How to Understand God’s Will
A 3‑week Bible study on how to understand God’s will for you, your church, and your world, with practical insight from James, Exodus, Acts.
03 Interpreting the Psalms
Why we should interpret the Psalms at all. Why not just pick up the book and pray them? Why spend an hour on interpretation?
10 Rejoice in the Lord (Philippians 4:1–23)
Paul concludes his letter wrapping him up major themes of embracing the gospel individually and striving toward unity around that common belief and thanking them for their support and partnership in proclaiming the gospel.
09 What To Do When You Keep Sinning (Philippians 3:12–21)
What do you do when you try harder and still struggle with sin? That’s the question Paul answers in Philippians 3:12-31. Paul pauses to clarify what he means by perfection and the goal of the Christian life.
Understanding Hebrew Poetry
The key to understanding Hebrew poetry and Wisdom Literature is knowing that the “rhyme” of ideas is more important than the sounds. This “rhyming” of ideas is called parallelism.
08 Count It All Loss: Finding Hope in Christ Alone (Philippians 3:1–11)
With chapter 3 of Philippians, Paul begins a new but related topic. While his major concern is still that the Philippians sincerely embrace the gospel and so find eternal life, he now warns them against the false teaching of the Judaizers. While warning against legalism, Paul explains his view of his own “accomplishments” under the law.
07 Do All Things Without Grumbling (Philippians 2:14–30)
Paul concludes this first section of the body of the letter by again encouraging them to persevere in the faith and telling them of 3 ways he hopes to communicate with them.
06 What Does It Mean to ‘Work Out Your Salvation with Fear and Trembling’? (Philippians 2:12–13)
Philippians 2:12-13 is one of Paul’s most famous statements and it’s one we forget to place in the context of the letter. At first reading, it looks like Paul is highlighting a paradox of YOU work out your salvation because GOD is working in you. But in context, I think Paul is still concerned that the Philippians are living their lives in a manner worthy of the gospel (1:27) and are motivated to do so for the right reasons.
05 The Mind of Christ: Learning True Greatness (Philippians 2:5–11)
Philippians 2:5-11 is traditionally associated with the doctrine of the Trinity. However, I think the context suggests that Paul’s main point is not to teach the doctrine of the Trinity. From an interpretative standpoint, I believe the context suggests that Paul intends to teach something about unity and our attitude towards other believers, and he uses Christ as an example to make that point. If we also learn something about the Trinity, that is icing on the cake.
04 Standing Firm and Staying United (Philippians 1:27-2:4)
Philippians 1:27 begins a new section in which Paul urges his readers to live a life worthy of the gospel. Living such a life does not mean that you will live a perfect life. Rather if we actually believe the gospel is true, we now see the world differently and, we begin to view some things as right, proper and good, and begin to view other things as wrong, selfish and evil. And we choose accordingly.
03 To Live Is Christ, to Die Is Gain: How Paul Views Suffering and Ministry (Philippians 1:12-26)
What are we to make of Paul’s joy that selfishly ambitious teachers are proclaiming the gospel? And, what can we learn from his famous statement “to live is Christ, to die is gain”?
02 Why Paul Didn’t Pray for Comfort And What He Asked for Instead (Philippians 1:9-11)
Paul’s opening prayer in Philippians reflect what he hopes and confidently expects God to do in the lives of his readers and it introduces the main theme of his letter. From this short prayer, we can learn what we ought to most want for ourselves and for each other.
About the Author
Krisan Marotta is a Bible teacher and host of Wednesday in the Word, the podcast about what the Bible means and how we know.