Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

In Israel, in addition to rulers such as kings and judges, there were three kinds of leaders –the priests, the prophets and the wise. The wise men were distinguished from the others in that they normally gave counsel about current circumstances or about everyday features of life. We can see this threefold distinction in the Old Testament literature: some of the books focus on the role of the priests, others detail the words of prophets, others on the lives and activities of the kings, and others are accounts of wisdom. I suppose we could say that priests instructed the people about the law, prophets rebuked the people when they departed from the law, and wise men reflected on providence and drew spiritual lessons from their observations. What is wisdom? Wisdom in the Old Testament was varied in how it assessed life. The Book of Proverbs is a compilation of wisdom sayings, usually only a sentence long, and generally says that, if you live a godly life, things normally will go well....

We suggested last time that in this section of the chapter we have several of Paul’s principles of leadership in which he stressed matters that he thought were of significance for the Christians in Rome to embrace. There was mutual encouragement, adherence to his calling, engage in mercy ministries and participate in fellowship. In the verses 30-32 he mentions another feature that he judged crucial in the Christian life – prayer. Before we consider this feature, we can comment briefly on how Paul describes his friends in Rome. They are his brothers, which points to membership of the same family. How did they become brothers? It was through what God had done for them after they believed in Jesus. The gospel had come to them and informed them that God had done something about their circumstances as sinners estranged from him. Jesus had paid the penalty for their sins and they could be forgiven if they trusted in him. Such a divine attitude was marvellous in itself. When they asked for...

It is possible that the first half of verse 17 is a call to Jesus, urging him to come as a response to his statement in verse 12 that he is coming soon. Yet I would suggest that the use of the verb ‘come’ in the second half of verse 17 indicates that it is coming to Jesus by sinners that is in focus here. The use of the word ‘come’ obviously points to an invitation. Yet there is also an urgency in it, expecting an immediate response. It is the kind of word that requires an additional explanation if it is not immediate. So the various uses of the word in our text have this sense of immediacy about it. We may ask why there is this sense of immediacy? What is so important that causes it to be necessary to have such a response? The answer to this question is that we have to come Jesus now because he offers salvation whereas if we don’t come to Jesus we will experience what he describes in verse 12. There is a threefold unity here in those who are calling come. One of them is a divin...

The letter of James is perhaps the first of the New Testament letters to be written. If it was not the first, then it was probably the second, with the competitor for first being Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Since it is one of the earliest letters we can see within it the priorities and concerns of the early New Testament church, particularly among Jewish communities. The author is James, but several James are mentioned in the New Testament. One was James, the brother of John the apostle, but this James was martyred early on in the history of the church by one of the Herods, so he is not regarded as the author. A second is the apostle called James the Less, but there is no evidence that he was the author. The James who became prominent in the early New Testament church as one of the leaders in the church in Jerusalem was one of the brothers of Jesus, and he was converted when he met the risen Saviour as mentioned by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, and he had the authority in the church...

If we go into bookshops, including Christian bookshops, we will find a large section devoted to leadership, a reminder that there is an interest in having good leaders and of the need of suitable guidelines about what makes a good leader. Among the books on sale, there are biographies that identify the leadership techniques of successful people. No doubt there are many helpful lessons that people with aspirations can implement in their own areas of life. The Bible contains biographies of God’s leaders and what the methods were that they employed. An individual whose leadership methods are frequently mentioned is the apostle Paul, sometimes given by others and at other times given by himself. One of those autobiographical accounts is this section from Romans 15 and in it we find an example of what we can call Paul’s Principles of Leadership. No doubt, there are only a few of his principles here, so we would need to look elsewhere to find others that are mentioned. In looking at the o...