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Daily Bible Study

December 27, 2025 Bible Study — The Trinity in the Book of Revelation

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Revelation 4-8.

I usually prefer to write about how the passage gives us lessons on how we should live our lives, but today’s passage is full of symbolism which I want to write about.  The first is “the seven spirits of God”, which the translators’ notes suggest could be translated as “the sevenfold Spirit of God.”  Personally, I think the latter is a more accurate translation of the writer’s meaning.  I mentioned that in passing yesterday.  Today I am going to go a little more in-depth. So, why would the Holy Spirit be referred to as “the sevenfold Spirit”?  The number seven in the Bible refers to completion, perfection, and/or fulfillment.  In the case of the Holy Spirit, all three meanings apply.  The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, brings perfection, completion, and fulfillment.  He is also all three of those things.  Next I want to note that the Sevenfold Spirit was in front of the throne upon which God the Father sat.  However, the Lamb which was slain, which was also the Lion of Judah, had seven horns and seven eyes which were also the Sevenfold Spirit of God.  In this passage about John’s vision the Holy Spirit was with both the Father and with  the Son.  My point here is that, despite what some say, the Bible does indeed present the idea of the Trinity, God in Three Persons.

When I started I thought I would write about some other things, but I am going to stop here.

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

 

Daily Bible Study

December 26, 2025 Bible Study — He Is Coming With the Clouds and Every Eye Will See Him

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Revelation 1-3.

This morning I want to go over what John wrote in his introduction to his letter.  As I read it this morning it evoked a sense of awe in me.  First, I want to point out that I think the translation of verse four in the NIV is incorrect.  The NIV translates verse 4 and five as, “Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits[a] before his throne,  and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.”  That little {a} references a translators’ note which says, “That is, the sevenfold Spirit.”  So, verses four and five here are an outright reference to the Trinity.  First it references the Father, “Him who is, and who was, and who is to come.”  Then it references the Holy Spirit, “the sevenfold Spirit before His throne.” (The “His” whose throne is referenced is the Father).  Finally, it references Jesus, and in doing so indicates that He is also God.

But it was verse seven which really spoke to me today.
“Look He is coming with the clouds.”
We usually read that as being about Jesus’ second coming, and I think that is generally the correct reading.  However, today I thought that perhaps that is too narrow of a reading.  I think we should also call that out to people today, people who need to see and understand the glory of God in Jesus.  Every eye will indeed see Him, but those of us who see Him now, before that glorious day when He comes in judgement of the earth, are blessed.  When you see clouds in the sky, think about the fact that Jesus came with the clouds, and that He holds the keys of death and of the place of the dead.  Jesus died and rose from the dead, and now He holds the keys to free all of us from death.  I want to go back once more to the statement that “Every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him.”  Again, that is not just about at His second coming.  Many will see Him before that, even from among those who chose to reject Him.  There are those, such as Paul while he was still Saul, who reject Jesus only to see Him “coming with the clouds” and turn to follow Him.  Just as rainbows are a sign to us that God will never again destroy the entire world with a flood, so are clouds a sign to us that Jesus died and rose again and is now here for us for eternity.  The clouds are a sign that we should preach His gospel to those who reject Him, because His Spirit will strike down some of those as Saul was struck down outside of Damascus.

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

 

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December 25, 2025 Bible Study — God Commands Us to Love One Another

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Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 John, 3 John, and Jude.

Merry Christmas

In the two letters from John we read today, he writes that we should love one another and be hospitable to those believers who travel in order to preach God’s word.  In some ways it is interesting the way in which he tells us to love.  First, he writes that he has a command, but it is not a new command.  That command is to love one another.  Then he writes that to love is to obey God’s commands, and God’s command is that we love one another.  What is interesting is that John says that he wrote the above because there are many deceivers who do not acknowledge that Jesus Christ came in the flesh.  Now that wording makes it clear that John is addressing those who say that Jesus was not truly a physical being (the Gnostics).   However, I think what he wrote here applies equally to those who acknowledge Jesus’ humanity, but seek to deny His divinity.  John further writes that we should not welcome those who do not teach that Jesus was divine and that He came in the flesh.  So, John is telling us that loving our fellow believers will help us recognize and resist deceivers who try to teach us something other than the Gospel which Jesus taught.  I find it noteworthy that John warns us against welcoming false teachers into our homes in his second letter, then in his third letter her reminds us of the importance of welcoming strangers who are fellow believers into our homes.  It is in that third letter where he tells us how to tell the difference: those who do good are from God, while those who do evil not only are not from God, but have not even seen Him.

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

 

Daily Bible Study

December 24, 2025 Bible Study — Love With Action and in Truth

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Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 John 1-5.

John writes that we must walk in God’s light and not in the darkness of sin.  Yet, he also tells us that if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and do not know, or understand, truth.    So, we must strive to live without sin, while understanding that we will sin.  When we fall to sin, if we confess our sins, God will forgive us, and cleanse us of unrighteousness.  If we claim to know God, but do not follow His commands we are liars.   On the other hand if we want to know God we will strive to live as Jesus lived.  Living as Jesus lived is living and walking in God’s light.  And that means loving each other.  If we harbor hate for others, we are choosing to walk in darkness.  Which brings us back to John’s introduction to this letter: we cannot have fellowship with God if we walk in darkness.  Perhaps that is part of how wonderful John’s message here is.  If we walk with God, if we fellowship with God, His light will drive out the darkness, will drive out the hate.  However, we have a choice.  As God’s light drives the darkness of hate away from Him, we can choose to stay with Him, or we can keep our hate by following it away from Him.  John gives us one more important piece of advice.  We cannot just talk about loving others, we must act on it.  It is not enough to say that we love others we must do loving things for them.

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

 

Daily Bible Study

December 23, 2025 Bible Study — No Scripture Came From Human Interpretation of Events

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Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Peter 1-3.

The first thing which struck me was a comment which Peter made about Scripture.  He writes that no prophecy of Scripture came from the prophet’s own interpretation of things.  My understanding is that when Peter wrote that he considered ALL of Scripture to be prophecy (as used in Scripture, prophecy is not necessarily a prediction of future events).  Further, he writes that no prophecy was produced by human will.  Rather the prophets spoke from God as the Holy Spirit guided them.  The prophets were still human and we see that in the way they gave us God’s message, but it is still God’s message.

Peter tells us that alongside the prophets who gave us Scripture there were false prophets and today there are false teachers alongside those truly preaching God’s word.  The false teachers introduce destructive heresies.  They don’t do it openly.  Instead they pretend to believe Scripture.  They make claims that the writers of Scripture didn’t mean what we think they meant.  What they don’t say out loud, at least usually, is that they don’t think the writers of Scripture were speaking God’s words.  They will claim to love the Lord, but deny that Jesus rose from the dead.  Some of them think they have great faith, but that they have to keep secret what they truly believe because people “don’t understand.”  They are bold and arrogant, blaspheming about things which they do not understand.  They promise freedom, but are slaves of depravity and encourage others to surrender to the desires of the flesh.  If you need to hide what you believe from other believers, you are probably not following the Gospel.

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

 

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December 22, 2025 Bible Study — Sinful Desires Wage War Against Our Soul, Against Our Very Being

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Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Peter 1-5.

I pulled out some quotes from today’s passage which struck me.  Now I am going to attempt to use them to create a coherent lesson from the passage.  Peter writes that we should desire pure spiritual milk now that we have tasted that the Lord is good.  In other words, now that we have experienced God’s goodness, the goodness of obeying God’s will, we should seek more of it.  Once we were alone in this world, isolated from others, but now God has made us His people so that we can and do love one another, and are in turn loved by our fellow believers.  Therefore we should abstain from evil desires because they only serve to tear us apart, damaging both ourselves and our relationship with others.  Giving  in  to those sinful desires is what isolated us, and will continue to isolate us from others.  Let us live such lives among those who are not believers that they will praise God, even as they accuse us of wrongdoing.  Peter writes that we should silence the accusations of the fools who do not accept God’s will by doing good.  We should strive to not treat badly those who treat us badly, nor insult those who insult us.  Instead, when people do us wrong, let us strive bless them.  Study Scripture so that we are prepared to answer those who challenge our faith and belief.  However, our answers should be respectful and gentle.  Thus those who claim we are stupid and naive, or evil and selfish will  be ashamed when their accusations are compared to our words and our deeds.

Intermixed with the above theme, Peter tells us to be alert and sober minded.  Then, towards the end, he tells us that we should do so in order to pray.  In a way, as we go back through the passage we realize that each time he writes about being sober minded, about avoiding debauchery and wild living, he is also telling us to pray.  So, let us keep our minds clear and pray.

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

 

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December 21, 2025 Bible Study — Ask God for Wisdom

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Today, I am reading and commenting on James 1-5.

I love the book of James because he hits on so many great points for us to think about.  Because I have been convicted this year about my need to improve my prayer life, I want to focus on what James says about prayer today.  In a way the fact that God has been speaking to me about prayer for the last several months is probably why I see so much of this passage as being about prayer.  James begins by telling us that if we lack wisdom we should ask God.  If you don’t think that you lack in wisdom, you haven’t been paying attention to what the Bible says.  All of us are lacking in wisdom, some of us, such as myself, more than others.  James also tells us that when we ask of God we must believe and not doubt.  Specifically, we must not doubt that God will give us wisdom, but we must have faith that God will give us what we ask of Him.  James talks more about praying and asking God for things later, but in between he tells us some important things.  I believe he starts with telling us to ask for wisdom for a reason.  He next tells us to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.  We should listen to what both our fellow man tells us and to what God tells us.  James says we should not just listen to what God says, but we should also act upon it.  James goes on to speak about faith and wisdom, defining both of those terms before he returns once more to writing about praying and asking God.  Please read those parts as well because they form a basis for understanding what he says towards the end.  He tells us that we have fights and quarrels because we desire and do not have.  And we do not have because we do not ask God.  Even when we do ask God, we do not receive that for which we ask because we ask for things in order to satisfy our own pleasures rather than to satisfy and serve God.  So, rather than seek the pleasures of this earth, let us seek the joy of serving God.  Ask God for wisdom, then ask God for what wisdom tells you that you need to do as He wills for you to do.  In many ways, James is reiterating what Jesus said in Matthew 6, “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (please follow the link and read the rest of it).

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

 

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December 20, 2025 Bible Study — Throw Off Everything Which Hinders

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Hebrews 12-13.

In yesterday’s passage the writer listed many people who have gone before us who lived by faith.  He begins today’s passage by referring to them as a “great cloud of witnesses.”  I see two ways to interpret what he means by calling them witnesses, both of those things affirm the resurrection from death.  First. he could be saying that they are witnesses to our actions and that we should act knowing that these people witness our every action.  Second, and probably more correctly, he may be saying that they are witnesses to the things in which we put our faith. As the writer says in chapter 11 “faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” These witnesses have now seen that in which we place our faith.  Since we know that they have now seen that for which we hope we should everything which hinders us from seeking to follow that faith. especially sin.  I want to note that the writer is telling us that there are things which are not, in and of themselves, sins which hinder us from following Jesus.  We should remove those things from our life, while recognizing other believers might not be hindered by those things.  As we struggle against sin, we should be willing to accept God’s discipline, even up to death.

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

 

Daily Bible Study

December 19, 2025 Bible Study — Build Up Others in Love and Good Deeds

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Hebrews 10-11.

The writer tells us that we should seek to draw near to God with faith.  We should strive to unswervingly strive to serve Him by considering how we can build others up in love and good deeds.  That means both loving them, doing good deeds, and helping them love others and helping them to do good deeds.  Our salvation comes through our faith, not through our actions, but we still must strive to leave sin behind.  Let us seek to emulate the saints of old who lived lives of faith and suffered for it.

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

 

Daily Bible Study

December 18, 2025 Bible Study — A Difficult Passage

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Hebrews 6-9.

Today I intended to write about how I have understood verses four through six of chapter six at the beginning of today’s passage.  Then I realized the verses seven and eight are expanding on those three verses.  Which made me think that I had not truly understood what the writer meant.  First, let’s look at what the writer says in the first verses.  He writes that those who have shared in the Holy Spirit and tasted the goodness of word of God and then turned away cannot (or, perhaps, will not) ever come back to repentance.  I have long understood that to mean that anyone who has welcomed the Holy Spirit into their lives then later rejects Jesus can (will) ever return to God.  Those verses seem clear.  I may have had some doubts about what constituted being in that condition, but I thought the writing was very clear.  However, I realized today that verses seven and eight were intended to be clarifying, were intended to provide a metaphor which would allow us to more clearly understand the writer’s meaning.  Rather than give me a clearer understanding of the verses preceding it, this metaphor leads me to questions.

So, let’s look at the writer’s metaphor.  He tells us that land which produces crops useful to those for whom it is farmed will be blessed by God, but land which produces thorns and thistles is worthless and may be cursed.  In fact, he tells us, such land will be burned.  As I think about this it makes me think that the writer is speaking of those who receive the Holy Spirit and then refuse to use their gifts to serve others.  In many ways it reminds me of what Paul wrote about those who spend time in pointless arguments, leading others into division and away from Christ.  It also reminds me of the Parable of the Sower.  The more I think about it the more I think this passage is speaking of those who receive the Holy Spirit then actively choose to do the opposite of what they are called to do.  I am not speaking of those who run away from their calling as Jonah did.  It would be as if Jonah heard God’s call to preach repentance in Nineveh.  Then instead of preaching repentance, he encouraged the people of Nineveh to continue in their sin.

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