There are two important points here: Good leaders need to be protected from bad people. Good people need to be protected from bad leaders.

Protection for good leaders
Godly leaders will always be under attack from the enemy. Calv...

The eighth distinctive of a gospel-centred church is gospel leadership. Gifted and godly leaders are a sign of God’s blessing on a church. A local church depends in large measure on the character and competence of its leaders. Notice what...

Paul speaks about widows who are to be recognised, honoured, and supported (5:3). But he also speaks about widows who are to be enrolled or registered on a list (5:9). The qualifications for being on this list are different from the qualifications...

There will be genuine need in the church. Paul emphasises this three times. “Honour widows who are truly widows” (5:3).“She who is truly a widow…” (5:5). “Care for those who are truly widows” (5:16).

How do we kno...

The seventh distinctive of a gospel-centred church is gospel compassion. Paul is urging the church to cultivate a culture of caring and serving.

The Bible is full of God’s compassion for His children, especially those who do not h...

Many people are confused about how to live the Christian life. Two misunderstandings have caused much of this confusion.

1. The “hard labour” version says: “We toil and strive.” This version says that the Christian life is ...

The sixth distinguishing mark of a gospel-centred church is gospel life. How are we to make progress in character and competence? How are we to become the kind of people who will be effective in getting God’s global mission done?

G...

Paul outlines three areas of core competence for church leaders: doctrinal, personal, and spiritual.

Doctrinal: able to teach
“An overseer must be… able to teach” (3:2). “[Deacons] must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear...

What kind of people should we trust and follow as leaders? Here are three traits to look for, cultivate, and thank God for.

Wise judgment
“Sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable… not a drunkard.” Look at the decisi...

The fifth distinguishing mark of a gospel-centred church is gospel character, that is, the character and competence of a Christian leader.

Most of us are not called to be an elder or a deacon, so you may wonder, What does this have...

This is a marvellous statement of God’s redeeming purpose in Jesus Christ. Does “all” mean “every single person”? Or “all kinds of people”? It seems clear that “all” means “all kinds of people.” Here are three reasons:

1. That’s what ...

Paul is speaking about the place of prayer in public worship. This is increasingly out of fashion. But God has given this ministry to the church. If Christians do not pray for the world, who will?

A gospel-centered church is not about us, ...

The fourth distinctive of a gospel-centred church is gospel ministry. We share Christ’s passion for the world.

The gospel did not come to us so that it could end with us. Christ trusted it to us so that we could bring it to others...

Sometimes all we can see is our sins and our failures. But we also need to affirm what God is doing in us. You are not yet what you will be. But you are not what you used to be either. God has poured grace, faith, and love into your life.

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You may know someone who is bored with their Christian life. There isn’t any joy in it. They will agree that Christ came to save sinners. But if you were to ask, “Oh, which sins of yours has Jesus forgiven?” they would be stuck for an answer.

The third distinguishing mark of a gospel-centred church is gospel salvation. We are sinners, saved by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ. Grasping this will help us to grow in humility, gratitude, and joy.

Here we have one of th...

Christ calls us to live a life of love (Eph. 5:2). The Old Testament law spells out what that means. It means honouring your father and mother, not committing adultery, and telling the truth. We all need this instruction. We are not so wise that w...

The second distinctive of a gospel-centred church is gospel freedom. In other words, we are drawn by grace, not driven by law.

It’s clear that there were difficulties in the church at Ephesus. Some were confused about the role of t...

“Love that issues from…” Where does love come from? How does love grow? How can you become a loving person, and not a divisive one, at work, in your home, and in the church?

Love comes from a pure heart
The word pu...

The first distinguishing mark of a gospel-centred church is gospel faith. We want to be about God our Saviour and Jesus Christ our hope—rooted in His truth, growing in His love. Nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.

But some pe...

Here, Paul tells us what his letter is about. It has been given by God to tell us what He is looking for in the church—what we are to pursue, how we are to behave, and what we are to be about.

People talk about what they are looking for in ...

Knowing that you will one day be raised and given a resurrection body, how should you live in your present body?

Recognise that you are wholly owned by Jesus Christ. Christ has the right to determine where you live and what you do. He bough...

The resurrection body will be imperishable and glorious. How else will it be different from our present bodies?

Your body will be powerful: “It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power” (1 Cor. 15:43).

Donald Macle...

The transformation of the body you have now into the body you will have will be instantaneous. What do we know about this new resurrection body? There will be continuity, but also changes.

Your body will be imperishable: “S...

The human body is lowly. The human body, at its strongest, is still fragile. Even if you are really fit, and you get hit by a car, you will be in trouble. C. S. Lewis said, “When you are learning to ride they give you unimpressive horses. Only whe...

All religions have some belief in life after death. But the resurrection of the body is unique to Christianity. Only Christians have a risen Saviour. At the heart of our faith is the great truth that the tomb was empty, that the corpse of Jesus wa...

God became a man in Christ Jesus. The body of Jesus was like ours. He grew in strength—from a baby, to a child, to a man—and He knew what it was like to be hungry, thirsty, and weary.

The first heresy, the first false teaching that the ear...

God made the body of Adam from the dust of the ground, and then He breathed the breath of life into this body. So, Adam was the union of a body and a soul. This is the reason that the Bible sometimes speaks about death as an “enemy,” because death...