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Around AD 60, while a prisoner in ancient Rome for preaching the gospel, the apostle Paul wrote his letter to the church in Ephesus, using the armor of a Roman soldier as a metaphor to describe how Christians must live out their faith by strapping on the full armor of God to properly conduct and prevail in spiritual warfare. More than 2,000 years later, we must do the same.
The purpose of armor is to defensively protect the body against a deadly attack and its accompanying weaponry are the means to wage offensive assaults on the enemy.
It’s commonly thought the origin of Paul’s armor reference in Ephesians 6:10-12 is the uniform of Caesar’s army. But, according to the study note in the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary of the New Testament (available with your Bible Gateway Plus membership), each of the battle equipment Paul lists is also found in the Old Testament, especially in the book of Isaiah (see this chart).
If you knew a vast treasure was buried somewhere, would you rather have the occasional jewel or piece of gold that someone retrieved for you, or a map showing the location of the entire treasure? If you’re like most people, the answer’s a no-brainer.
What’s true about material treasure is also true for spiritual treasure. For this reason, we’ve created the brand-new downloadable 5-day Bible study, How to Read a Verse for All Its Worth that provides the map for you to uncover the hidden riches of God’s Word for yourself!
As Christians, we know the Bible is the ultimate source of everything we should believe and practice, and we want to understand it better. But it’s also true that this isn’t easy. We’re separated from the original authors and audience of the Bible by time, language, culture, and geography.
Fortunately, there are a series of steps used by serious students of the Bible to discover the meaning of biblical passages, and you can learn and apply these steps yourself to greatly increase your knowledge and understanding of the Bible.
This is the two-hundred-twenty-fifth lesson in author and pastor Mel Lawrenz’ How to Live the Bible series. If you know someone or a group who would like to follow along on this journey through Scripture, they can get more info and sign up to receive these essays via email here.
[continued from last time…] Application is the last step in the so-called inductive method of Bible study. The first step is to observe (examining the words, the structure, the details), the second is to interpret (figuring out what the author meant), and then application (figuring out how the truths we uncover connect with everyday life). We know that if our observation is incomplete or our interpretation is askew, we will miss the truth and power of Scripture. But it’s also true that misapplication of the meaning of biblical texts is invalid and even dangerous.
Here are a couple of other mistakes to avoid…
Zondervan, a division of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, is excited to announce the release of the limited editions of The Jesus Bible Artist Edition, New International Version (NIV) and The Jesus Bible Artist Edition, English Standard Version (ESV) both in green calfskin leather.
Each limited edition Bible features one-of-a-kind cover designs by Florida-based artist and 2021 Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) Top Shelf Book Cover Award Winner, Joshua Noom, who specializes in bold illustrations with organic-feeling typography. Readers may be familiar with his work from past collaborations with brands: Old Spice, Burton Snowboarding, Sony Music, and Warner Music Groups.
When you become a member of Bible Gateway Plus, you’ll have instant access to more than 50 Bible reference resources, including The Jesus Bible. Try it free right now!
By Darryl Strawberry
Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
—Proverbs 3:5–6
In the sport of baseball, a player’s mental approach to the game can largely determine success or failure. When competing against the most skilled and athletic players in the world, a competitive advantage often is achieved more by what’s going on between the ears than between the lines on the field.
As a major leaguer, I tried to approach each at bat or each play in the field as a new opportunity to succeed. That meant my previous at bat or last 20 at bats, for better or worse, should have no bearing on my focus and outlook for success in the moment at hand. Each at bat as well as the next play in the field should stand on its own as a moment of truth. I literally had to renew my mind from pitch to pitch. Otherwise, the disappointment, frustration, or elation from one pitch, catch, swing, or throw to the next could distract me from being my best during the next opportunity.
Read this week’s Bible Gateway Weekly Brief newsletter
⇨ Bible Gateway Weekly Brief
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Support Bible Gateway—Find the Resources You Need At:
⇨ FaithGateway Store
⇨ Christianbook.com
Order Resources in Bulk At:
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⇨ See Bible News Roundup weekly posts
Get biblically wise and spiritually fit. Become a member of Bible Gateway Plus. Try it right now during a FREE trial period!
A new Bible-engagement-centered program, The Bible Roots Podcast hosted by author and pastor Randy Frazee and produced by HarperChristian Resources, is for pastors and church leadership who want to help their congregation or ministries actively and effectively engage with the Bible.
[See the Scripture Engagement section on Bible Gateway]
“We’ve designed this podcast for anyone who longs to see people engage with God’s Word. Everyone is welcome, but our crosshairs are on pastors and church leaders,” said Frazee.
Learn from Randy and other experienced leaders in their respective branches of church ministry, as they bring a rich and valuable perspective that makes this podcast a practical and useful resource for anyone in church and ministry leadership.
This is the two-hundred-twenty-fourth lesson in author and pastor Mel Lawrenz’ How to Live the Bible series. If you know someone or a group who would like to follow along on this journey through Scripture, they can get more info and sign up to receive these essays via email here.
I always feel a little insulted when I read instructions on something like a tube of antiseptic ointment and they tell me: APPLY TOPICALLY. NOT TO BE INGESTED. I figure that much is obvious. There is a real problem, of course, if someone somewhere swallows a medicine that’s supposed to be applied to the skin.
How do you define bitterness? Do you wonder how God can turn the bitterness of unmet desire into new flavors of joy?
Like the flicker of a single match that ends up destroying millions of forrested acres in a wildfire, so bitterness starts small but enlarges with festering cultivation.
An example of one person’s approach to keeping bitterness at bay in her life is Sara Hagerty, who describes in her book, Every Bitter Thing Is Sweet: Tasting the Goodness of God in All Things (Zondervan, 2016), how she found the Bible, anew, when her circumstances were stifled with external struggles. She refused to let bitterness overtake her outlook.
[Read the Bible Gateway Blog post, Bitter Becomes Sweet: An Interview with Sara Hagerty]
Bitters is a flavoring added to a beverage or food preparation to create a sharp, pungent, tart, or sour taste. In culinary considerations, bitters may contribute (for some people) to a pleasingly complex taste on a person’s palette, but in personal relationships, the characteristic of bitterness can be harsh and destructive.
For its negative qualities, bitter herbs are what Israel was commanded at the Feast of Passover to eat with the roast lamb and unleavened bread. The observance was meant to symbolize the bitterness and agony of their Egyptian slavery (Exodus 1:14; 12:8).
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