Philemon was a Christian who lived in the city of Colossae. Philemon owned a slave whose name was Onesimus. Onesimus fled to Rome where he came in contact with, and was converted by, Paul. The apos...

In his second letter to Timothy, Paul stated that the Scriptures are "inspired of God" (2 Tim. 3:16-17). The Greek is one word, theopneustos, literally "God breathed." It is an affirmation that God...

There are three basic words in the Greek N.T. that convey the idea of "ministering" in one way or another. (a) Diakonos, occurs about thirty times in the N.T. Generally it simply means "to serve." ...

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 Rom...

This is Paul's first letter to his convert, Timothy, who was from the city of Lystra (Acts 16:1). It appears to have been written after Paul's release from his initial Roman imprisonment (Acts 28)....

Titus was a Gentile co-worker of Paul's whom the apostle had left on the island of Crete to "set in order" certain matters and to work toward the ordination of elders within the local congregations...

Colossae was a city about 100 miles east of Ephesus. Paul wrote a letter to the church in this city. It was one of his four epistles from Rome (Acts 28), while he was in prison.  The letter of Col...

Paul's second letter to the saints in Thessalonica was written not long after the first one, while the apostle was still at Corinth (Acts 18:11). This epistle seeks to correct an erroneous impressi...

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 ...

The church in Thessalonica was established on Paul's second missionary journey (Acts 17:1ff). After he left the region, he received a report regarding the congregation in Thessalonica, containing b...

Each year, the ancient Hebrews would offer the "firstfruits" of their crops to God as a token of their thanksgiving for the bounty to come (Lev 2:12, 23; 23:17, 39). In his initial letter to the s...

Literally, this term has to do with the implantation of seed by which a child is conceived. The word is used in Scripture figuratively to illustrate the spiritual agency, namely the word of God, by...

The book of Ephesians was a letter written by Paul from Rome while he was in prison (AD 60-62). The book develops the theme of "God's eternal purpose" (3:10-11). It reveals that even before the wor...

This phrase appears in Galatians 4:4, where Paul describes Christ's birth and earthly ministry as occurring when "the fulness of time" had arrived. The expression highlights how, over the centuries...

The Greeks had several words that reflected various concepts of "love." Forms of three of these are found in the N.T. (a) The noun storge had a variety of uses in the ancient world, but it most com...

Paul commended Timothy for making "the good confession" before many witnesses (1 Tim. 6:12).  The word "confession" comes from the Greek homologia, which means "to say the same thing." It implies a...

Contrary to the denominational claim that infants are born in sin, the Bible teaches otherwise. (a) Children do not inherit evil from their parents (Ezek. 18:20). (b) The practice of sin begins in ...

This term is found only a few times in the English Bible. In four cases it renders the Greek threskeia, which basically means holy service, the exercise of devotion to a transcendent Being or being...

The term atheism derives from two Greek roots, a (meaning "no") and theos ("God"). It is a word that depicts the irrational ideology of the person who dogmatically says: "There is no God" (cf. Psa....

Biblical chronology has to do with the relationship of the events recorded in Scripture to specific dates. Some events are a bit ambiguous in terms of date. Others are more precise.  While the Bib...