There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "…truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity–it is simply true and that is the end of it" – Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” – Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
With reference to all the creatures and the world of mankind in general. [continued]
You did not leave yourself without witness among the nations, in that you did good by giving them rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying their hearts with food and gladness. Acts 14:17(ESV)
You cover the heavens with clouds, and prepare rain for the earth, and make grass grow on the hills. You give to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that cry. Psalm 147:8-9(ESV)
You bring rain on the desert in which there is no man, to satisfy the waste and desolate land. Job 38:26-27(ESV)
You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it. You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth. You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks* overflow with abundance. Psalm 65:9-11(ESV)
You make springs gush forth in the valleys; they flow between the hills; they give drink to every beast of the field; and beside them the birds of the heavens dwell; they sing among the branches. Psalm 104:10-12(ESV)
You have set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be moved; Psalm 104:5(ESV) you set a boundary to the waters of the sea, so that they might not again cover the earth. Psalm 104:9(ESV) You have shut up the sea with doors, Job 38:8(ESV) and prescribed limits for it, saying, “Thus far shall you come, and no farther; here shall your proud waves be stayed.” Job 38:10-11(ESV) And you have made good what you have sworn, that the waters of Noah shall no more go over the earth. Isaiah 54:9(ESV)
Your covenant with the day and with the night is not broken; Jeremiah 33:20(ESV) but still you give the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, Jeremiah 31:35(ESV) and are faithful to that covenant of providence: That while the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease. Genesis 8:22(ESV)
Psalm 23 This week’s lessons focus on how God acts as a shepherd toward His sheep, and what we are to do in response to Him.
Theme
Practical Discipleship
Psalm 23 is probably the best known and most popular chapter of the Word of God. It is no surprise that this is so, since everyone enjoys the theme of the shepherd who cares for his sheep. In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ describes Himself as the shepherd. Jesus declares in John 10, “I am the good shepherd” (v. 11). The author of Hebrews calls Christ the “great Shepherd” of the sheep (13:20). Peter, in 1 Peter 5:4, calls Him the “Chief Shepherd.” He is the Shepherd who is over the undershepherds. Indeed, Peter likens the church to a sheepfold, and its leaders are admonished to “be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care” (v. 2).
When we turn to Psalm 23, we find the theme spelled out in the first verse: “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall lack nothing.” That is the theme verse of the chapter and should be separated from all that follows. From now on, the psalm describes the areas where we are not going to lack, if we have God as our shepherd.
What are the things we are not going to lack? We will not lack rest, because “he makes me lie down in green pastures” (v. 2). We will not lack guidance, because “he leads me beside quiet waters . . . he guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake” (vv. 2-3). We will not lack safety in a dangerous world, because “even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me: your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (v. 4). We will not lack provision under the care of the Shepherd because “you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows” (v. 5). Last of all, we will not lack a heavenly home: “Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (v. 6).
Is it not wonderful to be under the care of a shepherd like that and be able to say we shall lack nothing, nothing at all? Certainly it is, but often we act as though we do not quite believe it. Do we really believe that “the Lord is my shepherd, I shall lack nothing” when we go out to start the car and the battery is dead? No. Instead we grumble, “Oh, how in the world am I ever going to get to work?” We forget that God is our shepherd even in those circumstances. So this psalm becomes an exercise in practical discipleship, and it needs to be applied to every aspect of our lives.
Study Questions
What does Dr. Boice maintain is the theme of Psalm 23?
What images come to your mind when you think of a shepherd? How does the Lord perform those functions?
Application
Reflection: In what ways has the Lord shown Himself to be your shepherd recently?
For Further Study: Download for free and listen to James Boice’s message, “Frailty Anchored in Eternity.” (Discount will be applied at checkout.)
Paul met the Lord on a road (Acts 9:1-9), Peter fell down before him by the sea (Luke 5:1-11), the Ethiopian eunuch came to him after having the scriptures explained to him (Acts 8:26-40), and the man possessed by a legion of demons believed after experiencing a liberating miracle on his life (Mark 5:1-20). The same gospel which unites us reaches us in different ways.
Many people encounter Jesus and come to faith immediately when the Bible is preached and explained to them. Becket Cook is an example that immediately springs to my mind. Others encounter Jesus after a long and detailed analysis of the evidence, and after having their friends engage them with the evidence for Christianity. Nabeel Qureshi is a big example here. Still others encounter Jesus after seeing him in a dream or witnessing a miracle.
Humans are complex beings made in the image of the infinite God (Genesis 1:27), and the gospel draws in and unifies a host of people from all sorts of different backgrounds. The way we receive the gospel isn’t uniform, programmed, and mechanical. The unifying factor is the gospel we receive (1 Cor 15:3-8), not the way we receive it.
Evangelism Is Helped By Social Intelligence
As we evangelise, we do well to have social awareness in understanding that people respond to the gospel in different ways.
Some people may need to witness a miracle before receiving the gospel, others may need to have the evidence for Christianity explained to them, and others may simply need the Bible preached to them plainly.
Some may need all three or a combination thereof!
This should be an obvious thing to say. But I’ve recently and repeatedly heard the absurd claim that apologetics is not necessary for the gospel, because the supposed key to every single human heart, and the only way to do evangelism, is by preaching the Bible and only the Bible to every unbeliever we encounter. . . without any need, ever, for apologetics.
Now of course, preaching the Bible is an eternally wonderful thing, and the Bible really does have all the answers to life’s most important questions. And there is no question that some people convert immediately when the Bible is simply preached to them. Charles Spurgeon is an example of such a person.
The Bible is a source of never-ending wisdom and insight that is a greater treasure than all the money in the world, and apologetics itself is empty without it, because without the Bible, apologetics leads nowhere. Christians who are privileged enough to own a Bible need to be reading it daily.
There is no dispute, regardless of theological conviction, that the Holy Spirit softens people’s hearts as they read and hear God’s word. But how can anyone who’s socially aware of the unbelieving world say that apologetics isn’t ever necessary . . . especially when the Bible itself tells us to use it?
The Bible Tells Us To Use Apologetics
Peter (in 1 Peter 3:15) says that we always need to be ready to give a ‘defense’ for the hope that we have (‘apologia’ in Greek – the word from which we get the English word ‘apologetics’). Apologetics isn’t a random modern Christian word. Apologetics is a biblical word.
Paul – who uses apologetics in Athens (see Acts 17) – uses the same Greek word ‘apologia’ in writing that God has placed him to ‘defend’ the gospel in Philippians 1:16 (see also 1:7).
Are Peter and Paul wrong? Do they just need to understand that all we need to do is preach the Bible to each and every non-believer, without ever giving a reasoned defense for the Christian faith?
Paul also writes that if Jesus has not been raised then Christianity is false (1 Corinthians 15:14, 17). How are we to investigate whether Jesus has been raised? Are we only allowed to investigate that question by looking at what the Bible says?
“The Bible says Jesus was raised; therefore, Jesus was raised.” Is this really sufficient evangelism that will convince every single unbeliever in the world?
The “Bible-only, ever” method is inconsistent
And there’s something awkward that needs to be pointed out:
Does the “Bible-only, ever” evangelist realise that they first have to use their philosophical, linguistic, and reasoning faculties to decide which part of the Bible to open up for every evangelistic conversation with an unbeliever?
It’s the “Bible-only” evangelist’s own philosophical and linguistic reasoning which directs them to show their non-believing counterpart John 20, say, and not Song of Songs 5:3.
So, if I were to grant that we should only use the Bible to evangelise and nothing else – never engaging in philosophy or apologetics with the unbeliever – then I’d be committing myself to an inconsistent epistemology and self-defeat. That should never be the case for the people of God who belong to the Truth!
Jesus himself isn’t a “Bible-only, ever” evangelist
We must remember that Jesus himself demonstrates social awareness when, for example, he uses two different evangelistic methods in two different situations after his resurrection.
In John 20, Jesus convinces Thomas not by the scriptures but by the evidence of his broken body. Yet over in Luke 24, Jesus convinces the two disciples on the road to Emmaus not by his broken body but by unpacking the scriptures!
Here is my point:
With the Holy Spirit’s help, we need the social awareness and intelligence to understand the needs of the unbeliever in front of us.
Some will need apologetics. Some will need miracles. Some will just need straight preaching. Ask people “How did you come to faith?” and you’ll get a range of answers, appealing to different lines of evidence, apologetics included.
Recommended Resources:
I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist (Paperback), and (Sermon) by Norman Geisler and Frank Turek
Sean Redfearn is a former Community Youth Worker who now works for Christian Concern in Central London, UK. He completed an MA in Religion at King’s College London, is in the process of completing the MA Philosophy program at Southern Evangelical Seminary, and is a 2022 CrossExamined Instructor Academy graduate. Passionate about Jesus, he is grateful for the impact that apologetics has had on his faith.
Praying is vital to a healthy Christian life. But let’s face it, for a variety of reasons, sometimes we struggle to consistently meet with the Lord. These six tips can help anyone, no matter how busy, make prayer a priority.
As a child, I believed I could capture water with my hands as easily as with a cup. The pool and bathtub were ideal places for testing my theory: I would squeeze my fingers together to form a barrier before dipping my hands in the water. The rivulets would slowly accumulate into my palms before trickling out again. Try as I did, I could never quite prevent the droplets from seeping out.
Prayer is often like water; it quenches our thirst for communion with God, providing life-giving fellowship. But praying can also feel elusive and difficult, as if we are trying to keep our hands tightly cupped to hold the water as droplets run through our fingers. We often stumble over awkward pleas for help to the Lord, or struggle to keep our minds from wandering. Amid the chaos of life, we can also forget to talk to the Lord. It is something we intend to do and know is necessary for a healthy Christian walk, but we fail to carry out in everyday life.
How can we build a consistent prayer life? And what does this look like in a modern society that is barraged with distractions and short-attention spans?
What we need is not more vague and generalized calls to prayer, as if “just pray” is enough to help us cultivate a prayerful life. Rhythms and practices are required to bring the biblical teaching of prayer into our days. Much like the way water is elusive until placed inside a container –– a cup, bottle, or bowl –– what we need is to give shape to prayer in our lives, building a framework for consistent communion with God. Then, we will be able to participate in this discipline that is vital to our spiritual growth and flourishing.
When we are struggling to build a habit of prayer, we often rush to find solutions, like implementing a strategy or following a new model. In our eagerness to fix our problem, however, we often skip a vital first step: asking God for help.
He is already aware of our weaknesses and needs. And He wants us to come to Him with our concerns, as a child seeking out a parent. Our Lord cares about us and invites us to talk to Him about any problems we face in life (1 Peter 5:7). Building our prayer life from this basis of fellowship is a wise choice since prayer is communion with God.
We can ask, as the disciples did, that the Lord teach us to pray (Luke 11:1). More than anyone, Jesus knows the hinderances and distractions that can prevent individuals from talking to the Father. Our Lord was regularly surrounded by crowds and needs that threatened to pull him away from His central focus. Hence, He developed an essential practice of retreating to private or lonely places to commune with the Father (Luke 5:16). We can learn from His example when we prayerfully engage with what He said and lived out regarding prayer.
Most positive changes in our lives do not happen passively. Either someone interceded to help, or we made a plan to rework the situation. Intention combined with action produces change.
We know this to be true in everyday life. If we want to implement more time with family or a friend, we carve out space in our week to make it happen. Or if we recognize the need for more rest, then periods of relaxation or intentional stress-reducing activities would become a part of the rhythms of our life. We set aside time for what we value most.
So, an important part of fostering a prayer life is to schedule time each day to pray. We could do as Daniel did and start a pattern of praying three times a day (Daniel 6:10). The habit of doing this formed him spiritually so that even in times when it was dangerous for him to be caught praying, he did so anyway to spend time with the Lord.
Of course, the specific time of day is not the focus; rather, it is the act of consistently meeting with the Lord. The more we prioritize prayer, either by setting aside one, three, five, or more times a day, the more we will find ourselves returning to our discussion with the Lord. We will develop a rhythm that encourages us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).
Photo credit: Unsplash/Malvestida Magazine
3. Fuel Your Prayers with Regular Scripture Reading
3. Fuel Your Prayers with Regular Scripture Reading
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The book of Psalms is known as the hymnal and prayer book of the church. These song-prayers told in verse have historically been used as starting places for prayer. As we pray alongside David, Asaph, and others, lifting our voices to the Lord, we learn to praise the Lord. To lament with honesty and faithfulness. To express a variety of emotions in a way that honors the Lord.
Regular Scripture reading, including the Psalms, can shape our prayers. Not only will we grow in our ability to pray as we speak God’s Word back to Him, but we will begin to be formed by the biblical passages we offer in prayer. For we are using Scripture to fellowship with the Lord, a book that is sweeter than honey and sharper than any double-edged sword (Psalm 119:103; Hebrews 4:12). It has the power to transform us.
Adding Bible reading to a daily routine will look different for each person. A few practices, though, can help us implement a prayerful engagement with Scripture:
1. Lectio Divina, a Latin term for sacred reading, which includes a cycle of Bible reading, meditation, prayer, and contemplation
2. Regularly praying verses aloud
3. Using a Scripture reading plan that promotes a slower, more thoughtful pace.
Choosing a practice that combines time with God and listening and talking to Him promotes a prayerful posture in life.
Taking in a consistent diet of the Bible is vital to fueling our prayer life. Hence, we so often hear about the need to read Scripture and pray, as if the two disciplines are intrinsically linked. They are. We learn as we listen to the Word of God, pray it back to Him, and respond to what He teaches us.
Photo credit: Unsplash/Aaron Owens
4. Utilize Written Prayers
4. Utilize Written Prayers
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Some Christians are wary of using written prayers. They may equate them with “vain repetitions” spoken only for religious ceremony and to make individuals appear more spiritual than others (Matthew 6:7). Yet, when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, He gave them a specific prayer –– what we call the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13). This was a prayer they would have undoubtedly memorized and used throughout their lives. It was much more than a mere model; the prayer was something for them to speak, think about, and use whenever they prayed to the Father.
The Lord’s Prayer serves as a great introduction to prayer life. New believers will discover that the words are easy to memorize, as Christ expertly designed them to be, while believers of more advanced years will appreciate the familiarity and the prayer’s ability to turn their focus back to the glory of God’s name and kingdom. Our Lord’s words then become a part of our lives.
In addition to the regular use of the Lord’s Prayer, we can utilize those created by Christians throughout time, ones that have blessed countless others. Browse prayers like the breastplate prayer of St. Patrick, St. Francis of Assisi’s prayer of peace, words from St. Augustine’s Confessions, liturgies from TheBook of Common Prayer, or one of the prayers from Martin Luther’s writings. As we construct a habit of prayer, the words from these saints of old can help us when we struggle to know what to say. They can teach us form and structure, guiding us with precise words to express our thoughts and feelings to seek God’s help and give thanks for His salvation.
So, we do not have to fear written prayers. They can serve as guides, giving us words when we cannot express ourselves and turning our thoughts back to our Savior.
5. Create a Place in Your Home that Is Conducive to Spending Longer Times with God
5. Create a Place in Your Home that Is Conducive to Spending Longer Times with God
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Having a daily habit of communing with the Lord is essential. However, there are periods in which we need to follow the example of Christ, get away to a quiet place, and spend uninterrupted time with the Father. Jesus often did this, praying through the night in some situations (Matthew 14:22-25; Luke 6:12-13). Part of building a robust prayer life is acknowledging that there is a need for longer spans of time spent in prayer.
For this reason, we need a place where we can retreat and converse with the Lord –– one that is accessible and conducive to prayer. Not everyone will have the resources, privileges, or time to set aside a room or space for this purpose. Some of us may more closely resemble Susanna Wesley, who had to be content with placing an apron over her head to have quiet time with the Lord. If the proverbial apron is the only option in our present season of life, then we can utilize even a small space to cultivate prayer.
But others may have a few creative choices for setting up a space in the home for prayer. Perhaps there is an underused corner in a room, or in the basement, which could serve as a quiet space to talk to God. And who said this place had to be indoors? A porch or shaded area of a yard could also serve as a dedicated place of retreat.
We can, and should, pray whenever and wherever we find ourselves. There is a sense of comfort, though, in being able to sit down in a familiar chair or peaceful part of a garden and talk to God freely for as long as our hearts desire. Retreat to that secret place where only God hears and sees (Matthew 6:6).
If you are a churchgoer, no week goes by when you do not hear the Bible read multiple times in worship. Furthermore, you likely hear repeated exhortations from the pulpit and in more informal conversations to read the Bible on your own. Christians are people of the book, so we should read our book and love it — this much is uncontroversially true. But what does this mean for other reading we might do in our lives? Do we even need to read any other books?
Over the years, I have heard different opinions on the matter from other Christians. In particular, some have felt wary of reading books written by unbelievers, ancient or modern. Caution with regard to some modern books is well warranted. And yet, as a historian and a classicist, I want to encourage Christians today to not miss out on the treasure trove of wisdom that are great books, including ancient literature.
The Reading Habits of the People of the Book
In my new book, Christians Reading Classics, I argue that we can, in fact, read these ancient classics devotionally, so long as we read these works as Christians, seeing common grace reflected in them. Such reading should never replace our daily Bible reading, and yet, it can enrich our Bible reading by expanding our imagination as a creative people made by the God who loves beauty, goodness, and truth.
After all, these pagan Greco-Roman classics inspired so many early Christians and led them to a much deeper understanding of Scripture. Consider the glorious proclamation in John 1:1 — that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (NIV). It is a direct response to pagan creation myths, told in such pagan literature as the works of the Greek poet Hesiod and the Roman poet Ovid. It is, furthermore, a proclamation that all written words belong to God.
No less significant, the reading of Scripture enriched the understanding of the pagan classics for many believers in the early church. In his Confessions, for instance, Augustine places in contrast the beauty of the pagan philosophical works that he so enjoyed in his youth with the achingly beautiful exhortation from God that so deeply resonated in his soul shortly before his dramatic conversion: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:28-30, NIV).
Still, for some early Christian readers, figuring out the most appropriate relationship between reading pagans and reading Scripture was difficult.
The Theologian and the Poet: A Tale of Two Early Christian Readers
The fourth-century AD monastic intellectual Jerome is perhaps best known for his translation of the entire Bible into Latin. Known as the Vulgate, it became the Bible of the European Middle Ages. As befits one of the leading intellectuals of his day, he had a superb education in the pagan classics — he knew by heart vast swathes of the poetry of Plautus and Vergil and the prose of Cicero. But what many today don’t know, perhaps, is the tortured relationship that Jerome had with any literature outside the Bible. In AD 384, he wrote the following in a letter to Eustochium, a noblewoman and consecrated virgin:
“Many years ago, when for the kingdom of heaven’s sake I had cut myself off from home, parents, sister, relations, and — harder still — from the dainty food to which I had been accustomed; and when I was on my way to Jerusalem to wage my warfare, I still could not bring myself to forego the library which I had formed for myself at Rome with great care and toil. And so, miserable man that I was, I would fast only that I might afterwards read Cicero. After many nights spent in vigil, after floods of tears called from my inmost heart, after the recollection of my past sins, I would once more take up Plautus. And when at times I returned to my right mind, and began to read the prophets, their style seemed rude and repellent.”
Jerome’s description of how, in comparison with the pagan classics, the prophets seemed poor reading material is striking. Our tastes in books are shaped by what we read, just as our musical tastes are shaped by what we listen to. To someone who had never heard Bach but has been conditioned on a steady diet of modern pop music, Bach might seem inferior. At the same time, this analogy is also a good reminder that youthful tastes can be plain wrong.
But the story gets even more intense: Jerome tells that he was sick, on his deathbed, and came before the throne of God’s judgment. A loud voice asked him who he was, and he responded that he is a Christian. The voice disagreed, however, proclaiming (clearly as an indictment of the most severe sort) that he was rather a Ciceronian. Jerome swore off pagan books then and there and miraculously recovered. It appears that for about a decade afterwards, he largely avoided the pagan classics. But then he eventually went back to reading them in moderation.
Converted by the Classics
An older contemporary of Jerome, the poet Faltonia Betitia Proba, offers another approach for Christians reading classics. After converting to Christianity from traditional Roman religion, she wrote the Vergilian Cento in Praise of Christ, an epic poem of 694 lines.
The cento format is curious and would likely not fly in our age of copyright laws: it is a work of recycling and recombining poetic lines into a new work. Virtually none of the components of Proba’s poem are original — they are Vergil’s. But through this arrangement of this earlier pagan poet’s lines, Proba tells the entire story of the Bible, from Creation to Christ. In the process, she redeems this pagan poet, showing his foreshadowing of Christ.
Other later Christian writers agreed. It is no coincidence that Dante made Vergil the guide in the Divine Comedy. The fruit of Proba’s work is quite striking, by the way: she converted her entire family.
Overall, Jerome’s warning of getting seduced away from the Bible in reading the pagans is a good one to keep in mind. And yet, examples of other Christian readers of both the Bible and the classics show that reading both can enrich our understanding of our faith too. We are, after all, a spiritual people, and our imagination plays a crucial role in spiritual development.
Cultivating the Evangelical Imagination
In this age of “AI slop” fighting for our imagination, Christians are called as much as ever to remain people of the book — and a bookish people, too. Classic books can cultivate our imagination for the love of God, if only we let them.
We cannot read everything. The library of classics that would be good for us is vast. And by some estimates, as many as one million new books are published each year. The author of Ecclesiastes may have been on to something in proclaiming that “Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body” (Ecclesiastes 12:12, NIV).
But on the other hand, John concludes his Gospel with this stunning vision for literature: “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written” (John 21:25, NIV).
The first question in the Westminster Shorter Catechism boldly asks: “What is the chief end of man?”
The answer: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.” Cultivating the evangelical imagination through reading the classics can help in this task. What we read matters, but how we read matters even more. May we read like Proba, seeing God’s glory in every verse of poetry ever written, and in the background of every story ever told.
Even in the Late Roman Empire Christian readers, like Augustine and Boethius, did just this. But reading the classics this way requires reading differently than, perhaps, most people today are used to doing.
In twenty short chapters, Nadya Williams introduces the readers to one or two different ancient authors and their key works. She offers three interrelated reasons for Christians today to read the pagan classics for spiritual formation: reading to be surprised by joy, reading to understand the world of the Bible and the earliest Christians, and reading for character formation.
For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. (1:7)
A second means for guarding against being ashamed of Christ is to consider our divine resources. The Greek verb (didōmi) behind has not given is in the aorist active indicative tense, showing past completed action. God already has provided for us the resources. The Lord may withhold special help until we have special need. Jesus told the Twelve, “When they deliver you up, do not become anxious about how or what you will speak; for it shall be given you in that hour what you are to speak. For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you” (Matt. 10:19–20). But God provided everything we need for everyday faithful living and service when we first believed. From a negative perspective, we can be sure that any spirit of timidity we might have is not from God. Both testaments speak of a fitting and proper fear of God, in the sense of awe and reverence. But deilia is a timid, cowardly, shameful fear that is generated by weak, selfish character. The Lord is never responsible for our cowardice, our lack of confidence, or our being shameful of Him. The noun deilia (timidity) is used only here in the New Testament and, unlike the more common term for fear (phobos), carries a generally negative meaning. The resources we have from our heavenly Father are power and love and discipline. When we are vacillating and apprehensive, we can be sure it is because our focus is on ourselves and our own human resources rather than on the Lord and His available divine resources. Dunamis (power) denotes great force, or energy, and is the term from which we get dynamic and dynamite. It also carries the connotation of effective, productive energy, rather than that which is raw and unbridled. God provides us with His power in order for us to be effective in His service. Paul did not pray that believers in Ephesus might be given divine power but that they might be aware of the divine power they already possessed. “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened,” he wrote, “so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places” (Eph. 1:18–20). Through Christ we have the resource of God’s own supernatural power, the very power He used to raise Christ from the dead. Although Old Testament saints were not indwelt by the Holy Spirit in the same degree of fullness that New Testament believers are (cf. John 14:17), they did have the resource of God’s Spirit providing divine help as they lived and served Him. They understood, as Zechariah declared to Zerubbabel, that their strength was not by human “ ‘might nor … power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts” (Zech. 4:6). It is of utmost importance to understand that God does not provide His power for us to misappropriate for our own purposes. He provides His power to accomplish His purposes through us. When our trust is only in Him, and our desire is only to serve Him, He is both willing and “able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us” (Eph. 3:20). God also has given every believer the resource of His own divine love, which, like His power, we received at the time of our new birth. In his letter to the church at Rome, Paul exulted, “The love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Rom. 5:5). The love we have from God is agapē, the volitional and selfless love that desires and works for the best interests of the one loved. It is not emotional and conditional, as philos love often is, and has nothing in common with erōs love, which is sensual and selfish. The love we have from God is constant. It does not share the ebb and flow or the unpredictability of those other loves. It is a self-denying grace that says to others, in effect, “I will give myself away on your behalf.” Directed back to God, from whom it came, it says, “I will give my life and everything I have to serve you.” It is the believer’s “love in the Spirit” (Col. 1:8), the divinely-bestowed love of the one who will “lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). It is the “sincere love of the brethren” by which we “fervently love one another from the heart” (1 Peter 1:22), the “perfect love [that] casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). It is the love that affirms without reservation or hesitation: “If we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom. 14:8). Above all, it is “the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge” (Eph. 3:19). Our spiritual lives are measured accurately by our love. If our first love is for self, our life will center on seeking our own welfare, our own objectives, our own comfort and success. We will not sacrifice ourselves for others or even for the Lord. But if we love with the love God provides, our life will center on pleasing Him and on seeking the welfare of others, especially other Christians. Godly love is the first fruit of the Spirit, and it is manifested when we “live by the Spirit [and] … walk by the Spirit” (Gal. 5:22, 25). Sōphronismos (discipline) has the literal meaning of a secure and sound mind, but it also carries the additional idea of a self-controlled, disciplined, and properly prioritized mind. God-given discipline allows believers to control every element of their lives, whether positive or negative. It allows them to experience success without becoming proud and to suffer failure without becoming bitter or hopeless. The disciplined life is the divinely ordered life, in which godly wisdom is applied to every situation. In his letter to the church at Rome, Paul uses the verb form of the term, admonishing, “I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment [sōphrone], as God has allotted to each a measure of faith” (Rom. 12:3). In his first letter to Timothy (3:2) and in his letter to Titus (1:8; cf. 2:2), he used the adjective form to describe a key quality that should characterize overseers, namely, that of being prudent and sensible. When we live by the godly discipline that our gracious Lord supplies, our priorities are placed in the right order, and every aspect of our lives is devoted to advancing the cause of Christ. Because of his Spirit-empowered discipline, Paul could say, “I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified” (1 Cor. 9:26–27). The great spiritual triumvirate of power, love, and discipline belong to every believer. These are not natural endowments. We are not born with them, and they cannot be learned in a classroom or developed from experience. They are not the result of heritage or environment or instruction. But all believers possess these marvelous, God-given endowments: power, to be effective in His service; love, to have the right attitude toward Him and others; and discipline, to focus and apply every part of our lives according to His will. When those endowments are all present, marvelous results occur. No better statement affirming this reality can be found than in Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus, to whom he said,
For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. (Eph. 3:14–21; emphasis added)
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1995). 2 Timothy (pp. 17–20). Moody Press.
7 Paul is fond of making a negative statement and then following it with three positive ideas, thus giving the introduction and three points of the outline for a textual sermon (cf. Rom 14:17). Here he says that God has not given us a spirit of “timidity” (deilia, “cowardice,” only here in the NT), but rather a spirit of “power” (dynamis), of “love” (agapē) and of “self-discipline” (sōphronismos, “self-control,” only here in the NT). This is a significant combination. The effective Christian worker must have the power of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1:8). But that power must be expressed in a loving spirit, or it may do damage. And often the deciding factor between success and failure is the matter of self-discipline. This is one of the several passages in these two Epistles that hint at Timothy’s naturally timid nature. He had been brought up by his mother and grandmother, and now Paul was taking the place of a father to him.
Earle, R. (1981). 2 Timothy. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Ephesians through Philemon (Vol. 11, p. 395). Zondervan Publishing House.
7 In order to strengthen the admonition, Paul adds to his acknowledgment of Timothy’s genuine faith a theological reason for stepping back into action. This reason (“for”; gar) is to be found in the recollection of a theology of the Holy Spirit. The language of this verse is very similar to Rom 8:15:
Rom 8:15—[For] the Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.
2 Tim 1:7—For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.
Although the texts are not identical, the latter text must be understood as a conscious echo of the earlier teaching about the Spirit. The text is reshaped to meet the present need. In this ministry context, Paul transposes the concern expressed in Romans for enslavement to the law (douleias) to timidity (deilias) in the face of opposition. But the intentional shift to a near homophone at the same time opens the door to another echo—this time of the command spoken by the Lord in the commissioning of Joshua: Joshua 1:9—I have commanded thee; be strong and courageous, be not cowardly [deiliasēs] nor fearful, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go (cf. 8:1).
The verbal echo, if present, is admittedly faint. But the tone, narrative setting and intention of the instructions create a plausible match. The effect would be to call on the image of Joshua, who in his commissioning was urged to be strong and courageous and not timid because God would be present. In the Pauline adaptation of the OT promise, Timothy, by virtue of the Spirit in him, can count on the same protective presence of God. In the end, both the connection to Rom 8:15 and the present language itself make clear that it is God’s gift of the Holy Spirit, and qualities associated with this gift, that provides the reason Paul’s logic requires. First, the echoing of Romans reveals that the intended backdrop to this teaching is Paul’s fundamental teaching about the Spirit and Christian identity—possession of this gift ensures and confirms adoption into God’s family (Rom 8:14–17). Corresponding to this is the general description of the recipients of this gift as “us,” which is most probably a reference to all believers. Further, the qualities ascribed to the Spirit’s presence—“power, love, self-discipline”—are not the type we would normally limit to a discussion of church office or ministering gifts, though here they are applied to the task confronting Timothy. Consequently, as Paul initiates this opening exhortation concerning Timothy’s return to ministry, his basis is the fact that Timothy possesses the Spirit that God promised to give to his people. The description of the Spirit consists of contrasting negative and positive qualities. Presumably, the negative trait that stands in contradiction to the Spirit, “timidity, or cowardice” does in some sense describe Timothy’s situation. The context implies that this weakness has revealed itself in a reluctance to stand openly for the gospel and for Paul, its imprisoned spokesman. While Timothy may have been predisposed to fearfulness (1 Cor 16:10), even a modest reconstruction of the turbulent church situation depicted in 1 and 2 Timothy gives enough reason for his reluctance. Opposition to Paul’s gospel and rejection of his authority are evident from the over-realized doctrine of the resurrection identified in 2:17–18. If the letter reflects the continuation and growth of problems with false teachers addressed by 1 Timothy, then it is not hard to imagine Timothy, feeling outnumbered and outmaneuvered with his own delegated authority in doubt, cowering in the face of threats and Paul’s declining reputation. “Timidity” parallels the following admonition “do not be ashamed” (v. 8). Timothy’s confidence and courage to stand for the gospel had received a hard blow. In contrast, three positive qualities characterize the presence of the Holy Spirit. The first is “power.” This particular quality is central to this entire discussion of Timothy’s renewal for ministry (1:8, 12; 2:1). It is a basic characteristic of God (e.g. Josh 4:24; 5:14), and it is so intrinsic to the understanding of the Spirit that it is almost a tautology to speak, as Paul does here literally, of the “Spirit of power.” There is no need to narrow the meaning down to any particular manifestation of power in this passage; what is essential is to note the link between the supply of God’s power and the experience of sufficient boldness for ministry. In this context “power” is linked to witness and willingness to undergo suffering (1:8). The second mark of the Spirit is “love” (1:13; 2:22; 3:10; see on 1 Tim 1:5). This is one of several components characteristic of authentic Christian existence as portrayed in these letters that Timothy is especially to pursue and exhibit. It often occurs alongside “faith,” identifying the observable dimension of Christianity as service to others done in the power of the Spirit (cf. Gal 5:6; 22–23; 1 Tim 2:15 note). Third in the list is a quality that can be viewed from several perspectives as either “self-discipline,” “self-control,” “discretion,” “moderation,” or “prudence.” The word group to which this term belongs is also integral to the interpretation of the Christian life in these three letters, and it was a dominant feature in secular ethical thought (see 1 Tim 2:9 Excursus). It depicts the self-control over one’s actions and thoughts that prevents rash behavior and aids balanced assessment of situations. In this context, it would apply to Timothy’s appraisal of the situation of opposition and confrontation and allow him the clarity of thought necessary to trust in the invisible God despite the threats of very visible opponents. Paul’s logic in vv. 6–7 seems to develop as follows. Reference to “the gift” conveyed in some sense to Timothy by the laying on of the apostle’s hands (v. 6) is interpreted, almost doctrinally with the allusion to Romans, in terms of the gift of Holy Spirit “given” by God to all believers at conversion (v. 7). The reflection/reminiscence seems to be of Timothy’s conversion (or of Paul’s confirmation of it) when he received the Holy Spirit and his commission to join the mission to the Gentiles. An additional allusion to the Joshua commissioning would reinforce the reminder of Spirit-power and courage. The present exhortation calls Timothy to renew his dependence upon the Spirit in him (v. 6), whose presence means “power” for the challenges of the task at hand (v. 7). This “power” will assume the manifestation appropriate for the situation.
Towner, P. H. (2006). The Letters to Timothy and Titus (pp. 460–463). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
He blesseth the habitation of the just.Proverbs 3:33
He fears the Lord, and therefore he comes under the divine protection even as to the roof which covers himself and his family. His home is an abode of love, a school of holy training, and a place of heavenly light. In it there is a family attar where the name of the Lord is daily had in reverence. Therefore the Lord blesses his habitation. It may be a humble cottage or a lordly mansion; but the Lord’s blessing comes because of the character of the inhabitant and not because of the size of the dwelling.
That house is most blest in which the master and mistress are Godfearing people; but a son or daughter or even a servant may bring a blessing on a whole household. The Lord often preserves, prospers, and provides for a family for the sake of one or two in it, who are “just” persons in His esteem, because His grace has made them so. Beloved, let us have Jesus for our constant guest even as the sisters of Bethany had, and then we shall be blessed indeed.
Let us look to it that in all things we are just—in our trade, in our judgment of others, in our treatment of neighbors, and in our own personal character. A just God cannot bless unjust transactions.
A reflection on society’s moral and spiritual decline, this piece laments humanity’s increasing futility—anger, emptiness, and loss of meaning apart from God. Drawing on Scripture, it contrasts worldly pursuits and hollow creativity with the only true fulfillment found in Jesus, who alone gives purpose and life.
I was talking with someone the other day and we were shaking our heads at the state of the world, children, how people think (or don’t think) these days and more.
We see the decline locally and globally. The decline is in everything- emotional regulation, morals, accountability, common sense, etc. And thinking.
We see people with a hair trigger anger response when either something doesn’t go their way, or they receive an answer of no rather than their desire fulfilled. They resort to frustration and anger almost immediately. Emotions rule.
Romans 1:21-22a says – For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their reasonings, and their senseless hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools. [underline mine]
FUTILE: it means to render foolish, be morally wicked, and specially idolatrous.
The same sense of the word that is used in Romans 1:21; is also used in 1 Peter 1:18 and Ephesians 4:17
Ephesians 4:17; So I say this, and affirm in the Lord, that you are to no longer walk just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their minds,
1 Peter 1:18, knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers,
It means vain, pointless, empty, meaningless.
So much of art exists because it is a search for meaning. Poetry, essays, movies, paintings, all a search for some sort of expression that will resolve the non-saved person’s endless quest to the answer of the question ‘what is the meaning of life?’ The creatives’ search, however, is futile.
TV/art/movie/literary critics spend much time and ink pondering the ‘truths’ brought out in their discussions of the art they’re reviewing. It’s all futile. They do not know their thoughts and conjectures and philosophies are futile, empty, and meaningless. Futile.
They rejected His statutes and His covenant which He made with their fathers, and His warnings which He gave them. And they followed idols and became empty, and followed the nations that surrounded them, about which the LORD had commanded them not to do as they did. (2 Kings 17:15).
This is what the LORD says: “What injustice did your fathers find in Me, That they went far from Me, And walked after emptiness and became empty? (Jeremiah 2:5).
Worse, they do not know their entire lives are empty. They think that having a fleshly goal and reaching it will fill them. They think that busy-ness will fill them. They think that rising in the career levels will fill them. They think that children will fill them. But not even that blessing will fill them. Life is empty unless Jesus is at the center of it. His Light radiates out through the person from within and is the center pivot upon which the person revolves. We worship Him, create for Him with Him in mind, love others because of Him. He gives meaning to life. He IS life. Apart from Him we can do nothing. (cf John 15:5).
Let us make sure our days are not striving after wind, but satisfied in Jesus. Let us not walk after emptiness, but fill ourselves with the meat of the word.
Navigating conversations about homosexuality and transgenderism in today’s cultural climate can be challenging. In this talk, Stand to Reason’sAlan Shlemon provides thoughtful guidance to followers of Jesus on how to serve as effective ambassadors for Christ—speaking truth with compassion.
In this talk, you will learn:
what the Bible says about homosexuality and transgenderism.
principles to help you navigate conversations and relationships with family and friends
pitfalls to avoid when conversing with others.
To learn more about Alan Shlemon, go here. Alan has written on these topics here and here.
To take advantage of the many resources offered by Stand to Reason, go here.
J. Warner addresses why God allows bad things to happen, even to Christians, by exploring the role of God’s infinite knowledge, wisdom, and purpose in suffering. He discusses the journey of faith through justification, sanctification, and glorification, emphasizing the importance of trusting God even when His reasons are mysterious.
Discover inspiring stories of courage and truth in the face of adversity, mirroring ancient struggles with modern-day resilience. Explore how faith empowers individuals to stand for what is right, even when facing immense challenges and personal attacks.
After his amazing victory on Mount Carmel against the prophets of Baal, Elijah fell into deep depression. Not only had he seen God work in a miraculous way, he had proven before Israel Who was the one true God. And yet, almost immediately, Elijah questioned whether God could protect him from Jezebel and (falsely) believed that he was the only faithful believer left in Israel:
I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.
There’s much to learn from this story, both about the vulnerabilities of humans and the kindness of God. For example, I love that the author of 1 Kings includes the detail that God sent an angel to Elijah to help him sleep and cook him food. Also, by informing Elijah of the 7,000 people in Israel who had not bowed a knee to Baal, God was reminding Elijah that He was still very much at work in the world, and that He primarily works through His people.
God has his people everywhere. Often, He uses unlikely candidates to be courageous voices of truth. The new film Truth Rising tells the story of five courageous voices in this civilizational moment.
As a young teenager, Chloe Cole was so completely lost and deceived about who she was, she underwent a double mastectomy attempting to be male. God worked in her life to reveal what was true about who she is, and now, having detransitioned, she advocates for the truth that humans are made in God’s image, male and female. She is now a powerful force pushing back against the darkness.
The story of Seth Dillon and The Babylon Bee is the story of the last decade. First, the popular and funny satirical site was cancelled from one of their most powerful channels of influence for saying what is true. Committed, as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn put it, “to live not by lies,” he refused to take a short cut around truth. But God was at work, and how the story turned out shocked everyone.
My friend Katy Faust was a pastor’s wife in the northwest with an anonymous blog. She spoke truth about an ideology that subjects children to the whims of adult desire. Then Katy was doxed by someone who threatened her and her entire church community. God used that incident to make Katy a leading champion for the rights and wellbeing of children worldwide.
Courage is not typically a required qualification for bakers, but it was for Jack Phillips. In one afternoon, Jack took a stand when asked to design a cake with a message that was not true. That stand led to thirteen years of attacks by the state of Colorado, and one of the most consequential First Amendment wins of our lifetime. Again, God was at work.
Perhaps best known among these stories is Ayaan Hirsi Ali, whose faith journey took her from Islam to atheism to Christ. An activist, political leader, and author, Ayaan has now found what she was looking for and believes deeply that God has placed her as a truth teller in a crucial cultural moment. That’s exactly what she’s doing.
These five stories of courage are fully told in the Truth Rising documentary. What is obvious in each is that God is at work through His people as much today as He was on Mount Carmel through Elijah. We are not alone. We’ve been called to this time and place.
John Stonestreetis President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host of BreakPoint, a daily national radio program providing thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.
The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.
BreakPointis a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can’t find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 – 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today’s news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.
You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. (4:4–5)
In the incarnation, God became a partaker of human nature (Phil. 2:7–8; Heb. 2:14, 17; 4:15). Through regeneration, on the other hand, human beings become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4; cf. 2 Cor. 3:18). John’s statement, You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world, is primarily an affirmation of the believer’s security against the false teachers (cf. 2:20, 24, 27). All true Christians possess an incorruptible seed of eternal life (1 Peter 1:23–25), meaning that no satanic deception can take them out of God’s saving hand (John 10:28–29). Those truly born again have been given not only a supernatural insight into the truth (Luke 10:21) but a love for it as well (Pss. 1:2; 119:97, 113, 159, 167; cf. 2 Thess. 2:10; 1 Peter 1:22) and a discernment that protects them from apostasy (cf. Mark 13:22; Heb. 10:39). As Paul wrote:
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Cor. 2:12–16)
Believers may be unsure about secondary, peripheral matters, but not about the foundational truths of the gospel, such as the person and work of Christ (cf. John 3:14–16; Rom. 1:16–17; 3:24–26; 5:1; Gal. 2:16; Eph. 2:8–9; 2 Tim. 1:9). They will not be fooled when false teachers invariably devalue the work of Christ by championing some form of salvation by works (cf. Gal. 4:9–11; Col. 2:20–23). On the other hand, false teachers and their followers cling to worldly ideas (see 2:15–17 and 1 Cor. 2:14) because they are from the world; they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. Through what they say and how they live, false teachers demonstrate that they are anything but genuine servants of Christ. True believers, however, resist worldly ideas because they have overcome the world (cf. John 16:33).
MacArthur, J. (2007). 1, 2, 3 John (pp. 158–159). Moody Publishers.
The Church and the World (vv. 4–6)
At this point the contemporary reader may well feel that the discussion has become somewhat theoretical and even unreal. We are not often confronted today by those who claim to be prophets, he might argue. Our difficulty is rather of knowing on the purely human level whether or not a teacher speaks truly. Can we test those who speak on this level? Can truth be distinguished from error here? The objection is valid, of course, and the questions are good ones. Consequently, we are not surprised to find John turning to deal with the matter on this level in the remaining verses. The outline to these verses is to be found in the emphasized pronouns that begin verses 4, 5, and 6. With the exception of verse 4 this is preserved even in most of the English versions. Verse 4 begins with “you.” It is a reference to those who are of God, that is, to Christians. John says two things of these persons. First, he says that they have overcome the false teachers. He is not referring to a physical contest by these words, nor even to a struggle in the area of morality. It is rather an intellectual battle in which the Christians have been victorious. The false teachers had been seeking to deceive these believers, but they had not succeeded. Merely by testing them and refusing to be taken in by their lies, the Christians have conquered. Second, John indicates why the Christians have been victorious. It is not that they were stronger in themselves, for they probably were not. The Gnostics were the ones who were the intellectual giants. Rather, it is that God was in the Christians and that he who was in the Christians is stronger than he who is in the world. This last phrase recalls the statement of Elisha to his young servant when the latter was terrified at the armies of Syria who had surrounded them: “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them” (2 Kings 6:16). In this case the reference was to the angels of the Lord who had surrounded Elisha. Verse 5 begins with “they.” This refers to the false teachers who, John says, are of the world because what they say is of the world. It is the world’s philosophy even though it may be dressed in Christian language and be presented by those who claim to be Christian teachers. The last verse, verse 6, begins with “we.” This “we” is not the same as the “you” who “are from God” in verse 4. In verse 4 the “you” is all Christians. In this verse “we” must refer, not to all Christians, but to the apostles, as the direct counterpart to the false teachers of verse 4. In other words, this “we” is the same as the “we” that begins the letter, which verses insist most strongly upon the apostolic teaching and testimony. What does this mean? It simply means that those who are of God and those who are of the world may be distinguished by their response or lack of response to the apostolic teaching. “Whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.” If this were a mere individual talking, the claim would be presumptuous. But it is not. This is one of the apostles citing the collective testimony of all the apostles and making that testimony the measure of truth and sound doctrine. The tragedy of our time is that we do not have enough men and women to proclaim and defend that doctrine. So the truth is not clearly defined, and the way is not clearly illuminated. The doctrine of the apostles, the only true doctrine of the church, illuminates it; and the incarnation of God’s Christ defines and gives a focal point to that doctrine. It is for us to determine whether or not we believe that doctrine and, if we do, to respond to it. There are not three ways, according to the apostle. There are not four, or five, or more. There are only two ways: the way of truth and the way of error, the way of Christ and the way of antichrist. We are called to serve Christ, and those who are truly of God will do so.
Boice, J. M. (2004). The Epistles of John: an expositional commentary (pp. 110–111). Baker Books.
You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. The contrast in these two verses is obvious. As their spiritual father, John tenderly addresses the readers and says, “dear children.” The pronoun you stands first to give it emphasis in the sentence. The writer wants to tell the Christians: “You, yes you, are from God.” That is, the readers ought never to forget their divine heritage. They are not only special people, born of God and called “children of God” (2:29; 3:1, 9, 10); they are also different from those people who belong to the world. Moreover, John makes an additional claim: “You … have overcome them” (compare 2:13, 14; 5:4, 5). The use of the plural them is a reference to the false teachers mentioned in the preceding paragraph. John writes the perfect tense, “you have overcome.” In other words, they have already done so by obeying God’s commands and honoring the teaching of his Word. God’s children can never boast in themselves but always in the Lord (see Jer. 9:24; 1 Cor. 1:31). It is the Lord Jesus Christ who has overcome the world (John 16:33) and has set his people free (Heb. 2:15). “The battle has thus been decided, even if it is not yet over. By faith Christians participate in this victory and are thus placed in a position to overcome the world for themselves.” Reassuringly John writes, “The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” There are two forces that oppose one another: the Holy Spirit opposes the spirit of the antichrist. Through his Spirit, God lives with his children and is greater than the evil one. He keeps them in the truth of his Word and strengthens them to overcome temptations (compare 3:9). The word world is significant, because it appears three times in this verse (v. 5). It differs in meaning from its use in the preceding paragraph (vv. 1, 3), where it has the broad connotation of a place of human life. Here it means a world of people who are hostile to God (see 3:1, 13). The false prophets “are from the world.” They derive their principles, zeal, goals, and existence from the world of hostility in which Satan rules as prince (John 12:31). Furthermore, their teachings, opinions, and values are atheistic and antichristian. John refrains from revealing the content of their speech; he mentions only the act of speaking. What the false prophets say, however, is persuasive, for “the world listens to them.” The world agrees with the teachings of the false teachers and thus participates in opposing God.
Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953–2001). Exposition of James and the Epistles of John (Vol. 14, pp. 327–328). Baker Book House.
“Stability in government is essential to national character and to the advantages annexed to it, as well as to that repose and confidence in the minds of the people, which are among the chief blessings of civil society.” —James Madison (1788)
SNAP fight: After funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program lapsed in November, District Judge John McConnell ruled that funding must be found immediately, even at the cost of depleting funds meant for natural disasters. The First Circuit Court of Appeals refused to block McConnell’s order that dispersements must be made by last Friday night. The USDA obeyed the order, and states began disbursing SNAP funds even as the appeal advanced to the Supreme Court. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson then froze McConnell’s order, causing the USDA to demand that states claw back those funds. Now, states are facing penalties if they don’t find a way to rescind the payments. All of this confusion could have been avoided if the judicial branch had taken the time to exercise deliberation in its judgments and remembered that it does not hold the power of the purse.
MSM message: Don’t blame Dems for shutdown: Senate Democrats are entirely to blame for what is now the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. However, that is not the message Americans are getting fed from mainstream news outlets. A recent Media Research Center analysis of ABC, CBS, and NBC found they “have hammered both Congressional Republicans and President Trump with a wall of negative shutdown coverage, while largely shielding Democrats from blame for the now-historic gridlock.” Furthermore, these networks have gone to bat for Democrat lawmakers, couching their refusal to vote on a clean continuing resolution to reopen the government as a fight for healthcare for millions of Americans who could see their premiums rise by “169%.” Thanks to this deceptive reporting, Democrats have been able to continue their shutdown while suffering little political damage.
Trump’s rebate proposal: Donald Trump over the weekend floated a couple of proposals to put taxpayer money back into taxpayer hands. Cutting checks from the government is a very Democrat or populist idea, but Americans who are concerned about the massive national debt may wish for the money to be used to pay that down instead. Trump’s first proposal is for Congress to defund ObamaCare and redirect those funds to the American people to “PURCHASE THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, HEALTHCARE.” Republican congressional leaders haven’t signed on to Trump’s proposal at this time, but both Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson support negotiations to reform the failing ObamaCare system. His second proposal is for tariff revenue to be used to send a $2,000 check to “everyone” — except “high income people.” The Treasury Department reported that $195 billion in tariff revenue has been collected since the beginning of the year.
Border Patrol agents targeted in Chicago shooting: Over the weekend, Border Patrol agents were shot at while they were conducting immigration enforcement in Chicago. As anti-ICE “agitators” crowded around Border Patrol vehicles, an unknown male in a Jeep engaged in a drive-by shooting targeting CPB agents’ vehicles. Fortunately, no one was struck by the gunfire. According to DHS, “This incident is not isolated and reflects a growing and dangerous trend of violence and obstruction. Over the past two months, we’ve seen an increase in assaults and obstruction targeting federal law enforcement during operations. These confrontations highlight the dangers our agents face daily and the escalating aggression toward law enforcement. The violence must end.”
Judge rules Trump can’t deploy National Guard to Portland: Following a three-day trial last week challenging Donald Trump’s order to send National Guard troops into Portland, Oregon, to defend federal personnel and property, U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut ruled against the Trump administration, writing in her decision that “The occasional interference to federal officers has been minimal, and there is no evidence that these small-scale protests have significantly impeded the execution of any immigration laws.” The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had already ruled against deploying the troops pending Immergut’s decision. White House spokesman Abigail Jackson responded to the ruling, arguing that Trump “exercised his lawful authority to protect federal officers and assets.” The White House will be appealing this decision.
Biden’s hilariously bad hypocrisy: Former President Joe Biden made an appearance Friday night for the Democrat Party’s “Ben Nelson Gala.” His speech was full of the usual gaffes, slurred speech, and whisper-shouting. After he concluded, a hot mic caught an aide informing him that he would be remaining on stage, to which he replied, “I am? Oh.” The part that really raised eyebrows, however, was when Biden opined on how much money the Trumps have been making since retaking the White House. “Can you imagine if any other president in American history did that?” Biden asked the crowd. Unlike Biden, most Americans are lucid enough to recall that Trump was one of the few presidents to lose net worth in his first term in office, and he doesn’t take a presidential salary. Some may even remember how much the Biden family’s net worth increased during Joe’s time in public life.
BBC director-general resigns after bias exposed: The notion that much of the American news media is “fake news” is now common, but many may not be aware that the issue extends to the UK as well. The BBC has been exposed by a whistleblower dossier, as reported in The Telegraph, for deceptive editing of January 6 footage, as well as pro-Hamas bias and one-sided reporting on transgenderism. The report is damning enough that the BBC’s director-general has stepped down in a decision he insisted was “entirely my decision.” The head of the BBC’s News and Current Affairs has also resigned. The question now is whether the BBC will let its scapegoats take the blame and continue with its biased reporting, or if it will take the opportunity to adopt balanced reporting.
F-150 Lightning getting fossilized? Is it the end of the line for Ford’s electric pickup truck? Last week, it was reported that Ford executives were discussing scrapping the F-150 Lightning. And the reason is as predictable as thunder following lightning: poor EV sales. As New Jersey auto-dealer Adam Kraushaar explained, “The demand is just not there. We don’t order a lot of them because we don’t sell them.” That’s the market at work. Overall sales numbers for EVs have tanked since the $7,500 tax credit expired at the end of September. Case in point: Last month, Ford sold 66,000 gas-powered F-Series trucks compared to just 1,500 Lightnings. The trouble facing EVs has always been twofold: high cost and limited range.
Headlines
U.S. surpasses 10,000 flight delays Sunday in worst day of shutdown (Reuters)
Elise Stefanik announces run for New York governor (National Review)
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser under investigation for Qatar trip (Townhall)
People on the Left are “perplexed” by the latest government shutdown development and seem to be blaming Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer for folding. For example, California Governor Gavin Newsom called it “pathetic.”
It seems the GOP has finally gotten enough bipartisan support to clear the first hurdle in a lengthy process to reopen the government. In a rare Sunday vote, the Senate voted 60-40 on the continuing resolution. Democrat Senators Dick Durbin, Jeanne Shaheen, Maggie Hassan, Jacky Rosen, and Tim Kaine flipped their votes to join the other three Democrats who had previously voted “Yes” on the clean CR. Now, the Senate will combine the House-passed continuing resolution with the three-bill spending package and an updated continuing resolution to clear final passage. Then, it will head to the House for a vote before going to the president’s desk.
Donald Trump addressed the deal last night before heading into the White House. “It looks like we’re getting very close to the shutdown ending,” he said. The saddest part about ending the shutdown — aside from saving money, nixing needless jobs, and kicking lazy people off of government handouts — is the end of the sombrero memes.
On the bright side, it doesn’t appear that Democrats got anything they wanted. Instead of a commitment to extend ObamaCare subsidies, the only real concession from the GOP was a pledge to rescind the layoffs that Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought began. Those layoffs only took place because Schumer shut the government down.
As Hot Air reports, “The deal includes a December vote on a Democratic proposal to extend [Affordable Care Act] tax credits for one year, multiple sources said. It would take 60 votes to pass. It also includes language aimed at providing assistance to federal employees who were laid off during the shutdown, as well as a provision to fund SNAP benefits through Sept. 30.”
Since the “provision” on SNAP is the Agriculture-FDA appropriation bill, that’s not a concession. And as far as the proposal next month to extend the ObamaCare tax credits, that vote would have happened with or without a government shutdown.
Republicans had hoped that their plan last Thursday would bring an end to the shutdown. They challenged Democrats to block a test vote on their new plan to fund the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction projects, the Department of Agriculture, and Congress itself. That represents three of the 12 federal spending areas that Congress must approve each year. The current plan would fund those three sectors until September 30. Lawmakers would then add a Band-Aid spending bill for the rest of the government that would fund it until January. Republicans began eyeing a longer temporary spending bill due to the shutdown going on longer than anyone expected. “We’ve lost five weeks. So the November 21st deadline no longer makes a lot of sense,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
However, House Speaker Mike Johnson rightly noted that Schumer is the sticking point. “I’m less optimistic this morning than I was yesterday,” he said. “What I understand is that Chuck Schumer has pulled them back from that and that they’re being instructed and told they can’t go there.” The progressives of the Democrat Party have been pushing Schumer to be uncooperative, especially after his decision in March to fund the government. “He’s got to keep doing it, and we’ve got to deliver a win because we can’t have what happened in the spring happen again,” admonished Rep. Pramila Jayapal.
Could the thaw possibly be because the Democrats are afraid the Republicans may actually follow through on Trump’s threats to nuke the filibuster? It’s a possibility, especially since it would have enabled the Republican majority to push through their commonsense agenda.
Trump continued his taunts of the Democrats on Saturday: “The Democrats are cracking like dogs on the Shutdown because they are deathly afraid that I am making progress with the Republicans on TERMINATING THE FILIBUSTER! Whether we make a Deal or not, THE REPUBLICANS MUST ‘BLOW UP’ THE FILIBUSTER, AND APPROVE HUNDREDS OF LONG SOUGHT, BUT NEVER GOTTEN, POLICY WINS LIKE, AS JUST A SMALL EXAMPLE, VOTER ID (IDENTIFICATION).”
In typical Trumpian fashion, he added, “Only a LOSER would not agree to doing this!”
Trump’s comments came just 24 hours after Schumer put forth a proposal to bring the shutdown to an end, saying that Democrats would come to the table if Republicans would sign off on a one-year extension of the ObamaCare subsidies. This move would bring the healthcare discussion back to the forefront just in time for the midterm elections. But we know for a fact that Republicans would never have agreed to that ridiculous proposal, as they themselves can attest to:
“Nope. Schumer’s plan is dead on arrival.” —Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin
“God, please give me patience, because if you give me strength, I’m going to need bail money. What Senator Schumer is suggesting is that we do the dumbest thing possible that won’t work.” —Louisiana Senator John Kennedy
One interesting thing to note is that, unlike Schumer, most of the Democrats who flipped their votes won’t have to face voters next year.
Regardless of what brought about this weekend’s metamorphosis, the Schumer Shutdown was complete chaos and failed miserably. Chuck Schumer will have a hard time explaining this one away. But either way, his career is likely over.
Douglas Andrews: Trump Pardons Right a Grievous Wrong — By issuing pardons to those who helped him contest the rigged election of 2020, Donald Trump made clear once again that a weaponized government is a government run amok.
Emmy Griffin: What Do You Do When Your Neighbors Want You Dead? — In these times when the threat seems great, do not give in to fear and all that comes with it. After all, fear does not come from God.
Thomas Gallatin: What Can Mamdani Actually Do? — New York City’s socialist mayor-elect will soon learn that he doesn’t have the power to impose some of his biggest campaign promises.
Roger Helle: Semper Fidelis (Always Faithful) — Today is the Marine Corps’s 250th birthday. Tomorrow is Veterans Day. This week is a twofer for me! It was an honor to serve my country.
Armed Forces Tribute: Marine Corps Birthday — From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli, our Marines remain the Few and the Proud.
The Real Genocide No One Will Talk About — Winston Marshall and Father Benedict Kiely discuss the genocide unfolding in Nigeria, where Christians are being murdered by Islamist militias while Western governments and media look away.
SHORT CUTS
Hot Air
“Pets have a pretty sizable climate impact. But not all carbon…pawprints…are created equal. So if you’re looking to get a pet, which ones emit the least? And if you’ve already got one, how do you make sure it has the smallest foot (or paw) print?” —Associated Press
What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
“Tuesday was nice, but we’ve got a lot of work to do. And your task is going to be not to impose litmus tests. We had Abigail Spanberger win and we had Zohran Mandani win, and they are all part of a vision for the future.” —Barack Obama
Spin Doctor
“The Republican Party has done such a good job propagandizing that if you need anything from the government, you’re a lazy piece of s**t … when really the parasites and the parasitic people in the country are the billionaires.” —podcaster Jennifer Welch
A World of Pure Imagination
“Trump is in charge of the White House. He’s actually speaker of the House these days, as he alleges himself. And he’s pretty much in control of the Senate. He could stop this shutdown right now. … He’s choosing to inflict the most pain possible.” —Sen. Jacky Rosen
Straight From the Horse’s Mouth
“I think that there is no reason to surrender now.” —Sen. Richard Blumenthal on the government shutdown
Upright
“There ought to be one rule for everybody. If federal workers aren’t getting paid, neither should Members of Congress.” —Sen. John Kennedy
Political Futures
“In [last] week’s election, Republicans finally grasped the purpose of the pre-election shutdown. It was designed to galvanize key constituencies to get out the vote in a low-turnout year.” —Victor Davis Hanson
“Unless Republicans get more serious about advancing an actionable economic agenda to provide real relief to middle- and working-class Americans, they risk losing even more ground in next year’s midterm elections.” —Josh Hammer
Somber Words
“The hundreds of my friends that gave their lives — for what? A country of today? No, I’m sorry. The sacrifice wasn’t worth the result.” —100-year-old WWII veteran Alec Penstone on the state of modern Britain
Belly Laughs of the Day
“Republicans will remember [Pelosi] as one of the most successful and prolific day traders. … What a blow for the financial houses today on Wall Street.” —Scott Jennings
“I want Trump to put [Pelosi] in charge of the Social Security Administration. We could all retire in six months.” —Scott Jennings
ON THIS DAY in 1775, the U.S. Marine Corps was created by the Continental Congress. And on this day in 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower dedicated the Marine Corps Memorial, depicting the famous flag-raising on Iwo Jima, in Arlington, Virginia.
The new President of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly an al Qaeda member, to become the first Syrian leader to visit the White House today, as faith leaders sign a letter to President Trump, asking him to help protect Christians and Druze in southern Syria; remains of Israeli soldier Hadar Goldin come home to his family after 11 years; Chris Mitchell talks about the Israel reaction to the developments in US-Syria relations, concerns over al-Sharaa’s terrorist past, the atrocities against religious believers in Syria, who’s attacking them and what can be done to help them, and the importance of the return of the remains of Hadar Goldin; federal government shutdown apparently nearing an end with a bipartisan Senate measure moving ahead, but some Democrats are unhappy with the deal; how churches in the US are stepping up their security amid concerns over violence; and a new documentary ahead of Veterans Day tomorrow, “The Last 600 Meters,” allows viewers to experience two of the most horrific battles of the Iraq war alongside the Marines who fought in them.
You ain’t seen nothing yet. Police officers will not risk their lives by working for a mayor who will delegitimize them, who will defund them, and who will side with the criminals against them. Governor DeSantis is already making NYPD Cops amazing offers to transfer to Florida. Where police officers are treated with reverence.
We don't need an investigation to know that the NYPD is racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety.
An NYPD exodus is already underway, with a surge of officers quitting in the month leading up to anti-cop socialist Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral win — and more might go if Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch exits, according to data and department sources.
The NYPD saw a 35% hike in cops of all ranks leaving in October – 245 police officers compared to 181 in the same month last year, according to Police Pension Fund data.
“Morale is down because everyone is concerned about the policies Mamdani wants to put in place,” said Detectives Endowment Association President Scott Munro.
NEW PODCAST TODAY! Dave Wager sits down with Dr. Jeremy Lundgren, president of Nicolet Bible Institute at Silver Birch Ranch, to talk straight about college, calling, and growing up. Framed by Proverbs 1:7, “Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge…,” they push past the usual “pick a major and chase a paycheck” thinking and ask better questions: Should your son or daughter go to college at all? What is God actually preparing them for? How do you weigh Bible school, trade school, a four year degree, or a gap year in a culture that is confused, expensive, and often hostile to biblical truth?
Dave and Jeremy keep circling back to transition. College is not just about classrooms. It is about learning to get up on your own, handle responsibility, live with other people, make your faith your own, and see your future through the lens of serving Christ, not just surviving adulthood. They talk about how a place like Nicolet Bible Institute gives students one focused year in Scripture, service, and community, to grow in wisdom before locking into a long term path. This episode is for parents, grandparents, and young adults who are trying to make decisions about “what’s next” and want to start, not with money or majors, but with the fear of the Lord.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics will likely not publish job data again this year due to the government shutdown. The Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge of the US workforce is unavailable, but what we do have is independent data from the ADP and Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
On one side, the private sector scored its first notable month of hirings since July 2025. The ADP estimates that employers brought on 42,000 new employees last month, exceeding expectations. Mega corporations led in new hires for the month. Trade, transportation, and utilities added 47,000 new jobs, followed by education and health care at 25,000. Professional business services experienced a 15,000 loss, information positions were cut by 17,000, and leisure and hospitality shed 5,000 jobs.
Pay increased at a 4.5% annual rate. Some see the ADP data as promising, considering the 29,000 positions lost in September.
However, Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that firings in October peaked at a 22-year high. Job cuts for the month surged 183% from September to 153,074, also marking a 175% annual rise. This is the highest reading for layoffs in October since 2003. The agency found that 2025 has seen the steepest layoffs since the Great Recession era of 2009.
“Like in 2003, a disruptive technology is changing the landscape,” said Andy Challenger, workplace expert and chief revenue officer at the firm. “At a time when job creation is at its lowest point in years, the optics of announcing layoffs in the fourth quarter are particularly unfavorable.”
Nonprofit agencies shed 27,651, a 419% annual rise. The agency reported that 27,651 jobs in the tech sector, an area that is rapidly shrinking, with total layoffs coming in six times higher than in September.
AI replacement is fueling the workforce contraction that was ignited by a loss of confidence. Lower rates did not entice companies to expand their workforce last month, as they see no growth in the future. Companies will continue to replace jobs with AI or outsource to India where possible. Cities requiring a high minimum wage will begin moving to AI immediately.
There have been over 1.1 million layoffs in 2025, a 65% increase from the same time period in 2024. The economy has not seen such a “softening” since the world shutdown in 2020. Our computer models indicate that this is, unfortunately, the beginning of a trend, and we will see companies continue to downsize in 2026.
It’s time to put an end to this parade of clowns that the Democrats think are legitimate candidates. I’m fully aware that voters make the final decision, or at least they used to, but it would be a nice change of pace for the jackass party to demonstrate some self-respect by not trying to stock the government with a collection of communists and freaks.
The fact that there are so many naïve/idiotic voters in New York who would elect a socialist/communist is bad enough, but his political stance isn’t the only thing that disqualified Mamdani as a viable candidate.
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