Daily Devotional 11-10-2021
1Co 4:9-13 For I think God has displayed us, the apostles, in last place, like men condemned to die: We have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to people. (10) We are fools for Christ, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are distinguished, but we are dishonored! (11) Up to the present hour we are both hungry and thirsty; we are poorly clothed, roughly treated, homeless; (12) we labor, working with our own hands. When we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; (13) when we are slandered, we respond graciously. Even now, we are like the scum of the earth, like everyone’s garbage. Paul was no fool. He did not like suffering. He wished they were right. But they weren’t. The apostles followed the path of Christ’s humiliation. As He marched a parade…
Daily Devotional 11-01-2021
Luk 6:35 But love your enemies, do what is good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High. For he is gracious to the ungrateful and evil. Therefore Jesus repeated that we should love our enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return. Such behavior is distinctly Christian and marks out those who are the sons of the Most High. Of course, this is not the way men become sons of the Most High; that can only happen through receiving Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. But this is the way true believers manifest themselves to the world as sons of God. He is kind to the unthankful and the evil. When we act like that, we manifest the family likeness. We show that we have been born of God.
Daily Devotional 10-28-21
Rom 6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. The attitude of mind that a believer has died to sin must be translated into action in his experience. Paul commanded, Therefore do not let sin reign as it did before salvation. The present imperative negative can also be translated, “Stop letting sin reign.” When sin reigns in people’s lives and bodies, they obey its evil desires. Sin enslaves, making a person subject to his own desires. Here, in the case of sin, the desires are evil. In your mortal body means that sin manifests itself through one’s physical actions in this body. The Greek here stresses that the body is mortal or dying. Perhaps this suggests the foolishness of giving in to the desires of a body that is transitory and decaying. To give in to a dying master is…
Daily Devotional 10-23-2021
2Co 4:10 We always carry the death of Jesus in our body, so that the life of Jesus may also be displayed in our body. The life of the servant of God is one of constant dying. Just as the Lord Jesus Himself, in His lifetime, was constantly exposed to violence and persecution, so those who follow in His steps will meet the same treatment. But it does not mean defeat. This is the way of victory. Blessing comes to others as we thus die daily. It is only in this way that the life of Jesus can be apparent in our bodies. The life of Jesus does not here mean primarily His life as a Man on earth, but His present life as the exalted Son of God in heaven. How can the world see the life of Christ when He is not personally or physically present in the…
Daily Devotional 10-2-2021
2Co 10:8 For if I boast a little too much about our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for tearing you down, I will not be put to shame. As an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul had been given authority in connection with the churches he established. The aim of this authority was to build up the saints in their most holy faith. The false teachers, on the other hand, were exercising an authority among the Corinthians which they had never received from the Lord. Not only so, but they were exercising this authority in a manner to tear down the saints rather than build them up. So Paul says that even if he boasted more abundantly in the authority, which the Lord gave him, he would not be put to shame for it. His claims would eventually prove to be true.
Daily Devotional 8-29-2021
Gal 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Basic to an understanding of this verse is the meaning of union with Christ. This doctrine explains that believers have been baptized by the Holy Spirit into Christ and into the church, the body of all true believers. Having been thus united to Christ, believers share in His death, burial, and resurrection. Paul could therefore write, I have been “crucified with Christ”. This brought death to the Law. It also brought a change in regard to one’s self: and I no longer live. The self-righteous, self-centered Saul died. Further, death with Christ ended Paul’s enthronement of self; he yielded the throne of his life to Another,…
Daily Devotional 8-23-2021
Php 3:10-11 My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, (11) assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead. To know Christ by experience & to experience the power of His resurrection was also the apostle’s goal. The power which brought Christ forth from the dead now operates in believers’ lives since they have been “raised with Christ”. “Power” means ability to overcome resistance. By setting forth his own goals and ambitions Paul gave the Philippians an example to follow. His example was, of course, in stark contrast to the Judaizers whose example they were not to follow. Paul also longed to share in the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings and in so doing to become like Him in His death. These sufferings were not Christ’s substitutionary sufferings on the cross. Paul…
Daily Devotional 8-18-2021
2Ti 2:8 Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead and descended from David, according to my gospel, Jesus is an example of suffering followed by glory. Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to Paul’s gospel. The thought is not that Timothy is to remember certain things about the Lord Jesus, but rather that he is to remember the Person Himself, alive from the dead. In one sense, this verse is a brief summary of the gospel which Paul preached. The crucial point in that gospel is the resurrection of the Savior. Hiebert writes: “Not the vision of a crucified Jesus but the vision of a risen Lord is held up before Timothy.” The expression of the seed of David is a simple statement that Jesus is the Christ, the descendant of David, in whom the Messianic promises of God are fulfilled.…