Blog

Latest Blog Posts from Wednesday in the Word, the podcast about what the Bible means and how we know.

April 2019 Recap

April 2019 Recap

1Corinthians starts May 1 on the podcast — and I can’t wait! 1Corinthians is one of Paul’s most important letters. In this NEW series, we’ll tackle both the interpretative questions and the issues Paul covers, including: divisions in the church, the place of wisdom, rewards in heaven, church discipline, sexuality in marriage, women’s head coverings, the Lord’s supper, spiritual gifts, and more.

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Paul in Corinth (Acts 18)

Paul in Corinth (Acts 18)

Acts 18 records Paul’s first visit to Corinth. Understanding Paul’s relationship to the Corinthian church is crucial to understanding his letters to Corinth.

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11 1 John 5:13-21 Confidence in the Gospel

11 1 John 5:13-21 Confidence in the Gospel

John concludes his letter saying believers can have confidence about three things:  1) that you have eternal life, 2) that your sin cannot jeopardize that life and 3) that this gospel message is true.

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How many letters did Paul write to  Corinth?

How many letters did Paul write to Corinth?

How many letters did the Apostle Paul write to the Corinthian church?  The answer is not as easy as it sounds.  We have two letters to the church at Corinth in our Bible, but both of these letters mention another letter. Many scholars believe Paul wrote four letters to the Corinthian church but only two of them survived.   If they are right, the chronology of Paul’s correspondence and visits to Corinth might look something like this.

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City of Corinth

City of Corinth

In Paul’s time Corinth was the 2nd most important city in the Roman empire.  Corinth was an exceptionally wealthy and important city in Greece.

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09 1 John 4:7-19 Perfect Love

09 1 John 4:7-19 Perfect Love

In 1 John 4:7-19, John explains why self-sacrificing love is a mark of a believer: this other-focused love is part of God’s holy character and God is in the process of giving us His character.

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March 2019 Recap

March 2019 Recap

Our series on 1 John continues through March and April. Then we will start a new study on a book I’ve never taught in person! I plan to take advantage of the podcast platform to explore this book in more depth, and cover more Bible study “how to’s.” I hope you’ll join me!

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07 1John 3:13-24 Love and Hate

07 1John 3:13-24 Love and Hate

How can John say that love is a mark of believers and hate is a mark of non-believers when we know believers who struggle with hate and non-believers who genuinely love others?

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06 1 John 2:29-3:12 Practicing Righteousness

06 1 John 2:29-3:12 Practicing Righteousness

No true believer is committed to sin as a lifestyle because God plants in believers a longing for holiness and righteousness which opposes any tendency to rebel. Believers no longer remain committed to a lifestyle of sin.

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February 2019 Recap

February 2019 Recap

Your response to my request to break 100,000 downloads has been overwhelming (103,493 downloads and counting)! If this rate continues, we’ll average over 3000 listeners per month! That’s the equivalent of offering the in-person study 3 times every day. I am grateful and I hope you are enjoying the 11-week series on 1 John we started in February.

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04 1 John 2:12-17 Loving the World

04 1 John 2:12-17 Loving the World

John sets the world and the gospel in opposition to each other. You can’t serve them both. You have to choose and his first exhortation is don’t choose the world.

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03 1John 2:1-11 Abide in Christ

03 1John 2:1-11 Abide in Christ

How should we handle theological disagreements among believers? What issues are so critically important that we should draw a line? And, on what issues should we agree to disagree? John gives us a place to draw the line.

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02 1 John 1:5-10 God is Light

02 1 John 1:5-10 God is Light

John begins his summary of the true gospel by saying God is the source of and all life, salvation and holiness. Therefore those who are trust Him will have lives marked by a concern for goodness and a pursuit of righteousness.

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01 1 John 1:1-4 The Word of Life

01 1 John 1:1-4 The Word of Life

Of all the competing voices out there, how do you know which one is right? Which one is worth listening to? And which ones carry more weight than the others? Who you listen to and why is a major theme of the letter of 1 John. John wrote this letter teach his readers to recognize the difference between the true gospel and false gospels and between true teachers and false teachers.

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Early Church Heresies

Early Church Heresies

While not a complete list of early church heresies, these groups are the ones that the New Testament authors seem to write against and respond to most often.

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January 2019 Recap

January 2019 Recap

As I write this, the 426 episodes of the WitW podcast have been downloaded 100,422 times! In fact, we crossed 100,000 EARLY in January. Thanks to everyone who listened and sent a note! You are most appreciated! We finish 2 Peter January 30 and will start a NEW series in February. Stay tuned.

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13 2 Peter 3:8-9 Free will and God’s sovereignty

13 2 Peter 3:8-9 Free will and God’s sovereignty

2 Peter 3:8-9 features in the debate over God’s sovereignty and human free will. While this verse does not settle the debate, understanding what Peter means in context teaches us a lot about both good Bible study and the issues in the debate.

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12 2 Peter 3:1-7 The Point of it all

12 2 Peter 3:1-7 The Point of it all

Peter argues that more than anything else we need to find life through forgiveness and to find fulfillment through righteousness. It is this hope that he wants us to remember such that we let it change our lives today.

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2018 Reflections

2018 Reflections

A look at what we added to the blog in 2018, the most popular podcasts of the year and the all-time favorites.

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08 2 Peter 2:5-10 The Certainty of Judgment

08 2 Peter 2:5-10 The Certainty of Judgment

The coming judgment of God is not a popular topic today. We prefer to emphasize God’s love instead. Yet Peter thought judgment was important enough to include in his final letter, so that would remember it long after he is gone.

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Understanding Biblical Greek Verbs

Understanding Biblical Greek Verbs

Bible Study software has made biblical Greek more accessible for those who never learned the language. Now with 1 click you can access the Greek word and its conjugation but what are you looking at? Here’s a helpful primer on Greek verbs.

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