Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

This verse seems to be a summary statement of the teaching that Jesus has given in the Sermon on the Mount. Often it is said that preachers should be able to summarise their message in a sentence. Whether that is the case or not I cannot say, although it is of interest that Jesus, the master preacher, did so here .   The obvious deduction that can be made from this verse is the importance of relationships. A brief survey of the Sermon on the Mount will remind us of several crucial features of the Christian life: Christian character as expressed in the Beatitudes; function as salt and light; a believer’s prayer life as summarised in the Lord’s Prayer and in the exhortations to ask, seek and knock; the need of mortification of inward sin as detailed in Jesus’ application of the ten commandments; and not to engage in judging. We can then ask ourselves, What is the common goal of these spiritual disciplines? The answer to this important question is given in 7:12, and it is ‘health...

We live in a world that needs encouragement in many areas of life. Here the writer is concerned with encouragement for our souls. Indeed, he says that we need an anchor, something that will keep us stable. Of course, the need for an anchor tells us that he is thinking of life as a journey, a journey by sea. In the ancient world, they did not have any idea that such a journey could be done quickly, unlike us who can fly around the world in a day. Sometimes, when on such a journey, the boat would need to stop and anchor. The situations when this was necessary was usually in a storm, although it could happen when there were not enough rowers in the boat. Still, I think the author is indicating that in the storms of life we have to use our anchor. What is the anchor of our soul? The author says it is our hope. Often we think of hope as an inner attitude about a circumstance. We may hope to pass our driving test or pass an exam. Obviously, that use of hope may not be very helpful becau...

Jesus in this brief section returns to the topic of prayer. He has already given to his disciples the pattern prayer that we call the Lord’s Prayer. We can deduce from the fact that he spoke again about prayer that he regarded it as an important activity for his disciples. One question that arises is whether or not there are differences between what he said about the Lord’s Prayer and what he says here. I would suggest two at this time. One is that the Lord’s Prayer guides us what to say in prayer and the verses here guide us regarding how we pray. The other is that here Jesus is highlighting personal prayer whereas previously he had described corporate prayer (note the pronouns in the Lord’s Prayer). It is also the case that here Jesus indicates that not all prayer is the same. After all, there are obvious differences between asking, seeking and knocking in everyday life. Each of us may engage in them numerous times daily, but we would never describe them as the sam...