Thanks to Martin Luther (and others who followed him in the 16th century Reformation movement) good works have gotten a bad name in the religious world. Believing that good works have any place at all in the salvation of the soul is viewed as being unorthodox, and anyone who teaches such is deemed a heretic. […]
Four of Paul’s epistles were written while he was a prisoner in Rome. One of those epistles was sent to the church at Colossae. Colossae was a city in the Roman province of Asia, approximately 100 miles east of Ephesus and just below Laodicea. It seems the church at Colossae was doing okay from a […]
How do you love? If you are a Christian, I know you love others because you cannot be a Christian without doing so. The truth is, however, many Christians have an inadequate love. This is because their love lacks knowledge. Paul, being aware of this, prayed that saints would not only love others but have […]
In Matthew 16:26, Jesus asked, “For would it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” The obvious answer is that he will profit nothing. Why? Because the most important possession we have is our souls. The soul is eternal. We all will spend eternity in heaven (a place of […]
One of the problems of false doctrine is that God’s people sometimes overreact to it. What I mean by this is that some, in an attempt to avoid the error of the false doctrine, end up going to the opposite extreme. For example, Calvinism teaches that a person cannot fall from grace. This is clearly […]
Some people talk too much. They enjoy hearing their own voice so much that they are always blabbing about something. It is easy to grow weary of them. Even God does. “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath” (James 1:19). Being a “loud mouth” is […]
We should all do our best to avoid sin. Sin personified is our worst enemy. It is sin that separates us from God (Isaiah 59:1-20), and it is sin that leads to people spending eternity in a devil’s hell. The devil uses sin as bait to get us hooked on a life that is contrary […]
“Please yourself” seems to be the mantra that rings through the halls of society today. While doing good for others is applauded, putting ourselves first is the practical thing to do, at least that is what the world says. The shelves of bookstores (mostly found online anymore) are full of books on self (self-love, self-care, […]
The hope of the Christian is threefold. Heaven is the “where” of our hope. All Christians desire to spend eternity in heaven where our Savior is right now (John 14:1-3). Our glorified bodies are the “what” of our hope. Paul spoke often about the destiny of our mortal bodies (1 Corinthians 6:12-14; 15:35-56; Philippians 3:21). […]
One of the greatest events that happens in the world goes unseen by the masses. It takes place when a person is buried in baptism and becomes a Christian. When that happens, heaven rejoices (Luke 15:7). The person who obeys the gospel is immediately set free from Satan and sin and becomes a new creation […]