He­a­ring the word of God

The Bib­le be­gins with the story in which God cre­a­tes the world by his word. Right in the be­gin­ning God spoke to the first hu­man pair, Adam and Eve. The third chap­ter of the Bib­le tel­ls us how man fell in­to the temp­ta­ti­on of not he­a­ring the word of God: ”Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of eve­ry tree of the gar­den?” (Gen 3:1) As a con­se­qu­en­ce of the fall in­to sin, man doubts if the word of God is true.

Faith co­mes by he­a­ring

Many mem­bers of the pe­op­le of Is­ra­el he­ard the te­ac­hings of Je­sus, but they did not all act ac­cor­ding­ly. In them came true the prop­he­cy of the prop­het, ac­cor­ding to which “their ears are dull of he­a­ring, and their ey­es they have clo­sed; lest at any time they should see with their ey­es, and hear with their ears, and should un­ders­tand with their he­art, and should be con­ver­ted” (Mat 13:15). The word that they he­ard did not re­ach their he­art. He­a­ring the word did not pro­fit them, as they did not be­lie­ve it (Heb 4:2).

The sig­ni­fi­can­ce of the read and pre­ac­hed word of God

The first Chris­ti­an Pen­te­cost mar­ked a tur­ning point in the his­to­ry of sal­va­ti­on. Je­sus ope­ned the minds of the dis­cip­les to un­ders­tand the Scrip­tu­res. The prop­he­cies of the Scrip­tu­res – the Law of Mo­ses, the books of the prop­hets, and the Psalms – and the pro­mi­se gi­ven by Je­sus to His dis­cip­les were ful­fil­led in the pou­ring out of the Holy Spi­rit. The dis­cip­les were gi­ven a task: “And that re­pen­tan­ce and re­mis­si­on of sins should be pre­ac­hed in his name among all na­ti­ons, be­gin­ning at Je­ru­sa­lem.” (Luk 24:47)

Buil­ding on a so­lid foun­da­ti­on

Je­sus’ pub­lic mi­nist­ry be­gan af­ter he had been bap­ti­zed in the Jor­dan by John the Bap­tist. This oc­ca­si­on was wit­nes­sed by God in he­a­ven: ”This is my be­lo­ved Son; lis­ten to him” (Mat 3:17). Af­ter His bap­tism Je­sus went in­to the wil­der­ness to pre­pa­re for His mi­nist­ry. He fas­ted for 40 days, and af­ter that the ene­my temp­ted hung­ry Je­sus in many ways. Je­sus fen­ded off the ene­my by quo­ting God’s word from the scrip­tu­res. He fi­nal­ly drove away the ene­my, and an­gels came to ser­ve Him.

Speak that which is good to the use of edi­fying

The fo­cus of the let­ter to the Ep­he­si­ans is on che­ris­hing Chris­ti­an uni­ty and har­mo­ny, and our text gi­ves us prac­ti­cal ad­vi­ce for doing so. Most of Paul’s ex­hor­ta­ti­ons are clear: speak the truth, do not squ­ab­b­le, do not say un­fit­ting things, and put away bit­ter­ness, wrath, an­ger, cla­mor, evil words, and all ma­li­ce.

The gre­a­test is cha­ri­ty

“Anew com­mand­ment I give un­to you, That ye love one anot­her; as I have lo­ved you, that ye al­so love one anot­her. By this shall all men know that ye are my dis­cip­les, if ye have love one to anot­her.” (John 13:34-35).

The gifts of the Holy Spi­rit

The third per­son of the Triu­ne God is the Holy Ghost, which is the Spi­rit of God the Fat­her and Je­sus Christ. When Je­sus was gat­he­red to­get­her with his dis­cip­les for the last time, he pro­mi­sed to send the Holy Spi­rit to his own, for strength and com­fort (John 14:26).

For­gi­ve­ness brings pe­a­ce

On the first day of the week, Mary Mag­da­le­ne had gone to Je­sus’ grave in the mor­ning twi­light. She had found an emp­ty grave. The stone had been mo­ved from the ope­ning of the grave. Mary went to tell the dis­cip­les of this. Pe­ter and the ot­her dis­cip­les rus­hed to Je­sus’ grave. They saw that of which Mary had told them (John 20:1-9).

Con­fes­si­on – a he­a­ling sal­ve for wounds of the soul

Mar­tin Lut­her wri­tes about three ty­pes of con­fes­si­on. Con­fes­si­on in which ack­now­led­ge­ment of sins is di­rec­ted to God is con­fes­si­on of faith or con­fes­si­on of the he­art. Pri­va­te con­fes­si­on hap­pens in the pre­sen­ce of a trus­ted con­fes­sor fat­her or mot­her. In the con­fes­si­on of love a transg­res­si­on is ack­now­led­ged to the per­son against whom one has transg­res­sed.

The law of God and its me­a­ning

The law is strict and de­man­ding. Je­sus taught that even a wrong­ful thought in one’s he­art transg­res­ses against the will of God. No one is ca­pab­le of li­ving his or her life in a way that does not transg­ress against the will of God. Ne­vert­he­less, the law is un­con­di­ti­o­nal and de­mands comp­le­te obe­dien­ce.