For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother and sister and mother. Mt. 12:50 What does it mean to do the will of the Father of Christ? To unpack the implications of this text, we note the following things. To do the will of the Father in heaven means that …
But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and …
And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. 2 Tim. 4:18 When the apostle Paul wrote these words to Timothy, he was languishing in prison in Rome. Not only that, but he knew that he was about to die …
I'm referring, of course, to the ruler of Babylon at the fall of the empire to the Medes and Persians in 539 B.C. He is an interesting figure because for a long time scholars took the book of Daniel to be a later work of fiction; after all, everyone knew that Nabonidus, not Belshazzar (as seems to …
Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another. Romans 12:10 Or, as the ESV translates it: Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. One of the ways the love commanded in verse 9 is manifested is in a family spirit …
"[How] shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed according to thy word" Psalm 119:9. The question is revealing. Notice the psalmist doesn’t say, “ Why should a young man cleanse his way?” Neither does he ask, “ Shoulda young man cleanse his way?” He has already moved past the point that so …
Called to be saints. Romans 1:7 In the NT, there are two different types of calling. There is the general call of the gospel, which is the call that goes out to all men to repent and believe the gospel. This is what is being referred to, for example, in Matthew 22:14, when our Lord says that …
To all that be in Rome, beloved of God. Romans 1:7 Let us not miss the implications of this grand statement. Every believer is loved by God. Now, I want to push back here at a notion of the love of God that waters down the force of these words. It comes from a failure to distinguish between the …
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Mt. 6:13 Commentators on this verse to this day have spent a lot of time trying to sort out the difficulty of this petition. The difficulty comes in like this. The word behind “temptation” is the Greek word peirasmos, and could be …
And the Lord said unto Moses, Is the Lord's hand waxed short? thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not. Numbers 11:23 This is God's reply to the incredulity that Moses had over God's promise to feed the nation of Israel with meat for a month. Moses couldn't imagine …