Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 04025. There is a real and felt difference between reading the Bible as a piece of ancient literature and reading it as the living word of God speaking into your actual situation, and that difference is the Spirit’s illumination at work. It is not chiefly a matter of intelligence or education. The most learned…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 04024. Few aspects of the Spirit’s ministry are as misunderstood as the conviction of sin. In common Christian speech it has shrunk to a vague feeling of spiritual unease, something close to guilt with the lights off. But the way Jesus describes conviction of sin in John 16 is far more specific and far…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 04023. Almost every honest believer eventually asks whether they are walking in the Spirit or the flesh, and means it as a real question and not a rhetorical one. Am I being led by the Spirit here, or am I following my own appetite and dressing it up as the will of God? That…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 04022. When Paul tells us to walk by the Spirit in Galatians 5:16, he is not handing us a slogan or a mood. “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” is a precise instruction with real content, and it shapes the whole texture of ordinary Christian living….
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 04020. The difference between the fruit and gifts of the Spirit is one of those quiet distinctions that keeps a church honest about itself. Both the fruit and gifts come from the same Spirit, and yet they are doing two very different things, and when we blur them we start measuring one another by…
Reading Time: 9 minutesQuestion 23. Why did Paul always start his letters with doctrine before application rather than practical instruction? Once you notice this pattern of doctrine before application, you cannot unsee it, and it will change the way you read the whole New Testament. Paul does not begin his letters with a list of things to do….
Reading Time: 9 minutesQuestion 20. How is studying doctrine an act of love? Many people assume the opposite, that studying doctrine is a cold and bookish thing, the hobby of people who would rather be right than be kind. I want to overturn that assumption completely, because I am persuaded that studying doctrine is one of the most…
Reading Time: 9 minutesQuestion 18. What does spiritual maturity look like according to Hebrews 5 and 6? I love this passage because the writer to the Hebrews refuses to let spiritual maturity stay vague. He gives us a working definition, a sober warning, and a clear path forward, all in a few verses. If you have ever wondered…
Reading Time: 9 minutesQuestion 17. Why does right belief lead to right behaviour? I am convinced that right belief is the hidden engine behind a holy life, and that most of our failures in conduct trace back, sooner or later, to a failure in what we actually believe about God. That sounds like a bold claim, so let…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 4019. What is the difference between carnal and spiritual Christians? The contrast between carnal and spiritual believers comes straight out of Paul’s letter to a church that was behaving badly, and it describes a difference we can all recognise if we are honest. Both are real Christians. Both have the Spirit. The difference lies…