Hell is certainly a terrible thing to envision, and for many Christians it is a difficult doctrine even to defend. Many believers resolve it at the end of the day by deciding we need someplace to put the Hitlers and the Stalins, and then deciding to not look too closely at it thereafter. But God …
An Important Distinction
Scripture throughout makes a sharp distinction between personal loyalty to God and simple prioritization of the institutional church. When things are ordered rightly, this distinction is not a separation, but it remains a distinction. Here is a striking example. Jesus sharply rebukes those who prioritize the needs of the temple over the responsibilities to family. …
Other Badges of High Honor
I recently wrote on the challenge that ministers face in being faithful to a message that engenders hard opposition, on the one hand, and being the kind of man who has a good reputation with outsiders (1 Tim. 3:7), on the other. Having written all that, this morning I came across a passage in Paul …
What Amazed Jesus
One of the great differences between Jesus and the rest of us is that we are amazed at completely different things. We were amazed when Jesus did a miracle, and Jesus was amazed when the unbelief of man prevented a miracle. “But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given …
Unsurprising Surprise
We may take it as a settled principle that the more obvious impending judgment is, the less obvious it is. This clearly requires qualification. It is glaringly obvious to those who know how to read a story, and it is opaque to those whose behavior calling for judgment is the driving force of the story. …
Confession and Works
One of the things that is very much part of the DNA of our public ministry is the teaching that Christians need to keep short accounts with God, confessing their sins regularly and honestly. The teaching of Scripture on the subject is plain enough. “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: But whoso confesseth …
What Cannot Remain
I was struck by something the other morning as I looked at the beginning of Luke 9. “Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick. And he said …
Whose Ox Is Being Sued
Paul famously prohibits Christians from going to court against one another, except that he doesn’t. What he prohibits is taking disputes between Christians before unbelievers. Here is the text: “Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? Do ye not know that the …
Praying Jalapeños
Okay, I love Logos Bible Software, and so that means this is in no way a complaint. They do great things. It is just that a graphic that appeared on their home page today reminded me of Pet Peeve #48. I can’t show you the graphic because they must have crammed too many pixels into …
Herein Is Love
Foreigner famously sang “I want to know what love is.” There are different ways to address such a foundational question from Scripture, and I just noticed another one of them this morning. “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we …