July 6 Most of us have never encountered a situation like this. But in Paul’s context, it was not unusual. In modern-day Turkey and throughout that part of the world at the time, many people were polytheists who worshiped many gods. As part of their worship, they would offer sacrifices to one of their gods….
June 11 In Paul’s final chapter of Galatians, he tells the church to restore brothers and sisters who have been overtaken in any wrongdoing. (Galatians 6:1) He warns them to be careful, lest they, too, might fall into sin. In other words, Paul is telling the church’s mature believers to reach out and restore someone…
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…
March 15 Immediately after calming the storm in Mark 4, Jesus arrived at the region of the Gerasenes (also called the Gadarenes or the Gergesenes). Sadly, about a thousand years ago, someone decided to put a chapter break in the text between these events, because if you’re reading one chapter at a time, you might…
Peter addresses his persecuted, exiled readers (1 Peter 2:11) in today’s Bible reading and tells his readers to submit to every human authority. Some time ago I commented on the historical context around the middle of the First Century. I mentioned Nero was the Roman Emperor at the time. Under Nero’s reign, Christians were persecuted far beyond…
One of the issues we must deal with as believers is the tension between liberty and love, or freedom and maturity. Believers are not under the Law, but under Grace. But this doesn’t mean that we can do anything we want to whenever we want to. The tension comes when we consider the fact that…
