We can have all the knowledge in the universe, but if we don’t fear the Lord, the Bible calls us fools. The fear of the Lord is the necessary ingredient that turns knowledge into wisdom. In that way, our righteousness must surpass that of the scribes and the Pharisees.
The Pharisees consider themselves blameless before the law if they have refrained from physically committing adultery. But Jesus says righteousness requires more. It requires inward submission to the will of God and accepting the boundaries He has placed on your life, including your sexuality.
Wayne Grudem’s 10 rules for how to interpret the Bible. The first 3 rules are the most important.
If you’re building a bible study library, here are the basic tools you need to get started.
The Pharisees believed they were righteous because no court could convict them of murder. But Jesus countered that if courts were in charge of judging righteousness, then responding to others with unloving anger would get you arrested; and calling people insulting names would get you thrown into the fires of judgment.
Tools and resources you need to do a word study on the Greek verb for to sanctify or to make holy.
In the second section of this sermon Jesus warns that our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. Unlike them, we must have a genuine commitment to the Scriptures and what they teach if we want to find life in the kingdom of God. We must seek to understand the full demands of the Law and want to obey it.
The canon of Scripture is the list of all the books that belong in the Bible. The Bible, the Apocrypha and history all testify to the historical development of the Old Testament canon.
Whenever you study Scripture, it’s important to know where your particular passage fits into biblical history. As Karl Barth said: “The Bible is not a philosophical book, but a history book, the book of God’s mighty acts, in which God becomes knowable to us.” Here’s a simple overview of biblical history.
The “so what” of being justified by faith is now we have a reason to boast. Paul explains the 3 things we boast about in Romans 5:1-11. The first is hope.
Tools and resources you need to do a word study on the Greek word for hypocrite, hupokrités.
The Wednesday in the Word podcast is on break to celebrate the arrival of my newest grandchild! We’ll return to the Gospel of Matthew in mid-September. We finished the beatitudes We’ll pick up with the “Antitheses.”
Krisan Marotta is a Bible teacher and host of Wednesday in the Word, the podcast about what the Bible means and how we know.