Paul described the church at Corinth as being enriched with all spiritual gifts and with a great deal of theological knowledge and other good things but also as being divided over loyalty to one leader or another within the church. There were people who said, “We follow Paul.” There were others who said, “We follow Peter,” and still others who said, “We follow Christ.”
Yesterday we looked at the meaning of the Greek word translated in our Bibles as “servant.” Another word Paul uses here conveys the idea of stewardship. We read the translation “those entrusted,” and it actually means “a steward.” We get our word economy from the Greek word Paul uses. The steward was the one who managed the household economy; that is, he took care of the business for whoever owned the house.
In yesterday’s lesson we saw that faithfulness is to be the standard of God’s stewards. In the passage that we are studying, Paul mentions a number of areas in which we are to be faithful. One is handling the mysteries of God rightly, the secret things of God. When Paul speaks of mysteries, he is not speaking of mysteries as the Greeks would have understood them.
Theme: Recounting an Old Testament Story
This week’s lessons teach us about God’s faithfulness, promised in his Word and demonstrated in our own experience of his covenant love.
Scripture: Psalm 89:1-37
Theme: Mercies Forever
This week’s lessons teach us about God’s faithfulness, promised in his Word and demonstrated in our own experience of his covenant love.
Scripture: Psalm 89:1-37
Theme: God’s Power in Creation and History
This week’s lessons teach us about God’s faithfulness, promised in his Word and demonstrated in our own experience of his covenant love.
Scripture: Psalm 89:1-37
Theme: Responding to God’s Attributes
This week’s lessons teach us about God’s faithfulness, promised in his Word and demonstrated in our own experience of his covenant love.
Scripture: Psalm 89:1-37
Theme: God’s Faithfulness Seen in Discipline
This week’s lessons teach us about God’s faithfulness, promised in his Word and demonstrated in our own experience of his covenant love.
Scripture: Psalm 89:1-37
Verses 19-29 are essentially a commentary on 2 Samuel 7. This stanza highlights six critical features of God’s covenant with David, three of which we looked at yesterday, and the remaining three of which we take up today.
Theme: God Does All Things Well
In this week’s lessons we learn that although at times it can seem as if there is a gap between God’s promises and reality, God is unchanging in his faithfulness.
Scripture: Psalm 89:38-52
Theme: “How Long, O LORD?”
In this week’s lessons we learn that although at times it can seem as if there is a gap between God’s promises and reality, God is unchanging in his faithfulness.
Scripture: Psalm 89:38-52
Theme: The God Who Changes Not
In this week’s lessons we learn that although at times it can seem as if there is a gap between God’s promises and reality, God is unchanging in his faithfulness.
Scripture: Psalm 89:38-52
Theme: Our Only Comfort in Life and in Death
In this week’s lessons we learn that although at times it can seem as if there is a gap between God’s promises and reality, God is unchanging in his faithfulness.
Scripture: Psalm 89:38-52
Today we continue our discussion of six ways in which God does not change, as outlined in J. I. Packer’s book, Knowing God.
4. God’s ways do not change. As Packer writes
Theme: When God’s Faithfulness Seems Hidden
In this week’s lessons we learn that although at times it can seem as if there is a gap between God’s promises and reality, God is unchanging in his faithfulness.
Scripture: Psalm 89:38-52
Sermon: Faithful When It Hurts
Scripture: 2 Timothy 2:1-3
In this week’s lessons Paul continues to encourage Timothy in his Christian life and ministry.
Theme: Strong in Grace
Theme: The Image of a Soldier
In this week’s lessons Paul continues to encourage Timothy in his Christian life and ministry.
Scripture: 2 Timothy 2:1-3
Theme: Lessons from Athletes and Farmers
In this week’s lessons Paul continues to encourage Timothy in his Christian life and ministry.
Scripture: 2 Timothy 2:1-3
Theme: Persevering in God’s Work
In this week’s lessons Paul continues to encourage Timothy in his Christian life and ministry.
Scripture: 2 Timothy 2:1-3
Theme: Jesus Ever Faithful
In this week’s lessons Paul continues to encourage Timothy in his Christian life and ministry.
Scripture: 2 Timothy 2:1-3
Theme: The Last Days
In this week’s lessons, we are reminded of the need to continue in those things we have learned from Scripture, in order to live a holy life.
Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:1-17
Theme: When the Church Acts Like the World
In this week’s lessons, we are reminded of the need to continue in those things we have learned from Scripture, in order to live a holy life.
Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:1-17
Theme: Religious Externals Only
In this week’s lessons, we are reminded of the need to continue in those things we have learned from Scripture, in order to live a holy life.
Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:1-17
The second part of this section is the one I’ve already mentioned about having a form of godliness but denying its power. This refers to those who practice the externals of religion, but who show no evidence of being born again. How many people are there like that? Sometimes that even seems to characterize churches.
Theme: Continue in What You Have Learned
In this week’s lessons, we are reminded of the need to continue in those things we have learned from Scripture, in order to live a holy life.
Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:1-17
In the third part of this first section (vv. 1-9) we see how these people with only a mere form of godliness nevertheless display a great zeal. As Paul writes in verses 6-9,
Theme: The Sufficiency of Scripture
In this week’s lessons, we are reminded of the need to continue in those things we have learned from Scripture, in order to live a holy life.
Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:1-17
In this chapter, without in the slightest repudiating what he said before about the ministers of the church being servants, he adds a further dimension, which from his perspective is all important. “Yes,” Paul says, “ministers are servants of the people, but above all they are servants of Jesus Christ.” Paul, and by extension any other minister in the church, is ultimately answerable to Jesus.
Whenever you read that word “servant” in the New Testament, you need to remember what it really means. Strictly speaking, in ancient times they did not have servants—at least not in the sense that we have in mind when we use that word. Rather, what they had were slaves. So when you read in the New Testament about somebody being a servant, generally that word translates the Greek word for slave, which is doulos. Thus, this is what we would expect Paul to be saying here. He considers himself as a slave of Christ.
Paul does go on to speak of a number of areas in which we are to be faithful. One is in correctly handling the mysteries of God, which is the Gospel, mentioned in verse 1. When Paul speaks of mysteries here, he is not speaking of mysteries in the same sense as the Greek mysteries. The Greeks had these religions that were called “mysteries” because the things that the worshipers did and believed were hidden from everybody else. You had to be initiated before you learned them. He is not talking about mysteries in that sense. Rather, he is talking about that which the mind of man would never have imagined if left to itself, but which God has revealed in the Gospel. That is the mystery or the secret things of God.
In the second portion of this chapter, beginning in verse 8, he makes an ironic contrast because the reason he is talking about what the ministry is, and should be, is to show that the Corinthians, in their own self-conceit, have quite a different and, therefore, unbiblical idea of what it really means to succeed spiritually.
Do you want to be like the Corinthians with their wealth that is passing away, and which is going to evaporate when this world is going to be burned up? Or do you want to be like the apostles who have nothing now, and who suffer abuse now, but who hold the treasure of the Gospel and who, through their service to Jesus Christ are laying up an immortal treasure in the world beyond?
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