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The Philippian church was established by Paul on his first missionary journey (Acts 16:11ff). These people quickly secured a place in the great apostle's heart. This letter, written some ten years after the founding of the congregation, is designed to thank them for their support in the gospel al...
Citizenship is the legal relationship that one sustains to a city, state, or country. Paul was a citizen of Tarsus in Cilicia (Acts 21:39), and he enjoyed the privileges of "citizenship" in the Roman empire (Acts 22:28). His citizenship granted certain protective procedures (cf. 22:25), and the p...
The common word for "walk" in the New Testament is peripateo. It means to walk around or, in a figurative sense, "to conduct oneself" in a certain way. It was the common Jewish idiom for how one lived one's life. How one walks is addressed both negatively and positively in the Scriptures. We are ...
Discipline is actually a process of training that begins at the point of one's conversion and continues throughout one's life. It includes teaching, example, exhortation, admonition, etc. (2 Timothy 3:16–17). The most extreme and ultimate form of church discipline, however, is the withdrawal of f...
The verb "reconcile" (Grk. katallasso) basically suggests a "change." In an ethical or religious sense, it denotes a change between parties who have been estranged. It may refer to human associations, or man's relationship to his Creator. (a) In human relationships that are breached, the fault ma...
The Greek word eirene ("peace") may derive from an original term meaning, "to weave together." This is a very significant Bible word. (a) There is a peace to be sought with God. Sin has separated man from his Creator (Isa. 59:1-2), so that rebellious man has become an enemy to God (Rom. 5:10; Jas...
The Greek word krino means to render a verdict (Lk. 7:43; Acts 15:9). Prepositions may be attached as prefixes to provide some direction to the term. For example, diakrino suggests the idea of distinguishing between objects (1 Cor. 6:5; 11:31; 14:19); anakrino means to investigate or thoroughly s...
The term "grace" occurs about 155 times in the New Testament. The word relates to the Greek term chairo, meaning "to rejoice," and grace itself comes to mean favor, gratification, or gratitude -- depending on the context. The New Testament emphasizes that salvation is the result of God's grace (E...
"Heresy" takes its rise from the Greek, hairesis (nine times in the N.T.). Originally, the term meant simply "to choose" (Lev. 22:18, 21 -- LXX). Then it came to signify a choice, i.e., an opinion -- especially a destructive opinion in the N.T. (2 Pet. 2:1). The term also takes on the sense of a ...
The English word "atonement" derives from an Anglo-Saxon term that practically signifies "a making at one." Though the English term "atonement" is common to the Old Testament, it is found only once in the New Testament (Rom. 5:11 KJV). There, the original term (katallage) is better rendered as "r...
Law is a mandate that is designed to regulate procedure; it proceeds from a superior, who possesses authority to rule, to a subordinate. Law is viewed from several angles in the Scriptures. (a) The material Universe was made to operate according to law. For example, the moon and stars operate in ...
There are three kindred words in the Greek N.T. that represent the idea of "propitiation." Two are nouns -- hilasmos (1 Jn. 2:2; 4:10) and hilasterion (Rom. 3:25; Heb. 9:5), and the third is the verb hilaskomai (Lk. 18:13; Heb. 2:17). The terms are designed to provide an explanation as to how God...
The Greek word diakonos comes into the English language as "deacon." The term basically means to serve. It is used of ordinary servants in a secular sense (Jn. 2:5, 9) or of those who serve generally in the cause of Christ (rendered "minister" in 1 Cor. 3:5; 2 Cor. 3:6; Eph. 3:7). It can even be ...
A priest is one who offers sacrifice and ministers in services pertaining thereto (cf. Heb. 5:1). This term implies recognition of sin and the need for atonement, in some fashion or another. (a) The term is used of pagan priests who sacrificed to false gods (Acts 14:13). (b) In the earliest age o...
The Bible occasionally speaks of the wicked being ultimately "destroyed" (apollumi) in hell (Mt. 10:28; Lk. 13:3, 5; 2 Thes. 2:10). Some, therefore, have assumed that after an appropriate period of punishment, the spirits of wicked men will be extinguished. But the idea embodied in apollumi is "r...
Death is a term that, in one sense or another, suggests the idea of separation. Physical death is that state of the body which is separated from the "spirit" or "soul" (Gen. 25:8; 35:18; Jas. 2:26). Death is a mystery that demands an explanation. Atheism is unable to provide one. If nature has th...
Justification may be defined as the divine process by which God acquits the sinner and reckons him as righteous. The noun dikaiosis ("justification") is used but twice in the N.T. (Rom. 4:25; 5:18). The verb dikaioo is employed thirty-nine times in the N.T., and it describes the result of the pro...
Astrology is a pagan superstition that believes the heavenly bodies influence human activity. Additionally, the theory often includes the belief that human events can be predicted by "reading" the stars. This mythology is condemned in the Scriptures (Dt. 18:10-12; 2 Kgs. 23:5; Isa. 47:13-14; Jer....
Faithfulness conveys integrity, steadfastness, truth, and dependability, among other qualities. Two important emphases of this quality are highlighted in the Bible. • God is faithful in all things (see Psa. 36:5; 100:5; Lam. 3:23). This means one can have absolute confidence in his promises and t...
Marriage is a covenant between a man and woman, whereby they pledge to belong to one another in a life-long union. There are several elements relative to this institution that are important to understand. (a) The origin of marriage is divine, commencing from the sixth day of the creation week (Ge...