Tag: Paul

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Five Trustworthy Sayings From the Apostle Paul

Five-Trustworthy-Sayings-From-the-Apostle-Paul

The phrase “trustworthy sayings” occurs five times in the Bible. It likely refers to phrases that were commonly used and accepted by the early church.

Paul’s inclusion of these phrases in his letters affirms them as reliable truth.

Here are the five trustworthy sayings that Paul recorded:

1. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:15).

2. If someone aspires to be an elder, he desires an honorable position (1 Timothy 3:1).

3. Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come (1 Timothy 4:8-9).

4. If we die with him, we will also live with him. That is, if we endure hardship, we will reign with him. If we deny him, he will deny us. And if we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is (2 Timothy 2:11).

5. When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.

He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.

He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior (Titus 3:5-8).

Because of his grace he declared us righteous and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life.

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Bogged Down Reading the Bible?

10 Essential Bible Reading Tips, from Peter DeHaan

Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.”
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Training for the Best

Training for the Best

Training for the Best

In Paul’s letter to Timothy, he contrasts physical training (which is good) to spiritual training (which is better).

I wonder, how often do we pursue things that are good, while pushing aside God’s things that are better?

That’s something to think about next time we’re working out or pursuing some leisure time activity.

After all, I don’t want to live a good life, but the best life possible.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is 1 Timothy 4-6, and today’s post is on 1 Timothy 4:8.]

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Bogged Down Reading the Bible?

10 Essential Bible Reading Tips, from Peter DeHaan

Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.”
​
​Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.

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Living in the Prophetic

Living in the Prophetic.

Living in the Prophetic

In Paul’s letter to Timothy he talks about a prophecy that he made regarding Timothy. (A prophecy is a God-inspired foretelling of the future.)

Often we think of a prophecy as being about some grand, distantly future event—like the end of the world or major catastrophe—but that is not always the case.

A prophecy can also be given for a specific person that will occur in the near future. So it was when God gave prophetic words to Paul for Timothy.

What is interesting is that Paul says the prophecy is to inspire Timothy and aid him.

This seems to suggest that we shouldn’t just passively accept a prophetic word that may be given for us, but need to intentionally move in that direction.

That doesn’t mean that by our own efforts we accomplish what was predicted, but merely that we expectantly allow God to do in us, or for us, what he said.

That, too, is living in the prophetic.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is 1 Timothy 1-3, and today’s post is on Timothy 1:18.]

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Bogged Down Reading the Bible?

10 Essential Bible Reading Tips, from Peter DeHaan

Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.”
​
​Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.

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Would You Dare Tell Someone “Imitate Me?”

imitate

Discover Why Paul Says This

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul tells readers to follow his example and to the Corinthians he writes, “imitate me” (Philippians 3:17 and 1 Corinthians 4:16). This strikes me as bold and audacious, arrogant and presumptuous.

This seemingly brash statement, however, is illuminated when he later instructs readers to imitate him as he imitates Jesus (1 Corinthians 11:1).

I’m certainly more comfortable with that. After all, Jesus provides us with the ultimate example, which we are wise to follow.

To take this line of thinking one more step, Jesus asserts that he “can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing” (John 5:19). Therefore, he is imitating God the Father.

So, when we encounter the command in Ephesians 5:1 to “be imitators of God”—who we have never seen—we are not taken aback. Paul imitates Jesus, Jesus imitates God, and there are ample examples about the both of them in the Bible.

Note that Paul can’t expect the Corinthian church to imitate Jesus, because they have never seen Jesus. Therefore they don’t know how to imitate him. But Paul does know Jesus and imitates him.

This means that has the people imitate Paul—as he imitates Jesus—the people are in effect, imitating Jesus, and thereby imitating God.

So through Jesus and Paul, we know God’s character and are thus able to imitate him.

This begs the question, is our life lived as one worthy of being imitated by others?

Read more in Peter’s book, Love is Patient (book 7 in the Dear Theophilus series).

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

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What Good is a Little Bit of Yeast?

yeast for boasting

I did a word study on the usage of yeast in the Bible. Here is what I found:

Yeast is used symbolically to represent influence, usually negatively.  Just as a little bit of yeast, permeates dough and produces a noticeable result, so to does influence, be it good or bad.

  • The Bible contains many references to not using yeast in various religious practices, which symbolically shows the removal of sin.
  • Paul compares false teaching to yeast.
  • Another negative connotation is when Jesus says, beware of the yeast of the Pharisees (which is hypocrisy) and also the Sadducees and Herod.
  • In seemingly the only positive usage of yeast in the Bible, Jesus says that the Kingdom of God (that is, the Kingdom of Heaven) is like yeast.
  • In a final reference to yeast Paul uses it as a metaphor for boasting. Paul talks about getting rid of bread with old yeast (malice and wickedness) and using new bread without yeast (sincerity and truth).

[Check out where these references to yeast are found.]

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Bogged Down Reading the Bible?

10 Essential Bible Reading Tips, from Peter DeHaan

Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.”
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​Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.

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Are You Operating in Weakness or Strength?

weakness or strength

Do you ever feel spiritually weak? If so, you are not alone. In fact, if anyone ever tells you otherwise, they are lying; if they seem otherwise, they are posing.

The church in Philadelphia was also weak, but in that weakness remained true to God and his word (see Revelation 3:8). This is most encouraging to all of us weak people.

A strong weakness may seem like an oxymoron, but it’ s not.  When we are weak, we can turn to God who gives us the strength we need. As Paul said, “When I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).

So, despite our weaknesses, we can prevail by God’s strength.

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Bogged Down Reading the Bible?

10 Essential Bible Reading Tips, from Peter DeHaan

Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.”
​
​Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.