Category: Bible Study

“Jesus answered: ‘I give you My word, there is no one who has given up home, brothers or sisters, mother or father, children or property, for Me and for the gospel who will not receive in this present age a hundred times as many homes, brothers and sisters, mothers, children and property – and persecution besides – and in the age to come, everlasting life.’ ” –Mark 10:29-30 We will either give up our lives for love of Jesus, or we will give up hope. We will either abandon ourselves to Him or we will despair as life becomes impossible....

“All of you who have been baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Him.” –Galatians 3:27 Being clothed with Christ means: living “honorably as in daylight” and making “no provision for the desires of the flesh” (Rm 13:13, 14), putting “on that new man created in God’s image, whose justice and holiness are born of truth” (Eph 4:24), being clothed “with power from on high” (Lk 24:49), that is, the Holy Spirit (see Acts 1:8), clothing ourselves “with heartfelt mercy, with kindness, humility, meekness, and patience” (Col 3:12), clothing ourselves with humility in our “relations with one another” (1 Pt...

“The result is that the last state of the man is worse than the first.” –Luke 11:26 The worst and sometimes last state of a human being is to be repossessed by a devil and newly possessed by several other devils (Lk 11:26). The first step of the road to this worst state is to be possessed by a devil. Most people think that very few people are in the first or last state. However, in the second letter of Peter, the Lord refers to the first state not as the unusual situation of being demon-possessed but as simply our...

“After beginning in the Spirit, are you now to end in the flesh?” –Galatians 3:3 The greatest tragedy possible is to end in the flesh. Jesus died and rose to make us new creations. It would be a great tragedy to die still trapped in our fallen nature and refusing the total newness of life in Christ (see 2 Cor 5:17). If we die in the flesh, it will probably not be because we rebelled against God shortly before our deaths. Dying in the flesh, instead of dying to the flesh, is a harvest of corruption produced by the sowing...

“I went prompted by a revelation, and I laid out for their scrutiny the gospel as I present it.” –Galatians 2:2 The Lord commands every Christian to be submissive to God-given authority (Eph 5:21). Wives are to be prime examples of this submission. They are to teach all Christians the peace, joy, freedom, and disciplines of submission (see Eph 5:22). Submission is not a man-made idea but a gift of God. Thus, God revealed to Paul to submit his ministry and preaching to the authority of the leaders of the Jerusalem church (Gal 2:1-2). In Paul’s submission, he received affirmation...