Bible, theology, culture, etc.
https://youtu.be/LOu-u5m00VU “The days are long, but the years are short.” These are words all parents of young children hear. Usually, it is given by someone older and wiser when the young parent is looking particularly haggard and road weary. The child tries to flush their shoe down the toilet or stick a crayon up their … Continue reading Living Like It’s the End (1 Cor 7:25-31)
https://youtu.be/eUjtxlAd5hs What is the secret to being happy? If you are unhappy, the problem is either (1) your circumstances or (2) you. We have a lot of ground to cover today, so I’ll cut to the chase: Paul doesn’t think the problem with our lack of contentment is our circumstances. 10 To the married I … Continue reading Live as You Were Called (1 Cor 7:10-24)
https://youtu.be/zpaYUu1UEZs Sex and marriage have often been a place where the world and the church divide. Our cultural morays around sex have long since left the idea of sex being restricted to marriage. So, today people are getting married later and later in life, having fewer and fewer children, or foregoing marriage and children entirely. … Continue reading The Power of Sex (1 Cor 6:15-20)
https://youtu.be/8Voll-QTS5g How many times a day do you blink? 100? 500? A thousand? You blink 14,000 times a day, so much that your eyes are shut for 23 minutes every day. Yet, you don’t even think about it, even though if you stopped blinking you would irreparably damage your eyeball in short order. Our body … Continue reading God, the Body, and Sex (1 Cor 6:12-20)
https://youtu.be/E-c3HrlsUqU What should we think about the tragedy going on in the Middle-East? The only other event in modern history where more Jews died was the Holocaust. But, equally tragic, even more Palestinians—many of whom do not support Hamas, and some of whom are our brothers and sisters in Christ—have died in Israel’s retaliatory strikes. Six thousand … Continue reading Such Were Some of You (1 Cor 6:9-11)
In my previous article I attempted to provide what I thought were the best arguments for continuationism—a view that states that all or most of the spiritual gifts practiced in the New Testament continue today. While I am not finally persuaded by those arguments, I admit they are very strong. This is a difficult subject to be … Continue reading The Best Arguments for Cessationism (Part 1)
Our church has been going through the book of 1 Corinthians for some time now and we are just rounding the corner on 1 Corinthians 12, leading us into a lengthy discussion of spiritual gifts (charismata). Anyone who reads these passages (and other similar ones in the NT) are left with many questions. Should we expect … Continue reading The Best Arguments for Continuationism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5kQ3X-TwjE&list=PLozY2MQXfssrW9AY-qSKNSTrPvIMHZkVs&index=11&t=5s When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? 2 Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? 3 Do … Continue reading Why Not Rather Suffer Wrong? (1 Cor 6:1-8)
1 Corinthians 11:2-16 is complex for many reasons. One of the most bedeviling difficulties for interpreters is discerning what Paul precisely means by “covering” in this section. Generally, there are two possible interpretations, each with serious merit. I will be preaching a sermon on this passage soon, but have found a number of complex issues … Continue reading What Is the “Head Covering” of 1 Cor 11?
https://youtu.be/qUxbFlat0Vg No one likes a hypocrite. We are frustrated when someone claims to be for something, but their actions prove otherwise. If a politician vows to be pro-life when candidating, but then recoils from enacting legislation when in office, his constituency is frustrated. If a business claims to care for the environment, but then dumps … Continue reading Who Are You to Judge? (1 Cor 5:9-13)
Marc Sims 