New Testament

To Know Jesus is to Know the God of Love  The epistles of John reflect the language and style of the gospel of John. Writing in old age and serving as an overseer of house churches in Ephesus, John address a specific crisis. Apparently, some members have left the church and denied Jesus as Messiah (1 Jn 2:18-23; 4:1-3). They even stirred hostility among those who…

Hope in the midst of suffering Peter’s two letters offer different emphases, though both focus on the blessings that the death of Christ brings to a sinful world. At the heart of Peter’s first letter is the message of Jesus as the suffering servant passage in Isa 52:13-53:12. Jesus was willing to suffer to accomplish the Father’s plan of salvation, and…

The letter of James is intensly practical and focus on getting Christian to consistenly live out the faith they proclaim. Writing as a pastor, the letter of James is a series of brief sermons or homilies, that James packages into one letter.

The Superiority of Jesus The letter to the Hebrews is an impassionate plea that the readers, who were predominately Jewish converts, must not turn away from Christ and return to their former ways (i.e. Judaism or paganism). The author does so by arguing for the superiority of Jesus Christ, as God’s exalted Son, final revelation, eternal priest, and perfect…

The Gospel Breaks Down Social Walls The reader enters Paul’s letter to Philemon without being provided with the backstory. The traditional interpretation of the letter views it as Paul’s request for Philemon to welcome back Philemon’s slave Onesimus. Another interpretation suggests that Onesimus was not a fugitive but had committed some misdeed and sought out Paul to…

Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus are known as the “Pastoral Epistles” (PE). However, they are more than a simple manual of church practice. They are Paul’s attempts to address specific situations in the ministry contexts of Timothy and Titus. At the heart of these letters is Paul’s concern for “sound” doctrine (1 Tim 1:10; 6:3; 2 Tim 1:13; Titus 1:9). Paul uses…

Living in Hope of Jesus’ Return  Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians shares similar concerns of the first letter. For example, Paul commends the church for enduring persecution (1:3-12). He also continues his focus on eschatology or the meaning of the “day of the Lord.” There are similarities in how both letters describe the day of the Lord—e.g., that day…

Living in the Light of Christ’s Second Coming The Apostle Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians in AD 50-51 during his 18-month ministry in Corinth. Except for the possibility of an early date for Galatians (AD 48), this letter represents one of Paul’s earliest canonical letters. In response to Timothy’s reported concerns about the church, Paul wrote the letter to…