Look at the Book

Loving others as Christ loved us is not a safe or convenient enterprise. It is a sacrificial love that bleeds.

The love of God is too great to leave us as we were. Anyone who has experienced the love of God has been transformed by the love of God.

Can you forgive someone who doesn’t repent of doing you any wrong? Can there be real forgiveness?

If you are a Christian, you are a new person. You are not what you were. You are fundamentally, profoundly, deeply new.

Whenever we get hurt, we become vulnerable to bitterness. But God calls us to be kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving.

God seals us with his Holy Spirit to ensure we make it home. And this sealing by the Spirit leads to a life of love on earth.

What does it mean that God can be grieved? Isn’t he unable to feel human feelings?

Keep your eyes on fellow Christians. Are they worn out, discouraged, downcast? Ask God for an upbuilding word.

What does stealing reveal about our hearts? It shows a lack of love for people and a lack of contentment in the Lord.

Falling asleep with anger is an invitation to the devil to sow bitterness into your life and relationships.

Going to bed angry is dangerous. It invites bitterness into your life, but more than that, it invites the devil.

When Paul says, “Be angry, and do not sin,” does that mean we should be angry?

He who loves the church loves himself because he’s a part of the church. Take care how you love your fellow members in Christ.

If you don’t love the truth, you don’t love the gospel. If you love the gospel, you will love being a truthful person.

Christ does not simply tell us to put off our old lives. He tells us to put on his character.

Our minds must have more than new ideas to be made new. It must have a new inclination, disposition, and ruling principle.

Are you still living according to your old sinful life? Put to death old desires and be transformed by truth in Christ.

What can save us from our suicidal desires for sin? The truth as found in Christ.

The Christian is not just one inwardly. We put on a new man, a new uniform, a new identity that others can see.

What does it mean to learn Christ? And if you were studying Ephesians for yourself, how would you answer a question like that from the Bible?

The heart that loses God as its greatest desire becomes a cauldron of desires for sensuality.

Underneath every rejection of Christianity is a hardness of heart and rebellion of life.

The reason God gave us reason was so that we might know God. When we refuse knowledge of him, we are left with futility.

Christianity is not just a worldview to be believed in, but it is a way to live by.

The church is the corporate representation of Christ to the world. This privilege is great, and the task of maturity is serious.

In the church, the redeemed build one another up in love into the dwelling place of God.

Every part of the Church needs to function as God made us to function in order for the church to grow into maturity.

Pastors and teachers are given to the church so that we might stop being children and grow up in Christ, so are you growing?

Immaturity in the Christian life is often exposed by us being easily swayed by new and false teaching.

In order for the church to stand mature before God, each child of God needs to grow up into Christian maturity.

We often say that Jesus is the “Son of God,” but what exactly does that name mean?

Right now, our faith is imperfect, our churches are imperfect, our love is imperfect. When Christ comes, the imperfect will be made perfect.

When we only unify over an intellectual assent to truth, we miss out on the true beauty and benefit of biblical unity.

When the pastors equip the saints and the saints do the work of ministry, the body of Christ builds itself up into maturity.

Pastors have the challenging task of teaching and inspiring their people to maturity in the faith for the health of the church.

Is there a call to the ministry? Does God still appoint pastors to specific local churches?

Apostles and prophets are different from evangelists, shepherds, and teachers. Do you know how?

Who we each are in Christ, with our specific giftings, matters. And who we are as members of the wider church also matters. One does not cancel the other.

Christ fills all things by dying and giving grace and gifts to his church. He is the head, and we are the body. As he reigns, so will we.

The same Jesus that came to earth, lived, taught, died, and rose, is the same Jesus interceding for us now in heaven.

When the Old Testament was written, was it written in light of what would be said in the New Testament?

God gives different gifts in different measures to different people, and he gives them to unite us, not divide us.

We long to belong. We long to be secure. We long for purpose. We long for riches. And all of these are satisfied in God as our Father.

What do you do when you are reading a tough text and not getting much help from commentaries? John Piper models his approach from Ephesians 4:1–6.

We must be eager to keep the unity that Christ purchased with his own blood.

Do you have a quick temper? Do you get angry and find it hard to forgive? If Christ has saved you, he calls you to a long-suffering love.

If biblical meekness does not just mean talking quietly or being soft, what does it mean?

Lowliness isn’t something that we should want just enough of to get by. We should desire “all humility” to glorify Christ.

Lowliness is fitting for the Christian because our redemption cost Christ his life. This should level any and every thought of boasting.

A heart worthy of our calling is lowly, meek, long-suffering, and willing to endure others in love — in other words, it is a heart like Christ’s.