He has told you, mortal one, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8 NASB What is good – The simple truth. Three things God asks of us. Do justice, love kindness, walk in His ways. That’s it. No lofty theoretical propositions….
For I do not understand what I am doing; for I am not practicing what I want to do, but I do the very thing I hate. Romans 7:15 NASB What I am doing – The seventh chapter of the letters to the Romans has been one of the most gnarled sections of Scripture to unravel. From Augustine…
And He said to man, Look, fear the Master, that is wisdom, and the shunning of evil is insight. Job 28:28 Robert Alter Look – Don’t overlook “Look”! If you do, you’ll miss something quite unusual. The NASB translates this verse, “And to mankind He said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; And…
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have placed before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, Deuteronomy 30:19 NASB Choose life – “What shall we answer for ourselves on that Judgment Day, if we are…
Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Psalm 34:11 NASB Fear – There are basically two kinds of ethical systems in the world. They both have long histories. The first is the one we are most familiar with in the modern world, although it is not the most ancient…
So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and…
“When the unclean spirit comes out of [a]a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it then says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. Then it goes and brings along seven other spirits more evil than…
And a command has gone out from the Lord against those who dwell upon the dry ground that this must be their end. For they have learnt all the secrets of the Angels, and all the wrongdoings of the satans, and all their secret power, and all the power of those who practice magic arts,…
Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. Acts 17:11 NIV Examined the Scriptures – There’s a funny contradiction buried in this verse. The Bereans were orthodox. Jewish orthodox. They…
But if I do the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin that dwells in me. Romans 7:20 NASB Dwells in me – Since Augustine theologians have gotten a lot of mileage out of this verse. It just seems so patently Platonic. I am really two people; the one…
