Category Archives: Bible study

Divisions and factions

But if anyone is disposed to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God. Now in this instruction that I give you I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For, to begin with, when you come togetherContinue reading “Divisions and factions”

No, you do not have a right to your own opinion

Habitual insistence on the sovereignty of one’s own (or one’s own faction’s) opinion is incompatible with Christian discipleship and culpably destructive of Christian community.

All those who practice it (Psalm 111)

Psalm 111 is a beautiful psalm of praise. It praises the character of God not as an abstraction but as manifested in God’s works. Note the recurrence of “works,” “work,” “deeds,” and various action verbs (highlighted in pink in the photo). Note also that among God’s works are God’s precepts. God not only gives foodContinue reading “All those who practice it (Psalm 111)”

On reading Psalm 93

The Lord is “robed in majesty,” yes, and high and lifted up, but the scripture he has given us: it is given through our own mouths, and portrays our own plight, is right down here on the ground with us, in the mud and the blood and the gore.

SKANDAL! A Sermon on Mark 9:42–50

For American Christians today, Mark 9:42–50 conveys a stern warning from Jesus about confusing Christianity with nationalism and destroying the credibility of the gospel in other ways.