“So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, ‘If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.'” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Jesus says two really important things here. The first gives us the rubric for having confidence in our fellowship. The second gives us the dual result of this state of affairs. Read the rest…
“But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
As far as their historical worth goes, the Scriptures have a value that exceeds any other work of literature. They have had more of an impact on human history in terms of shaping and forming the guiding assumptions of people than every other book combined. The King James Version alone has had more of an impact on the English language than Shakespeare did. Simply knowing and understanding the Scriptures without caring two wits about the God they reveal is important if you want to be a well-cultured individual. But, if you want the real blessing they have to offer, you have to go beyond that to committing yourself to doing what they say. Read the rest…
“For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. . . .But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
This is one of the more confusing arguments Paul makes over the course of his letter to the church in Rome. First, he says Christians were slaves of sin before being saved, then, he says that Christians, once they have been saved and set free from sin, are slaves of God. So we are saved from slavery only to enter into another kind of slavery? What gives? Why not just stay where we were at first? Read the rest…
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Two points here. The first is that you won’t find a more direct connection between the Father and the Spirit than this. While the connection between the Father and the Son is fairly easy to make in the Scriptures, for the sake of the Trinity, it is more difficult sometimes to connect the Spirit as the third person. What Paul says here makes it pretty plain. The Lord is the Spirit. There you have it. Read the rest…
“Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. For ‘the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.” If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience–I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience?” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Here are Paul’s final thoughts on the issue of eating meat that came from a pagan sacrifice: Eating it doesn’t matter. If you want to eat it, go ahead. If you don’t, don’t worry about it. It’s meat. Making a mountain out of this molehill is a worthless effort. Read the rest…
The Nexus 