August 10, 2025

Luke 14:25–35 ESV

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them,  “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.  Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.  For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?  Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’  Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?  And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.  So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.  “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?  It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Discussion Question:

In our previous study (verses 15-24) Jesus spoke about those who refused the invitation to God’s banquet.  However, Jesus now sets forth the details of what accepting that invitation means.

What are the conditions of discipleship?

Discussion Summary:

Jesus began his ministry with a call of discipleship to simple fisherman (Matthew 4:18-20).  He invited them to “leave all and follow me.”  He will reiterate this call to the rich young ruler in Luke 18:22.  This is the core condition of discipleship.

Hating our family and even our life is an obvious exaggeration designed to startle the hearer and make them understand that they must love God and his son supremely.  This is shown by the parallel scripture in Matthew 10:37.  Disciples must have unconditional love for God recognizing that he is more valuable than anything else.

As we begin this new life of discipleship we have no idea of what experiences we will be given.  We understand that they will involve sacrifice and suffering as represented in the cross that we bear (Romans 5:3-5).  However, we do have to consider whether we have given our full heart loyalty to God.  If we have we can give our “all” and trust in the power of God working in us.

Assessing our heart loyalty is an important first step.  The example of a tower builder gives us the idea that if we can put our trust in the architect, the blue print we will have the ability to construct the finished product.  The example of the battle shows us that even if we are outnumbered 2 to 1 by spiritual foes we will be the victor as long as we have remained loyal to God in our hearts.

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August 6, 2025

Today we had a meeting of praise to our Heavenly Father. We shared our testimonies of how the Lord has been evident in our lives.

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August 2 & 3, 2025

Today we cancelled our study so that we could join an online/in-person Bible Student convention. This was the theme text of the convention.

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July 30, 2025

1 Corinthians 4  ESV

This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God. I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another. For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you! For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men.  We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute.  To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things. I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me.  That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church.  Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you.  But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power.  For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?

Discussion Questions:

This chapter sets forth Paul’s relationship with the Corinthian ecclesia.

1)  (Verses 1-5) What does Paul say about their ability to assess him as a leader?

2)  (Verses 6-13) How are the Corinthian brethren to compare their Christian experience with Paul’s?

3)  (Verses 14-21) How does Paul establish his authority within the ecclesia?

Discussion Summary:

Verses 1-5:  Paul dismisses the Corinthian brethren’s assessment of him as a leader because God is the true judge of such matters.  Humans can only judge the outward appearance by God judges the motivation, the heart.  Paul’s work of ministry would be revealed in time in the hearts of the Corinthian brethren.  If he was a good apostle the brethren in Corinth would mature in Christ and prove faithful.

Verses 6-13:  The brethren in Corinth were not experiencing persecution in that city (verse 8).  Paul on the other hand was experiencing many hardships and suffering as he preached the gospel throughout the region (2 Corinthians 11:23-29).  This difference had developed in these brethren a pride and arrogance that their knowledge gave them a better, different Christian experience.  They began to be ashamed of Paul for his life and even appearance (2 Corinthians 10:10).

Verses 14-21:  Paul established his authority by the power of the Holy Spirit working through him (verses 17,18).  We read in Acts 19:6, 11, 12 that Paul was given the ability to work miracles.  Paul had his own assurance that his authority was from God as it was told to him at his conversion (Acts 9:15).

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July 27, 2025

Luke 14:15–24 ESV

When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”  But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many.  And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’  But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’  And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’  And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’  So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’  And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’  And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.  For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’ ”

Discussion Question:

What are the lessons of this parable to those hearing it at the first advent and for Christians throughout the Gospel Age?

Discussion Summary:

The exclamation by the Pharisee in verse 1 seems to be a sarcastic response to Jesus’ comment in Luke 14:13,14 to invite the blind and lame.  Jesus gives this parable to show that the invitation to become God’s children, part of Christ’s body was being spurned by the religious leaders and by the people (John 1:11,12).  The other part of the population who were spiritually blind and lame would have been happier to be invited but they were being hindered by the religious leaders themselves (Matthew 23:13).  So the invitation would have to go those who were not interested, those who needed to be compelled.  An example of this group can be found in Acts 17:16-34 when the Apostle Paul preached to the pagans of Athens on Mars Hill.  They were not looking for salvation or interested in Jehovah God, but listened out of curiosity.  Even so, some believed.

We also noted the odd excuses made to decline the invitation.  The feast was in the evening and yet one needed to look at oxen, another needed to look at this field.  The last excuse was not even said politely.  These all indicated the excuses were not true and valid.

For Christians we understand the invitation to be a time-limited offer.  Are we indifferent and preoccupied with other things instead of with our relationship to Christ?  We should enquire of ourselves, are these things that I am occupying myself with really more pressing than my Christian life?

July 23

1 Corinthians 3 ESV

But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.  According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it.  For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.  Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.  If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.  If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.  Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?  If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.  Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.  For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.”  So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

Discussion Questions:

In 1 Corinthians 3 Apostle Paul uses two pictures to correct and encourage the Corinthian brethren. 

1)  In verses 6 to 9 Paul likens the Corinthian brethren to a piece of cultivated land.  Describe this picture and what lessons were the Corinthians were to learn from it?

2)  In verses 10 to 17 Paul likens the Corinthian brethren to a building.  Describe this picture and what lessons were the Corinthians to learn from it?

Discussion Summary:

Question 1:  Those who plant water and tend a garden or filed are essential to producing a crop, but the growth of the plant from seed to fruitage is still a miracle from God.  Likewise, apostles, teachers, elders are essential to the life of a Christian, but the fruitage of character only comes from the miracle of the Holy Spirit in their heart.

Teachers should be viewed as cooperating with believers to produce growth in grace and knowledge.   If they are a cause for division they are being viewed through the lens of human wisdom and not God’s wisdom.  The Corinthian brethren were viewing them incorrectly because of their immaturity (verses 1-3).  See Isaiah 28:9.

Question 2:  The believer begins on a foundation that is their belief in Christ and in his power to save.  Everything that follows must fall in line with that belief.  The structure of our character and the structure of our faith should be in alignment with the foundation.  If leaders are teaching along this foundation line they are helping to build the Christian into the stature of a mature person in Christ.

An example from the Old Testament is the building of Solomon’s temple.  In 1 Chronicles 22:2-5 we read that Solomon’s father, David, prepared the building materials for his son, including the cut stones.  When we read of the temple’s actual construction in 1 Kings 6:7 it says the preparation had been so good that the stones slipped into place without the need of additional hammering.  This shows the help one can receive.

July 20, 2025

Luke 14:1–14 ESV

One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” And they could not reply to these things. Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place.  But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”  He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid.  But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

Discussion Questions:

This next section has many layers of understanding.  As we discussed last week, Jesus has just made a judgment pronouncement against Jerusalem.  Now, he is reaching out to those who thought they would have first place at the table in the kingdom.

1)  So continuing in this first advent context, what is the relationship between the healing of the man with dropsy and the teachings of verses 7 to 14?

2)  How do we apply the lessons of verses 7 to 14 to ourselves?

Discussion Summary:

Question 1:  The religious leaders ignored the loving miracle and instead focused on what they considered the weightier matter, the academic question of when is it proper to heal.  This revealed their heart condition which was motivated by pride (Matthew 23:4-7).

Jesus is still reaching out to these leaders and exhorting them to change course.  He gives them an example of an action that would reveal the beginning steps of repentance.  If they could  humble themselves at a feast they would begin the process of letting go of their pride which was clinging to power.

Question 2:  This lesson is applicable in many ways to Christians:

• As general advice on humility (Proverbs 25:6,7; James 4:6)
• As advice against looking on the outward appearance instead of the inward heart (James 2:1-7)
• As advice as to how within Christian congregations, those who are weaker and hindered by their problems are the very ones to be cared for and supported the most (1 Corinthians 12:23)

July 16, 2025

1 Corinthians 2 ESV

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—  these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who [which] is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.  The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.  The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.  “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

Discussion Questions:

1)  How was Paul’s preaching in Corinth different from the teachings of other Apostles and elders?

2)  How does Paul describe the activity of the Spirit in a Christian’s life?

Discussion Summary:

Paul describes his preaching style as weak.  He was not a gifted speaker.  He did not have a “presence” or outward boldness.  He did not rely on his own human abilities.  His success in preaching Christ were because of the power of the Spirit working in him.

In Chapter 3:1 he relates that he had to tone down his message because the people of Corinth were not spiritually minded.  Even the Christians were immature in their thinking.

Paul also does not refer to Jesus’ life or ministry as found in the gospels in his discussions throughout this letter.  His preaching was only about Christ’s death.  “I preach Christ crucified.”  He restricted his teaching to a narrow focus in order to appeal to those who recognized that they were in need of salvation.

Paul describes the activity of the spirit in a Christian’s life in the following ways:

• A transforming process in the heart of the believer
• The opening of the mind to view things from a spiritual instead of a human perspective
• A realization that what is important to humans is not important to God and therefore not important to Christians

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July 13, 2025

Luke 13:31–35 ESV

At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.”  And he said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’ O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!  Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ”

Discussion Questions:

1)  What does Jerusalem represent in these passages?  (Consider that Jesus will not die through the instrumentality of Herod, who is purely a political figure in Israel.)

2)  How do you understand verse 35?

Discussion Summary:

Jerusalem can refer to the actual city as the seat of political power.  An example of this can be found in Jeremiah 26:20-23.  Because the Romans were in control of this entire area during Jesus’ day, the focus seems to be on Jerusalem as the seat of religious power.  There was only one temple for Jews and that was in Jerusalem.  The whole nation was misguided by their religious leaders who prevented them from accepting Jesus as the Messiah (Acts 7:51-53).  Jesus was killed in Jerusalem and through the agency of Jerusalem.

In verse 35, the word “house” can refer to the temple in Jerusalem which was the House of God, or it can refer to the entire nation (Hebrews 3:1-6). Jesus prophesied that the temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed (Matthew 24:1,2) and the city and surrounding area would also be destroyed (Luke 21:20-24).  This was fulfilled in 70 CE by Titus the Roman Emperor.

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July 9, 2025

1 Corinthians 1 ESV

Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.  But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Discussion Questions:

1)  What is the current situation amongst the Corinthian brethren that Paul outlines in chapter 1?

            What are the positives and negatives?

2)  What does Paul say about the wisdom of God contrasted with the wisdom of man?

Discussion Summary:

The Current Situation: 

In Acts 18:1-11 we are told how the Apostle Paul founded the Corinthian Ecclesia.  The city itself was wealthy and cosmopolitan.  The population had a large degree of educated, well-to-do people.  The city also had a sophisticated and degenerate side stemming from its Greek temple worship.

The apostle notes the Corinthian brethren’s knowledge of Christ and how the Holy Spirit had given them many outward evidences of this knowledge.  They were not following false teachers.  However, they were imbalanced in their appreciation of apostles and Christian teachers.  They had the spirit of “Who shall be the greatest among us?” (Luke 22:24-27).  They were neglecting the Lord’s admonition of the spirit of humility and servitude to be found among his followers (Matthew 23:8-12).

Wisdom Contrasted:

The wisdom of God starts with humility.  This wisdom always points to God’s greatness above humans.  “Thus says the LORD:  Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth” (Jeremiah 9:23,24).  For Christians this wisdom begins with an acknowledgement of one’s sinfulness and reliance on Jesus’s salvation and forgiveness of sins.

The wisdom of man starts with pride in education and earthly advantage.  It generates arrogance and debate.  It divides instead of unites.  The weakness of this wisdom will be revealed (Isaiah 29:13-16).

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