The church should be a place of warm personal relationships and close friendships. We should be abundant in our expressions of love, unity, and friendship. Read More ...
If the evidences of salvation are present, then you can be assured of your salvation. If the evidences of salvation are lacking or questionable—especially if you are guilty of the sins he mentions in this context—then you may be disqualified—a reprobate, one who fails the test. Read More ...
Imagine if Paul wrote us a letter in which he stated his plans to come and visit us. I wonder what we would need to clean up in preparation for his visit. What problems would we want to resolve before he got here? Are there any sins of the spirit or of the flesh that we would need to repent of? Now is the time to repent. Read More ...
Following Paul’s pattern here, we must continue to serve God by serving others, even when they are unloving, disloyal, and unappreciative. We continue serving even when we have to spend our own resources, even when we feel spent in the process. We can do that because, ultimately, we are serving God by serving such people. Our highest goal is to serve God, and sometimes that requires serving others who are not so nice. But we persevere, we continue to serve because we love the souls of men. Read More ...
I recently read an article that reflects the passage we are looking at today. The author, a former pastor wrote: When we presented some changes [to the church by-laws] that…
Maybe God will remove our thorns in the flesh; I hope he does. But if not, God’s grace is available for us as we experience afflictions and infirmities. Many of us have thorns in the flesh that we deal with. I trust that our testimony is the same as Paul’s—we’ve found that God’s grace is sufficient; we remain spiritually strong even when physically weak and afflicted. We keep on serving God in spite of our thorns and weaknesses because of God’s grace and strength. Read More ...
We must evaluate all spiritual experiences—our own or someone else’s—by the Word of God. If mystical experiences do not line up with biblical patterns and clear teaching, then we have no reason to believe the one claiming to have such experiences. I am frankly very doubtful of claims regarding supernatural experiences of this dramatic style. Read More ...
Like Paul, we should be deeply grieved when professing believers fall into sin and unbelief. It should bother us when they leave the church and neglect the faith. We should have a sense of compassion and sympathy for those who stumble. Read More ...
This list of abuse and misconduct—enslavement, exploitation, taking advantage, arrogance, insults—these are the danger signs exposing false teachers. If people do these kinds of things, it’s because they are satanic frauds. We must not gullibly tolerate such abuse and false teaching. We must see the difference between godly leaders and abusive tyrants. Read More ...
False teachers typically want to make the Gospel as easy and attractive as possible so the most people will accept it. So they strip it down and remove the “offense of the cross” (Gal 5:11). Read More ...