Key Verse: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:37–40 Applying […]
Key Verse: “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people. that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but […]
Key Verse: “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” Ephesians 5:1–2 The uniqueness of Old Testament legislation Throughout these Bible studies on Deuteronomy, we have been emphasizing that […]
Key Verse: “The secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.” Psalm 25:14 Protecting dignity by limiting authority (read 25:1–3) Human dignity is a fragile and precious commodity. Someone who once carried herself with the bearing of royalty can be reduced by disease to little more […]
Key Verse: “Look down from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the land which You have given us, just as You swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.” Deuteronomy 26:15 Offering the firstfruits (read 26:1–11) Deuteronomy 26 can be divided into three sections: verses 1–11, the liturgy […]
Key Verse: “This day the LORD your God commands you to observe these statutes and judgments; therefore you shall be careful to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.” Deuteronomy 26:16 The covenant concluded (read 26:16) The sermon containing the commandments that would direct Israel’s life in Canaan is over now. […]
Key Verse: “To the pilgrims of the Dispersion…elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.” I Peter 1:1–2 I Peter: Suffering as outsiders without selling out To read this little letter through in […]
Key Verse: “…kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” Letters are meant for slow reading. People read and re-read them for key phrases and special sentences. You don’t read a letter like a history book or an encyclopedia. Rather, when you open a letter, […]
Key Verse: “…as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’” I Peter 1:15–16 Holy—if any single word captures the uniqueness of God and His people, it is this word holy. Holiness, our theology textbooks teach us, denotes separation […]
Key Verse: “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;…” I Peter 2:9 A mosaic of metaphors Christ’s church, we have been learning, is a pilgrim people, born unto […]