“Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”—Romans 13:11-14
“Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor…
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.Live in harmony with one another.Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.Never be wise in your own sight.Repay no one evil for evil, butgive thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.If possible, so far as it …
“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”—Romans 11:33-36
Paul rejoices in God’s sovereignty in Israel’s history, both in the nation’s blindness and eventual eagerness to embrace Jesus as Messiah. Contemplating the mysterious and yet glorious greatness of God …
“I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit—that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsman according to the flesh”—Romans 9:1-3
“Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them [Israel] is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge”—Romans 10:1,2
“Now therefore fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”—Joshua 24:14, 15
If we think of idolatry as referring only to worshipping pagan gods, …
“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall mediate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”—Joshua 1:8
Most of us wish that God would work on us while we’re asleep so that we could wake to face the day with unwavering confidence and faith! We wish that good intentions, combined with attending church once a week, would bring about permanent changes in our attitudes …
“And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”—Deuteronomy 6:6-7
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”— …
“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”—Deuteronomy 6:5
Love is not an emotion that can be turned on or off like a faucet. Love—true love—involves a deep abiding commitment to the one who is loved. Of course it involves the emotions but it is also rooted in the mind and the will; it means we surrender our lives for the good of someone else. In fact, in this text, as in so many other places in the Bible, we are exhorted to love from our …
“Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”—Romans 8:33-34
There are millions of people who go to church on Sunday and confess their sins, but they are not converted as a result of this exercise. If we had to confess all of our sins in order to be saved, salvation would be beyond reach. For one thing, we can’t remember all of our sins, and …
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us…but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”—Romans 8:18, 23
Our suffering is a challenge to our faith. After all, we think if God loved us, He’d remove the obstacles that bring us so much anguish and pain. Most of us aren’t good at suffering. The German theologian Helmut Thielicke observed, “Americans don’t know how to suffer. They consider …
