A marathon runner who wants to win doesn’t just show up on race day. They train in order to win. A Christian who wants to live a life of long-term faithfulness needs to take the exact same approach.
Why did Paul write this letter? Why does everything we've heard so far matter so much? This passage tells us why.
The message out of Ephesians 4 is that we are the church, and ministry is not just someone else’s job. Every one of us is a minister.
Deacons are a key part of the church's administrative structure, the trellis upon which the vine of our relationships grows.
The health of the Ephesian church—like our own—depended on a team of strong and godly leaders. How was Timothy to know who belonged on that team, and who did not? And what's this mean for us today?
Jesus is Lord. What does that look like, in the church, practically?
Controversy notwithstanding, this passage of Scripture means exactly what it says—and this is profoundly good news for Christian women.
1 Timothy 2:8 and following shows us that we are not just a generic group of Christians. We are Christian men and Christian women, and the contours of our discipleship often look different from one another. And this is wonderfully good news.
As a church, we have a mission. This passage calls us to line up our praying with that mission.
Timothy was charged to shut down the false teachers who were obscuring the gospel message. But we need to remember that this wasn’t just about debates; it wasn’t just about proving who was right. It was about the gospel, the same gospel that transformed Paul from being a Jesus-hater into a Jesus-lover.