Library of Articles

Paul states the gospel in four verses, and every verb is something Christ did. This article tests each addition (a prayer, a surrender, a commandment, a church, a feeling) against Paul and shows why none of them is part of what saves.

Ask ten believers what spiritual means and you will get atmosphere, feeling, and fervency. Paul wrote twenty-three of the Bible's twenty-six occurrences of the word, and he never once uses it of a feeling. This article traces what it actually marks — a source and a realm — and what that settles about a brother who has fallen.

One of the hardest sentences Paul wrote appears to say a man's bad works can get him destroyed by God. Read whole, it says very nearly the opposite, and the clause most often left off the end is the one that answers it. Here is what defiling means in Paul's own vocabulary, and why the temple was never the thing in danger.

Salvation and reward are not two names for one thing. One is a free gift that cannot be earned or lost; the other is a wage for service that can be gained or forfeited, yet never touches the gift. Rightly divide the two and the trembling conscience and the careless heart are answered at once.

The Bible speaks about marriage to mankind before the law, to Israel under the law and the kingdom, and to the Body of Christ under grace. Read as one rule to one people, it binds commandments God never gave us. Rightly divided, the Lord's strict word to Israel and Paul's word of grace each fall into place — and grace gives far more than the law.

For the believer, the judgment seat of Christ is no courtroom of condemnation but the place where a faithful Master rewards His servants. Rightly divided, it weighs our service, never our salvation, and the crown of righteousness it gives is our glorification in Christ, all of grace, to all who love His appearing.

The Lord's Supper is a Pauline memorial for the Body of Christ — not a New Covenant ordinance, not a sacrament, and not a test of worthiness. This article examines the Corinthian abuse, the neglect behind verse 30, and how to observe the memorial as a joyful reminder of the finished work of Christ.

Paul's command to judge nothing before the time does not mean abandoning discernment. It means not judging hidden motives or ultimate faithfulness before the Lord's final evaluation. This article shows the balance Paul maintains between judging visible doctrine and conduct versus premature condemnation of the heart.