20The sun will be turned into darknessand the moon into ‘blood’before the great and glorious day of the Lord will come.
21And it will be: whoever calls on the name of the LordTo call on the ‘name’ of the Lord is to call on Him. To ‘call’ on Him is to place yourself under His protection, which involves a recognition of His rulership.will be saved!’
47praising God and having favor with all the people. And day by day the Lord addedNotice who does the adding, and He cannot be deceived. to the ChurchThree percent of the Greek manuscripts, of inferior quality, omit "to the Church" (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.). those who were being saved.
23God, from this man’s seed, according to promise, has broughtInstead of ‘brought’, some 25% of the Greek manuscripts have ‘raised up’, as in AV and NKJV.SalvationInstead of ‘Salvation’, some 15% of the Greek manuscripts have ‘a Savior, Jesus’, as in most versions. to Israel,
26… the word of this salvation has been sent.
33God has fulfilled the same to us, their children, when He raised up Jesus;The "raised up" here presumably refers to the incarnation; the resurrection comes in verse 34. as also it stands written in the second Psalm:‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you.’See Psalm 2:7.
34And that He raised Him from the dead,The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is crucial; without it we have no Gospel. no longer to return to corruption,People like Lazarus who were returned to life, had to die again (and decompose); with Jesus it was different: His resurrection was definitive, and involved a glorified body. He has spoken thus,‘I will give you the holy things guaranteed to David.’See Isaiah 55:3.
47… that you should be for salvationup to the last place …
5even when we were dead in our transgressions—made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)
8For by grace you have been saved, through the FaithThe Text has ‘the’ faith; the reference is to a specific faith, presumably the body of truth that revolves around the person of Jesus.—and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God—
14For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one and broken down the barrier of separation—the law with its commandments and ordinances—
17also, grasp the helmet of the salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is God’s Word spoken;ρημα (rather than λογος)—the implication appears to be that we must speak the Word. Well, how else can you use the ‘Sword’?
18praying at all times in the Spirit, using every prayer and petition, yes being watchful to this end with all perseverance and petition for all the saints
24The grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.Evidently "the grace" is not for everybody. Amen.
11You see, today,The shepherds were Jews, and their ‘day’ began at 6 p.m. The angel’s use of ‘today’ indicates that Jesus was born at night, since the angel delivered his message at night. in David’s city, a Savior was born to you, who is Lord Christ!
14… than the whole plan of salvation, the center piece of …
26(It had been revealed to him repeatedly by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death until he saw the Lord’s Messiah.The Greek Text has ‘Christ’, but the Holy Spirit presumably used Hebrew to communicate with Simeon. The man evidently lived in communion with God, and thus the Holy Spirit could guide him at any time—here He sends him into the temple at just the right moment.)
4Rejoice in Sovereign always; again I say, rejoice!
20Now to our God and Father be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.
23The grace of the Sovereign, Jesus Christ, be with you all.Instead of "you all", some 9% of the Greek manuscripts have ‘your spirit’ (as in NIV, NASB, LB, etc.). Amen.
2for He says:"At a favorable time I listened to you,and in a day of salvation I aided you."Well, right now is a really favorable time; indeed, the day of salvation is now!See Isaiah 49:8. The ‘window’ of opportunity for any individual does not last forever.
4rather we commend ourselves as God’s servants in every way with great endurance—in afflictions, in hardships, in distress,
7by truthful speech, by God’s power, with the weapons of the righteousness in the right hand and in the left;Why right and left? A right-handed soldier would have a shield in his left hand, for defense, with a sword or spear in his right, for offense—our weapons are for both offense and defense.
33But He turned, looked at His disciples, and rebuked Peter, saying: "Get behind me, Satan!From the parallel passage in Luke 9:18-22, where we have three present participles—‘answering’, ‘warning’ and ‘saying’—it is clear that Peter’s two efforts form part of a single conversation. Well that scares me; that sends shivers up my spine. Within three minutes, or five at the most (we can see in Luke that this was a single conversation), Peter spoke two times. The first time it was God who put the words in Peter’s mouth. It was Jesus Christ, God the Son on earth, who explained the true nature of the transaction—Peter did not speak on his own but moved by the Father. So far so good; that God can do something like that comes as no surprise. It is the second time that is bothersome, because this time it was Satan who put the words in Peter’s mouth! Again, it is Jesus Christ, God the Son on earth, who explains the true nature of the transaction. When He uses the enemy’s proper name, Satan, His meaning is inescapable. It really was Satan. Once again we are face to face with the most terrible truth that there is in this life, at least as I see it. The enemy has access to our minds, he can put words in our mouths. I wish in the worst way that it was not true, but my wishes do not change reality. You have in mind men’s values, not God’s values."
35Because whoever may resolve to ‘save’ his life will waste it; but whoever may ‘waste’ his life for my sake and the Gospel’s, he will save it.What does the Lord mean when He speaks of saving or losing one’s ‘life’? One does not lose one’s soul for love of Christ. Nor is the reference to being killed. Rather, Jesus has in mind the life we live, the accumulated results of our living. All that I have done up to this moment plus all that I will yet do until overtaken by death or the rapture of the Church, whichever happens first—that is the ‘life’ that is at risk (in my own case). Let us look at our Lord’s words a little more closely. There seems to be a contradiction here—if you lose, you save; if you want to save, you lose. How can it work? The parallel passage, Matthew 16:27, gives more context. "For the Son of the Man is going to come in the glory of his Father, with his angels, and then he will repay each according to his deeds." Christ was thinking of the day of reckoning. In other words, "we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ" (Romans 14:10) and "each of us will give account of himself to God" (Romans 14:12). "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive his due according to what he has done while in the body, whether good or bad" (2 Corinthians 5:10). I understand that 1 Corinthians 3:11-15 is referring to the same occasion, the day of reckoning. After declaring that Jesus Christ is the only foundation, Paul speaks of different materials that one might use in building on it: "gold, silver, precious stones" or "wood, hay, straw". (Although the primary interpretation of this passage presumably has to do with the performance of teachers and leaders in the church, I believe it clearly applies to the daily life of each believer as well.) The point is, our deeds will be tested by fire. If fire has any effect upon gold or silver it is only to purify them, but its effect on hay and straw is devastating! Okay, so what? Let us go back to the beginning. God created the human being for His glory; to reflect it and contribute to it. I suppose we may understand Psalm 19:1 and Isaiah 43:7 in this way, at least by extension. But Adam lost this capacity when he rebelled against God. For this reason the sentence that weighs against our race is that we "fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). But the Son came into the world to restore our lost potential. Ephesians 1:12 and 14 tell us that the object of the plan of salvation is "the praise of His glory" (see also 2 Corinthians 1:20). And 1 Corinthians 10:31 puts it into a command: "Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." Now then, the point of all this is not to ‘ruin’ our lives, to take all the ‘fun’ out of them (as many seem to think). God isn’t being arrogant, unreasonable, too demanding. Quite the contrary—He is just trying to save us from throwing away our lives. Surely, because the glory of God is eternal (Psalm 104:31), and when I do something for His glory that something is transformed and acquires eternal value—it becomes ‘gold, silver, precious stones’. Works done for the glory of God will go through the fire without harm. On the other hand, what is done with a view to our own ambitions and ideas is ‘straw’. We all know what fire does to straw! To be a slave of Christ means to live with reference to the Kingdom; it means to do everything for the glory of God. In this way the slave ‘saves’ his life because he will be building it with ‘gold and silver’, which will pass through the fire at the judgment seat of Christ without loss. In contrast, the believer who refuses to be a slave of Jesus builds his life with ‘hay and straw’, which will be consumed by the fire—and so he ‘loses’ his life; he lived in vain; the potential that his life represented was wasted, thrown away. What a tragedy!
36Well, what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?
4(although He was crucified in weakness, He lives by the power of God). Now we also are weak in Him, but we will live with Him by the power of God toward you.Being weak in God’s presence is one thing; being weak in our work for Him is quite another. I take Paul to be saying that being weak in God’s presence triggers the outflow of His power in our work.
5… and less sure of his salvation. …
9Now we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. And we also pray for this, your perfecting.
14The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.Here we have a clear reference to the Trinity.Amen.
2Grace to you and peace from God our Father and Sovereign Jesus Christ.
19You see, I know that this will turn out for my deliverance (through your supplication and the support of the Spirit of Jesus Christ)This is presumably a reference to the Holy Spirit (see John 16:13-15).
21—to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.How can death be a gain? Only if you live for Christ.
9So Jesus said about him, "Today salvation has happened in this house,Yes indeed, that was a complete change of direction! in that he also is a son of Abraham;
17He said to him: ‘Super, you good slave! Because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities!’
29When He drew near to BethphageSome 44% of the Greek manuscripts have ‘Bethphage’ (as in most versions), but the 56% includes the best line of transmission, which I follow. In any case, it is a mere matter of spelling. and Bethany, at the mountain called ‘of Olives’, it happened like this: He sent two of His disciples,
38saying:"Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!See Psalm 118:26.Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"
34And He said to her: "Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go into peaceThat is what the Text says, ‘into’ not ‘in’. To go in peace is to leave on good terms, no hard feelings. But what might going into peace be? I would say that you take the peace with you; you live within an atmosphere of peace. Now that is a proper ‘blessing’! and be healed from your affliction."
40But they started ridiculing Him.They knew that she was dead, as indeed she was. After He put them all out, He took the child’s father and mother, and those with Him,Peter was there, and he helped Mark write this Gospel. and went in where the child was lying.
42Immediately the girl got up and started walking around (she was twelve years old). And they were overcome with great amazement.
42"He saved others; himself he cannot save!" "If he is ‘King of Israel’ let him come down from the cross now and we will believe him!"This was a lie; they already knew that Jesus was the Messiah but had deliberately rejected Him. However, if Jesus had descended from the cross (as presumably He had the power to do) we would be without hope. The people were being satanically nasty, but Jesus was totally committed to the Father’s will and thus the redemptive program was not aborted.
43"He trusted in God; let Him rescue him now, if He wants him; for he said, ‘I am God’s Son.’ "
49but the rest said: "Don’t! Let’s see if Elijah comes to save Him."Comparing this verse with Mark 15:36 we have an apparent discrepancy: Matthew records that others told the man to stop, while Mark records that the man told them to stop! So which is it? What I imagine is this: as both accounts state, a certain man [could it possibly have been John Mark himself?] decides to offer Jesus a drink of wine vinegar; several others, supposing that Jesus had just called on Elijah, tell him to stop; to which he retorts, "You (pl) stop!" and repeats their statement with sarcasm [anyone who really understood the language would have known that Jesus wasn’t calling Elijah at all]. However, it does appear that the man stopped his action before Jesus could drink, since a bit later Jesus says, "I’m thirsty" (John 19:28).
10But that day was a Sabbath, so the Jews said to the one who had been healed: "It’s the Sabbath! You aren’t allowed to carry the pallet."
14After these things Jesus found him in the temple and said to him: "See, you are well. Don’t sin any more, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you."The Lord seems to be implying that the former sickness was the result of sin. But he had been sick for 38 years, so he had paid a heavy price!
29and will come out—those who did good things into the resurrection of life,Notice again the emphasis on doing, because what you do reflects what you really believe, and what you really believe is what you are—and you cannot kid God. "All those in the graves" means everyone who has died; all will be raised, and all must face the final Accounting. but those who practiced evil things into the resurrection of condemnation.
2Bear one another’s heavy burdens, and so fulfill the law of the Christ.
8—he who sows to his own flesh will reap deteriorationIf the deterioration is never checked, guess what happens. from that flesh; he who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from that Spirit.
18The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.
3Grace and peace to you from God our Father and Sovereign Jesus Christ.Where ‘Lord’ occurs without the definite article, as here, I usually render ‘Sovereign’; with either ‘the’ or ‘our’ I usually render ‘Lord’.
17… water baptism were essential to salvation, I fail to see …
21For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through its ‘wisdom’ did not get to know God, it pleased God to save the believing ones through the ‘foolishness’ of what was preached—
30It is from Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God—also righteousness and sanctification and redemptionWe receive Christ’s righteousness to get started; the sanctification is to keep us clean along the road; the redemption is the final victory. Now really, isn’t that a wonderful salvation? Thank you, Jesus!—
9I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved,Jesus is the doorway, the only means of access into eternal life, a truth He will emphasize again in John 14:6. and will go in and out and find pasture.What does a sheep want? Protection and pasture. These Jesus offers, but since people are more complex than sheep, He offers abundant life.
10The thief comes only in order to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.The original thief is Satan. "The thief comes" VS "I have come"—since Jesus contrasts "the thief" with Himself, that thief is presumably Satan. Jesus calls him a murderer and a liar in John 8:44. A thief is usually a liar as well, and vice versa. I have come so that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
11"I am the good shepherd.Here Jesus changes the figure—as the good shepherd He really cares about the sheep, to the point of dying for them. The good shepherd lays down his life on behalf of the sheep.
24I will now allegorize them—these are two covenants: one is from Mount Sinai, bearing children into slavery, which is ‘Hagar’
26while the ‘Jerusalem’ that is above is free, which is the mother of us all.Perhaps 3% of the Greek manuscripts omit "all" (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.).
30However, what does the Scripture say? "Expel the slave woman and her son, because the son of the slave woman absolutely must not inherit with the son of the free woman!"The quote is from Genesis 21:10, where Sarah is demanding this of Abraham, but God backs her up (verse 12).