Tag Archives: Read the Bible in a year

Daily Bible Study

December 17, 2025 Bible Study — Today if You Hear His Voice Do Not Harden Your Hearts and So Miss Being Invited Into His Rest

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

There are two aspects of today’s passage which speak to me.  The first is the writer quoting Psalm 95, “Today, if you hear his voice,
    do not harden your hearts…” The writer tells us that this means that we must not have an unbelieving heart which turns away from God.  He points out that the passage refers to “today” and that as long as we call the day we are living “today” we have the opportunity to hear God’s voice and turn to Him.  Sin is deceitful and will try to turn our attention away from God and the works He has for us.  Which brings me to the second thing.  The writer tells us that those who put their trust in God will enter into God’s rest, will join Him in the rest He took on the seventh day of Creation.  And this breaks down into two pieces.  We must do God’s work until He brings us into His rest.  We have work to do for God until the day He brings us into His rest, into His Sabbath.  The Sabbath which God established for us every seven days represents a foretaste of the eternal Sabbath into which He will welcome us when our work here on earth is complete.  So, let us do the work which He has set before us while it is “today” in order that we might enter into the rest He has prepared for us.  Yet, each week let us set aside a day to partake of that rest as a foretaste of that rest into which He will bring us if we do not turn away from Him to sin.

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

 

Daily Bible Study

December 16, 2025 Bible Study — Encourage Sound Doctrine and Refute Those Who Oppose It

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Today, I am reading and commenting on  Titus and Philemon

Paul reminds Titus that he left him there in order for Titus to appoint elders in the Church in every town.  Elders must be blameless men who hold firmly to God’s trustworthy message in order to encourage others with sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.  The reason such elders are needed is because there are many people full of meaningless talk and deception.  These people are disrupting households by teaching things which should not be taught and they are doing so for their own gain, rather than for the benefit of others.  They need to be rebuked in order to reveal their error and silence it.  In the second chapter of this letter Paul lays out the basics of sound doctrine: being temperate, self-controlled, and sound in faith, love, and endurance.

In writing about what is appropriate to sound doctrine, Paul says that slaves should be subject to their masters in order to make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.  One could easily interpret that as being supportive of the institution of slavery.  However, in Philemon, which we are also reading today, Paul tells Philemon to treat Onesimus, Philemon’s slave, as he would Paul.  More directly, Paul tells Philemon that while he is sending Onesimus back because he is legally Philemon’s slave, Onesimus is no longer Philemon’s slave.  Instead, Onesimus is Philemon’s brother in Christ.  I want to point out that Paul tells Philemon that Onesimus should be dearer to him than a slave because Onesimus is Philemon’s fellow man.  Finally, Paul tells Philemon to charge anything Onesimus might owe him to Paul’s account and Paul will pay it back, even though Philemon owes Paul his very salvation.

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

 

Daily Bible Study

December 15, 2025 Bible Study — Love Good and God Rather Than Yourself and Money

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Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Timothy 1-4.

In what is believed to be Paul’s last letter, he tells Timothy to warn people against quarreling about words and to avoid godless chatter.  Such things ruin those who listen and lead those who indulge in them away from the truth.  He then points out that those who confess the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.  In may ways I think this adds clarity to what Paul wrote in Romans where he said, “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”  The point here being that if you do those things you will turn away from wickedness.  Paul continues to remark that we should avoid stupid and pointless arguments.  We should not be quarrelsome, rather we should gently, and humbly, instruct those with whom we disagree.  We should not be resentful.  If we find ourselves becoming quarrelsome and/or resentful of those with whom we disagree this may be a sign that we have become lovers of ourselves, and lovers of money rather than lovers of good and of God.  We should also watch out for those who are such who claim to be teachers of God’s word.  Signs to watch out for in ourselves are: have we become boastful, proud, abusive, ungrateful, treacherous, slanderous, unforgiving, and/or rash?  If we see those traits rising in ourselves we must strive to discipline ourselves to increase our love of goodness and God.  When we see such traits in those who claim to be preaching God’s word, we should gently rebuke them and remind them to humbly seek God, while we do the same.

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

 

Daily Bible Study

December 14, 2025 Bible Study — The Love of Money is Idolatry

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Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Timothy 5-6.

Paul begins to wrap up his letter to Timothy by giving him some pointers on recognizing false teachers.  He tells Timothy, and us, that false teachers are conceited and have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words*.  These things result in a host of relational issues, they cause friction between people.   Paul points out that those who do not accept godly teaching have corrupt minds and typically believe that godliness is a means to financial gain.  They have allowed themselves to be robbed of the truth in order to justify filling their base desires.  I want to point out that these last two sentences apply to both false teachers and to those who follow their teaching.  Paul points out to us that we should be content with what we have while living a godly life.  Doing so is greater gain than any material possessions we might acquire.  Those who seek to become wealthy as a primary goal fall into temptation.  Elsewhere Paul points out that the love of money, which is greed, is a form of idolatry.  Those who eagerly pursue money wander from faith and give themselves over to much grief.  Paul tells us that if we have food and clothing we should be content, and if we are we will gain much joy from doings so.

*One aspect of quarreling about words are those who think one must study Scripture in one particular translation.  Recently someone called me to task because I don’t use the “correct” translation.  They did not tell me what translation they think is correct.  If you have a problem with the NIV, which I am currently using, read what I write and compare my conclusions with whatever translation you prefer.  If you believe that my conclusions are wrong, please explain how I am wrong (and what translation you are using to reach that conclusion).  I will tell you that I have read enough different translations that my conclusions about the meaning of a passage are rarely altered by reading a different translation.  Although sometimes reading how a different translation renders a passage will give me insight I did not have before.  It is for that last reason that I plan to begin using the English Standard Version at the beginning of the new year.

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

 

Daily Bible Study

December 13, 2025 Bible Study — Jesus Came Into the World to Save Sinners, of Whom There is None Worse Than I

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Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Timothy 1-4.

Paul begins by telling us that Jesus came into the world to save sinners and displays His patience to all sinners by showing mercy to Paul.  Paul’s message here is similar to the way in which Luke records Jesus responding when confronted by the Pharisees over socializing with sinners.  Another passage which gives us insight into this message is when Peter did not want to let Jesus wash his feet.  Jesus came to save us because we are sinners, and here Paul is reminding us, by using himself as an example, that it is not our righteousness which qualifies us to tell others about God’s saving grace.  Rather, our qualification for telling others that God loves them and has redeemed them is the very sins we are often too embarrassed to share.  Paul was qualified to be an apostle sent to tell people about Jesus’ love and willingness to accept all who turn to Him because of his sins.  In the same way, it is our sins, which God has forgiven and turned us away from, which qualify us to call others to Christ.  No matter how bad they are, we are no better.  If we think we are better than anyone else, we have not truly understood the depth of our depravity without Christ.

When I started to write this I intended to go on to other things in this passage.  But I am going to add just one more thing: once again in today’s passage, Paul calls us to pray.  I know that I am being repeatedly shown Paul writing about prayer because I need to work on my prayer life.  Perhaps some of you, my readers are as well.  Let us commit ourselves to working on praying more.

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

 

Daily Bible Study

December 12, 2025 Bible Study — Prayer Leads Us to Truth and Thus Helps Us See Through Lies

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

Once again Paul begins one of his letters by talking about prayer.  First, he says that he feels like he ought to thank God for the Thessalonian Believers, which is praying.  Then a few sentences later he writes that he constantly prays for them.  We should follow Paul’s example and pray for the Believers whom we know.  And what does he pray for about them?  He prays that God might bring to fruition their desire for goodness and the deeds which their faith prompts them to attempt.  Paul did not pray for them to receive good things, he prayed that their desire for goodness would be fulfilled, that they would be good as they, in the Spirit, desired to be.  He also did not pray that all of their deeds would be successful, only those which their faith prompted them to perform.

Paul goes on to speak of Jesus’ return.  He writes that will not happen to “the man of lawlessness is revealed.”  He goes on to say that the lawless one will use signs and wonders to serve the lie and to use wickedness to deceive those who are perishing.  Those who are perishing are doing so because they refuse to love the truth and instead delight in wickedness.  I want to point out a connection between praying and a love of truth.  If we love the truth, we will pray to God that He will reveal it to us more fully.  As He reveals that truth to us, we will pray more.  Resulting in God revealing the truth yet more clearly.  And as we embrace the truth we will act on it.  The more we act on God’s truth, the more we will pray, leading us back to God revealing more of His truth.

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

 

Daily Bible Study

December 11, 2025 Bible Study — Continually Seek to Improve Our Self-discipline and Our Love for Others.

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

Paul begins this letter by writing that he continually mentions those to whom he is writing in his prayers.  He begins many of his letters in this fashion and it is a challenge to me to pray more.  With the number of people whom Paul remembered in his prayers, even if he only did so by remembering them as part of a group, he clearly spent more time in prayer than I do.  I strive to discipline myself to spend more time in prayer.  Paul’s comment about prayer is part of his reminder to his audience about the message which he spoke to them when he visited their city.  Which brings me to something else that Paul writes in that introduction, that he was not, and is not, trying to trick them.  We must keep this in mind when we seek to bring others to Christ.  We must not use deceptive tactics in order to disguise our intent. Nor may we use arguments which we know to be false, or arguments which use faulty logic.

Finally, when Paul gets to the meat of his letter, to the things which he wanted to share with the Church of the Thessalonians, he writes that they should live in order to please God.  He writes that he understands that they are already doing so, but wants to encourage them to do so even more.  He reminds them to avoid sexual immorality, and learn to control their own body in a way that is both holy and honorable.   We need to seek to live our lives with self-discipline and love for one another.  Again, Paul writes that he knows they are already doing so in a way which is a model which believers in other areas are following, but that they should not rest on their laurels.  Rather, they should seek to do so even more so.  Let us seek to follow Paul’s advice to the Thessalonians.  Let us seek to improve our self-discipline and our love for others.

 

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

I have created a Patreon page for those who would like to support me in writing these blog posts every day: https://patreon.com/AttilaSoldus

Daily Bible Study

December 10, 2025 Bible Study — Be Holy in God’s Sight

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Colossians 1-4.

Paul begins by telling us that we were enemies of God because of our evil behavior, but that He has reconciled us to Himself through Christ’s death.  He goes on to explain how we have been brought to fullness in Christ.  While we were dead in our sins God made us alive.  Therefore we should kill all sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed (Paul notes that greed is a form of idolatry.  It is the worship of money).  These are obvious sins to most people, but Paul says that we need to go beyond that.  We need to remove from our lives anger, rage, and filthy language.  Which are things we often justify to ourselves.  We must remove them and put on the things with which God wishes to clothe us: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.  And this is where we see why we must take off, must remove from our lives, anger, rage, and filthy language, along with the more obvious things of which Paul tells us to rid ourselves.  Those other things are not compatible with the things which Paul says we should put on.  In this new being to which God calls us there is no room for dividing ourselves into groups.  So, let us serve the Lord and love one another.  Paul gives some other instructions about how this all fits together before telling us how a key method to accomplishing this.  He tells us to devote ourselves to prayer.

Let us strive to live the types of lives which Paul tells us to live.  While Paul ends with prayer, we should start with prayer.  That prayer divides into three parts.  Pray for others.  Pray that we can live lives of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and love.  Pray that we can remove anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language, immorality, lust, evil desires, and greed from our lives.

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

I have created a Patreon page for those who would like to support me in writing these blog posts every day: https://patreon.com/AttilaSoldus

Daily Bible Study

December 9, 2025 Bible Study –Rejoice in the Lord Always

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Philippians 1-4.

I find it interesting how two days in a row, the theme of the day before’s passage kind of bleeds into the theme of today’s passage (or, at least, the themes I saw in them).  Yesterday, I wrote about how Paul told us to live a life worthy of the calling we have received, which came out of what he had written in the passage for the day before about prayer.  Today, he tells us to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ as a sort of lead in to his message for today.  That leads into what he writes about how we should live our lives.  I was going to paraphrase what he says here, but, for a change, there is no way to say it any clearer.  This is how we should live:  “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”  He goes on to support why we should live that way, but that right there sums it up.  Rather than “looking out for number one” as our society so often puts it, we should value others about ourselves and look out for their interests rather than putting out interests first.  

He goes on to tell us that he counts all of his accomplishments as nothing.  In fact, he counts them as negatives inasmuch that they might tempt him to rely on them rather than seeking to know Christ.  In so writing, Paul tells us that we should do likewise and strive to know Christ and, through Him, the power of His resurrection through embracing the sufferings which come as a result of putting our faith in Him.  In that faith, we should rejoice and let others judge us by the way we live in imitation of Him.  We need to put aside our worries and be anxious about anything.  Paul even answers how we deal with our anxieties, by prayer and petition, which we present to God with thanksgiving for what He has already done for us.

Finally, I am going to leave you with this: “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”  That is such a great list of things which we should fill our minds.  If we fill our minds with such things, we will find sin fleeing from us.

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

I have created a Patreon page for those who would like to support me in writing these blog posts every day: https://patreon.com/AttilaSoldus

Daily Bible Study

December 8, 2025 Bible Study — Live a Life Worthy of the Calling You Have Received

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Ephesians 4-6.

Yesterday, I wrote about the importance of praying, and of my need to pray for those who read what I write here.  In today’s passage, Paul begins by telling us to live a life worthy of the calling we have received.  That calling is to serve God and to preach His good news to all we encounter.  Paul tells us to make the most of every opportunity which we have.  In many ways the rest of the passage (or most of it anyways) is about how we need to behave in order to be sure that we are making the most of our opportunities.  If we want to be prepared to take advantage of the opportunities which arise unexpectedly we need to do everything in our power to remain unified in the Spirit with our fellow believers.  That requires us to be humble, gentle, patient, and to bear with each other’s failings in love.  Related to that Paul tells us something which comes up again and again in the New Testament.  We must give control over what we say to the Holy Spirit.  We need to strive to not grieve the Holy Spirit, to not make His job harder, by what we say and do.  Paul tells us to not allow any unwholesome talk come out of our mouths.  He clarifies what he means by “unwholesome” when he tells us that we should only say those things which are helpful for building others up.  I want to note that Paul specifically tells us that what is helpful for building others up varies depending upon the individual.  Some need us to take a gentle and kind approach, others need us to be brutally honest about their faults.  However, before we act on the latter we need to examine ourselves to make sure that we are not speaking out of bitterness or rage.  In fact, we need to always make sure that we are not slandering others, or trying to start a fight.  Paul goes on to show us that there is a link between obscenity, foolish talk, and coarse jokes and sexual immorality, various types of impurity, and greed.  Instead of allowing that kind of language to infect our minds we should speak words of thanksgiving and praise to God.  We should be kind and compassionate, forgiving of those who cause us harm, and our language should reflect these attitudes. 

I want to end this by saying that I have written as much as I have today because I feel like I am failing to express a point about this, but it feels like I am just repeating myself.  So, I am stopping here.

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

I have created a Patreon page for those who would like to support me in writing these blog posts every day: https://patreon.com/AttilaSoldus