Starving Doctrine
Saturday, August 23rd, 2008Teaching is taken here to mean profitable instruction, which tends to edification… This is the true use of Christ’s word. As, however, doctrine is sometimes in itself cold, and, as one says, when it is simply shown what is right, virtue is praised and left to starve, he adds at the same time admonition, which [...]
Forgive Us as We Forgive Others
Saturday, August 23rd, 2008bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. – Colossians 2:13 (ESV) Reviewing my exegetical notes on this verse, here’s what I found I’d written: Theologically, it is significant that we are called to forgive even as [...]
Funny Things, Chiasms
Friday, July 18th, 2008In a previous post I made reference to a chiasm in Colossians 2:8-22. When I wrote it I was still in the process of weighing the usefulness of the chiasm. I’m a big proponent of paying attention to the literary nature of the Bible and I know that in other settings the chiasm is legitimate. [...]
The Need for Colossians
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008I’ve already voiced my opinion about the Colossian ‘heresy’ and said that my take is that there wasn’t “one”. The issue Paul was addressing was the draw the Colossians, and other Christians, were feeling to return to their ways from before their conversion. This difference is subtle but significant. If there was a body of [...]
The Colossian ‘Heresy’
Monday, June 2nd, 2008This weekend I start a 14 week Sunday school class on the book of Colossians. This is a class I’ve been looking forward to for a while. Some how in my preparation, I missed the fact that Colossae was damaged and maybe destroyed by an earthquake in about 61AD. One person in the class asked [...]