Material and spiritual creation both came from the same source and operate through the same three persons — but with different materials: the Spirit organized and perfected matter in the one; in the other, he organized and perfected the spiritual realm through the incarnation, the apostles…
The New Testament neither silences women nor makes them interchangeable with men in every function. It assigns them a specific, honorable, and demanding sphere — private instruction, domestic formation, and teaching younger women — while reserving public proclamation to qualified men. The grounding of this restriction…
The Holy Spirit called Barnabas “a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith,” and his life shows what such goodness looks like — generous with his possessions, glad at others’ blessing, and content to take second place for the cause of Christ. The…
The New Testament church has identifying marks — undenominational, congregationally governed, missionary, made up of converted and worshipping and united and pure members — and every member should know them well enough to help keep the church true to the pattern. A congregation drifts the way…
God has always drawn a line between his people and the world — and that line is not man’s to erase, soften, or ignore. The call to come out and be separate is not an old covenant peculiarity; it is a permanent feature of the God…
Timothy’s life is the story of what faithful parents, a mentor-apostle, and willingness to be sent can produce. He was the son of a mixed household — Greek father, Jewish mother — with no obvious path to apostolic usefulness. By the end of Paul’s ministry he…
Prayer is not the whole of the Christian’s responsibility to the thing prayed for. Prayer opens the transaction; action completes it. The person who prays for the sick and does not visit them; who prays for the gospel to spread and does not share it; who…
The tetelestai of John 19:30 marks the completion of the atoning work — not the end of Christ’s activity. The risen, ascended Christ is presently reigning as king (Col. 1:13), interceding as mediator (Heb. 7:25), governing as head of the church (Col. 1:18), adding the obedient…
The church was in the eternal purpose of God and the mind of Christ from the beginning; it is the true Israel, the saved remnant, the “little flock” that receives the kingdom — so that there is no Christianity without the church. People speak today of…
Everything in Christianity hangs on faith — “without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Heb. 11:6) — yet faith is one of the most misunderstood words in religion. Some make it a leap in the dark; some make it mere opinion; some make it a…