Articles

In our time and place, the apostolic commands that wives submit to their husbands (Eph. 5:22; Col. 3:18; 1 Peter 3:1) have become some of the biggest stumbling blocks in the Scriptures. Many Christians in a Western context find it hard to square these verses with their convictions about women’s rights and equality—convictions that are indeed born of a biblical worldview, even if most have now “emancipated” themselves from it. People today ask, “How can a woman value herself and her dignity at the same time that she chooses to submit to her husband?”

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If we want to understand our calling as God’s people, we cannot be merely “New Testament Christians.” A Christian who only reads the New Testament is like someone who walks into the second act of a two-act play.

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Jesus’ prayer on the eve of His crucifixion is given in a familiar account. One phrase is particularly striking: “Not my will, but yours” (Luke 22:42). These five words demonstrate the Son’s submission to the Father—a heart disposition essential to all proper prayer.

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Preaching isn’t popular. W. E. Sangster, writing in mid-twentieth-century Britain, remarked, “Preaching is in the shadows. The world does not believe in it.”¹ If he were around today, he might have broadened his observation to include not only secular society but the church also.

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At the end of his first epistle, after addressing matters such as holiness, submission, and suffering, the apostle Peter turns his attention to shepherding in the local church.

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At the beginning of his correspondence to the Roman church, in Romans 1:16, Paul says something that is surprising in its implications: “I am not ashamed of the gospel.”

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There are many notions about what it means to be a Christian. Many think they understand the term, yet many also mean different things by it. For some it’s a matter of family history: “I grew up in the church.” For others it means someone who lives by the Golden Rule, ascribes to certain political views, goes to church, or simply chose to identify that way at a particular point in time—perhaps by going to the front of a church during an altar call.

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What does it mean to be godly? Far from some remote, disengaged experience, much of the Christian life involves practical obedience. Godliness in Scripture wears working clothes, so to speak. Chapter after chapter, God’s Word confronts men and women with essential issues, impressing on our hearts the urgency of living as those made new in Christ.

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