Bible Commentaries

Acts 12:24 — The continuing growth of the church 12:24 In contrast to Herod and like Peter, the word of the Lord, the gospel, continued to grow and multiply through God’s supernatural blessing. Therefore the church continued to flourish in Jewish territory as well as among the Gentiles. This verse

Acts 13:4-12 — 2. The mission to Cyprus 13:4-12 Luke recorded the events of Paul’s first missionary journey to document the extension of the church into new territory and to illustrate the principles and methods by which the church grew. He also did so to show God’s supernatural blessing

Acts 13:5 — Cyprus, about 60 miles from Seleucia. It lay on the coast, and there were enough Jews there to warrant more than one synagogue. Salamis’ population was mainly Greek, but many Jews lived there as well. [Note: Josephus, Antiquities of . . ., 13:10:4.] Barnabas and Saul habitually visited the Jewish synagogues when they preached the gospel. They undoubtedly did so because that was where the people who were God-fearers and anticipators of the Messiah assembled, both Jews and Gentiles. Of course,

Acts 14:9-10 — God could heal him, not that God would do so. Confidence that God would heal him, in other words, is not what made him whole. It was confidence that God through His servant could heal him that constituted his faith (e.g., Matthew 9:28-29; Mark 9:22-24). His faith was a factor in his receiving healing (cf. Mark 6:5-6). ". . . Paul and Barnabas had the gifts of an apostle, the sign gifts. They came into these places without any New Testament with the message of the gospel. What were their credentials?

Acts 20:1 — Corinthians 2:12). Nevertheless he was uneasy about the trouble in the Corinthian church. He had sent Titus to Corinth, evidently from Ephesus, with a severe letter to the church. He was eager to hear what the reaction to it had been (2 Corinthians 2:3-4; 2 Corinthians 7:8-12; 2 Corinthians 12:18). So rather than staying in Troas, Paul moved west into Macedonia where he met Titus who was returning from Corinth (2 Corinthians 7:5-8). After receiving Titus’ favorable report of affairs in Corinth,

Acts 24:25 — is a common one. Often people put off this most important decision until they cannot make it. This is probably why most people who make decisions for Christ do so when they are young. Older people normally get harder to the gospel. [Note: See McGee, 4:620-21.] We do not know if Felix ever did trust Christ; there is no evidence that he did.

Acts 25:14-21 — had. Festus did not know how to deal with these charges (Acts 25:20). "It is interesting that by this stage the question of Paul’s alleged desecration of the temple has quite disappeared from sight, and the topic of the resurrection (Acts 23:4; Acts 24:21) has replaced it. . . . The real ground of dispute is that Paul preaches the resurrection of Jesus, something which the Sadducees refused to believe on principle and which the Pharisees likewise refused to believe although

Acts 26:22-23 — Paul preached a message thoroughly in harmony with Israel’s faith (cf. Acts 3:18; Acts 17:3). Acts 26:23 may be Luke’s condensation of Paul’s exposition of many Old Testament messianic prophecies that Jesus fulfilled (e.g., Isaiah 42:6; Isaiah 49:6; Isaiah 53:10; Isaiah 60:3). Many of the Jews rejected the ideas of a suffering Messiah, His resurrection from the dead, and direct ministry to Gentiles, but Paul found support for these in the Old Testament. "Here in substance

Acts 28:16 — appealed to Caesar and had gained the respect (to say the least) of his centurion escort. Therefore he was able to reside in a private rented residence with a Roman guard (Acts 28:30). This is the end of the last "we" section of Acts (Acts 16:10-40; Acts 20:5 to Acts 21:18; Acts 27:1 to Acts 28:16). We know that Luke and Aristarchus remained with Paul for some time, and Paul had other visitors including Timothy, Tychicus, and Epaphroditus. Luke and Aristarchus were with him when Paul wrote his

Romans 11:36 — of God. Only the explanation of the implications of having this righteousness remained for him to clarify. This practical guidance is especially important since the Christian is no longer under the regulations of the Mosaic Law (Romans 7:6; Romans 10:4). What follows is New Covenant teaching.

Romans 3:3-4 — brought the whole nation into Canaan as He had promised, though the unbelieving generation died in the wilderness. Paul agreed. God would remain "true" (true to His word, reliable, trustworthy) to bless Israel as He had promised (Romans 3:4). God would even be faithful if everyone else proved unfaithful, not just if some proved unfaithful. Paul cited David’s testimony to God’s faithfulness after David’s own unfaithfulness as historic, biblical support.

1 Corinthians 1:10-21 — A. Divisions in the church 1:10-4:21 The first major problem that Paul addressed was the divisions that were fragmenting this church. ". . . this opening issue is the most crucial in the letter, not because their ’quarrels’ were the most significant error in the church,

1 Corinthians 14:27-28 — of the Old Testament prophets to speak at appropriate times and settings illustrates this. Third, the Christians should not allow tongues without interpretation in the church services, though Paul did permit private tongues-speaking (1 Corinthians 14:2; 1 Corinthians 14:4; 1 Corinthians 14:27). However remember that tongues were languages, and Paul valued private tongues-speaking quite low (1 Corinthians 14:2; 1 Corinthians 14:10-11; 1 Corinthians 14:13-14, et al.).

1 Corinthians 2:12 — understands his inner thoughts, so the Spirit of God alone can grasp divine truths (1 Corinthians 2:11), and alone can interpret to those within whom he dwells ’the things that are freely given to us by God’ (RV)." [Note: Bruce, p. 40.]   "The tragic failures of men to understand clearly God’s revealed will is but a commentary on the weakness and limitation of the human intellect even when enlightened by the Holy Spirit." [Note: Robertson, 4:87.]

1 Corinthians 6:1 — Again Paul used a rhetorical question to make a point (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Corinthians 4:21). The answer was self-evident to him. In view of the context the "neighbor" (NASB) must be a fellow Christian. The "unrighteous" or "ungodly" (NIV) contrasts with the "saints" and refers to an unbeliever (1

2 Corinthians 4:11 — Jesus." There are three other ways that the New Testament associates us with Jesus’ death, but these are not in view here. They are our identification with His death in baptism (Romans 6:3-5), our daily mortification of the flesh (Galatians 5:24), and our physical debilitation as we serve Christ. Paradoxically the death and the life of Jesus were simultaneously obvious in Paul’s experience (cf. 2 Corinthians 1:4-5). Though living, Paul was always in danger of dying because enemies of

2 Corinthians 5:4 — in a sense consume what is mortal and dies. This is another paradox. Paul was confident that if death would destroy his present body he would certainly receive a glorious future body that God would provide. Paul’s concern in 2 Corinthians 5:1-4 seems to have been to contrast our mortal state and our immortal state, not to introduce the idea of an intermediate body. [Note: See Lowery, pp. 565-66, for a helpful summary of the views.]

2 Corinthians 8:22 — arrival of three visitors would have also provided additional motivation for these previously slack Christians to complete the collection. One writer speculated that they may have been Jason of Thessalonica (Acts 17:5) and Sopater of Berea (Acts 20:4; cf. Romans 16:21). [Note: Lowery, p. 575.]

Galatians 4:25 — Hagar represents the Mosaic Covenant made at Mount Sinai in Paul’s analogy (illustration). Her descendants represent the Israelites who lived in bondage under the Law. Sarah, not mentioned in Galatians 4:25, represents the Abrahamic Covenant, and her descendants are free, living under the promise. The earliest identification of Mt. Sinai with Jebel Musa in the Sinai Peninsula, the most popular probable site, comes from the writing of Egeria in the fourth

Ephesians 3:17 — this request is that Christ may be "at home" in the personality of the believer. He indwells every Christian (1 Corinthians 12:13) but is at home in the lives of those believers who let Him be first in their attitudes and activities (John 15:14). As the believer keeps trusting and obeying, Jesus Christ can continue to occupy this place in his or her life. Paul was praying that his readers would enjoy intimate fellowship with their Lord (cf. 1 John 1:1-4). The believer may grasp Christ’s