The Christian life is lived under the figure of warfare — not physical warfare against human enemies, but spiritual warfare against the enemies of the soul, supremely the internal enemies: undisciplined thoughts, bodily passions, the self that must be mastered and crucified daily. God cannot use…
“What do you think about the Christ?” (Matt. 22:42). The question was first asked by Christ himself to silence the Pharisees. It has been answered by witnesses across every category of credibility — hostile witnesses, sympathetic witnesses, divine witnesses, and everything in between. The convergence of…
Teaching is not one function of the church among several — it is the function on which all other functions depend. God has been teaching from the beginning; every era of redemptive history has been structured around the transmission of divine truth from teacher to learner…
Acts 2 is the hinge of redemptive history. The promises Christ made before his death — “I will build My church” (Matt. 16:18), “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts 1:8) — were fulfilled on Pentecost. Peter preached the first…
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord” (I Cor. 15:58). The “therefore” is the key: Paul’s exhortation to steadfastness is grounded in the resurrection. Because the resurrection is real, the labor of the Lord is not in vain…
A steward is not an owner — they manage what belongs to another and are accountable to that owner for the management. Everything belongs to God (I Cor. 10:26); the Christian’s resources — money, time, talent — are entrusted to them for God’s purposes, not consumed…
“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth” (II Tim. 2:15). The call to accurate handling of the word implies the capacity for it — which means it implies study….
The burden is two-sided. First: a significant portion of the confusion about the Lord’s Supper comes from names that are not biblical — Eucharist, sacrament, emblems — names that carry theological freight the New Testament does not authorize. The names must be corrected before the practice…
Somebody must fill all second places. The refusal to do so — the insistence on first place when God, time, or circumstance has assigned the second — is one of the most consistent causes of failure in life. The man or woman who can take second…
The Holy Spirit’s role in material creation is not incidental — it is specific, distinct from the roles of the Father and the Son, and ongoing. The Father originated and rules; the Word created and sustains; the Spirit organized the chaotic mass, gave laws for the…