Jesus and the apostles constantly quoted from the prophets to explain how Jesus was bringing Israel’s story to its fulfillment (77 times in the Gospels and 98 times in the rest of the New Testament). The prophets are the bridge between the past story of Israel and the covenant and the future story of ...

The Book of Psalms The book of Psalms is the largest collection of poetry in the Bible. There are 150 poems broken up into five sections. The first two sections explore the complicated story of David and his royal family. The third section focuses on the tragedy of Israel’s exile and the downfall of David’s royal line. And the fourth and fifth sections rekindle the hope for the Messiah, a new temple, and God’s Kingdom on the other side of exile. Then the book ends with a five-part conclusion, praising God for his faithfulness. Each poem has been expertly crafted and intentionally placed within the book to create a storyline from the book’s beginning to its end. At the beginning of Psalms, there’s a short introduction, Psalms 1 and 2, which lays out the main themes of the entire book by reviewing the biblical storyline—God’s original intent for humanity, humanity’s disobedience, and God’s promise of a future human, the seed of the woman, who will come and defeat evil and restore the wor...

  But the Lord desires that we obey Him with humility. Whether we draw a crowd or not, success is measured by obedience.

Poetic Metaphor Metaphor is our fundamental way of thinking and perceiving the world. We use conceptual categories based on familiar experience to describe unfamiliar and complex realities. They provide the framework for how our minds make sense of the world around us, and they govern all of our thinking and language. Every culture has its own way of developing metaphors and imagery unique to their history and experience. Similarly, biblical poetry draws on a core cultural understanding of the world from which the poets develop images and metaphors. Basic conceptual metaphors are not the unique possession of a poet, but rather of the poet’s culture. And the creative poet will adapt these basic metaphors in unexpected directions, creating new ways of conceiving reality. The rich metaphors in biblical poetry are rooted in images from earlier biblical narratives. That’s how metaphors work in the Bible. You need the narratives to understand the poetic images, and the images reveal deeper m...

The Next Step in Your Bible Reading: Find a Great Commentary A good commentary is every bit as much a gift to the church as are good sermons, good video, audio and web resources, or good counselors. If you are a serious Bible student, you will eventually want to secure or have access to a good commentary for each book of the Bible. There really is no completely satisfactory one-volume commentary. How, then, does one evaluate a commentary? First, you do not evaluate on the basis of your agreement with the author. If the commentary is really a good one, and if you have done your own exegesis well, more often than not you and the better commentaries will be in agreement. But agreement is not the basic criterion. Moreover, you do not evaluate on the basis of its “turning you on.” The point of a commentary is exegesis — what the text means — not homiletics — preaching the text in our day. There are at least seven criteria you should use in judging a commentary. But the one crucial point is:...

What Can We Do with Problem Passages? How do we go about finding the meaning of the Bible's problem passages? Here are some guidelines: 1. In many cases the reason the problem passages are so difficult for us is that, frankly, they were not written to us. For example, when Paul tells the Thessalonians that they are to recall that he “used to tell [them] these things,” and therefore “you know what is holding him back” (2 Thess 2:5 – 6), we may need to learn to be content with our lack of knowledge. But we take it as a truism: What God wants us to know has been communicated to us. 2. Despite some uncertainty as to some of the precise details, one needs to learn to ask what can be said for certain about a given passage and what is merely possible but not certain. Look, for an example, at the puzzling words in 1 Cor 15:29. What can be said for certain? Some of the Corinthians really were being “baptized for the dead,” whether we like to admit it or not. Moreover, Paul neither condemns ...

The Art of Biblical Poetry  Thirty percent of the Bible is made up of ancient poetry. That’s a lot! Poetry is everywhere in the Bible, and some biblical books are entirely poetry. Most of the Hebrew prophets wrote masterful poems, and the majority of God’s speech in the Bible is represented as poetry. It’s also very common in biblical narrative for the story to pause while a character breaks out in poetic song. Nearly all human cultures with a common literature have ways of separating functional, utilitarian language from intentional, expressive, and artistic language, namely, poetry. And all cultures develop unique patterns of poetic speech or conventions for how poetic speech works. For example, metered rhyme is a feature of classic Western poetry: Roses are red, violets are blue, Sugar is sweet, and so are you. And a haiku, a traditional Japanese style of poetry, uses specific line length and syllable structure—three poetic lines and the numbered syllable pattern: 5-7-5. An old ...

God Will Satisfy You With A Long Life Many ask for a long life. But why do we want to have a long life? Is it for ourselves or our families? It should be for God’s purpose, because God loves us and wants us to live a meaningful life. He will satisfy us with a long life for His purpose. Don’t worry about how long you will live. Our life is in God’s hands. Trust in Him and don’t let the enemy steal your years of service which belong to you. God not only satisfies you with a long life, but also an eternal life. Prayer: Father Lord, now that I am old and gray, do not abandon me, O God. Let me proclaim your power to this new generation, your mighty miracles to all who come after me. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Parables Jesus was a master teacher. Some of his most well-known teachings are told in short stories called parables. The four Gospel accounts—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—tell the “good news” that God’s Kingdom has arrived on Earth through Jesus. Jesus himself announced the Kingdom of God through his famous teaching called the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). This same sermon is preached “on the plain” in Luke chapter 6. Jesus also brought God’s Kingdom into reality through his healings, miracles, and the creation of a renewed family of Israel. One of the most common ways that Jesus communicated was through stories, or in Greek, parabole. Parables can often be seen as illustrations or explanations relating to morality or religious truth. This assumes that there is a basic abstract idea that the parables help to illuminate, but this doesn’t capture how and why Jesus used parables. Parables are more than short stories. The parables are beautiful and entertaining, but they are often c...

Suggestions for Making Sense of the Epistles The Basic Rule of Hermeneutics for the Epistles A text cannot mean what it never could have meant to its author or readers. This is why exegesis must always come first. The Second Rule Whenever we share comparable particulars (i.e., similar specific life situations) with the first-century hearers, God’s word to us is the same as his word to them. The great caution here is that we do our exegesis well so that we have confidence that our situations and particulars are genuinely comparable to theirs. This is why the careful reconstruction of their problem is so important. For example, it is significant for our hermeneutics to note that the lawsuit in 1 Corinthians 6:1 – 11 was between two Christian brothers before a pagan judge out in the open marketplace in Corinth. We would argue that the point of the text does not change if the judge happens to be a Christian or because the trial takes place in a courthouse. The wrong is for two brothers to ...

Where Does Biblical Common Sense Come From? Without necessarily intending to, we bring our theological heritage, our church traditions, our cultural norms, or our existential concerns to the Epistles as we read them. And this results in all kinds of selectivity or “getting around” certain passages. It is interesting to note, for example, that almost everyone in American evangelicalism or fundamentalism would agree with our common stance on two passages in 2 Timothy (2:3 and 4:13). However, the cultural milieu of most of the same Christians causes them to argue against obedience to an earlier passage in 1 Timothy: “Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses” (5:23). That had only to do with Timothy, not with us, we are told, because water was unsafe to drink back then. Or else, it is even argued that “wine” really meant “grape juice” — although one wonders how that could have happened when Welch’s processing and refrigeration were...

The Gospel Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—known as the Gospel accounts—contain some of the most familiar stories in the Bible. The Gospel narratives are carefully designed theological biographies of Jesus that focus on his announcement of the Gospel, that is, the “good news” of his royal arrival. They are based on the eyewitness testimonies of the apostles. However, they are not merely historical records. These accounts are designed to advance a claim that will challenge the reader’s thinking and behavior. The Gospel narratives have two main goals: 1. To faithfully represent the story of Jesus—that the crucified and risen Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah of Israel and the true King of the world. 2. To persuade the reader to acknowledge Jesus as Lord and become his disciple. The four authors frame Jesus’ story in a unique way for distinct purposes. Each author has carefully edited, arranged, and designed the core stories about Jesus to emphasize unique facets of Jesus’ character. So what...

What Does the Bible Mean for Us?  Hermeneutical  1 Corinthians 6:12 https://biblehub.com/parallel/1_corinthians/6-12.htm Questions in the Epistles We come now to what we referred to previously as hermeneutical questions. What do these texts mean to us? This is the crux of everything, and compared with this task, exegesis is relatively easy. At least in exegesis, even if there are disagreements at particular points, most people agree as to the parameters of meaning; there are limitations of possibilities set by the historical and literary contexts. Paul, for example, cannot have meant something that he and his readers had never heard of. His meaning at least has to have been a first-century possibility. However, no such consensus of parameters seems to exist for hermeneutics (learning to hear the meaning in the contexts of our own day). All people “do” hermeneutics, even if they know nothing about exegesis and don’t have a clue as to the meaning of these two words! It is no wo...

Design Patterns in Biblical Narrative Design patterns are one of the key ways the biblical authors have unified the storyline of the Bible. Individual stories across the Old and New Testaments have been coordinated through repeated words and parallel themes. One of the most important design features of biblical narrative is repetition. This technique creates patterns that guide the reader’s focus and help them know where to look for meaning. By following a word or phrase that is repeated significantly in a story or section of text, we can better decipher or grasp the main message of the text (For example, notice how the word “good” is used in Genesis 1). Repeated words can unite a whole string of stories, but this kind of unifying technique can work in different ways too. Sometimes entire stories or scenes are designed to repeat elements of other stories. This involves not only repeated words but also parallel narrative patterns, themes, and sequences. For example, the “see and take” p...

A Surprisingly Powerful Technique for Bible Study: Think Paragraphs! Let's zero in on the first problem in 1 Corinthians — the problem of division within the church (chs. 1 – 4). The Historical Context of 1 Corinthians 1-4: Bad Blood The place to begin is by making note of what Paul specifically says. But a careful reading with an eye for the problem should cause a couple other things to surface. For example, there appears to be some bad blood between the church and Paul himself (see 4:1-5 and 18-21). The Literary Context: Think Paragraphs! The next step in studying the letter is to learn to trace Paul’s argument as an answer to the problem of division. This is something you can do without initial dependence on scholars and their commentaries. We simply cannot stress enough the importance of learning to THINK PARAGRAPHS, and not just as natural units of thought but as the absolutely necessary key to understanding the argument in the various epistles. The one question you need to le...

Setting in Biblical Narrative Every story has to take place somewhere, and very often, locations have a special meaning or significance evoked by events that already took place there. Biblical setting utilizes both place and time. As the biblical story develops, places begin to take on a symbolic/meaningful significance based on what has happened there. Example: Garden of Eden > the east > Babylon: The human spiral of sin and selfishness moves from the garden to Babylon, as we see in Genesis 1-11. - Adam and Eve are banished “to the east” (Genesis 3). - Cain is banished “to the east” (Genesis 4). - People move “to the east” to build Babylon (Genesis 11:1-2). - Babylon becomes a superpower in the story, eventually exiling the family of Abraham. - Egypt, Moab, the wilderness, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem all become loaded with more and more meaning as the biblical story develops. You can tell which events are most meaningful to the author’s message by what gets the most “air time.” For...

"To obey," even in the slightest and smallest thing, "is better than sacrifice," however pompous. 1 Samuel 15:22    https://biblehub.com/parallel/1_samuel/15-22.htm Be it ever in your remembrance, that to keep strictly in the path of your Savior's command is better than any outward form of religion; and to hearken to His precept with an attentive ear is better than to bring the fat of rams, or any other precious thing to lay upon His altar. If you are failing to keep the least of Christ's commands to His disciples, I pray you be disobedient no longer. How many adorn their temples and decorate their priests, but refuse to obey the word of the Lord! My soul, come not thou into their secret.

People will be surprised at our new lives and the changes in our behavior. They might “heap abuse” on us for not joining them in our former sinful behaviors (v. 4). If they don’t trust in Christ, they will be the ones surprised on the Day of Judgment (v. 5). They will be held accountable for their sin and pay the just penalty of death (Rom. 6:23). “This is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead” (v. 6). This might sound confusing, but it just means that the gospel was preached to people who were alive but are now dead. They had a chance to receive Christ when they were alive, but that opportunity is now gone (Heb. 9:27). If they did receive Christ, then their spirits are now absent from the body and present with the Lord (see 2 Cor. 5:6–10). >> Sometimes we get too comfortable with sin. We should long for our sanctification! We encourage you today to make a renewed commitment to Christlikeness.

Why Did Paul Write 1 Corinthians? The Historical Context The first thing one must try to do with any of the Epistles is to form a tentative but informed reconstruction of the situation to which the author is speaking. What was going on in Corinth that caused Paul to write 1 Corinthians? How does he come to learn of their situation? What kind of relationship and former contacts has he had with them? What attitudes do they and he reflect in this letter? These are the kinds of questions to which you want answers. So what do you do? First, you need to consult your Bible dictionary or the introduction to your commentary to find out as much as possible about Corinth and its people. Second, and now especially for study purposes, you need to develop the habit of reading the whole letter through in one sitting, and preferably aloud, so that mouth and ear join the eye. You may well be surprised by how much more you retain when you learn to read this way. We cannot stress enough the importance of...

Character in Biblical Narrative Most of us think of characters in the Bible as either sinners or saints, good or bad. At least that’s how Bible stories are often presented to children. In today’s video, we’ll explore the ways biblical authors present characters as more complex and morally compromised than we usually imagine. Biblical authors use characters as vehicles for their message primarily through showing rather than telling. A narrator’s comments about a character are fairly rare in biblical narrative (such as physical appearance, as in Joseph’s looks, Saul’s stature, Esau’s hair, etc.). Additionally, direct characterization is extremely rare in the Bible (such as describing someone as evil, good, righteous, wise, foolish, etc.). Biblical authors give you the outline of a character, but you have to fill in the rest based on what you read in the text. For example: - Esau is hairy, meaning that he’s “outdoorsy,” primitive, and behaves like an animal. - Eli is old and blind, meanin...

Drifting in the Wrong Direction You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.” (James 4:4 NLT) Abram, or Abraham, lived in a pagan culture. He wasn’t raised with faith in the one true God, Jehovah, who created the heavens and the earth. But one day the Lord told Abraham to leave his pagan culture and unbelieving family and go to a land that He would show him. Abraham partially obeyed. He left his father’s house, but he brought along his nephew Lot. When a famine came, Abraham decided they needed to go down to Egypt for a while. And while they were there, both Abraham and Lot became a wealthy. The problem was that possessions became Lot’s primary focus in life. Lot’s heart was into wealth and worldly achievements, while Abraham wanted only to please the Lord. Friction developed between Abraham and Lot, as it always will when people have different prio...

Plot in Biblical Narrative Nearly half of the Bible is written in narrative. So in order to understand the Bible more fully, it’s important that we learn how to read this style of writing. With biblical narrative, we are not watching security footage of these ancient events. We’re reading an artistic, literary representation of the story of Israel. The goal isn’t just to tell us about something that happened, it’s also to discern the meaning of these events. A key element in biblical narrative is the plot—the arrangement of characters and events to convey a message. The Bible uses plot embedding, meaning there are multi-layered biblical storylines. Level 1: One overall storyline of the Bible. Level 2: The multiple movements of that overall storyline. Level 3: The hundreds of individual narratives that make up each of these movements. All of these individual events are framed within a larger context that exists within an even larger context. All of this context gives these events deeper...

Unlock Bible Meaning by Thinking Contextually Let's look at the New Testament Epistles (a.k.a. letters). Our reasons for doing this are twofold: First, along with the Gospels they are the most familiar portions of the Bible for most people, and second, for many readers they appear to be generally easy to interpret. On the other hand, the "ease" of interpreting Epistles can be quite deceptive. This is especially so at the level of hermeneutics. There is one item that all of the Epistles have in common, and this is the crucial item to note in reading and interpreting them: They are all what are technically called occasional documents (i.e., arising out of and intended for a specific occasion), and they are all from the first century. Although inspired by the Holy Spirit and thus belonging to all time, they were first written out of the context of the author to the context of the original recipients. It is precisely these factors — that they are occasional and that they belo...

The Indispensable Tool for Biblical Interpretation: A Good Translation The sixty-six books of the Protestant Bible were originally written in three different languages: Hebrew (most of the Old Testament), Aramaic (a sister language to Hebrew used in half of Daniel and two passages in Ezra), and Greek (all of the New Testament). The very fact that you are reading God’s Word in translation means that you are already involved in interpretation — whether you like it or not. To read in translation is not a bad thing, of course; it is simply the only thing available and therefore the necessary thing. What this means further, however, is that, in a certain sense, the person who reads the Bible only in English is at the mercy of the translator(s), and translators have often had to make choices as to what in fact the original Hebrew or Greek author was really intending to express. The trouble, then, with using only one translation, be it ever so good, is that you are thereby committed to the pa...

Literary Styles in the Bible The Bible is a collection of many books telling one unified story from beginning to end, but all those books were written in different literary styles. First and foremost is narrative. It makes up a whopping 43 percent of the Bible! 33 percent of the Bible is poetry, and then the rest of the Bible (24 percent) is written in prose discourse. Most books have a primary literary style, like narrative for example. But then embedded within the narrative, you’ll come across poems or parables or collections of laws. Every book is a unique combination of literary styles. Reading the Bible wisely requires us to learn about the ancient literary styles used by the biblical authors. These writers expressed their ideas and claims through a variety of different types of literature, and this video will explore why it's important to distinguish them so we can better understand the message of each book. There's one more unifying feature of biblical literature that’s ...

The Bible as Jewish Meditation Literature Each time period and culture produces its own unique kind of literature. In order to read the Bible well, we need to keep in mind the ancient Near Eastern context and the type of literature produced in this period of time. The Bible is written as ancient Jewish meditation literature, and it’s meant to draw readers into a lifelong journey of reading and meditation. The Bible is designed as a multi-layered work, offering new levels of insight as you reread it and allow each part to help you understand every other part. In Psalm 1, we read about the ideal Bible reader. It’s someone who meditates on the Scriptures day and night. In Hebrew, the word “meditate” means literally to mutter or speak quietly. The idea is that every day for the rest of your life you slowly, quietly read the Bible out loud to yourself. And then you go talk about it with your friends and family, pondering the puzzles, making connections, and discovering what it all means. An...

The Two Essential Tasks in Interpreting the Bible Our First Task: Exegesis What is exegesis in the Bible? The definition of exegesis is the critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially of scripture. Put simply, it is the process of discovering the original and intended meaning of a passage of scripture. When considering the importance of knowing truth, exegetical theology is vitally important The first task of the interpreter is called exegesis. This involves the careful, systematic study of the Scripture to discover the original, intended meaning. It is the attempt to hear the Word as the original recipients were to have heard it, to find out what was the original intent of the words of the Bible. Essential Tools for Good Exegesis For the most part, you can do good exegesis with a minimum amount of outside help, provided that the help is of the highest quality. Three such tools: a good translation, a good Bible dictionary, and good commentaries. There are other kinds o...

The Story of the Bible The Bible is a really large book made up of the Old and New Testaments, which themselves are made up of many books. There’s a lot of ancient history, poetry, and letters written across the span of 1,500 years. On top of that, there’s a cast of hundreds of people over this period of time. Who can keep it all straight? It can be easy to get lost, not only because it’s an ancient text but also because the book is large and complex. Despite this variety and diversity, the Bible shows a remarkable unity. The most dominant type of literature in the Bible is narrative. The Bible opens with “in the beginning,” and the second to last paragraph concludes with “and they reigned forever and ever.” Narrative makes up 502 chapters—or 43 percent of the text. That’s nearly half the Bible! On the other hand, poetry makes up 33 percent of the Bible (387 chapters). Although the Bible is diverse and may appear fragmented at first, it ultimately presents itself as a unified epic narr...

  Spiritual knowledge of Christ will be a personal knowledge. I cannot know Jesus through another person's acquaintance with Him. No, I must know Him myself; I must know Him on my own account. It will be an intelligent knowledge-I must know Him, not as the visionary dreams of Him, but as the Word reveals Him. I must know His natures, divine and human. I must know His offices-His attributes-His works-His shame-His glory. I must meditate upon Him until I "comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge." It will be an affectionate knowledge of Him; indeed, if I know Him at all, I must love Him. An ounce of heart knowledge is worth a ton of head learning. Our knowledge of Him will be a satisfying knowledge. When I know my Saviour, my mind will be full to the brim-I shall feel that I have that which my spirit panted after. "This is that bread whereof if a man eat he shall never hunger...

The Surprisingly Simple Aim of Good Interpretation Every so often we meet someone who says with great feeling, “You don’t have to interpret the Bible; just read it and do what it says.” Usually, such a remark reflects the layperson’s protest against the “professional” scholar, pastor, teacher, or Sunday school teacher, who by “interpreting” seems to be taking the Bible away from the common person. It is their way of saying that the Bible is not an obscure book. “After all,” it is argued, “anyone with half a brain can read it and understand it. The problem with too many preachers and teachers is that they dig around so much they tend to muddy the waters. What was clear to us when we read it isn’t so clear anymore.” There is a lot of truth in this protest. We agree that Christians should learn to read, believe, and obey the Bible. And we especially agree that the Bible need not be an obscure book if read and studied properly. Let it be said at the outset that the aim of good interpretati...