Category Archives: Textual studies

SOTM: Background, Part 4 (Ethics)

Posted on January 10, 2015 by Jay F Guin

Scot McKnight explains that, unlike any other teacher of ethics, Jesus “did” ethics from four angles: Ethics from Above, Ethics from Beyond, Ethics from Below, and then setting each of these into the context of Jesus’ messianic ethics designed for … Continue reading →

Posted in Sermon on the Mount, Sermon on the Mount, Uncategorized | 5 Comments

SOTM: Background, Part 3 (The Gospel and the Kingdom)

Posted on January 9, 2015 by Jay F Guin

Matthew records Jesus’ baptism, followed by his fasting in the wilderness, and then the temptations by Satan. Matthew then records, (Mat 4:17 ESV) 17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at … Continue reading →

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SOTM: God Promised Me a Kingdom and All I Got Was This Lousy Church

Posted on January 8, 2015 by Jay F Guin

        So I’ve been working on a series of lessons on the Sermon on the Mount (SOTM), and after writing about 8 or 9 of them, I realized I hadn’t yet really explained what’s most important. So I asked myself, … Continue reading →

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SOTM: Background, Part 2 (Honor)

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Jay F Guin

Honor Culture Social scientists speaks of two kinds of culture: honor (or shame) culture and guilt culture. In the West, most nations and people have a guilt culture. That is, we expect each other to be motivated to do right … Continue reading →

Posted in Sermon on the Mount, Sermon on the Mount, Uncategorized | 12 Comments

SOTM: Introduction and Background, Part 1

Posted on December 29, 2014 by Jay F Guin

I’m not finished with the series on 1 Corinthians — three chapters to go! — but I need to spend some time on the Sermon on the Mount, or as it’s known in the blogosphere, the SOTM. My congregation will … Continue reading →

Posted in Sermon on the Mount, Sermon on the Mount, Uncategorized | 12 Comments

1 Corinthians 13: Faith, Hope & Love, Part 4 (Falling Away)

Posted on December 15, 2014 by Jay F Guin

At this point, the way we lose our salvation should be obvious. If we enter by faith, we leave by giving up our faith. As we covered in the last post, faith has three elements. We even made up a … Continue reading →

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1 Corinthians 13: Faith, Hope & Love, Part 3 (Salvation)

Posted on December 14, 2014 by Jay F Guin

So we are saved by grace, and so long as we’re saved at all, we’re entirely saved. (Heb 10:14 NIV) For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. So how might I fall … Continue reading →

Posted in 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

1 Corinthians 13: Faith, Hope & Love, Part 2 (Grace)

Posted on December 13, 2014 by Jay F Guin

So in Part 1, we covered some of the reasons love is the greatest of all God’s gifts. We could go on, but we need to consider why faith and hope get added to the list. Why these two other … Continue reading →

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1 Corinthians 13: Faith, Hope & Love, Part 1

Posted on December 12, 2014 by Jay F Guin

Chapter 13 famously concludes with — (1Co 13:13 ESV) 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. What few notice is that this famous triad appears elsewhere in the New Testament … Continue reading →

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1 Corinthians 13-14 (On Prophecy and Tongues, Part 2)

Posted on December 11, 2014 by Jay F Guin

Tongues in Acts I take the gift of tongues in Acts 2 to have been the miraculous ability to hear in one’s own tongue — and I don’t know whether the apostles spoke in multiple languages or that’s how God allowed them … Continue reading →

Posted in 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians, Uncategorized | 4 Comments