Church membership is a blood-bought gift of God’s grace. More than most of us realize, it is a life-sustaining, faith-strengthening, joy-preserving means of God’s mercy to us. I urge you not to cut yourself off from this blessing. [From How Important Is Church Membership? :: Desiring God Christian Resource Library]
Amen to this quote from Donald Macleod’s The Humiliated and Exalted Lord, cited by Ligon Duncan:
:Theology exists in order to be applied to the day-to-day problems of the Christian church. Every doctrine has its application. All scripture is profitable and all the doctrine is profitable. Similarly all the application must be based on doctrine. In both the Philippians example-passage and the Corinthian example-passage, Paul is dealing with what are surely comparative trivia, the problem of vain glory in a Christian congregation and the problem of failure of Christian liberality. As a Pastor one meets with these difficulties daily. They are standing problems. Yet Paul, as he wrestles with both of them, has recourse to the most massive theology. It’s not only that you have the emphasis on the unity between theology and practice but you have the emphasis on the applicability of the profoundest theology to the most mundane and most common-place problems. Who would ever imagine that the response to the glory of the incarnation might be to give to the collection for the poor? Who might imagine that the application of the glories of New Testament Christology might be to stop our quarreling and our divisiveness in the Christian ekklesia? That is what Paul is doing here. He is telling them: You have these practical problems; the answer is theological; remember your theology and place your behavior in the light of that theology. Place your little problems in the light of the most massive theology. We ourselves in our Christian callings are to be conscious of this. We must never leave our doctrine hanging in the air, nor hesitate to enforce the most elementary Christian obligations with the most sublime doctrines.
[From The Answer to Practical Problems Must Involve Robust Doctrine]
From Thabiti Anyabwile’s great blog PureChurch.
Grudem’s chapter in Preach the Word offers some helpful reminders on correctly interpreting the Scripture.
1. Spend your earliest and best time reading the text of the Bible itself.
2. The interpretation of Scripture is not a magical or mysterious process, because Scripture was written in the ordinary language of the day.
3. Every interpreter has only four sources of information about the text: (a) The meanings of individual words and sentences; (b) the place of the statement in its context; (c) the overall teaching of Scripture; (d) some information about the historical and cultural background.
4. Look for reasons rather than mere opinions to give support to an interpretation, and use reasons rather than mere opinions to attempt to persuade others.
5. There is only one meaning for each text (though there are many applications).
6. Notice the kind of literature in which the verse is found.
7. Notice whether the text approves or disapproves or merely reports a person’s actions.
8. Be careful not to generalize specific statements and apply them to fundamentally different situations.
9. It is possible to do a short or long study of any passage. Do what you can with the time you have, and don’t be discouraged about all that you cannot do.
10. Pray regularly for the Holy Spirit’s help in the whole process of interpreting the Bible.
Grudem goes on to encourage his readers to keep the “big picture” in mind with 6 other reflections.
1. The Bible is a historical document. Therefore, always ask, “What did the author want the original readers to understand by this statement?”2. The original authors wanted the original readers to respond in some way. Therefore always ask, “What application did the original author want the readers to make to their lives?”
3. The whole Bible is about God! Therefore we should always ask, “What does the text tell us about God?”
4. The center of the whole Bible is Jesus Christ. The entire Old Testament leads up to him and points to him, and the entire New Testament flows from him. Therefore, we should always ask, “What does this text tell us about the greatness of Christ?”
5. All history can be divided into several major “ages” or “epochs” in salvation history. Therefore, we should read every passage of the Bible with a salvation history timeline in our minds and constantly remember where every passage fits on the timeline.
6. Themes: Because the Bible is a unity (it has one divine Author though many human authors), there are many themes that develop and grow from Genesis to Revelation. Therefore, for each significant element in any text, it is helpful to ask, (a) Where did this theme start in the Bible? (b) How did this theme develop through the Bible? and (c) Where is this theme going to end in the Bible?
Happy Bible interpreting! [From 10 Tips from Grudem on Bible Interpretation]
I’ve been holding onto these posts for a while, saving them in the Clippings section of NetNewsWire. Some are profound and some are less-so, but all are worth revisiting in the future
I realize this post is very late, but here are my thoughts on the 9Marks Weekender
Psalm 128: 1-6
Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord,
who walks in his ways!
2 You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands;
you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots
around your table.
4 Behold, thus shall the man be blessed
who fears the Lord.5 The Lord bless you from Zion!
May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life!
6 May you see your children’s children!
Peace be upon Israel!
Not the cover, but green-lettered.
But what truly sets The Green Bible apart is that it’s a “green-letter edition.” It’s akin to the New Testaments in which the words of Jesus are printed in red. Except in this case, “over a thousand references to the earth and caring for creation” appear in green ink. While there are certainly more instances besides the highlighted ones that would have applied, the editors tell us in the prefatory material, they have chosen only those “speaking directly to the project’s core mission.”
Talk about pandering and perverting the intention of God’s Word to point to His redeeming work in Christ.
From Josh Harris’ blog at Covenant Life Church
Recently a couple pursuing membership in our church wrote me a very thoughtful, humble letter with questions generated by the recent sermon “Don’t Waste Your Vote.” In particular, they took issue with the emphasis placed on the issue of abortion. While pro-life themselves, they felt that by highlighting abortion we were essentially endorsing a particular party. I wrote them back and sought to share the perspective of the pastoral team, why we did what we did and how we view this issue.
…
We believe our role as pastors is to speak clearly to those areas that God’s word clearly addresses. When it comes to other areas where there is freedom in Scripture to hold different views, we don’t want to pretend that our viewpoint—mine or Robin’s or anyone else’s—holds some sort of special authority. So for example, I think the issue of the environment is very important. But I can’t say that God’s word speaks to a specific policy or political platform. But I can say that God’s word condemns the taking of innocent human life. And because of that, I think I have the responsibility to speak to it very clearly.
Via Justin Taylor from James Grant from David Alan Black’s article on The Literary Structure of 1 and 2 Thessalonians:
Step 1: First Reading
Read the letter for your first impressions. Answer some of the following questions:
1. What is the general tone or atmosphere of the letter?
2. What are Paul’s purposes for writing the letter? Does he seem to have one over-riding purpose in writing?
3. What are you personal impressions of the book? Which parts or topics interest you the most?
Step 2: Second Reading
The Greek text of 1 Thessalonians consists of 18 paragraphs (thought units) that together merge to communicate Paul’s message. Read each paragraph and then assign a title to each (a paragraph title is a summary in your own words of the central idea in the paragraph). The paragraphs are: 1:1; 1:2-10; 2:1-12; 2:13-16; 2:17-20; 3:1-5; 3:6-10; 3:11-13; 4:1-2; 4:3-8; 4:9-12; 4:13-18; 5:1-11; 5:12-22; 5:23-24; 5:25; 5:26-27; 5:28.
Step 3: Outline the Book
Go through the letter again (in comparison with your paragraph titles) and see if you can find any paragraphs that are of similar content. Construct a master outline of 1 Thessalonians based on your study thus far.
From Mars Hill, an amazingly cross-centered church in one of America’s least churched cities.