Should you examine yourself before taking the Lord’s Supper?
July 30, 2024
Two thousand years ago, the Corinthians were getting drunk and eating up all the food at the Lord’s Supper. It was for this reason that Paul said they were partaking in an “unworthy manner” and needed to examine themselves. But the Lord’s Supper is to be done in remembrance of Jesus Christ and His finished work, not in remembrance of our recent track record of sins. So, we can keep the focus on Jesus and celebrate the Lord’s Supper with joy!
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Is 1 John 1:9 meant for Christians? While 1 John 1:9 is often interpreted as a formula for believers to get more forgiveness of sins, the verse is actually addressing sin deniers known as Gnostics. So, John is not prescribing a “daily bar of soap” to help Christians get more forgiveness and cleansing from God. Instead, he is inviting unbelieving sin deniers to acknowledge the reality of sin and find forgiveness and cleansing of all unrighteousness (past, present, and future!) through Jesus Christ.
July 23, 2024
Fellowship with God is synonymous with salvation in the New Testament. When we believe the Gospel, we are invited into an intimate and unending fellowship with the Trinity (1 John 1:1-3; John 17:21).
July 16, 2024
Repentance for salvation is a change of mind from unbelief to belief in Jesus (Acts 19:4; John 3:16-17; Ephesians 2:8-9). After salvation, repentance becomes about maturing in the faith through an exchange of sinful mindsets and behaviors for righteous mindsets and behaviors (Romans 6:2, 12, 18). For the believer, repentance from sins doesn’t make us more forgiven by God, but it does help us to express more fully our new identity in Christ.
July 9, 2024
James 5:16 states that confession of sins to other believers is an important part of the Christian life. Admitting wrongdoing helps us support one another in prayer. However, it is important to remember that we do not confess our sins to other people in order to get more forgiveness from God. He has already forgiven us – past, present, and future (Hebrews 10:14).
July 2, 2024
Some teach that Christians should recite the Lord’s Prayer, but Jesus warned against meaningless repetition of the same prayers (Matthew 6:7). Furthermore, in the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus describes a forgiveness from God that is conditioned upon us forgiving others first. Here, Jesus wants the Jews of His day to imagine what it would be like if they received from God the same treatment they’ve been doling out to others. In short, the Lord’s Prayer exposed their hypocrisy and their need for unconditional grace from God.
June 25, 2024
In the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:5-15), we see a forgiveness from God that is conditional and based upon forgiving other people first. But when we read the passage in the context of the Sermon on the Mount, we discover that Jesus is wanting His Jewish audience to imagine receiving only the same type and degree of forgiveness that they’ve given to others. In this way, Jesus is pointing out their hypocrisy, their slavery to bitterness, and their inability to merit God’s forgiveness. Ultimately, this realization is what drives a person to see their need for God’s grace. Today, on this side of the cross, we believers are totally forgiven people, apart from our forgiving of others (Colossians 3:13; Ephesians 4:32; Hebrews 10:14).
June 18, 2024
James 5:15 does express the believer’s forgiveness using future tense. However, James is simply presenting a hypothetical situation (“if he has committed sins”) and assuring his readers that such a person will be forgiven in that scenario. This passage is intended to be comforting for anyone who might be afraid of a future struggle. Any sin committed will be forgiven because of the finished work of Jesus Christ, once for all (Hebrews 10:14).
June 11, 2024
Many have wondered whether a believer is capable of committing the “unforgivable sin” (Matthew 12:31-32) or the “sin unto death” (1 John 5:16). Both of these refer to unbelief in Jesus or rejection of the Gospel message. Therefore, these warnings are not for believers. We have already received the Gospel, and we are completely forgiven of all our sins (Hebrews 10:14). In addition, we possess eternal life and will never experience spiritual death (John 5:24).
June 4, 2024
Some believe that teaching total forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ will lead believers to sin more. But 2 Peter 1:9 says the opposite: We will sin more if we forget our total forgiveness! So, teaching believers their total forgiveness of sins will promote godly living, not sinfulness. In Luke 7:47, we see Jesus affirm this reality as He tells us that whoever is forgiven much will love much.
May 28, 2024
Forgiveness is a choice, not a feeling. To forgive someone is to release the offending person of any relational debt they might owe you. This happens as you assess the damage (how they made you feel), cancel the debt against them (releasing them from anything they “owe” you, even if they do it again), and then, going forward, counting on the choice you made to forgive them.
May 21, 2024
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