Tag Archives: 11.10.21 Bible Study

Daily Bible Study

November 10, 2021 Bible Study — What Is Truth?

Today, I am reading and commenting on  John 17-18.

When John recounts Jesus final prayer at the Last Supper he brings us back to the transitive principle which played a large part in his accounts of Jesus’ teaching.  At its most basic, that transitive principle was that Jesus was in the Father and the Father was in Jesus, therefore anyone who knew Jesus knew the father.  Jesus further extended that by saying that He was in anyone who believed in Him and followed His teaching, and they were in Him.  In this prayer, Jesus takes this yet further by saying that those who believed in His words as communicated by His disciples entered into this transitive relationship.  So, just as Jesus’ disciples were able to be in Him and have Him in them, we also can be in Him and have Him in us.  Of course, if Jesus is in us that should impact the way in which we feel about the sins which we are constantly tempted to commit.   Hopefully we can come to see that the pleasure we might receive from the sins which tempt us is not worth the joy they will cost us.

Also in His prayer Jesus warns us that the world will hate us for believing in Him because we are no longer part of the world.  The world will try to reclaim us and cause us to recant of testifying to the truth.  We see a form of this hostility in Pilate’s response to Jesus’ statement that He came to testify to the truth.  Pilate asked “What is truth?” indicating that he did not believe there was such a thing as truth.   Our society today also rejects the idea that there is such a thing as truth and hates anyone who claims that there is.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

October 11, 2021 Bible Study — Do Not Make Anyone, Nor Allow Anyone To Make You, THE Authority On God’s Will

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 23-24.

I really believe that chapter 23 here is very important and that we do not pay close enough attention to what Jesus tells us here.  The New Testament contains many warnings against hypocrisy, but here Jesus gives us a guideline which will help us avoid it.  That guideline has two sides to it.  On the one hand, we should not ask others to address us with titles which elevate us above them.  On the other hand, we should not address others with titles which elevate them above us.  Specifically, Jesus tells us not to allow anyone to call us “Teacher”, because we should have only one Teacher.  And we should not address anyone as “Father”, because God is our Father.  In my opinion, Jesus makes it clear that we should not address anyone with a title which puts them between us and God, nor should we allow anyone to address us with a title which puts us between them and God.  When you start elevating people, or allowing yourself to be elevated, you begin the process which causes the appearance of righteousness to be more important than the reality of righteousness.  We will begin to see ourselves as above others rather than as their servants.

One of the most difficult parts of understanding chapter 24 is that we need to realize that the disciples question was actually three questions.  Nevertheless, Jesus answer tells us a lot about God’s plans for the world.  Point one, the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ, will be preached throughout the entire world before Jesus returns.  Point two, many will come claiming to be Jesus Returned, and many more will prophesy falsely in His name claiming to be announcing His return.  Some of them will perform great signs and wonders so as to deceive many.  We should not believe such false prophets and false messiahs because no one will need to announce Jesus’ Return: it will be obvious to all.  Finally, Jesus warns us that no one will know in advance the date and time of Jesus’ return.  Since we cannot know in advance when He will come back, we should make every effort to be doing the work He has given us all of the time.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.