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Daily Bible Study

December 11, 2024 Bible Study — Live Holy Lives by Rejoicing, Praying, and Giving Thanks, No Matter What Our Circumstances

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Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Thessalonians 1-5.

Paul wrote to the Thessalonian believers that they should strive to live to please God.  Specifically, that they should try to do so more and more, because he knew that they were already doing so.  We should avoid sexual immorality, and control our bodies.  Paul implies that sexual immorality* involves taking advantage of others.  Paul teaches that we should avoid taking advantage of others to satisfy our desires and instead control our bodies and thoughts in order to serve the needs of others in love.  We should live holy lives.  We work towards doing so means minding our own business and working so that we are not dependent on others.  Interestingly, after telling us to mind our own business Paul writes that we should warn those who are idle and disruptive.  Further, he tells us to live in peace with our fellow believers and strive to do what is good for each other, and for everyone else.  Paul closely linked doing what is good for others to not paying back wrong to those who wronged us.  Finally, I think that some of Paul’s conclusion will help us understand what he means when he tells us to live holy lives.  He tells us to rejoice always, pray continually, and give thanks no matter what circumstance we find ourselves in.  Hold onto what is good and reject every kind of evil.

 

*Paul here only mentions sexual immorality, but from his other letters I think it is clear that he would include impurity, lust, and evil desires in this instruction, and quite possibly greed as well.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

November 12, 2024 Bible Study — Peter Was Not Worried About Offending People

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Acts 1-3.

I want to start with something from the account of what happened at Pentecost, or perhaps a couple of somethings.  The first part was the sound which was the first thing that happened which made that day unique from other times when Jesus’ followers had gathered since His ascension.  The sound of a violent wind is what drew the crowd to which Peter preached.  The second thing is that Luke writes that “each one heard their own language being spoken.”  He does not write that Jesus’ followers spoke in those languages.  Rather, the people heard their own language.  Each of the people heard what they were saying in their own language.  When the Holy Spirit came upon this gathering of Believers, He did not cause them to speak in various languages.  He caused the people listening to hear them in their own language.  It seems likely that the disciples would not have realized that anything unusual was going on in their speech if the crowd had not brought it to their attention.

Which brings me to the two sermons Peter preached in today’s passage.  One on the day of Pentecost, to the crowd which gathered to see what had caused the sound of a violent wind (when, apparently there was no wind).  The other at the temple after he and John had healed a man who had been lame since birth.  In the first, after using Scripture to explain what was going on, Peter told the crowd that it was all about Jesus, whom they had crucified.  He very explicitly held them responsible for Jesus being crucified.  Then at the temple, Peter once again told the crowd that they were responsible for Jesus’ death.  That they had killed Him.  He did not candy coat it, or try to avoid offending them.  Now, we can easily take the wrong point from this.  The point is not that we need to be brutally honest with people, or that we must speak with a total disregard for whether we offend our listeners, although there are times when that is indeed the case.  No, the point here is that we need to acknowledge that we are responsible for Christ’s death.  Our actions led to His crucifixion.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.