Look at the Book

While it may seem that sorrow and joy are exclusive, there is a pervasive joy and a pervasive thankfulness that is available in every circumstance.

How can Christians always rejoice, give thanks, pray, and do good towards others? By resting in God’s goodness towards them in Christ.

The strength to do good towards all, even our enemies, comes from an unshakeable hope in the reward God has promised.

Patience with others comes through trusting in the providence of God to turn every detour into a pathway to something better.

The call to serving others in the church — admonishing, encouraging, and helping them — is not a call to misery. It’s a call to joy.

We must never belittle or overlook the fact that God employs human means to strengthen his church.

Christian idleness is unloving to outsiders because it sets a bad example. It is unloving to insiders because it adds to their burdens.

Love looks on those who are doing the work of God with high esteem, and on those who are sinning with a longing to see them honor God.

Because God loves the church, he has provided a leadership made up of elders and deacons.

In a healthy church, the elders labor, exercise authority, and admonish the members, and the members respect and esteem the elders.

First Thessalonians 5:6–11 is a gravestone text. It reminds believers that wrath is not their destiny, but unending life with Christ.

Drunk people make bad soldiers and sleepy people make poor watchmen. That is why we need to remain spiritually awake and sober.

Power for Christian obedience lies in being reminded of our new identity in God. Who we are grounds what we ought to do.

What does it mean that saints are sons of light? It means that spiritual light shines in our loves, our wills, and our works.

What is the day of the Lord? And how does this day relate to the arrival of the kingdom of God?

What does Paul mean when he says that the last day “will come like a thief in the night”? And how do we remain ready?

Whether we will be alive when Christ returns is not for us to know. Rather, we ought to focus on living faithfully in the present age.

Does the Bible teach that believers still on earth will experience a rapture when Jesus returns?

The dead in Christ are not going to miss out on the spectacular return of Jesus to earth. All the saints will participate in this event together.

The promise of the resurrection doesn’t minimize grief, but it does provide a ballast so Christians can grieve with hope.

What does it mean to “live quietly?” What does a life characterized by this kind of quietness sound like?

When Christians love one another, they show that they are not just taught, but God-taught. Our love shows God is on the move.

Setting yourself against God’s command for sexual purity means you’re resisting his active, present working in your life.

The command to pursue sexual purity is empowered by the promise that God sanctifies everyone he saves.

God gives husbands and wives the promise of divine vengeance as a motive to maintain holiness and honor in marriage.

Treating your wife in holiness and honor demonstrates that you rightly value God, your wife, and your brother.

Sexual purity is more a matter of knowing God than of following a prescribed list of dos and don’ts.

We all need comforters who commend us for our faithfulness and champions who challenge us to greater heights.

Faith that rests in the righteous work of Christ produces a life of good fruit which pleases God.

How often do you dream about the return of Jesus? Does the hope of that day fuel your desire to be holy?

Does the apostle Paul expect believers to be sinless in this life? What does it mean to be found blameless at the day of Christ?

If God and his infinite worth are everything to you, then you are set free from the hindrances to love.

Our ability to love others flows from God working the miracle of love in us.

Paul doesn’t need a road map to get to Thessalonica, but he does need God to shatter the obstacles raised by Satan.

Christians who keep praying, even when they don’t see immediate changes, display a deep trust in their heavenly Father.

What things make you happy? What about witnessing the enduring faith of a brother or sister in the midst of hardship?

The apostle Paul gladly said that the faith of others was a source of life for him. Can you say the same?

Can the elect fall away? Can the gospel come to them in vain?

If the cross was a random act of evil, instead of a purposeful act of God, then there is no good news.

God destines afflictions for believers, not to shake our faith, but to bolster it. He often displays his love best when our conditions get worse.

The gospel doesn’t merely save us; it provides hope day by day to endure the afflictions we face.

God has willed to use us in specific ways. And we should expect and embrace messiness as we seek to discern what those ways are.

Is boasting always bad? If we answer yes, we miss opportunities to glorify the power of Christ on display in the lives of others.

Christians not only love Christ; they love what Christ loves. And since Christ loves his church, so do we.

Can Christians love other Christians the way that Christ commands without liking them?

The Jews rejected their Messiah and have been, for a time, rejected. How long will such wrath last?

Scripture teaches that the sins of some needed to be “filled up” before God judged them. What does that mean?

If the gospel is the way that souls are saved, it’s hateful to in any way hinder the preaching of the gospel.

For anyone who loves to wrestle with profound mysteries: Who killed Jesus? The Romans, the Jews, or God?

The apostle Paul once said of the Jews, “Wrath has come upon them at last!” Did this make him anti-Semitic?