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Corinth was a busy metropolitan city in the days that Paul helped start the church there. But Corinth also had a much-deserved reputation for moral bankruptcy. Folks who were in the practice of using prostitutes were said to have “Corinthianized.” This term later came to be used to describe moral decay in general. The sins out of which the Corinthian Christians came attest to the type of society it was (1 Cor. 6:9-11). At the time Paul wrote his first…

Love has long been held up as a far superior trait than hatred, and it isn’t hard to see why. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:7-8). In a discussion of the three supreme traits of faith, hope, and love, Paul affirmed that “the greatest of these is…

One month before signing the Emancipation Proclamation, Abraham Lincoln wrote a letter to Congress in which he addressed freeing the country’s slaves. In it, Lincoln stressed the importance of doing the right thing to “save our country,” which he described as “the last best hope of earth.” I want to borrow and amend Lincoln’s words. The family unit in American culture is under attack from many sides: radical feminism, which denies the value of husbands and fathers; gay rights advocates…

While there is definitely an emotional component to love, true love is not merely emotion. True love is also a decision. It is a deliberate act of the will. The Bible reveals some measuring sticks by which we can determine whether or not our love for God is as deep as it could be. Our love for God is measured by how much we love each other. “But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and…

If the Lord wills, Mary and I (and a number of other BT members) will travel this week to Sevierville, Tennessee, for the annual workshop called “Polishing the Pulpit.” What began less than twenty years ago with three friends getting together to bounce sermon ideas off each other has now grown to an annual event that boasts an attendance of over 4,000! It’s called “Polishing the Pulpit” because it started out as a workshop designed just for preachers to hone…

There are at least two results of sinful choices: guilt and consequences. By guilt, I mean the debt that God places on your spiritual account and for which the impenitent will be lost. By consequences, I refer to the adverse temporal circumstances in one’s life that are brought about by the sin. Consider these two components. Guilt When a man commits sin he transgresses God’s law (1 John 3:4) and incurs a debt to God that he is incapable of…

“As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.” Psalm 16:3, ESV In the passage above, David revealed his love for his kinsmen. They were God’s people, which made them majestic and noble. That’s high praise for people who weren’t perfect. David’s fellow-Israelites made their share of mistakes. They had their flaws. They committed their sins. Yet, inspired of the Holy Spirit, David called them “excellent” – warts, blemishes, and all.…

“For I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus,” Acts 21:13. Last week I wrote that death did not scare Paul because he was in a proper relationship with God. Being baptized into Christ, he knew that at the moment of his death, all would be well. But there is more to being prepared to die than just being immersed with Christ. 2) Paul was not afraid…

Ralph Kramden, the loveable oaf portrayed on television by Jackie Gleason in the 1950s, found it easy to put his foot in his mouth. When asked why he didn’t treat Alice, his wife, in the same romantic way he did before they were married, he replied, “Why keep running after you catch the bus?” His misguided philosophy not only illustrates what is all too often the case in marriages, it also has found a place in the relationships that some Christians have…