July 5 Paul begins 1 Corinthians 7 talking about sexual intimacy in marriage. While he prohibits sexual immorality (all sexual behavior outside the context of a one-man-one-woman covenant marital relationship), Paul encourages sexual intimacy within a covenant marital relationship. In fact, he says that giving yourself to your spouse is your conjugal duty. And it’s…
July 4 In yesterday’s Bible reading and devotional, we read Paul’s discussion on sexual immorality. He continues to discussion today in 1 Corinthians 6. But he begins chapter 6 talking about church members litigating against other church members. He says that believers should not take their church disagreements to secular courts. There are two issues…
July 3 Paul says that he is aware that someone in the Corinthian church is unashamedly committing sexual immorality. He says it is worse than the immorality that is tolerated among the Gentiles. Specifically, he says that a man is sleeping with his father’s wife. Paul says, “You should be ashamed of yourselves! You should…
June 7 In Galatians 4, we see a new dynamic in the relationship between God and His people. Under the Old Covenant, God’s people only knew God as an “out there” God. But in today’s Bible reading, we see that God is not “out there”. God’s people saw themselves as servants of God. However, under…
May 18 In Acts 11, we see a new term, the circumcision party. We will see this term again throughout the book of Acts. This group was composed of Jewish Christians who believed that Jesus’ sacrificial atonement was insufficient to cover the sin-debt of Christians. They believed that believers needed to add something else. In…
May 15 The first converts to Christianity were the one hundred twenty disciples in the upper room. (Acts 1:15) Another three thousand were added to the church following Peter’s first sermon. (Acts 2:41) All of these new Christians were from Jewish backgrounds. In Acts 8, Philip goes to a town in Samaria and ministers to…
