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Latest Commentaries

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Mark 1:16–20 meaningJune 13, 2024

Jesus begins to recruit His disciples. As Jesus walks along the shore of Galilee He sees two sets of brothers who are fishermen: Simon and Andrew and James and John. Jesus calls each pair to leave their livelihood and follow him. They do so immediately.

Luke 8:11-15 meaningJune 13, 2024

Jesus provides His disciples with an explanation for the Parable of the Sower. The first soil resembles a hardened heart, impenetrable from the start, unable to receive God's word at all. The second soil is like a fearful heart, which loses its joy when faced with immediate trials. The third soil reflects a heart which cares more for the fleeting treasures of this world than the everlasting riches of God’s kingdom, thus yielding no fruit. However, the fourth soil stands apart in quality. It represents a heart that trusts, reveres, and loves God. It bears abundant fruit, yielding exponentially more in accordance with its faithfulness.

Luke 8:9-10June 13, 2024

The disciples ask Jesus to explain the meaning of the Parable of the Sower. Rather than immediately giving them the desired explanation, Jesus first responds with why some are able to understand the parables, while others cannot.

Luke 8:4-8 meaningJune 13, 2024

Jesus shares a parable concerning a sower who disperses seed across four distinct types of soil. While the first three types of soil yield no crop, the fourth type, characterized as the good soil, produces an abundant harvest.

Acts 14:24-28 meaningJune 13, 2024

Paul and Barnabas return to their home church of Syrian Antioch. They tell the church about all that God had accomplished through them, the miracles and the many Jews and Gentiles who believed in Jesus. God is reaching the Gentiles. The gospel is for the entire world.

Leviticus 2:14-16 meaningJune 13, 2024

Leviticus 2:14-16 describes another variation of the grain offering, this time concerning the "early ripened things," also known as the first harvest.

Acts 14:19-23 meaningJune 13, 2024

The enemies of Paul and Barnabas have been coalescing and colluding. Jews from Pisidian Antioch have joined with Jews from Iconium. This mob arrives in Lystra, stirs up hatred in the crowds, and successfully stones Paul. The mob thinks he is dead and leaves his body outside of the city. But believers find his body, and Paul stands up, alive, and returns to the city. Barnabas and Paul preach in a neighboring city, Derbe, and then backtrack through the churches they have planted. They establish a group of men to lead as elders over each church, and encourage all the new believers to endure suffering by trusting in God.

Leviticus 2:11-13 meaningJune 13, 2024

Leviticus 2:11-13 provides further instructions on what must be excluded from the grain offering and introduces an essential element that must be present: salt.

Leviticus 2:4-10 meaningJune 13, 2024

Continuing the instructions for a grain offering, Leviticus 2:4-10 begins detailing the various forms this offering may take, emphasizing the care and reverence with which offerings are to be made to the LORD.

Acts 14:14-18 meaningJune 13, 2024

The local priest of Zeus brings oxen to sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas, because Paul healed a lame man by God’s power. Paul and Barnabas tear their robes and preach against this mistake. They explain that they serve the living God who created everything. God allowed the Gentiles to stray for some time, but He was still active in blessing their wellbeing. Their words do not seem to sink in, but they are able to, with difficulty, prevent the people of Lystra from sacrificing cows to them.

Leviticus 2:1-3 meaningJune 13, 2024

Leviticus 2:1-3 introduces a type of sacrifice called a grain offering.

Acts 14:8-13 meaningJune 13, 2024

God heals a man born lame through Paul. The people of Lystra misinterpret the healing as evidence that Paul and Barnabas are Greek gods who are visiting them.

Acts 14:1-7 meaningJune 13, 2024

Driven out of Pisidian Antioch, Paul and Barnabas preach in the synagogue of Iconium. Many Jews and Gentiles hear and believe in Jesus. But some of the Jews are hostile and do not believe. They sow hatred in the hearts of some of the Gentiles in Iconium, and although Paul and Barnabas are able to perform miracles and preach for a long time, eventually they leave town to escape a plot to stone them to death.

1 Peter 1:22-25 meaningJune 13, 2024

Peter asserts that because his readers are living in obedience to God’s Word and have dedicated their lives to genuinely loving their fellow believers, they are to heartily love one another. The reason for doing this is that their physical lives now have the eternal Spirit living within. This change did not happen through temporary human effort, but by means of the life-giving and eternal Word of God. This truth is confirmed by Isaiah 40:6-8, which contrasts our temporary, decaying earthly lives with the eternal, life-giving Word of God. This is the Word that Peter and his fellow apostles have proclaimed to his readers.

1 Peter 1:20-21 meaningJune 13, 2024

Though God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son knew about Jesus’s bloody death before creating the earth, Christ, in God’s timing, came to earth for the benefit of those who would by Christ’s work believe in God. God was the one who resurrected Jesus and gave Him glory, resulting in the believer’s hope and faith being in God.

1 Peter 1:17-19 meaningJune 13, 2024

God’s children are to live their lives on earth with a healthy respect for their heavenly Father because He will hold them accountable for their work and because they know the high value of the cost of their redemption.

1 Peter 1:13-16 meaningJune 13, 2024

When believers understand the high value of living faithfully during times of suffering, they know it will save life on earth from being wasted. They know enduring suffering will result in making their lives count for eternity. Peter exhorts the letter’s recipients to be clear-headed, focusing on the rewards that Christ will give when He returns. This will encourage believers to live in obedience to God’s Holy Word rather than be controlled by the desires of their sinful flesh. This is because when we live walking according to the Spirit, God’s holy nature directs His children to live holy lives—lives set apart to live in God’s (good) design to love and serve one another.

1 Peter 1:10-12 meaningJune 13, 2024

Peter explains the paradox of the salvation of the believer’s soul as something so special the prophets spoke about it without understanding it, and the angels, who cannot experience it, became curious to see it how it was lived out in the life of a believer.

1 Peter 1:6-9 meaningJune 13, 2024

Believers are to rejoice knowing their salvation is secure. Even though we must endure various trials on earth which God designed to test our trust, love, and faithful obedience, we can have joy. Our faithfulness will be acknowledged when Jesus returns. This should result in believers experiencing deep inner joy while making their lives count for eternity.

1 Peter 1:3-5 meaningJune 13, 2024

Peter praises God for His merciful work in bringing believers to a present position of salvation, assuring them of eternal rewards for faithful service at a future aspect of salvation when Christ returns.

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