Latest Commentaries

Jesus teaches His disciples not to judge other people because they will be judged according to the same standard they use to criticize others. He illustrates this point with the humorous image of a man with a log coming out of his eye trying to help remove a speck of dust in his brother’s eye.

Jesus gives two parables to His disciples. One seemingly concerns other religious teachers, likely the Pharisees, and the second speaks to the disciples’ relationship with their teacher, Jesus.

Jesus teaches His disciples not to judge other people because they will be judged according to the same standard they use to criticize others. On the other hand, Jesus promises that if they give, they will receive in the same measure.

Jesus summarizes and commands the character standard of those who are in His kingdom.

Jesus offers and commands a radically different view of love than what is offered by the world.

Jesus commands His disciples in every circumstance to treat people the same way we want them to treat us. This is a distillation of everything He has been teaching throughout His Sermon.

Jesus flips the world system of ‘justice’ on its head. He tells His disciples to seek out opportunities to serve rather than looking for opportunities to exact payback under the letter of the law.

Jesus offers and commands a radically different view of love than what is offered by the world.

Jesus’s final Makarios statement deals with being righteously persecuted. Jesus reiterates this point by telling His disciples that God will reward them for their righteous living in the face of persecution.

Jesus’s second statement focuses on the path to gain and desire to possess social harmony and righteousness. His third statement focuses on weeping as an expression of repentance. 

Jesus begins teaching His disciples in a section commonly referred to as “the Sermon on the Mount,” or sometimes, “the Sermon on the Plain.” To describe the citizens of His Kingdom, Jesus repeats the word “Blessed” (“Makarios”)—a total sense of fulfillment. 

After spending all night in prayer on the mountain and choosing His twelve disciples the next day, Jesus went down to engage with the large crowds that were gathered. Jesus performs miracles of physical healing and casts out demons. 

For a third time, Paul leaves Syria to go preach the gospel in the west. He first visits the Galatian churches. Meanwhile, in Ephesus, a man named Apollos comes to town and preaches passionately about Jesus. Priscilla and Aquila teach him about some aspects of faith in Jesus of which Apollos was ignorant. Eventually, the Ephesian believers send Apollos to Corinth. In Corinth, Apollos helps the Corinthian believers by debating the hostile Jews in public and showing persuasively that the Hebrew scriptures prove Jesus was the Messiah.

A new Roman proconsul, Gallio, comes to Corinth to govern the province of Achaia. The hostile Jews bring Paul to Gallio and ask him to get rid of Paul. Gallio dismisses them, since there is no criminal charge against Paul. The proconsul of Rome is not concerned with Jewish religious quarrels. The Jews return to Gallio, dragging with them the new leader of the synagogue, Sosthenes, who is apparently a believer. They beat Sosthenes in front of Gallio. Gallio still will not do anything about Paul. Paul and his team decide to leave Corinth. Priscilla and Aquila go with them. The married couple stop in Ephesus to live there. Paul preaches the gospel in Ephesus and tells the interested Jews there that he will return if God wills it. He sails back to Israel, visits the Jerusalem church, then returns to the Syrian Antioch church.

Timothy and Silas arrive from Macedonia to Corinth. Their presence frees Paul to preach the gospel full time. Some of the Jews reject the gospel with hostility. Paul announces he will focus on the Gentiles from then on. He leaves the synagogue and begins preaching next door. The leader of the synagogue and his entire household believe in the gospel. Many other Corinthians, Jewish and Greek, believe. Jesus tells Paul in a vision that he will be physically safe in Corinth. Paul teaches in Corinth for a year and a half.

Paul leaves Athens and goes to Corinth. There, he preaches the gospel in the synagogue every Sabbath, and works as a tent-maker alongside a married couple of the same trade: Aquila and Priscilla.

Paul gives a sermon that does not presume prior knowledge of the Old Testament. Paul compliments the Athenians on how reverent they are toward divine powers. Paul observes that one of the idols in Athens is dedicated to “the unknown god.” He uses this unknown god as a stand-in for the true God, that although He is unknown to the Greeks, He desires to be known by them. Paul explains that the true God is the real power behind all life. He is a God who does not live in temples. Paul claims that God has overlooked the Athenians’ past; they did not know Him and had not heard of Him until now, but now God was calling them to repent and return to Him because He has appointed a day in which everyone will be judged by a Man who was raised from the dead. Some of Paul’s listeners think the claim that God resurrected a Man is too incredible to believe. But others are very interested in what Paul is preaching. Some Greeks even go to him to learn more. They then believe in Jesus. One of the new believers is an Athenian judge.

The countless amount of idols in Athens bothers Paul. He preaches in both the synagogue and the Agora (market). Local Greek philosophers are interested in what Paul says. They take him to the Areopagus, a stony hill where debates were held. They give Paul the chance to preach.

Because of the danger to the new Thessalonian believers, Paul and his team sneak out of town to the nearby city of Berea. The citizens of Berea are more thoughtful and mature than those in Thessalonica. They receive Paul’s teaching with a warm and welcoming attitude, while also comparing his truth-claims with the Scriptures. Many of the Bereans believe, Jews and Greeks alike. The Jews who caused the trouble in Thessalonica hear that Paul is still preaching in the next town over, so they go to Berea and rabble-rouse against the Christians once more. This time, only Paul leaves town. Some of the Bereans escort him all the way to the city of Athens, while Silas and Timothy remain in Berea, with the promise that they will join Paul in Athens as soon as they can.

After leaving Philippi, Paul, Silas, and Timothy make their way further west into Macedonia. In the city of Thessalonica, Paul preaches at a Jewish synagogue. For three Sabbaths, he uses the Old Testament to show that Jesus was the Messiah, who was prophesied to die and resurrect. A significant number of the Jews, God—fearing gentiles, and important women believe in Jesus. Other Jews are filled with jealousy. They rouse a mob and tear through the city. The mob alerts the authorities to Paul’s presence in town, that he and his teachings are upsetting other cities in the Roman Empire. They claim that what he teaches is opposed to Caesar, because he is corrupting people into believing in a false king named Jesus.