Latest Commentaries

Paul is not seeking the approval of the Corinthians; rather, he is showing them that they should not seek the approval of men, who only judge externals and don’t know the heart. If we live by remembering that Jesus will judge us, not men, and act out our conscience, then we do not have to fear the opinions of other people. Paul lives by the leading of Jesus’s love, because Jesus died and resurrected to save all men, thus Paul lives not for himself or others’ approval, but in Jesus’s example and for His approval.

Our goal is to please God in light of our coming appearance before the judgment seat of Christ. He will reward us for our obedience, but for our bad actions, we will suffer a loss of rewards which could have been. Paul lives in obedience to God to preach to others because he remembers that this judgment day is coming.

Paul compares our earthly bodies to a tent, something that is transitory and temporary. He contrasts the tent with a building that is permanent and built by God, which will be our eternal dwelling. We walk by faith and not by sight through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us as a deposit on what is to come. This life is fleeting, and it will be better to be with God.

Micah now described four events that would occur before the future Messianic Kingdom.

Tragedies Sent by Satan: Satan orchestrates multiple disasters for Job, all on the same day. The Sabeans steal Job’s oxen and donkeys. Fire from the sky consumes his sheep and shepherds. The Chaldeans steal his camels and slay his servants. Worst of all, a wind blows against the house of his son, and the house collapses, killing every one of Job’s children. Job mourns these circumstances, but he worships God all the same. He knows that nothing belongs to him, and all material things will not last. Job does not blame God; he praises Him.

The LORD announces judgment on Israel because she has rejected Him and His covenantal laws. Israel will thus reap what she sows, and incur the consequences for their behavior, as spelled out in their covenant agreement with God.

Zechariah sees a flying scroll with curses written on each side. The scroll is the instrument through which the LORD will punish thieves and those who abuse His name by making false oaths.

The prophet Haggai receives the third message from the LORD during the second year of King Darius of Persia. He demonstrates how walking in obedience to God’s ways leads to blessing while exposing the unfaithfulness of the people, causing God to discipline them. Finally, he tells the Judeans that the LORD will bless them from this time on because they have followed Him and started to rebuild.

Instructions for Passover: Jesus’s disciples ask Him on the first day of Unleavened Bread where He wants to keep the Passover. He sends them into the city to find a certain man and deliver a message that Jesus will observe Passover at His house. The disciples follow Jesus’s instructions and Passover preparations are made. This short passage also contains important clues to help us piece together the final days and hours of Jesus’s life.

The Vision of the Ram and the Goat: Another horn grows from the four horns on the goat’s head. This horn grows enormous, reaching up into heaven and knocking stars from the sky, trampling them. It glorifies itself as equal with God. It puts itself in the Temple of God and prevents the Jewish people from making sacrifices. Daniel hears an angel tell another angel that this evil time will last for 2,300 days and nights, before the Temple is rescued.

Paul exhorts the Thessalonians to be sanctified, to live a life apart from sin and worldliness. Primarily this means living a sexually pure life. Sexual immorality is exploitative-it hurts other people. Sexual self-control allows us to love one another, rather than use each other.

Jesus has not come into the world to judge or rule it just yet; He has come to die the death of a suffering servant for the world’s sins. Whoever believes in Him will be saved from judgment, and will be reconciled to God, but whoever does not believe already stands condemned to separation from God. Jesus declares He is the Light, but men choose darkness so that they may sin continually. There is one fundamental choice in life: to either hate and fear the Light so that you can persist in sin, or to go to the Light and practice the truth and deeds ordained by God.

No matter what circumstances abound, God transcends it all. He provides now and forevermore, to great affect in both this human life and the one to come.

Joel urges the entire community of Judah to gather for a sacred fast with the hope that the Suzerain God will forgive and restore.

Boaz explains that there is a relative closer than him.

Luke begins his Gospel account with a preface to a man called Theophilus, whose name means: “friend of God.”

Jesus and His disciples arrive on the other side of the sea on the eastern shore in the Greco—Roman province called the Decapolis. Two violent, demon-possessed men come out to meet them and shout at Jesus, calling Him the "Son of God." Jesus casts these demons into a herd of swine. The swine run off a cliff into the sea and to their deaths. When this is reported to the inhabitants of the city of Gadarenes, the entire city comes out to see Jesus and beg him to go away.

Jesus informs His disciples that they will not be greater than Him, but they can be like Him. This likeness (and their greatness) will come through sharing with Him in the suffering. Jesus forecasts that they will be mistreated for following Him, even as He has been mistreated.

Jesus tells the disciples to quickly move on to the next town if they face hostility, because even as it is there is not enough time to get the message that the Messiah is coming before He appears. Therefore they are not to waste time on those who do not wish to receive this message.

Jesus puts the disciples on notice that there is a high cost to following Him but there is great reward for those who endure it to the end.