Articles

What God begins, He completes. Paul said so in Philippians 1:6: “I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” We ought not to look for comfort in ourselves and our ability to remain faithful. Rather, we can look to the preserving power of God, who causes us to persevere.

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The Bible teaches that the fear of the Lord is the basis for true wisdom (Ps. 111:10; Prov. 1:7; 9:10). Fearing God is the pathway into wisdom, the gate through which we walk to become wise.

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The epistle of Jude begins with an urgent message: “I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). Because of the danger of false teachers who had “crept in unnoticed” to “pervert the grace of our God into sensuality” (v. 4), the believers to whom Jude wrote needed to be vigilant and active, exalting the truth and rejecting falsehood.

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Often in the New Testament, the apostles manage to summarize the beauty of the Gospel in only a few words. When they do, they give us ideal passages for meditation and memorization, and they provide us fuel for evangelism.

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We live in a largely self-absorbed world, and with that self-absorption inevitably comes a low view of God. While it’s not incapable of occasional flashes of altruism, ultimately, fallen humanity is imprisoned inside its own ego. Rather than living to the praise of God’s glory, we live to the praise of our own.

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What is the church? For many, the word church conjures up images of steepled buildings, stodgy services, and stuffy men in collars. It is an object of mistrust for others, full of cruel hypocrites. For some, it’s a hobby that some people enjoy to little consequence—“all so harmless, so gentle, so proper.”¹ For others still, it’s simply bizarre.

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Albert Mohler once stated, “The Christian pastor holds the greatest office of human responsibility in all creation.” Yet of all the high positions one can fill in society—a member of Congress, a golf professional, a cardiothoracic surgeon, etc.—the pastorate wouldn’t even make the top ten in most people’s minds. Is the designation “greatest office … in all creation” an apt description or hyperbole?

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The word cult describes a manipulative and dangerous religious group. Cults usually appeal to the dissatisfied, fearful, and vulnerable. They draw people into their scope by offering expectancy in a hopeless world, identity in an anonymous world, and security in an unstable world.

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When Titus was pastoring the church in Crete, he received these instructions from Paul about his congregation: “Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people” (Titus 3:1–2).

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If we are going to maintain a passion for purity, we need to determine to live our lives in the center of the narrow way and not on the edge.

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