Quote 1498
The claims of unity and truth, the challenges of a party spirit, speaking in tongues, the doctrine of the resurrection, church discipline, sexual matters, marriage and divorce, "strong" and "weak" consciences, the Lord's Supper, the relationships between men and women, the nature of love, the call to preach the gospel powerfully without manipulation, the nature of Christian leadership lived under the cross they are all here.
D.A. Carson
Pillar Commentary (introduction)
Other Quotes from the Author & Topic
Be patient; it is better to be a chastened saint than a carefree sinner.
Patience, Suffering0The heart of true fellowship is self-sacrificing conformity to a shared vision.Basics for Believers (16)
Basics for Believers (16)Fellowship, Church0You cannot find excellent corporate worship until you stop trying to find excellent corporate worship and pursue God himself.
Worship0that branch of theology whose concern it is to study each corpus of the scripture in its own right, especially with respect to its place in the history of God's unfolding revelation. The emphasis is on history and on the inddvidual corpus.Unity and Diversity in the New Testament
Unity and Diversity in the New TestamentBiblical Theology0The verb krinō ("judge") has a wide semantic range: "judge" (judicially), "condemn," "discern." It cannot here refer to the law courts, any more than 5:33–37 forbids judicial oaths. Still less does this verse forbid all judging of any kind, for the moral distinctions drawn in the Sermon on the Mount require that decisive judgments be made. Jesus himself goes on to speak of some people as dogs and pigs (Mt 7:6) and to warn against false prophets (vv. 15–20). Elsewhere he demands that people "make a right judgment"
Judging0Jesus' demand here is for his disciples not to be judgmental and censorious. The verb krinō has the same force in Romans 14:10–13 (cf. James 4:11–12). The rigor of the disciples' commitment to God's kingdom and the righteousness demanded of them do not authorize them to adopt a judgmental attitude. Those who "judge" like this will in turn be "judged," not by men (which would be of little consequence), but by God (which fits the solemn tone of the discourse). The disciple who takes it on himself to be the judge of what another does usurps the place of God (Rom 14:10) and therefore becomes answerable to him. The hina mē ("in order that … not"; NIV, "or") should therefore be given full telic force: "Do not assume the place of God by deciding you have the right to stand in judgment over all—do not do it, I say, in order to avoid being called to account by the God whose place you usurp"
“Matthew,” Expositor’s Bible Commentary, 183.
“Matthew,” Expositor’s Bible Commentary, 183.Judging0At the end of the day, the central notion of sin in
Wright's thought is that it is somehow anarchic rebellion against shalom, and the triumph
at the end is the restoration of shalom. What is lost is the intensely personal dimension of
sin: it is rebellion against God, and he is regularly portrayed as the most offended party
(cf. Ps 51!). http://www.bookreviews.org/pdf/5581_5877.pdfNew Perspectives0Put the gospel first. And that means you must put the priorities of the gospel at the center of your prayer life.Basics for Believers
Basics for BelieversGospel0Christian fellowship, then, is self-sacrificing conformity to the gospel. There may be overtones of warmth and intimacy, but the heart of the matter is this shared vision of what is of transcendent importance, a vision that calls forth our commitment.Basics for Believers
Basics for BelieversFellowship, Church0The broader problem is that a great deal of popular preaching and teaching uses the bible as a pegboard on which to hang a fair bit of Christianized pop psychology or moralizing encouragement, with very little effort to teach the faithful, from the Bible, the massive doctrines of historic confessional Christianity.
Scripture, Preaching0However hard some things are to understand, it is never helpful to start picking and choosing biblical truths we find congenial, as if the Bible is an open-shelved supermarket where we are at perfect liberty to choose only the chocolate bars. For the Christian, it is God's Word, and it is not negotiable. What answers we find may not be exhaustive, but they give us the God who is there, and who gives us some measure of comfort and assurance. The alternative is a god we manufacture, and who provides no comfort at all. Whatever comfort we feel is self-delusion, and it will be stripped away at the end when we give an account to the God who has spoken to us, not only in Scripture, but supremely in his Son Jesus Christ.
Scripture0sometimes God chooses to bless us and make us people of integrity in the midst of abominable circumstances, rather than change our circumstances.
Suffering0If God had perceived that our greatest need was economic, he would have sent an economist. If he had perceived that our greatest need was entertainment, he would have sent us a comedian or an artist. If God had perceived that our greatest need was political stability, he would have sent us a politician. If he had perceived that our greatest need was health, he would have sent us a doctor. But he perceived that our greatest need involved our sin, our alienation from him, our profound rebellion, our death; and he sent us a Savior.
Sin, Salvation, Gospel0If I have learned anything in 35 or 40 years of teaching, it is that students don't learn everything I teach them. What they learn is what I am excited about, the kinds of things I emphasize again and again and again and again. That had better be the gospel.
Gospel, Teaching0Often regarded as Paul's makeshift response to random problems in the Corinthian church, we believe that a more coherent reading of the letter emerges by taking full account of its Old Testament and Jewish roots, along with paying careful attention to the Corinthian historical context.Pillar Commentary (introduction)
Pillar Commentary (introduction)1 Corinthians0People do not drift toward Holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated. For the Love of God Vol 2
For the Love of God Vol 2Holiness0