Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

In verse 8, Paul connects his emphases in the previous two sections when he says that his readers should owe love to each other. He has stressed the importance of them paying what they owe to the government in their taxes and other forms of revenue and now he says that they owe each other a life of love, which can be linked back to what he says in the second half of chapter 12 about genuine love. Living a life of love is important for many reasons and here Paul mentions one of them, which is that it fulfils the purpose of the second table of the law, the section of it that deals with human relationships. There are three comments that I would like to make. First, it is a travesty to say that focussing on the law results in legalism – instead a proper attitude towards it involves responses of love towards God and towards people. Second, here is a reminder that those indwelt by the Spirit can keep the law with regard to its intent even although they cannot keep it perfectly in practice...

The story of Jephthah is bracketed by brief references to judges who served God in different places, with each of them serving for a long time (9:1; 11:8-13). We are told nothing of significance about them, which is a reminder that sometimes we should be content to be alone. But the author obviously wants us to think about the judge called Jephthah, as does the author of the book of Hebrews (11:32). On a surface reading, we may wonder why. Yet the author of Hebrews says that Jephthah was a man of faith and is one of the great cloud of witnesses who show us that it is possible to live for God in difficult circumstances. And we can look first at those circumstances. Their repentance (10:6-18) This description of the departure of Israel from God was larger than previous ones because it involved the whole country. It looks as if the Israelites, in whatever part of country they lived, looked across the border and decided to adopt the practice of their neighbours. So it was a time of ge...

One of the distinguishing marks of a true Christian is that the Holy Spirit indwells him or her. Paul reminds the Ephesians that the Holy Spirit functions as a seal of ownership (a seal was a mark that indicated ownership) and as an earnest of our future inheritance (he is the guarantee and sample of the future life that will be enjoyed). Jesus informed his disciples that the Holy Spirit would operate as a parakletos – a person who comes alongside another to give comfort, counsel and help. John here in verse 13 tells his readers that the presence of the Spirit is the proof that they are abiding in Christ and he in them. This of course raises a question, How do we know that we have the Spirit? There are many answers to this question. One obvious answer is that the presence of the Spirit is known by the development of the fruit of the Spirit as described by Paul in Galatians 5:22-23: ‘but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentlen...