Martin Luther: ‘Whosoever professes he has a Father in heaven, confesses himself a stranger on earth; hence there is in the heart an ardent longing, like that of a child among strangers, in want and grief, far from his fatherland.’
Paul has been telling Timothy about how the church at Ephesus is to be run. Now he comes to summarise the message of the Church.
Abraham is the father of faith (Rom.4:16; Gal.3:6-9). The background is in Genesis 12:1-3; 15:13-16; 16:1; 17:17; 22:1-2.
It is probably a general statement on faith which was prompted by the example of Enoch.
Faith is a sure hope, the same in principle in both Testaments, and begins with believing in God as the creator Heb.11:1-3).
1 Timothy 3:1-13 shows that there are two ordinary offices in the Church. Deacons must derive from Acts 6:1-6. Calvin: deacons are ‘those whom the Church appoints to dispense alms, and take care of the poor’.
The Magic of Believing is about believing in yourself. Not so in the Bible. Hebrews 11 looks back to Hebrews 10:37-39.
Every week or so, the media will publicise the need for more money and legislation to ensure better mental health in the community. Recently we were subjected to a report followed by a series of experts claiming that smacking children left them with lifelong mental health issues. The facts are …
staccato exhortations in e.g. 2 Cor.13:11; 1 Thess.5:15-22. For 16:21, see Gal.6:11. Verses 13-14 introduce the final run, and contain five exhortations. For convenience, we can reduce them to three.
Near the end of his short epistle, Jude tells his readers to respond with sensitivity to others, according to their situation (Jude 22-23). Alas, the text is something of a ‘mingle-mangle’, to use John Knox’s description of the English Reformation. The NKJV has two groups but the NIV and ESV …
