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.
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”?
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.
Paul’s message in Philippians is essentially the same as Moses in Deuteronomy 30:19-20: Choose life by loving the lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him. He opens the letter expressing his gratitude — not because the Philippians have sent him financial support. But rather he is grateful that the gospel was so important to the Philippians that they wanted to support it.
Study questions, maps, charts, key words, history, background, outlines, and links to help you study Peter’s second epistle.
Study questions, maps, charts, key words, history, background, outlines, and links to help you study Paul’s first epistle to the Thessalonians.
Bible Study 201: Teach the Bible. Take your Bible study to the next step. Learn to teach the bible with Wednesday in the Word.
In Acts 16, when Luke reports on the conversion of two locals, he tells us that Paul baptized their entire households. Why would Paul baptize an entire household?
After you’ve done your observation, word studies, outlining and answered the questions you generated, it’s time to start putting it all together. In this step, you want to collect, refine and organize all those details you observed into a coherent meaning.
We use figurative language all the time: “I’ll have to face the music.” “I’m bored to tears.” “She has a green thumb.” “Don’t let the cat out of the bag.” “He died of embarrassment.” Biblical writers also used figurative language and vivid imagery. How are we to understand it?
Registration is a chance to collect valuable information about your participants that can help you build small groups, evaluate the success of your program and plan for the future. Here are some questions you might want to include on your registration forms.
Years later, Nehemiah returns to Jerusalem to find the people have broken all their vows. His reaction is ruthless — to make a point.
Krisan Marotta is a Bible teacher and host of Wednesday in the Word, the podcast about what the Bible means and how we know.