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Romans 16 shows Paul’s support for women leaders
In this series of articles about Romans, I’m planning to jump around. It’s because I buy into Scot McKnight’s view that the book is much more understandable when reading it backwards – digging early on into the effective conclusions in the final few chapters. Some read Romans as though Paul was writing it to defend…
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Romans 1 introduces a pastoral letter to Jews and Gentiles
The big risk in reading Paul’s letter to the Romans is not realising its context. This is a letter with a pastoral intent: Paul is trying to help Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus to get along. As Scot McKnight has noted, parts of the letter are really aimed at only one of the two…
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The eye-opening communion after Jesus preached
What does the Eucharist, or Holy Communion, mean to you? I’ve always thought it as one of my favourite parts of a church service, and I think this is because it offers guided space for reflection. At the same time, something spiritual happens when we consecrate the Holy Communion, which John Calvin thought of as…
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Sacraments help fuel harmony in churches
In an attempt to develop an ethos of “real”, modern Christianity, churches sometimes wipe away liturgy and relegate communion to a once-a-month endeavour. But there’s a real danger that, far from improving the culture of a church, it actually creates division. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the great Lutheran theologian, pastor and opponent of Nazism, suggested in his…
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Ephesians 6: Paul subverts hierarchies
In Ephesians 6, Paul continues his theme of people submitting to each other. “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ,” he said in the previous chapter, before talking about married life. Now he moves on to children and parents, and – controversially – the relationship of slaves and masters. Children and parents He…
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Proverbs 14:30: envy rots the bones
I don’t know if you’ve ever had this experience. It’s when you realise that someone unexpectedly has a problem with you, but not because of anything that you’ve done to them. Instead, it’s because they’re envious of your position. Some call this phenomenon “letting you live rent free in their upstairs room”. It’s a type…
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Ephesians 5:21-33: how husbands should behave
Translating the Bible requires a lot of judgment calls. As readers, we generally value publishers inserting helpful subheadings in the text. These weren’t in the original manuscripts but they help us navigate the pages. In today’s article, we look at the tail end of Ephesians 5. And I think the NIV makes gets the judgment…
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Ephesians 5:1-15: letting in the light
Sometimes it’s possible to buy technology a bit too early. I made this mistake when I bought a digital camera before they got really good. It captured pictures with a full one megapixel, as the marketing pointed out. But it just didn’t let in enough light when you took a photo indoors. The result was…
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Ephesians 4: stay gentle
Nearly a decade ago, I heard a former vice-president of a big American tech business speak. He explained his view that the key to success in life was to express your analysis of what’s going wrong with brutal honesty. I have certainly seen people being put in charge of projects through this imperious approach. It…
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Ephesians 3: Paul’s mission is costly
Paul’s mission to the Gentiles is costly. He begins Ephesians with an incomplete sentence (NIV), but one that explains his predicament: For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles This is not someone making a theoretical argument. It’s not a social media warrior tweeting from their armchair…
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Romans: a new series
This current aim on this blog is to write a blog post of 400+ words about every chapter in the New Testament. I’ve got through quite a number of books, especially the shorter ones! It’s now time for me to address a toughie: the book of Romans. The first time I read Romans, when I…
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Ephesians 2: the offer of grace to all
In Ephesians 2, Paul talks about how God’s grace extends to Gentiles. It brings them into “one body”, which also contains those who were saved under the old covenant. Was the old covenant an exclusive club? I once listened to a speaker at a church talk about how in the Old Testament, Christianity was like…
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Abraham Bartimaeus Ben Witherington III Charles Wesley Handel Isaac Isaiah 6 James 1 James 2 James 3 James 4 James 5 John Wesley Justification King David King Solomon Magi Mark 8 Mark 10 Matthew 5 Moses N.T. Wright Nathan the Prophet Penal substitutional atonement Pharaoh Richard Dawkins Romans 8 Scot McKnight Sovereignty The Children's Society Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion Zacchaeus Zadok the Priest