Now we come to the seventh of Jesus’ statements of good news. As always we begin with the two most obvious questions: who are the “peacemakers” and what does it mean that they will be called “children of God”? Peace in the New Testament Throughout the New Testament it’s clear that peace is something which …
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Hi everyone. I am on holiday this week so I’m taking a break from the ongoing series on Matthew 5:3-12. I thought I’d write a short article to serve as an Easter special instead! We’ll return to the series next week, God willing. I think it would probably be fair to say that most people, …
Last time we saw that to be “pure in heart” does not mean to be morally perfect or sinless. If it did, would you qualify? I certainly wouldn’t. Rather, Jesus was speaking about people who were willing to humble themselves and come to God in order to be purified. Does that describe you? Maybe you’re …
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The sixth of Jesus’ “This is good news for…” statements is perhaps difficult to understand at first glance, for a couple of reasons. Two problems Firstly, “pure” is a challenging word. Can any of us really claim to be pure? Does that mean our hearts are to be free of any sin or anything else …
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Last week we considered what Jesus meant by the word “merciful”: both a willingness to forgive wrongs done to us and to show kindness to those in need. We also concluded that Jesus was not referring to people who forgive or show kindness on a handful of one-off occasions, but rather to people whose attitude …
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Let’s move on to the fifth pronouncement of good news which Jesus made to his early followers. We see a shift in focus from the first four of Jesus’ statements in this passage. Leon Morris in the Pillar NT Commentary explains it thus: The first four beatitudes express in one way or another our dependence …
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The first question to ask is a simple one: do you feel a hunger and thirst for righteousness? Maybe you’re not sure. What would this look like or feel like in your life? Let’s consider it in three different ways. (1) In your own conduct Do you feel a strong desire to live righteously – …
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We’ve considered what Jesus was referring to when he said the “poor in spirit” were “blessed” and the “kingdom of heaven” was theirs. Now I want to think more specifically about what this means for you and me living in the 21st century. Are we poor in spirit? What would that even look like? Commonly …
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In our last couple of posts we’ve been looking at Paul’s advice to the church at Corinth, and to the church in general, about how Christians ought to serve each other. In the context of picturing the church as a construction project, Paul wrote: And each one must be careful how he builds. For no …
Continue reading “Building up the church – what are you building with?”
In our last post we saw that both Jesus and Paul describe the church in ways which make it clear that Christian faith is not about an exclusive relationship between you and God. Christian faith is about the church as a collective – more than that, as a family – having fellowship with God through …
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Nihilist to Christian