If you know that He is righteous, you know that every one also who practices righteousness is born of Him. 1 John 2:29 NASB Righteous – This is about as close as John comes to describing “born again.” But John’s focus is not on the experience of forgiveness. He focuses on the practice of righteousness. …
And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever. 1 John 2:17 NASB Will – By now we all realize that John did not use the words “born again” in his report of the conversation between Yeshua and Nicodemus (John 3). He used…
Little children, let no one deceive you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous, the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. 1 John 3:7-8a NASB Practices – Rudolph Bultmann was one of the most important Christian theologians of the last…
All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. Psalm 22:27 ESV Worship – “The philosophy of Jewish living is essentially a philosophy of worship. For what is observance, if not a form of worshipping God?”[1] Once you grasp the…
I hate those who are double-minded, but I love Your law. Psalm 119:113 NASB Double-minded – Who is the double-minded man? You might think that it is the person who just can’t decide, the one who seems constantly torn between alternatives. Years ago a friend of mine called this person (referring to me, by the…
We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, 2 Corinthians 10:5 NASB Taking captive – If we read this verse from our typical Greek worldview, we will think Paul is another moral philosopher. We will think…
that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Timothy 6:14 NASB Commandment – In the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, G. Schrenk makes the following observation: “In Pauline writings entole [commandment] always denotes an OT commandment except in 1 Tim. 6:14 . . .”[1] …
In a recent conversation I challenged someone to provide either a theological or historical foundation for the claim that Christians need to be “good” people. The topic arose because my friend remarked that her church taught that being saved and going to heaven was the true goal of Man’s spiritual quest. Once salvation was assured,…
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. Romans 8:2 NASB Law of sin and death – It should be no surprise by now that Paul uses the Greek word nomos in a variety of ways. Sometimes he uses it…
In the beginning of God’s creating the heavens and the earth – when the earth was astonishingly empty, . . . Genesis 1:1 JPS Stone Tanakh In the beginning – You’re probably a bit surprised by the JPS translation of the first verse of the Tanakh. While it contains some of our usual words, its…
