Healthy Church: Expositional Preaching

What makes a church healthy? In this episode of Salty Believer Unscripted, Josiah Walker and Bryan Catherman continue our Healthy Church series using Mark Dever’s Nine Marks of a Healthy Church as a jumping-off point. They begin with the first mark: expositional preaching.

But what exactly is expositional preaching? Is it simply preaching verse by verse, or is there more to it? They discuss why the shape and emphasis of the biblical text should govern the sermon, why preaching the whole counsel of God protects churches from a steady diet of the preacher’s favorite topics, and why faithful preaching is foundational to a healthy church. They also offer some practical thoughts for recognizing expositional preaching and give an unscripted, unsolicited, and unsponsored shout-out to David Helm and Jeremy Meeks’ Persuasive Preaching.

Listen to this episode of Salty Believer Unscripted as we discuss expositional preaching and the healthy church wherever you get podcasts or listen here:

Salty Believer Unscripted Healthy Church: Expositional Preaching

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Learning to See How the Bible Uses the Bible

One of the best ways to become a better reader of the Bible is to learn to recognize when the Bible is using the Bible. The New Testament regularly quotes the Old Testament. It also alludes to Old Testament passages, themes, events, and language without always announcing it. When we recognize those connections and read the Old Testament passages in context, we are better equipped to understand what the New Testament authors are saying.

There are some good tools to help us do this.

I recently picked up Connecting Scripture: A Study Bible of Biblical Allusions and Quotations, edited by G. K. Beale and Benjamin L. Gladd. I've also used Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, edited by G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson, for years. They are both excellent resources, but they serve different purposes. Connecting Scripture makes the connections easy to see. The Beale and Carson commentary helps you dig in and analyze those connections in much greater depth. One is quick and accessible. The other is a big, beefy beast of a commentary.

In this video, I walk through both resources and compare how they work with actual biblical passages. I also spend some time showing why these tools can be especially helpful when studying the book of Revelation. Revelation becomes considerably less mysterious when we stop looking to the news of the day and start looking at the Old Testament.

If you want to train yourself to see how Scripture interprets Scripture, both of these resources are worth knowing about.

Study on!

Getting Started in Ephesians

Ephesians is packed. Election, adoption, redemption, grace, faith, good works, the church, spiritual gifts, unity, marriage, parenting, work, spiritual warfare, and the armor of God are all here. It would be easy to preach any one of those things and still miss what Paul is doing with the letter as a whole.

Before working through the individual passages, we need to grasp the argument and flow of the letter. Hear the melodic line.

God is bringing all things together under Christ (1:9-10), and the church is already a living display of that coming reality. By grace, God takes people who were dead, divided, and far from him and makes them alive in Christ, reconciles them to himself and one another, and forms them into one new people (2:1-22). Therefore, they must live like the people God has made them to be. They are to walk worthy of their calling, grow together toward maturity under Christ, live under his lordship in every relationship, and stand firm against spiritual opposition.

That argument should control how we preach and teach the individual parts.

The Hinge of the Letter

The simplest way to get your bearings in Ephesians is to notice the turn at 4:1.

The first three chapters overwhelmingly tell us what God has done. God has chosen, adopted, redeemed, forgiven, made alive, raised up, reconciled, and brought near a people in Christ (1:3-14; 2:1-22). Then Paul writes, “I therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called” (4:1).

The “therefore” matters. The commands of chapters 4–6 grow out of the grace of chapters 1–3. The imperatives (commands) of 4-6 describe the life that should flow from the blessings of 1-3.

Paul’s repeated use of “walk” helps us follow the argument. We once walked in sin (2:2). God created us in Christ for good works so that we would walk in them (2:10). Therefore, we are to walk worthy of our calling (4:1), no longer walk as the Gentiles do (4:17), walk in love (5:2), walk as children of light (5:8), and walk wisely (5:15).

God Is Making One People in Christ

Unity is one of the great themes running through Ephesians because it grows directly out of what God is doing in Christ.

God’s purpose is to bring all things together in Christ (1:9-10). We see that purpose already at work in the church. Dead sinners are made alive with Christ by grace (2:1-10). Those who were far off are brought near by Christ’s blood (2:11-13). Christ makes Jew and Gentile one, creates “one new man,” and reconciles both to God through the cross (2:14-18). Together they are being built into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit (2:19-22).

So when Paul tells Christians to be “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit” (4:3), he is telling them to live in light of what God has already done. They do not create Christian unity. God has created it in Christ. And this new people has a purpose beyond itself. Through the church, God makes his manifold wisdom known even to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places (3:10). The church is part of God’s display of what he is accomplishing in Christ.

Christ Builds His Church Through His People

The unity God creates is supposed to grow into maturity (4:7-16).

The ascended Christ gives gifts to his people, including leaders who equip the saints for the work of ministry and the building up of Christ’s body (4:11-12). The goal is unity, knowledge of Christ, doctrinal stability, maturity, and growth (4:13-15). Then Paul gives us a picture of a healthy church. Christ is the head, every member has a part, and the whole body grows and builds itself up in love (4:16).

If 4:1 is the hinge of Ephesians, 4:16 is one of the clearest pictures of where Paul’s argument is headed. Christ does not give leaders to do all the ministry. He gives leaders to equip his people so the whole church serves, matures, and grows together.

The Gospel Comes Home

Paul’s instructions about wives and husbands, children and parents, and bondservants and masters are not a change of subject. Paul has been describing the new life God created in Christ. Put off the old self and put on the new (4:17-24). Walk in love (5:2), light (5:8), and wisdom (5:15). Be filled with the Spirit, giving thanks and submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ (5:18-21).

Then Paul brings all of that home. He addresses wives before husbands (5:22-33), children before fathers (6:1-4), and bondservants before masters (6:5-9). Wives are told to submit, while children and bondservants are told to obey. Then those exercising authority are addressed, and their authority is placed under Christ. Husbands love as Christ loved the church (5:25). Fathers raise their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (6:4). Masters remember that they too have a Master in heaven (6:9).

The new humanity God created through the gospel must become visible in the relationships where Christians actually live.

Don’t Miss Paul’s Prayers

Twice Paul tells us how he prays for these Christians (1:15-23; 3:14-21), and both prayers emphasize knowing and comprehending.

He prays that the eyes of their hearts would be enlightened so they would know the hope of God’s calling, the riches of his inheritance, and the greatness of his power (1:17-19). Then he prays that they would have strength to comprehend the dimensions of Christ’s love and know a love that surpasses knowledge (3:16-19). Before Paul tells them how to walk, he prays that God will open their eyes.

Don’t rush through chapters 1-3 to get to the “practical stuff.” Paul thinks knowing what God has done in Christ is profoundly practical. It shapes our walk. The obedience of chapters 4-6 grows from the realities of chapters 1-3.

Remember Where the Battle Is

The spiritual warfare at the end of Ephesians has also been part of the letter all along. God has blessed us in the heavenly places (1:3). Christ reigns there above every rule and authority (1:20-21). Believers have been raised and seated with Christ there (2:6). God’s wisdom is displayed through the church to rulers and authorities there (3:10). Then Paul tells us that our struggle is against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (6:12).

The armor of God is not an appendix to Ephesians. It belongs to the argument. Christ reigns, his church belongs to him, and hostile powers remain. Therefore, God’s people must “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might” (6:10) and stand firm (6:11, 13-14).

Preaching and Teaching Ephesians

Don’t let the pieces drown out the whole. God is carrying out his great purpose in Christ. By grace he makes dead sinners alive, brings those who were far away near, reconciles enemies through the cross, and creates one new people. That “one new people” must now walk worthy of their calling, grow together toward maturity under Christ, live as the new people God has made them to be, and stand firm in the strength he provides.

This is the flow to keep in view as you preach the individual passages: See what God has done. Walk worthy of his calling. Grow together under Christ. Stand firm in the Lord.

ESV Study Bible vs. CSB Study Bible: Which One Should You Buy?

If you were only going to buy one study Bible and the choice came down to the ESV Study Bible or the CSB Study Bible, which one should you get?

That's a reasonable question. Both are substantial study Bibles. Both contain thousands of study notes, cross-references, maps, articles, introductions, charts, and other resources designed to help you better understand the Bible. I have used both, and some time ago Josiah and I spent several months using them before discussing our impressions on the Salty Believer podcast.

But there was a problem with doing that comparison on a podcast. You couldn't see the Bibles. So I put together a video that does exactly that. I opened both study Bibles and put them side by side. We look at them by the numbers, and then we look at the actual pages.

ESV Study Bible and CSB Study Bible by the Numbers

Both Bibles pack a lot into their pages. The ESV Study Bible advertises 20,000 study notes and 80,000 cross-references. It also contains a large collection of charts, timelines, maps, illustrations, and more than 50 articles.

The CSB Study Bible advertises more than 16,000 study notes. It also contains 368 Hebrew and Greek word studies, 60 timelines, 55 maps, more than 100 photographs, paintings, reconstructions, charts, and 34 articles.

Those numbers tell us something, but they don't tell us everything. A study Bible with more notes is not necessarily more helpful. A map is only useful if it helps you understand the geography of the biblical Text. A cross-reference is useful when it helps you see legitimate connections in Scripture. And a study note is useful when it helps you understand what the Bible says rather than simply giving you another paragraph to read.

That is why I wanted to open these Bibles up. Check out the video to see the page layout, design, maps, notes, cross references, introduction, and so much more.

So Which One Should You Buy?

It depends on how you study. If you want a dense reference tool with extensive notes, cross-references, maps, charts, introductory material, and substantial theological articles, the ESV Study Bible has a lot to offer.

If you prefer a more visual presentation with color, photographs, artwork, timelines, maps, and especially dedicated Hebrew and Greek word studies, the CSB Study Bible has some excellent features that the ESV does not really attempt to duplicate.

I like both. Either one can be a useful tool for serious Bible study. But remember what a study Bible is. The study notes aren't inspired. The articles aren't inspired. The charts aren't inspired. The people who wrote them can be wrong. A study Bible is useful only insofar as it helps us better understand the Bible.

That's the point. Use the maps. Follow the cross-references. Read the introductions. Consult the notes when you're stuck. Learn from faithful scholars who have spent years studying these texts. Then keep reading the Bible.

Buy the ESV Study Bible:
https://amzn.to/4yluYpL

Buy the CSB Study Bible:
https://amzn.to/467NjuF

Healthy Church: Introduction

What makes a church healthy? And who gets to decide? Christians can have strong opinions about what a church should look like, how it should be led, what should happen when it gathers, and what programs or practices it should prioritize. But our preferences, traditions, and favorite ministry resources do not get the final word. God does. If we want healthy churches, we need to ask what Scripture says a healthy church should be.

In this episode of Salty Believer Unscripted, Josiah Walker and I begin what we expect will be a series of conversations about healthy churches. We use Mark Dever’s Nine Marks of a Healthy Church as a framework, but the point is not to defend the Nine Marks or pretend there is a perfect church model we can copy. The goal is to think biblically about preaching, the gospel, conversion, membership, discipline, discipleship, leadership, prayer, missions, and other aspects of life together in the local church. We also talk about an important danger in conversations like these. Learning what a healthy church should look like can make us impatient with the church we actually have. Healthy churches are not built with a wrecking ball. We should love our churches, serve them, pray for them, and patiently help them grow toward greater faithfulness to God’s Word.

Listen wherever you get audio podcasts, or listen here:

Salty Believer Unscripted Healthy Church: Introduction

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Chasing Port William

There is a longing in my soul for the unfindable thing Wendell Berry held in his hands. If you’ve never ventured into the world of Port William, you can’t know what I mean. But if you’ve been there even once, Port William has followed you home. I’m unsure how to measure Wendell Berry’s impact on my life, but I’m angry at myself for misunderstanding how to find Port William.

Opening to the first pages of his book, Jayber Crow, I was unaware of what I might find. It turns out Jayber found me. An orphan, an outsider, pressed hard to make a life. It wasn’t a bad life, but something wasn’t there. Eventually, Jayber returned home. He returned to Port William. And somehow, Wendell Berry brought me there too.

As Barnabas was to Saul, Burley Coulter was there for the barber who came from the outside. An anonymous invitation slipped beneath the door of Jayber’s shop, inviting him to a drinking party. He went. There were men there who had been strangers. Before long, they weren’t. You are not a citizen of Port William; you are a member. Over time, Jayber belonged.

Wendell Berry’s words hung with me for weeks after I finished the book. Weeks turned to months. I began looking for Port William. Could there really be a place with rootedness, neighbors, familiar faces, local institutions, and people who stayed? I believed so. Everything I owned went into a truck, and my family moved from a metro area of two and a half million people to a village of five thousand, surrounded by rows of corn.

Most people in Holdrege know each other. People stay. There are institutions with a rich history. The family stories cross generations. Burley Coulters walk these sidewalks. But moving here didn’t make me a member. I had mistaken the conditions surrounding Port William for the thing that made Port William what it was. Farms weren’t it. Population wasn’t it. Knowing the cashier at Tractor Supply wasn’t it. The bricks on Main Street weren’t it.

I wanted a place where my absence would be noticed.

Four million eyes, yet nobody saw each other. We passed one another in traffic, stood beside one another in self-checkout lines, lived behind doors separated by little more than driveways. There were people everywhere. But I was anonymous. I could leave my house, buy bread, fill the car, pick up dinner, and return home without anyone knowing my name, day after day. I couldn’t imagine knowing a child in our church long enough to watch him grow up, marry, have children of his own, and grow old.

Then I moved to a place where people remembered.

They remembered when the grocery store had a different name. They knew whose boy had married whose girl, who had left town, and who had come home. Names on storefronts were the same names on mailboxes and gravestones. The same families lined the streets for the same parade every summer.  Children grew up under the watch of people who had known their parents when they were children.

I loved it. For a while, I thought I had found it.

But I had arrived in the middle of everyone else’s story. They remembered who lived in our house before we did. They had buried people together. They remembered each other as children. They could point to a building that was no longer there and still see it. I could learn the stories, but I wasn’t in them. I had come looking for people who stayed, only to discover that I was the one who came after.

Jayber came after too. Port William already had its stories when he arrived. There were names he didn’t know, histories he hadn’t lived, graves he hadn’t mourned. Burley could invite him to the party, but he couldn’t give Jayber a past. Jayber had to stay long enough to become part of the story. In time, the barber who needed someone to remember him became one of the people who remembered.

For a while, I thought perhaps that was the answer. Stay. Give it enough years. Learn the names. Bury the old and watch the young grow up. Maybe, if I remained long enough, I could finally become part of the story too. There is wisdom in that. But the gospel gives me something better.

Paul writes that “we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” I had spent years trying to understand how a man becomes a member of a place. Paul told me that, in Christ, I had been made a member of a people.

That changes the order of things. I do not have to accumulate enough years to earn a place among God’s people. Christ had already given me one. The years still matter. Staying matters. Learning names, bearing burdens, forgiving sins, burying the old, and watching the young grow up all matter. But these things do not make us the body of Christ. They are what the body of Christ does because Christ has already made us his own.

And then I thought again of Wendell Berry.

Perhaps he had been telling me this all along. Jayber did not find Port William because he finally found the spot on the map. He found it because Burley opened a door, and Jayber walked through it. Then he stayed. He learned their names and carried their stories. He mourned their dead. He loved people who were difficult to love. The outsider became part of the Membership because, over time, their lives became bound up with his.

Berry had shown me the shape of the thing. I had mistaken it for the scenery. Paul gave me the words for what I had been longing for: “we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” Members one of another. Maybe that was what followed me home from Port William.

The unfindable thing Wendell Berry held in his hands was never Port William. It was membership. People bound to one another by place, memory, love, obligation, suffering, and time. Berry made me ache for it long before I understood why.

I went looking for it in a small town. I found many of the things that make such a life possible, and I am grateful for them. But the gospel gives me what no town can. In Christ, I can be given a people. I do not share their past, but by the grace of God, I can give them my future.

Perhaps that is what Jayber finally taught me. You do not have to have been there from the beginning. Someone opens the door. You walk through it.

And then you stay.

Persuasive Preaching: Getting God’s Word Across

In their new book, Persuasive Preaching, Dave Helm and Jeremy Meeks devote 103 pages to “that moment in sermon preparation when the preacher turns his attention from the text to today, from getting it right to getting it across—and doing so in a clear and compelling way” (ix). If you’ve read Dave’s previous book, Expositional Preaching: How We Speak God’s Word Today, or attended a Charles Simeon Trust workshop, that goal will bring you a little flutter of joy. This is what’s been missing. If you’ve not read that first book or have no idea what a CST workshop is, you should probably pick up Expositional Preaching first. Then you’ll race to read Persuasive Preaching.

Helm and Meeks “argue that all preaching is persuasion.” It’s the first line of the first page. No surprise there. Agree or not, they make a compelling case in the introduction. From there, they show why persuasion matters and how it works its way into every sermon. The chapters deal with the preacher’s ethos, argument, audience, arrangement, application, and adornment. An illustration of an archer ties it all together, making the material memorable and reproducible.

I read this book in one sitting, cover to cover. I never do that. But that’s how well-written and well-argued this book is. Like good preachers, Helm and Meeks give little recaps and directional cues along the way. You always know where you are and where they’re headed. It makes for easy reading. They’ve organized the material to make a strong, persuasive argument for persuasive preaching. You’d expect that from a book with this title, and they hit the target.

I sat up a little straighter when I reached Chapter 3: Audience. I’ve read a lot of books on preaching, and this chapter still gave me ideas I haven’t read anywhere else. When it comes to knowing the audience, “we have been encouraged to make lists of the various kinds of people who hear our preaching” (36). Some preachers write the names of people in the congregation on their manuscript. I’ve done this. But is this the best way to know the audience? Other preachers offer another suggestion. “They encourage us, when we consider our audience, to press beyond a better knowing of our people and toward a better knowing of their world” (36). I’ve read this elsewhere too, especially in Stott. Helm and Meeks affirm both approaches, but then they add a third. I suspect their addition will find its way into preaching books moving forward. And I’ll surely see the chart at the next CST workshop I attend.

I also appreciated the gracious way Helm and Meeks handle different approaches to illustrations. They gave me more permission to get creative and do what I have to do to make the text’s argument. Their approach isn’t rigid or one-size-fits-all. Instead, it feels like heavy encouragement from a grandpa preacher talking to his preaching grandson. Rather than taking the hard, black-and-white approach to illustrations found in many preaching books, Helm and Meeks evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches and suggest how to get the most out of them. Why? Because Persuasive Preaching is about making a compelling argument, and the preacher should learn to use the tools available to him in faithful service of the Text’s argument.

I have one criticism, although it may say as much about the strength of the book as its weakness. At 103 pages of actual content, Persuasive Preaching moves quickly. At times, too quickly. Helm and Meeks introduce ideas that deserve more development, more examples, and more opportunity to see them worked out in actual sermons. This is especially true because Persuasive Preaching feels like the natural companion to Helm’s earlier Expositional Preaching. The first book helps the preacher get the text right; this one turns his attention toward getting it across. I found myself wishing the two were not merely companion volumes but one larger, integrated treatment of preaching.

That may also explain my admittedly petty complaint about the books themselves. Expositional Preaching is a hardback in the 9Marks Building Healthy Churches series and about half an inch shorter. Persuasive Preaching is still a 9Marks book, but it’s a paperback outside that series. They don’t even look like companions on the shelf. More importantly, they read like two parts of a larger project that has yet to be assembled. Combine them, expand the areas that move too quickly, and add another seventy-five pages of examples showing these principles at work, and Helm and Meeks would have the makings of an outstanding preaching textbook. I finished Persuasive Preaching convinced by what they said. I also finished wishing they had said more.

This book will get a second read before the year is out. It’s that good. Preachers should labor to get God’s Word right. Helm and Meeks make a compelling case that our work isn’t finished there. We should also labor to get it across. I highly recommend Persuasive Preaching to anyone who preaches or who loves preaching.

When Your Convictions Catch Fire

In theological circles, there is a joking term for a particular stage of spiritual growth: the “cage-stage.” The idea is that someone discovers a deeper understanding of biblical truth, gets tremendously excited about it, and probably needs to be kept in a cage for a little while so he doesn't hurt himself or anyone else. It's funny because there is some truth in it.

Maybe you've been a Christian for years, but something has recently changed. You started reading Scripture more seriously. You discovered theology that gave categories to things you had only vaguely understood before. You began thinking carefully about the local church, preaching, membership, leadership, worship, discipleship, biblical manhood, or any number of things you previously took for granted.

Suddenly, Christianity seems bigger than you realized. You're seeing things. You're asking questions. And you're fired up.

Good. Don't lose that.

There is something wonderful about watching biblical truth take hold of a man. Convictions start forming. Assumptions get challenged. He begins to realize that Christianity is not merely attending church, trying to be a decent person, and knowing enough Bible verses to survive a small-group discussion. God has spoken. His Word governs our lives. Christ has a Church. Theology matters. Holiness matters. How we live matters.

But there is a danger here too. When we first begin seeing things clearly, we tend to become acutely aware of how poorly everyone else sees them. That's where the cage comes in.

Good theology does not instantly produce maturity. Knowledge can puff up (1 Cor. 8:1). A man can be right about a great many things and still be proud, impatient, quarrelsome, foolish, and generally exhausting to have around.

So don't extinguish the fire. Direct it. Before you start reforming everything around you, let the truth of God's Word reform you.

Start With Yourself

The easier thing to do with newfound biblical conviction is point it outward. You begin noticing shallow theology, weak preaching, sloppy ecclesiology, consumer Christianity, unbiblical traditions, and things in the church that seem to have been established by little more than, “Well, we've always done it this way.” Some of those observations may even be right.

But the work of reformation should begin with you.

Paul urges Christians to “present your bodies as a living sacrifice” and to “be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Rom. 12:1–2). A renewed mind changes what we believe, but biblical transformation does not end with having better theological positions. Truth gets down into the life.

Give your zeal first to knowing God. Give it to killing your sin. Give it to prayer and Scripture. Give it to learning obedience when nobody is watching. Give it to becoming self-controlled, gentle, courageous, patient, sexually pure, honest, generous, and faithful. Learn how to serve without being noticed. Learn how to receive correction without immediately preparing your defense. By the Spirit, Christians put sin to death (Rom. 8:13). We train ourselves for godliness (1 Tim. 4:7–8). We pursue holiness because Christ has made us his own.

A man passionate about biblical reformation should first be passionate about being biblically transformed.

It is possible to have a finely tuned ecclesiology while being a lousy husband. It is possible to argue for sound doctrine while having very little self-control. It is possible to identify everything wrong with the church while being proud, quarrelsome, lazy, or enslaved to secret sin.

Character matters. So before you start drawing up plans for fixing everything around you, take a good look at the man in the mirror. There is probably enough work there to keep you occupied for a while.

Then Look to Your Home

The next place your growing convictions should become visible is at home. A biblical man takes responsibility for what God has entrusted to him.

Husbands are commanded to love their wives “as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Eph. 5:25). That is not merely a theological position to defend. It is a command to sacrifice yourself for the good of your wife. Fathers are commanded to bring their children up “in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4). That requires more than strong opinions about biblical parenting. It requires your time, patience, prayer, instruction, repentance, affection, discipline, and example.

If you are unmarried, don't skip this part because you don't presently have a wife and children. Now is the time to become the kind of man who could faithfully lead a home. Learn self-control now. Learn to serve now. Learn to keep your word now. Learn to repent now.

Our homes desperately need biblical men whose convictions are visible in the way they love, lead, serve, work, repent, forgive, and sacrifice. If your theology is getting better while everyone living with you finds you increasingly unbearable, something has gone wrong.

Strengthen Your Brothers

Then give some of that zeal to your brothers in Christ. You need biblical men around you, and they need you. God did not design Christians to fight sin and pursue holiness alone. Scripture tells us to bear one another's burdens (Gal. 6:2), exhort one another so that we are not hardened by the deceitfulness of sin (Heb. 3:13), and stir one another up to love and good works (Heb. 10:24). That is much more demanding than sitting around together cataloging everything wrong with Christianity.

Find brothers who want Christ more than comfort. Pray together. Read Scripture together. Talk theology. Confess sin. Ask uncomfortable questions. Encourage one another. Correct one another. Give men permission to tell you when you are being foolish. And when they do, listen.

“Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another” (Prov. 27:17). Iron sharpening iron is not one piece of iron announcing how sharp it already is. There is friction because something is actually being shaped.

Theological zeal should produce stronger brotherhood, not merely a tighter circle of men who agree about what everyone else is doing wrong. Make one another stronger, holier, steadier, and more useful to Christ.

Love Christ's Church

Then look outward to the church. The church needs men who care deeply about biblical faithfulness. We should want healthy churches. We should care about sound doctrine, qualified elders, meaningful membership, church discipline, faithful preaching, biblical worship, evangelism, discipleship, prayer, and missions. Don't stop caring about those things. But remember what the church is.

The church is not a castle for young reformers to storm. It is not an organization waiting for the newest management philosophy. It is not a Rotary club that is baptized. It is not a political action committee with worship music. The Church is the Bride of Christ (Eph. 5:25–32). Christ purchased her with his own blood (Acts 20:28). She is the household of God and “a pillar and buttress of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15). Christ himself promises, “I will build my church” (Matt. 16:18). That should change the way we approach her.

Yes, churches can drift. Leaders can make mistakes. Traditions can become unbiblical. Cowardice, pragmatism, consumerism, and theological laziness can settle into a church. There are times when concerns need to be raised, and hard questions need to be asked. But loving the church means wanting her faithfulness, not merely enjoying the thrill of criticizing her failures.

If you want greater influence in Christ's church, good. Scripture says aspiring to the work of an overseer is a noble desire (1 Tim. 3:1). Then pay careful attention to what comes next. The qualifications emphasize the man. He must be above reproach, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, gentle, not quarrelsome, a faithful leader of his household, mature in the faith, and respected by outsiders (1 Tim. 3:2–7). Notice what Scripture is doing. Before entrusting a man with greater responsibility for Christ's people, it directs our attention to his character, his home, his maturity, and his reputation.

Christ's church needs qualified men. So become one. Become the kind of man whose life others can consider and whose faith they can imitate (Heb. 13:7). Become the kind of man who can increasingly say with Paul, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1).

And while you are becoming that man, help the men presently shepherding you. Pastors keep watch over souls as those who will give an account (Heb. 13:17). They shepherd a flock that does not belong to them, serving under the authority of the Chief Shepherd (1 Pet. 5:2–4). Respect them because of their work. Pray for them. Encourage them. Ask good questions. Learn from them. Make their work a joy rather than an unnecessary burden.

That does not require blind loyalty. Elders remain under Christ and his Word. Scripture governs the church, not the preferences of leaders. There are times to raise concerns, appeal to Scripture, disagree, or call attention to serious problems. But there is a considerable difference between being a biblically serious church member and assuming that your growing convictions have made you the church's unofficial theological quality-control department. Learn that difference.

Don't Lose the Fire

The solution to cage-stage zeal is not apathy. I don't want men to care less about theology. I want them to care more. I want men reading good books, wrestling with difficult passages, recovering neglected doctrines, asking serious questions about the church, and developing strong biblical convictions.

We have enough passive Christian men. What we need are mature ones. So keep the fire. Just direct it well.

Let good theology drive you deeper into Scripture and prayer. Let it expose your sin before you use it to expose everyone else's. Let it make you a better husband, father, or future husband and father. Let it bind you to brothers who will sharpen you. Let it produce a deep love for Christ's church and patient service within her. And give it time. You do not need to fix everything by next Tuesday.

Become the sort of biblical man Christ can use to strengthen his church for the next forty years. Put your zeal and fire there: in your soul, in your home, among your brothers, and in Christ's church. In that order.

Majesty in the Midst of Mayhem: A Look at Psalm 8

If you’re reading Psalm 8, its placement in the Psalter is worth noticing. Psalms 3–7 are filled with distress, enemies, fear, and threatened faith. Psalms 9–13 return to much the same territory. By one count, the five psalms on either side contain sixty-four lines of poetic verse each, placing Psalm 8 directly in the middle. We should be cautious about making too much of the numbers, but the larger point is difficult to miss. Psalm 8 stands as an anthem of praise surrounded by trouble. The enemies have not disappeared, the questions have not all been answered, and yet David looks beyond the mayhem and declares, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

The first surprising thing in the psalm is how God silences his enemies. “Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes” (Psalm 8:2). Babies are not the obvious first choice when assembling a force to confront an enemy. They cannot command armies, defend cities, or deliver stirring speeches. Often a mark of a baby is that he or she can’t speak at all. Yet God establishes his strength through their mouths. This fits a pattern found throughout Scripture. Pharaoh had an army, while Moses had a staff. Goliath carried a sword and spear, while David carried stones. God repeatedly overcomes apparent strength through apparent weakness. The instrument may be weak, but the hand holding the instrument is almighty.

The second surprise is that this majestic God crowns frail humanity with glory and honor. David looks at the moon and stars, then wonders why the Creator would even remember creatures as small as us. Yet God does more than remember humanity. Psalm 8 reaches back to Genesis 1 and 2, where God appointed human beings to rule over the works of his hands. The wonder is not that humanity is so impressive. Human history has disposed of that theory rather thoroughly. The wonder is that God entrusted his world to us at all. Still, a tension remains. Humanity was appointed to exercise dominion, but we cannot control creation, conquer death, or even govern ourselves without turning authority into another opportunity for sin. Psalm 8 describes what humanity was created to be, while Genesis 3 and the rest of human history show what humanity has become.

The New Testament reveals where these two surprises meet. In Matthew 21, children praise Jesus in the temple while the religious leaders object. Jesus responds by quoting Psalm 8: “Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise.” Weak mouths praise Jesus and silence powerful opponents. More than that, Jesus receives the praise that Psalm 8 directs toward the majestic Lord. Within days, he would be rejected and crucified. To the watching world, the cross looked like weakness and defeat. Yet through that apparent weakness, Christ bore sin, defeated Satan, and conquered death. God silenced his enemies through the suffering of his Son.

Hebrews 2 takes up the other great theme of Psalm 8. The writer acknowledges what everyone can see: “At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.” Humanity’s dominion remains frustrated, and the world still groans beneath sin and death. “But we see him,” Hebrews continues, “who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death.” Jesus is the true Man who fulfills humanity’s calling. Where Adam and his descendants failed, Christ obeyed, suffered, rose, and now reigns. Psalm 8 begins and ends with the majesty of the Lord’s name, but the New Testament shows us that this majesty is finally displayed in Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen King who will place every enemy beneath his feet.

Getting Started in 1 John

First John looks simple until you slow down. The sentences are often short. The vocabulary is familiar. Light. Love. Truth. Life. Children. Then John says that no one born of God keeps on sinning, perfect love casts out fear, antichrists have come, and there is a sin that leads to death. Suddenly, this little letter is not quite so little.

Some readers turn 1 John into an anxious examination of their salvation. Others soften John’s warnings until they no longer warn anyone. Neither approach hits the bullseye. John writes to expose counterfeit Christianity, strengthen genuine believers, and direct everyone to the eternal life found in the Son of God.

Getting started in 1 John means learning to hold together what John refuses to separate: truth about Jesus, obedience to God, love for God’s people, and confidence of eternal life.

Why Did John Write This Letter?

John does not begin with his name or a greeting. He begins with Jesus. He proclaims the eternal Word of life, whom the Apostles heard, saw, and touched. Jesus Christ is not a religious idea, a private spiritual experience, or a useful moral teacher. The eternal Son came in the flesh and entered human history. John proclaims him so that his readers may share fellowship with the Father, the Son, and the apostolic church, and so their joy may be complete (1 John 1:1-4).

The letter appears to address churches troubled by false teachers who had departed from the apostolic fellowship. These teachers denied the truth about Jesus, attempted to deceive those who remained, and separated claims of knowing God from obedience and love.

John writes against this counterfeit Christianity. But he is not merely trying to win an argument. He wants believers to know that they have eternal life.

He states his purpose plainly near the end. It reads, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13).

John wants Christians to have assurance. He also wants false confidence exposed. Those two concerns belong together.

Read 1 John Like a Spiral Staircase

First John does not move in a straight line like Romans. John circles around the same themes repeatedly. This can make the letter feel repetitive until we recognize what he is doing.

Imagine climbing a spiral staircase. On one side, a speaker plays one song. On another side, a second speaker plays something different. A third song plays farther around. Each time you circle the staircase, you hear the same songs again, but you are now one level higher. That is how 1 John works.

John repeatedly returns to several themes:
Confidence that we belong to God.
Confession of the real Jesus.
Obedience and the practice of righteousness.
Love for brothers and sisters in Christ.
Resistance to false teaching, the world, and idolatry.

John does not repeat these themes because he forgot that he already mentioned them. Each return adds something. Truth, obedience, love, and assurance become increasingly connected as the letter moves forward and upward. This means no outline of 1 John will be perfect. The structure is real, but it is not mechanical.

Life Is in the Son

The center of 1 John is not the believer’s performance. The center is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the eternal life made visible. He came in the flesh. His blood cleanses sinners. He is the righteous advocate before the Father and the propitiation for our sins. He appeared to take away sins and destroy the works of the devil. Eternal life is found in him alone.

John’s conclusion is wonderfully direct. He writes, “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:12). This must remain in front of everything John says about Christian obedience and love. We do not earn life by passing three spiritual tests. God gives life through his Son. Those who have this life begin to show its signs.

Look for the Family Resemblance

John repeatedly points to three recognizable marks of authentic Christianity. First, Christians confess the true Christ. They believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, who came in the flesh. The Father cannot be known while the Son is denied.

Second, Christians begin to obey God. They still sin, but they cannot settle comfortably under sin’s rule. They confess sin, seek Christ’s cleansing, and increasingly practice righteousness.

Third, Christians love God’s people. This love is more than warm feelings or religious politeness. Jesus laid down his life for us, so Christians learn to lay down their lives for one another. Love becomes visible “in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18). These are family traits. God is righteous, so his children begin to practice righteousness. God is love, so those born of him begin to love. God is true, so his children confess the truth about his Son. The resemblance is imperfect, but it should be present.

Read the Strong Statements Together

Some sentences in 1 John can frighten tender Christians. John says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves” (1 John 1:8). Then he says, “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning” (1 John 3:9). Those statements must be read together.

John is not teaching that Christians reach sinless perfection. He has already told believers to confess their sins and look to Christ as their advocate. He teaches that the new birth changes a person’s relationship with sin. Sin may remain, but it no longer reigns without resistance. Christians may fall into sin, but they cannot make peace with it. They confess, repent, and keep returning to Christ.

The same care is needed elsewhere. “You have no need that anyone should teach you” in 2:27 does not abolish Christian teachers. John is teaching them at that very moment. He means that believers do not need the supposedly superior knowledge of the deceivers. The Spirit keeps Christ’s people in the apostolic truth they heard from the beginning. Likewise, John’s reference to antichrists should direct our attention toward false teaching about Jesus, not toward speculative charts about whichever public figure currently annoys us. Stay with John’s concerns.

Love Begins With God

Modern people often begin with their own definition of love and then use it to judge God. John begins with God and allows God to define love. “God is love” does not mean that God approves whatever we find affirming. John explains what divine love looks like by writing, “God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9).

God’s love sent the Son to be the propitiation for our sins. At the cross, God’s love provided what God’s holiness required. Christian love begins there. We love because he first loved us. God’s love moves toward sinners, bears a cost, tells the truth, and produces life. That love then flows through God’s people toward one another.

No one has ever seen God, but the world should see something of his love when Christians love one another. The local church is supposed to display much more than a great gathering place with good music.

Assurance Looks Outward Before It Looks Inward

First John calls us to examine our lives, but it does not tell us to stare endlessly into ourselves. John directs believers to the apostolic witness, the Father’s love, Christ’s sacrifice, God’s promise, and the Spirit’s testimony. Then he helps them recognize the evidence of God’s work in their lives.

The foundation of assurance is Christ. The evidence of assurance includes continuing faith, growing obedience, repentance from sin, and love for God’s people. The evidence matters, but it is not the Savior.

When believers see the early fruit of God’s work, they should thank God that the life of Christ is becoming visible in them.

Three Ways to Divide 1 John

Because John writes in spirals, several outlines are possible. The best division depends on whether the goal is a short overview, a medium-length series, or a slower expositional treatment.

A Seven-Part Overview:

1. The Life Made Visible and Walking in the Light (1 John 1:1-2:2)

2. Knowing God Through Obedience and Love (1 John 2:3-17)

3. Abiding in the True Son as God’s Children (1 John 2:18-3:10

4. Loving in Deed and Truth (1 John 3:11-24)

5. Testing the Spirits (1 John 4:1-6)

6. God’s Love, Our Love, and Overcoming Faith (1 John 4:7-5:5)

7. God’s Testimony and the Confidence of Eternal Life (1 John 5:6-21)

This plan works well for a brief series or a broad overview. Each section is large enough to show how John combines several themes.

A Thirteen-Part Series:

1. True Fellowship and Full Joy (1 John 1:1-4)

2. Walking in the Light (1 John 1:5-2:2)

3. Knowing That We Know Him (1 John 2:3-11)

4. Do Not Love the World (1 John 2:12-17)

5. Counterfeit Christianity and the Real Jesus (1 John 2:18-27)

6. God’s Children Set Free (1 John 2:28-3:10)

7. Love in Deed and Truth (1 John 3:11-24)

8. Test the Spirits (1 John 4:1-6)

9. His Love Creates Our Love (1 John 4:7-12)

10. Love That Gives Confidence (1 John 4:13-21)

11. Faith That Overcomes the World (1 John 5:1-5)

12. God’s Testimony Concerning His Son (1 John 5:6-12)

13. When You Know You Have Life (1 John 5:13-21)

This plan preserves the larger movements while giving enough room to address the difficult passages responsibly.

The Natural Preaching Units:

For slower exposition, these divisions follow the clearest paragraph and argument breaks:

1. 1 John 1:1-4 - The Life Made Manifest

2. 1 John 1:5-10 - Walking in the Light

3. 1 John 2:1-6 - Our Advocate and Our Walk

4. 1 John 2:7-11 - The Old and New Commandment

5. 1 John 2:12-17 - Do Not Love the World

6. 1 John 2:18-27 - Counterfeit Christianity and the Real Jesus

7. 1 John 2:28-3:3 - Children Now, Like Christ Then

8. 1 John 3:4-10 - The Son Destroys the Devil’s Works

9. 1 John 3:11-18 - Love in Deed and Truth

10. 1 John 3:19-24 - Confidence Before God

11. 1 John 4:1-6 - Test the Spirits

12. 1 John 4:7-12 - His Love Creates Our Love

13. 1 John 4:13-21 - Perfected Love and Confidence

14. 1 John 5:1-5 - Faith That Overcomes the World

15. 1 John 5:6-12 - God’s Testimony Concerning the Son

16. 1 John 5:13-15 - Confidence in Prayer

17. 1 John 5:16-17 - Praying for a Sinning Brother

18. 1 John 5:18-21 - The True God and Counterfeit Gods

This longer approach allows each unit to speak with its own emphasis while still returning regularly to the letter’s larger melody.

Getting Started

Begin by reading 1 John in one sitting. It is short enough to do so without packing provisions.

Mark repeated words and phrases: know, abide, love, truth, life, light, children, world, commandment, and “by this.” Notice the contrasts between light and darkness, truth and lies, love and hatred, life and death, the children of God and the children of the devil, Christ and antichrist.

Then look for the ways John joins belief and practice. Ask what each passage teaches about the real Jesus, the life he gives, and the evidence of that life in his people.

Keep Christ in front of the tests. Keep grace in front of obedience. Keep the church in front of private spirituality. Keep God’s definition of love in front of the world’s counterfeits.

First John was written so that believers may know they have eternal life. That life is found in the Son. Those who have the Son remain in his truth, fight their sin, and learn to love his people.

The evidence will not be perfect. But where Christ gives life, his family resemblance begins to show.

Why Not Just Send the Money?

I’ve heard this objection a lot. I’ve even said it myself before. Maybe you have too: “Why spend all that money sending a short-term mission team? Wouldn’t it be better just to send the money?” It’s a fair question, but is it the right one?

Sometimes the answer really is simple: just send the money. If a trip isn’t well planned, isn’t connected to a local church, is focused on the travelers’ experience, or is just about making church members feel useful for a week, then the objection makes sense. In that case, send the money—or even better, plan a better trip with a better partner.

But Scripture doesn’t treat mission as just moving money around. God sends people. The Father sent the Son. The risen Christ sent his Church. In Acts 13, the church in Antioch worshiped, fasted, prayed, laid hands on Barnabas and Saul, and sent them out. They didn’t just send money. They sent people because the Spirit had set them apart for the work.

When Paul and Barnabas came back to the churches God had started, they strengthened the disciples and encouraged them to keep going in their faith (Acts 14:21-23). That mattered. Their presence made a difference. They taught, prayed, appointed elders, and encouraged believers who were tired. They helped young churches keep moving forward. Encouragement and the presence of other believers are both important in God’s kingdom.

Paul’s relationship with the Philippians did include financial support, but it was about much more than money. There was affection, prayer, sending, receiving, sacrifice, encouragement, and working together for the gospel (Philippians 1:3-5; 4:14-18). A check can be a huge blessing—every missionary or church plant needs money! But having a brother or sister stand with you when the work is lonely and tough is also a great gift. I know this from experience.

I’ve seen this from the other side. As a church planter who has welcomed many short-term teams, I can say their presence often encouraged us deeply. They helped with real work. That mattered. But even more, they reminded us we weren’t forgotten or alone. They brought prayers, conversations, laughter, meals, extra hands, and real partnership. You can’t always measure those things in a budget. Many of them became our friends.

Short-term missions also help train the church. They put believers close to the work. They show Christians the needs of the gospel, cross-cultural ministry, sacrifice, spiritual darkness, and the joy of serving outside their normal routines. If you talk to long-term missionaries, many will say that God used a short-term trip or some simple exposure to missions to spark something in them. God often uses ordinary means to move his people toward costly obedience.

So ask the hard questions. Does the missionary actually want the team? Does the trip help the local church? Does the work serve the mission or just the travelers? Will the church train the team before they go and support them after they return? Not every church sends teams for the right reasons. Don’t assume the best answer is always to keep people home and just send money. God uses money, but he also uses people’s presence. Often, in his kindness, he sends people across the world to help, encourage, learn, and come home less focused on themselves and more committed to the gospel. It’s a humble experience, and for those who have lived it, it means a lot.

Send money or send missionaries?

Send the money, and when the Lord opens the door, send faithful people too. Gospel partnership is more than funding work from a distance. Sometimes, the best gift a church can give is a check delivered by people who are ready to serve, listen, encourage, and come home changed.

Is Summer a Time to Take a Break from Rest?

“I need to take a break from my Bible study, small group, or even church services because I need some rest.” It’s that time of year again when people say, “Let’s take the summer off.”

I get why people need rest. Calendars fill up, families get tired, volunteers feel worn out, and parents can be overwhelmed. Christians often run hard for months. Ministries need rhythms, and some programs do need breaks. Sometimes, we all need relief. Burnout is real. But calling for the whole summer off might be saying a lot more than we think.

When we say we need a break from Bible study, small group, Sunday school, youth group, or church worship because we need rest, we’re revealing how we see those things. We might not mean to, and we might not even realize it, but our words carry a lot of meaning.

It sounds like we see these regular Christian practices as mostly draining. It puts things like the Word, prayer, fellowship, worship, and encouragement in the same group as soccer practice, overtime, school projects, and work meetings.

But Jesus says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). That should make us pause and think.

Jesus doesn’t tell tired people to leave him so they can recover. He invites them to come to him. The rest he offers isn’t found by stepping away from his people, his Word, or his ways. It’s found by coming to him, taking on his yoke, and learning from him. His yoke is easy, and his burden is light. Even when Jesus took time to pray and rest, he was drawing closer to his Father.

That brings up an important question: How do we come to Jesus?

We come to Jesus by faith, through his Word, in prayer, and in repentance. We also come to him when we gather with other believers, listen to his Word preached, sing together, take the Lord’s Supper, help each other, confess our sins, and encourage one another. If we feel like we need rest from the very things Jesus uses to give us rest, something isn’t right.

Maybe we have a distorted view of the activity. Maybe the group feels more like a book club with prayer requests than something that brings life. Maybe Sunday school has been reduced to nothing more than sharing information over coffee. Maybe youth ministry is mostly entertainment with a little devotion added in. Maybe the church calendar is packed, and everyone is acting like being tired means being mature.

These are real issues that need to be addressed.

But maybe the problem is in us too. Maybe we’ve started to see Christian practices as duties instead of gifts. Maybe we treat worship as just showing up, Bible study as homework, small group as another thing on the calendar, and the Lord’s Day as something that gets in the way of the weekend.

When I was in seminary, I really needed breaks, and I’m grateful for them. But seminary wasn’t meant to be my regular way of drawing close to Christ. I spent my time speed-reading, hand-cramp-writing, taking tests, researching, and getting ready for ministry. It was good, but it was also tiring. There’s a reason people call it “cemetery.”

But is that how we see everyday Christian life? Is that how we see small groups, youth gatherings, or Sunday school? I hesitate to ask, but is that how we think about worshiping together as a church? If we always feel relieved to get away from these things, we should ask ourselves why.

The early church “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). Devoted doesn’t mean just when it’s convenient. It’s part of normal Christian life. These are the regular habits of people who have been brought from death to life and now need what Christ gives to help them grow.

Hebrews 10 doesn’t tell tired Christians to stay away from church until life gets easier. Instead, it urges them to think about how to encourage each other to love and do good works, “not neglecting to meet together,” but “encouraging one another all the more as the Day draws near.”

Resting in Christ doesn’t mean doing nothing spiritually. Christian practices aren’t the enemy of rest—they’re often how we find it. So what should we do?

1. Figure out what kind of tired you are.

Not all tiredness is alike.

Some people are physically tired because their schedules are too full. Others are emotionally drained from grief, conflict, disappointment, or anxiety. Some feel spiritually dry because they’ve been busy with church activities but haven’t spent time with Christ. Others are tired because they’re taking on things God hasn’t asked them to do.

Be honest about what kind of tiredness you’re feeling.

If your schedule is too busy, try to simplify it. If your Bible study feels lifeless, work to make it better. If your heart no longer finds joy in the Word or in gathering with the church, don’t try to fix that by staying away. That would be like treating dehydration by avoiding water just because drinking feels hard.

2. Remember why we have ordinary Christian practices.

Bible study isn’t just homework—it’s hearing from the living God. Small group isn’t just another weekly meeting. It’s where we help each other believe, repent, endure, pray, and obey. Corporate worship isn’t just an optional event. It’s when the church comes together before God through Christ, under his Word, with his people, for his glory and our good.

When we forget the purpose, these practices feel heavy. When we remember why we do them, they might still take effort, but that effort makes sense and brings rest.

Eating a meal takes effort. But we don’t usually say, “I need a break from eating because I need strength.” We know that some things restore us because we make time for them.

3. Create healthy rhythms, not ways to escape.

There’s a difference between having a wise rhythm and just disappearing spiritually.

A church might change its summer schedule. Small groups might meet less often. Sunday school classes might take a short break. Families might travel. Volunteers might rotate. Leaders might need a break. These can all be wise choices.

But wisdom should lead us to ask better questions than just, “How little can we do until September?”

Instead, ask: How will we keep coming to Christ together? How will we stay in the Word, pray, gather, and encourage each other? How can we keep summer from turning into three months of spiritual coasting?

4. See the Lord’s Day as a gift, not just an obligation.

For many Christians, Sunday has become the day to recover from the weekend. But that’s not how it should be. The Lord’s Day isn’t a barrier to rest. It’s a weekly reminder that our lives aren’t our own, our work isn’t everything, our fun can’t save us, and Christ is risen. The church gathers because Jesus is alive, ruling, speaking through his Word, and building up his people. We need that when we’re strong and even more when we’re tired.

Gathering as a church isn’t just another burden Jesus puts on tired people. It’s one of the normal ways our Shepherd feeds us. If sheep decide they don’t need to be fed, they shouldn’t be surprised if they end up feeling weak.

So go on vacation. Sit on the porch. Let the kids run a lemonade stand. Grill out. Read a book. Spend time outside. Get some sleep. Say no to things you don’t need to do. Let some programs take a break. But don’t mistake rest in Christ for being away from the ways he gives us grace.

Summer can be slower without making us spiritually weaker. The church can change its rhythms without teaching us to treat the Word, prayer, fellowship, and worship as things we only do in certain seasons. Tired Christians can remember that Jesus doesn’t give us rest by calling us away from himself. He says, “Come to me.”

Burning the Ships Is Lonely

It’s been said that when Cortés arrived in Mexico, he burned the ships so there would be no return possible. While that’s not entirely accurate, it’s still lore among church planters and missionaries. Another popular tale is that of nineteenth-century missionaries to West Africa who brought their own coffins as packing crates, expecting to remain on the field until they died.

These are rousing, all-in stories. They motivate. They preach well. Maybe a little too well. But they do not get at just how lonely this practice can be.

It is one thing to say, “We are not going back.” It is another thing to wake up in a place where no one shares your history, no one remembers your stories, no one knows the people whose absence you feel, and no one understands what it cost you to get there.

I am thinking here of missionaries, church planters, and pastors who leave one place in order to give themselves to another. For lack of a better phrase, I will call him the sent servant. He may be crossing an ocean, planting a church, or moving his family to a small town to pastor a well-connected congregation. The details differ, but the loneliness often rhymes.

Church planting, missions, and shifts in pastoral calling often require a kind of holy severing. There are comforts that must be surrendered. There are familiar patterns that must die. There are safety nets that must be cut away because they keep tugging God’s servant back toward what is known, easy, and safe.

But burning the ships leaves smoke. And sometimes that smoke hangs over the one who lit the match.

Here are five reasons burning the ships can be lonely.

1. You leave behind the people who already know you

Home is not merely a place. It is a web of people who know your shorthand. They know what you mean before you finish the sentence. They know the names behind your stories. They remember your children when they were small. They know your weaknesses without requiring a full documentary. They know where you came from, what shaped you, and why certain things matter to you.

When you leave, you do not merely lose convenience. You lose context. That matters more than most people realize.

The sent servant may be committed to the new place. He may love the new community. He may believe God called him there. But obedience does not erase grief. Faithfulness does not make loneliness imaginary. You can be exactly where God wants you and still feel the ache of all you left behind.

That should not surprise us. Even Paul longed for people. He named names. He missed faces. He asked Timothy to come before winter.

2. The new community already belongs to itself

Every community has a memory. It has shared stories, buried conflicts, family names, school rivalries, restaurants everyone knows, roads people call by old names, and assumptions nobody thinks to explain. It has jokes that do not need setup. It has wounds that outsiders do not understand. It has loyalties formed long before the new pastor arrived with his moving truck, books, and vision statement.

The sent servant is not entering a blank map. He is entering a living community. That means belonging takes time. Usually, more time than expected. Sometimes years.

The people already have their people. They already have rhythms. They already know who to call when the basement floods, who makes the best brisket, who used to coach basketball, which family owns half the county, and why everyone still talks about what happened in 1998.

The sent servant may live there, shop there, eat there, walk through the parks on cooler evenings there, attend ball games there, and learn which intersections flood after a hard rain there. That is good. Yet, it’s not the same thing as belonging. Presence is not belonging. It may be the beginning of belonging, but it is not the same thing.

3. Cutting ties may reduce the temptation to return, but it also removes support

There is wisdom in not keeping one foot in the old place. A sent servant who constantly looks back will struggle to love the place before him. Jesus warned that the man who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God (Luke 9:62).

A missionary who lives emotionally tethered to where he left may never fully give himself to the people he was sent to serve. A church planter who keeps trying to recreate the sending church will struggle to love the people in front of him. A pastor who keeps comparing the new church to the old church will probably not help either church.

But there is a cost. Cutting ties may help fight homesickness, but it can also cut off friendships. It may reduce the temptation to return, but it can also remove the ordinary encouragement that kept the sent servant sane.

The old friends who prayed with him, laughed with him, corrected him, knew his children, and understood his burdens are no longer nearby. Phone calls help, but they do not replace presence. Text messages are useful, but they do not sit across the table with a plate of tacos after a brutal meeting.

This is one of the quieter costs of church planting, overseas mission work, or moving to a small town to pastor an old church. The very thing that helps the man commit to the new field can also make him feel exposed and alone.

He is trying to build community while grieving the community he left. That is not hypocrisy. That is the work. Lonely, hard work.

4. The community usually does not know what it cost you to come

Most people in the new community see the sent servant as someone who chose to move there. And that is true. But they may not see the whole truth.

They may not see the friendships left behind, the distance from family, the financial strain, the children trying to adjust, the spouse quietly carrying grief, the career options surrendered, the church family lost, or the strange exhaustion that comes from always being new.

They may not know what had to be buried for the family to be present among them. That ignorance is usually not malicious. People are simply living their lives. They are not sitting around wondering how much emotional freight came in on the moving truck. They have their own burdens, loyalties, histories, and schedules. Still, the gap is real.

The sent servant may be giving himself to a community that does not yet know how much he has given. He may be laboring for people who do not yet understand that his presence among them came with a funeral for another life. That is lonely. So the sent servant and his family carry much of it quietly.

5. Your closest community may remain with others who understand the same calling

This is one of the strange signs that loneliness is real. The missionary may find his deepest understanding among other missionaries. The church planter may find it among other planters. The pastor who moved to a new community may find that other pastors understand the odd mixture of calling, grief, hope, rejection, awkward conversations, spiritual pressure, and Sunday morning adrenaline followed by Sunday afternoon exhaustion.

They understand what it is like to love a place that does not yet love you back. That kind of fellowship is a gift, if you can find it. Not everyone does. Sent servants need other sent servants. There are burdens best understood by people who carry the same kind of load. But there is also a sadness in it.

The goal is not for the sent servant’s truest community to remain somewhere else. The goal is not to serve one place while emotionally surviving in another. The goal is to become part of the people he is trying to reach, serve, shepherd, and love.

That just takes time. And time is often the part we do not include in the heroic stories. We like the image of burning ships because it feels decisive. One act. One moment. One clear line between the old life and the new one. But belonging rarely works that way.

Belonging is slower. It is built through meals, funerals, community events, hospital visits, awkward conversations, repeated presence, misunderstood intentions, forgiven offenses, shared burdens, and years of ordinary faithfulness.

The ships may burn in a moment. The community is built over time. And in between, the sent servant may feel very alone.

That does not mean he was wrong to go. It does not mean the mission is failing. It does not mean the community is cold or the servant is weak. It may simply mean that obedience is doing what obedience often does. It is costing more than the slogan admitted.

Jesus did not call his people to comfort, but he did call them into a family. The missionary needs that family. The church planter needs that family. The pastor who moved to a small town needs that family, too.

Not eventually. Not after he proves himself useful. Now.

So yes, burn the ships if obedience requires it. But do not pretend the fire keeps a man warm forever.

The Best Thing Happening at the SBC

It’s June. And there’s always a big celebration in June: the International Mission Board (IMB) Missionary commissioning during the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meeting. I look forward to it every year. Messengers, guests, and those watching the Live Stream in 2026 saw 63 new missionaries sent off from Orlando, Florida.

The commissioning doesn’t tend to make the news like the other drama that heats up at the meeting. It doesn’t raise enough smoke. But it likely will have a far more lasting and eternally significant impact than anything else happening at the Convention.  

Men and women share the story of their call and what they will be doing in mission work. They’ve spent months, even years, getting to the point of standing in front of the IMB backdrop or in front of the light that casts their shadow to protect their identity. (A couple of shadows this year are my friends.)  Some of these many and women have hoped, dreamed, and prayed for the mission field for years. Some go to places that are open to have missionaries come. Others go to hostile places that could cost them their lives. It’s a moving few moments as the SBC celebrates.

For all the attention the SBC receives from the media every June, this is one event that should get more attention, be valued more, and remind Christians of the importance of working together to send missionaries to every tribe, tongue, and language. This year, 63 missionaries were commissioned. Let us pray for their work. Let us pray for their families. And let us pray that next year the number of missionaries sent at this celebration will be doubled.

Truth Protects Love: The Flow of 1 John 3:11-4:21

At first glance, 1 John 3:11-4:21 can feel like John starts talking about love, wanders into testing the spirits, and then returns to love. He tells Christians to love one another. Then he warns them not to believe every spirit. Then he tells them to love one another again. Is John just repeating himself?

No. The section about testing the spirits is not an interruption. It is the hinge. John is showing us that Christian love must be governed by Christian truth. Love detached from the true Christ will not remain Christian love for long.

Love Proves Life

The first love section begins in 1 John 3:11: “For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.” John immediately contrasts Christian love with Cain’s hatred. Cain belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. His hatred revealed his spiritual family line. He’s of the people of the serpent, of the realm of the dead. Then John makes the positive point: “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers” (1 John 3:14). Here, love functions as evidence. Love does not earn life. Love shows life. A person who has been born of God does not continue in Cain-like hatred toward the people of God. The new birth creates a new family resemblance.

John then defines love by the cross: “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:16). It’s the escape from the realm of the dead into the realm of life. Christ’s death becomes the pattern for Christian love. If Jesus laid down his life for us, then we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. How might that look in real life? If a brother has a material need and we close our hearts against him, our claim to love God sounds rather thin. Christian love acts. It does not merely decorate its speech with warm religious vocabulary.

So the first section teaches this: love is evidence that we have passed from death to life, and that love takes its shape from the self-giving death of Christ.

The Spirit Must Be Tested

Then John says something that can seem like a change of subject: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (1 John 4:1). But this comes right after 3:24, where John says, “By this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.” Once John mentions the Spirit, he immediately warns the church not to be gullible about every spiritual claim.

That is not a detour. That is pastoral wisdom. We need this.

The church must not confuse spiritual talk with the Holy Spirit. Not every claim to revelation, insight, power, or love comes from God. Some of it comes from the world. Some of it comes from false prophets. Some of it sounds impressive because error often dresses better than we expect. John gives the test: what does this spirit confess about Jesus Christ? “Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God” (1 John 4:2).

The issue is not vague spirituality. The issue is the true Christ. The Son of God really came in the flesh. The eternal Son truly became man. The gospel is the good news of the incarnate Son sent by the Father to save sinners. So 1 John 4:1-6 protects the love command from being hijacked by false teaching. That matters because people can talk about love while denying Christ. They can use Christian vocabulary while rejecting apostolic truth. They can call something loving that God calls sin. They can call something spiritual that the apostles would call antichrist.

Love Comes From God

After John tests the spirits, he returns to love: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God” (1 John 4:7). But now the argument has deepened. In 3:11-24, love is evidence of life. In 4:7-21, love is grounded in God himself. “God is love” (1 John 4:8). John is not saying love is God. He is saying that love belongs to God’s own character and is known through God’s own action.

How has God made his love known? “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world” (1 John 4:9). And again: “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). Here, Christ’s death is more than the pattern of love. It is the source and revelation of love. We know love because God sent his Son. We live because God sent his Son. We love because God first loved us. That means the middle section has done its work. The love John commands is not generic kindness. It is the love revealed in the incarnate Son who came as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. If you deny Christ, you do not preserve love. You cut it off at the root.

The Flow of the Argument

The passage moves like this:

Love proves life.

Truth protects love.

God’s love in Christ produces our love.

That is the flow of 1 John 3:11-4:21.

John begins by showing that love is a mark of the new birth. He then tests the spirits so the church will know the difference between the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Then he returns to love, now grounding it in the very nature of God and the saving mission of Christ. John is not merely repeating himself. He is circling deeper. The first love section asks, “Does your love show that you have passed from death to life?” The middle section asks, “Is your love governed by the truth about Jesus Christ?” The final love section asks, “Does your love come from the God who sent his Son for sinners?” Truth without love becomes cold and brittle. Love without truth becomes foggy and false. John gives us neither. He gives us Jesus. And in Christ, the church learns to love in deed and in truth.

Where Have the Boomers Gone?

Barna recently released new research on church attendance, specifically focusing on men and women. The headline is interesting enough: men now report weekly church attendance at a higher rate than women, 43 percent to 36 percent. It’s even more true among the younger crowd. Barna says this reverses a long-standing pattern. But that’s not the part that caught my attention.

The generational numbers did. The bigger picture.

According to the report, regular attendance means weekly attendance (although many would balk at that definition). Here are the numbers by generation and gender:

Gen Z: 46 percent men, 44 percent women
Millennials: 55 percent men, 38 percent women
Gen X: 42 percent men, 38 percent women
Boomers: 35 percent men, 31 percent women

Step back from the men-versus-women question for a moment and look at the generations as a whole. A rough average puts Millennials and Gen Z near the top. Gen X is behind them. Boomers are last. That surprised me.

For years, many of us have assumed that the older generations are the reliable churchgoing base, while younger generations wander through digital confusion, skepticism, spiritual fog, and the algorithm monster. There may be some truth there. Younger generations have real confusion, and churches should not pretend otherwise. But this data complicates the easy story.

Barna says weekly church attendance is rising among young adults and that Gen Z and Millennials are now the most engaged generations by this measure. It also says Boomer engagement is slowing, especially among older women. Their attendance is lower than that of the others. That should make us pause. It’s a full reversal of the story we’ve been operating under.

Younger Christians are not automatically shallow. Older Christians are not automatically faithful. Millennials are not simply “the ones who left.” Boomers are not simply “the ones who stayed.” Gen Z is not merely a ministry problem waiting to happen. And Gen X is still here, quietly wondering why every conversation skips over them. And of course, this isn’t the reality in every church, but it is the trend across the nation. (Like most things, this trend hasn’t reached the rural Midwest community where I minister. But it will get here soon enough.)

Weekly attendance is certainly not the whole Christian life. A person can sit in church every week and remain spiritually cold. But regular gathering with the church is not optional for the Christian life either. Hebrews 10:24-25 calls believers to stir one another up to love and good works, “not neglecting to meet together.”

The local church is one of the ordinary ways God forms, feeds, corrects, comforts, and sends his people. So when any generation slows its engagement with the gathered church, it matters. It matters when young adults drift. It matters when women disengage. It matters when men attend but do not mature. And it matters when older saints, who should be models of endurance, start disappearing from regular worship.

The church needs older believers. Not merely older attenders, but older disciples. We need saints who can show younger Christians what long obedience in the same direction looks like.

But older believers need the church too. Retirement from a career is one thing. Retirement from the body of Christ is another altogether.

These numbers are only numbers. They cannot tell us everything. But they can expose assumptions. Faithfulness is not inherited by birth year. It is formed by grace, truth, repentance, endurance, and life together under the lordship of Christ. And the church needs disciples who gather, worship, repent, serve, and keep going. Generation after generation. Sunday after Sunday. Until Christ returns.

The Long Way: Israel, the Church, and God’s Promises

Josiah and I recently completed a nine-episode Salty Believer Unscripted series called Israel, the Church, and God’s Promises. Our goal was straightforward, but it took time. About 180 minutes, actually. We wanted to think deeply about Israel, the Church, God’s promises, and Modern Israel. We wanted to go beyond repeating slogans, following political trends, or echoing what’s popular on Christian social media. Those shortcuts might be quick, but so is making a microwave burrito. Quick solutions are not always the most nourishing.

This is a topic where people often want answers before doing the hard work. Many start with current events and then look for Bible verses to support their views. Others begin with a preferred theological system and try to jam every passage into it. Some even think that asking honest questions about Israel means you are betraying either the Old or New Testament. We wanted to do things differently. We began where Scripture begins, in Genesis, and then moved through Sinai, the land promises, the prophets, the coming of Christ, the church, God’s future promises, and Paul’s teaching about Israel’s current place before God. It took some time, but we think it was worth it.

The main question is not just whether God made promises to Israel—he did. The real question is how those promises develop through the covenants and are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The gospel does not interrupt Israel’s story; it is at the center of it. Jesus is not an afterthought added because the Old Testament promises failed. He is the Son of Abraham, the Son of David, the true Israel, the promised King, and the only Savior for both Jews and Gentiles. If any answer leaves Jesus out, it is already off track, no matter how confident or organized it sounds.

That is why we took nine episodes rather than one. We needed all nine. We wanted to avoid easy answers. We did not want to see the Church as a backup plan, as if God had to change course after Israel’s mistakes. We also did not want to see the Church as just a temporary project while God waits to focus on Israel again. The Bible offers something much richer.

In Christ, believing Jews and Gentiles become one new people of God, and Paul still speaks with grief, hope, and expectation about ethnic Israel. The Bible can hold more than one idea at once, which is truly remarkable. How should we think about Modern Israel?” We should answer as Christians, with an open Bible and our eyes fixed on Christ. That does not make the question less practical. It makes it more faithful. Current events matter, nations matter, justice matters, and the Jewish people matter. But none of those matters are rightly understood when detached from the gospel, the covenants, the Church, and the promises of God fulfilled in Jesus Christ and awaiting final consummation at his return. That is what this series tried to do. We took the long way because it's often the only way to arrive somewhere worth going.

Israel, the Church, and God’s Promises
— Thinking About Israel Without Losing Your Mind audio / video
— Going Back to Genesis audio / video
— Israel at Sinai: Chosen for What? audio / video
— Did Israel Receive the Promised Land or Lose It? audio / video
— Did the Prophets Promise Israel More Than Land? audio / video
— Is Jesus the True Israel? audio / video
— Did the Church Replace Israel? audio / video
— Did God Reject Israel? audio / video
— What Should Christians Think about Modern Israel? audio / video

Getting Started in Song of Solomon

Song of Solomon is one of the most beautiful books in the Bible, and that may be why it is also one of the easiest books to mishandle.

Some avoid it. Some apologize for it. Some turn it into a marriage retreat. Some turn it into a codebook where every garden, tooth, lock of hair, and pomegranate secretly means something else that’s too awkward to speak out loud. Some preach it with nervous jokes because the text makes them uncomfortable. None of that will do.

Song of Solomon is Scripture. It is holy. It is poetry. It is about love. It is about more than human love. It celebrates covenant love between a man and woman, but it does so inside the larger story of Scripture, where gardens, bridegrooms, brides, longing, delight, absence, presence, covenant belonging, and love stronger than death all move toward Christ and his beloved bride, the church.

That means preachers and teachers need to approach the Song with both courage and restraint. Courage, because God put this book in the Bible, and we should not act embarrassed that the Holy Spirit knows what marriage is. Restraint, because this is not the place for crude humor, speculative allegory, or pulpit weirdness dressed up as boldness.

Getting started in Song of Solomon requires more than asking, “How do I preach this without getting fired?” A better question is this: How does this holy poem teach us to see love as God designed it, love as sin distorts it, and love as Christ redeems and fulfills it?

Before You Preach It, Decide How You Are Going to Read It

Preachers need to know how they are reading Song of Solomon before they try to preach it. Otherwise, the sermon will wander between marriage advice, romantic poetry, allegory, and awkward gospel application.

Christians have generally read the Song in several ways.

The Marital Love Reading

This approach reads Song of Solomon as a celebration of love between a man and a woman. There is much to commend here. The book really does speak of human love, beauty, desire, longing, pursuit, delight, and covenant belonging.

This reading matters because Christians should not be embarrassed by embodied love. God created man and woman. God created marriage. God created desire. God declared his creation good.

The Song helps correct both prudishness and paganism. Prudishness treats the body and desire as if they were embarrassing problems. Paganism treats the body and desire as appetites to be consumed. The Song gives us something better. It gives us desire ordered by love, delight, exclusivity, patience, and belonging.

Still, the marital love reading is not enough by itself. Song of Solomon is not less than a celebration of human love, but inside the whole canon of Scripture, it is more.

The Allegorical Reading

Many Christians throughout church history have read Song of Solomon as an allegory of God and Israel, or Christ and the church. Their instinct was not entirely wrong. They knew the whole Bible points to Christ. They knew Scripture often uses marriage language for God’s covenant relationship with his people. They knew the church is the bride of Christ.

The danger is that allegory can easily become untethered from the Text. Once every detail becomes a secret spiritual symbol, the preacher is no longer expounding the Song. He is touring the congregation through his imagination, and some imaginations should not be given a microphone. We can appreciate the Christward instinct of allegorical readings while rejecting uncontrolled symbolic guessing.

The Typological and Canonical Reading

The best way forward is a typological and canonical reading.

Typology allows us to read the Song as real poetry about real human love while also recognizing that this love participates in a larger biblical pattern fulfilled in Christ. Canonical reading means we read the Song as part of the whole Bible, not as an isolated poem floating somewhere between Proverbs and Isaiah.

This approach honors the plain sense of the text and the Christ-centered unity of Scripture.

The Song really does present the bride and bridegroom's love. The Bible really does move from a wedding in the first garden to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Human marriage really does point beyond itself. Christ really does love his bride. The church really is being prepared for her Bridegroom.

So the preacher does not need to choose between human love and Christ’s love. He needs to show how the first was designed by God to point toward the second.

Start With the Song Before You Run to Ephesians 5

Ephesians 5 matters. Revelation 19 matters. Revelation 21 matters. Hosea, Isaiah, Genesis, and the rest of the canon matter. But the preacher should not run to those passages before doing the work inside Song of Solomon.

Start with the Song.

Identify who is speaking. Is it the woman, the man, or the daughters of Jerusalem? Track the movement. Is there longing, delight, pursuit, absence, tension, praise, waiting, or union? Notice the images. Gardens, vineyards, fragrance, animals, spices, mountains, cities, watchmen, brothers, mothers, seals, fire, and water all matter. Watch the repeated refrains. Pay attention to the emotional force of the poem.

Do the textual work first. Then trace the canonical connections.

The problem with jumping too quickly to Ephesians 5 (or any other text, for that matter) is that Christ can feel imported rather than revealed. The sermon becomes: “Here is a love poem. Marriage is like Christ and the church. Behold, a gospel connection.” That may be true, but it can feel like Jesus was stapled to the end of the sermon. We can do better.

The gospel should arise from the Song’s own imagery, movement, and theological logic. The preacher should be able to show how the poem’s garden imagery stirs Eden and new creation, how mutual belonging echoes covenant love, how longing and absence speak to life east of Eden, how bride and bridegroom language moves toward Christ and the church, and how love strong as death finds its fullest glory in the crucified and risen Bridegroom.

Do not hook the gospel onto the end. Find the gospel pathways already running through the book.

The Song’s Gospel Grammar

Song of Solomon has its own gospel grammar. It gives us categories that the rest of Scripture fills out and Christ fulfills.

Garden Imagery

The Song is full of garden imagery. This should make the preacher think of Eden. In Genesis 1 and 2, God creates man and woman, places them in a garden, and gives them life without shame before him and one another. Then sin enters. Shame enters. Hiding enters. Blame enters. Desire is distorted. The man and woman are driven from the garden.

Song of Solomon gives us glimpses of love, beauty, delight, and unashamed belonging that remind us of Eden. It is not Eden fully restored, because the Song still includes longing, absence, searching, tension, and danger. But the fragrance of Eden is there.

The Bible’s story moves from Eden lost to a new creation secured in Christ. Song of Solomon belongs in that movement.

Bride and Bridegroom

The Song gives us the love between the bride and the bridegroom. That love is not merely private romance. In Scripture, marriage has always pointed beyond itself. God speaks of Israel as his bride. Israel’s idolatry is described as adultery. The prophets use marriage language to speak of covenant unfaithfulness and restoration. Jesus identifies himself as the Bridegroom. Paul speaks of marriage as a mystery that refers to Christ and the church. Revelation ends with the marriage supper of the Lamb and the bride adorned for her husband.

This does not erase the human lovers in the Song. It places them in the world God made and the story God is telling.

Mutual Belonging

One of the key refrains of the book is, “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine” (Song 6:3). At the level of marriage, this is covenant belonging. Husband and wife are not consumers, competitors, or temporary companions negotiating benefits. They belong to one another in covenant love.

At the canonical level, this resonates with the repeated covenant promise: “I will be your God, and you shall be my people.” Christ gives himself for his bride, and the church belongs to him.

Mutual belonging is not ownership in the ugly sense. It is covenant union, self-giving love, and delighted possession. The beloved is not used. The beloved is cherished.

Longing and Absence

The Song is full of longing. The lovers seek one another. They delight in one another. They are sometimes together and sometimes apart. The bride knows the beloved, but she also longs for him.

That gives language for the Christian life. We know Christ truly, but we do not yet see him as we will. We belong to him, but we wait for the fullness of his presence. We have the Spirit as a guarantee, but we still groan. The church is loved, redeemed, and betrothed, but she still says, “Come, Lord Jesus.”

Beauty and Delight

The lovers delight in one another’s beauty. That can be awkward for modern readers who are trained either by lust or by suspicion. But the Song’s delight is not consumption. It is praise. It is wonder. It is love speaking beauty over the beloved. This matters for the gospel. Christ does not merely tolerate his bride. He loves her. He cleanses her. He beautifies her. He presents her in splendor. The church’s beauty is not self-generated. It is given, washed, sanctified, and glorified by Christ.

Love Strong as Death

Song 8 says that love is stronger than death. Many waters cannot quench love. Floods cannot drown it. At the level of human love, this is a profound statement. Love is not a flimsy sentiment. It is fierce, exclusive, costly, and enduring.

At the level of Christ and the church, it is even more glorious. Christ’s love is stronger than death because he went into death and came out victorious. He did not merely speak love over his bride. He bled for her. He bore wrath for her. He rose for her. He will return for her.

Exclusivity

The Song’s love is exclusive. The beloved is not interchangeable. “This is my beloved and this is my friend” (Song 5:16). Holy love does not browse. It does not keep options open. It does not treat persons as products. That exclusivity confronts idolatry. Spiritual adultery is not merely breaking rules. It is betraying love. The Song helps us feel why divided devotion is so ugly.

Desire Rightly Ordered

The Song celebrates desire, but not desire as god. Desire is good when ordered under God. Desire becomes destructive when detached from covenant, holiness, patience, and love. This is badly needed. Our culture has catechized people to believe desire is identity and fulfillment requires expression. Scripture gives a better word. Desire must be received as created, recognized as fallen, disciplined by wisdom, redeemed by Christ, and ordered under the supreme love of God.

A Preacher’s Workflow for Any Passage in the Song

Song of Solomon can intimidate preachers because it does not move like Romans or Mark. That is fine. Poetry is allowed to be poetry. The preacher simply needs the right tools. Here is a workflow for preparing any passage in the Song.

First, read the passage aloud several times. Poetry is meant to be heard. Listen for repetition, rhythm, image, and emotional movement.

Second, identify who is speaking. Many interpretive problems come from losing track of the voices.

Third, track the emotional movement. Is the passage moving from longing to delight, from absence to pursuit, from tension to praise, from waiting to union, or from desire to warning?

Fourth, note repeated words, images, and refrains. Pay attention to gardens, vineyards, fragrance, beauty, animals, city scenes, watchmen, brothers, mothers, seals, fire, and water.

Fifth, ask what the passage teaches about human love under God’s design. What does it show about desire, patience, covenant belonging, delight, exclusivity, or pursuit?

Sixth, ask how sin distorts what the passage celebrates. Where do shame, selfishness, lust, fear, absence, danger, or brokenness press against the beauty of the poem?

Seventh, ask how the passage fits the Bible’s movement from Eden to the new creation. How does it echo creation? How does it make us ache for restoration?

Eighth, ask how the passage points to Christ and his bride from within the passage. Do not leap out of the text. Follow the imagery and themes forward through the canon.

Ninth, apply the passage to the whole church. Married people need the Song, but they are not the only ones who do. Single Christians, widows, widowers, the divorced, the wounded, the tempted, and the lonely all need to hear what this book says about love, longing, holiness, beauty, and Christ.

That workflow will not solve every difficulty, but it will keep the preacher from turning the Song into either a romance seminar or a theological escape room.

An Example: Song 5:2-6:10

Let’s explore Song 5:2-6:10 as an example of how to preach the Song in layers without losing the text.

The Man and the Woman

The passage begins with tension. The woman sleeps, but her heart is awake. Her beloved knocks. She hesitates. She has put off her garment. She has washed her feet. She delays.

Then she rises to open, but he is gone. She seeks him and does not find him. The watchmen find her, strike her, wound her, and take her veil. The scene is painful and shameful.

Then the daughters of Jerusalem ask, “What is your beloved more than another beloved?” Her answer slows the poem down. She praises him. She describes his beauty. She says, “This is my beloved and this is my friend.”

Then the poem turns toward reunion and renewed delight. “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.” The man praises her with language that echoes earlier praise. His love has not collapsed because of strain. There is tension, pursuit, praise, and restored delight.

At the human level, this speaks to love under strain. Real relationships are not all wedding songs and garden walks. There is hesitation, absence, misunderstanding, shame, pursuit, and the need for renewed praise. Love learns to seek, repent, delight, and speak beauty again.

Creator and Creation

Turn the diamond slightly.

The passage also resonates with the larger story of creation and fall. God made humanity for unashamed communion with himself and one another. Sin fractures love. Shame enters. Relationships become strained. We hide. We hesitate. We wound and are wounded.

Yet God pursues his beloved creation. The whole Bible tells the story of the Creator moving toward the people who have turned from him. He promises redemption before Adam and Eve leave the garden. He draws near to dwell with his people. He provides sacrifice. He sends prophets. He promises a new covenant. He sends his Son.

Song 5:2-6:10 gives us a poetic window into strained love and pursuing love. It reminds us that our deepest relational healing begins with the God who pursues sinners.

Savior and Beloved

Turn the diamond again.

Christ is the true Bridegroom. The church is his beloved bride. We are not lovely in ourselves. We are made lovely by his love. We are not faithful in ourselves. We are redeemed by his faithfulness. His love is not fragile, moody, or easily exhausted.

This does not mean we flatten the passage into a one-to-one allegory where every detail must represent Christ or the church. That would be careless. But the passage’s movement of longing, strain, pursuit, praise, and restored delight helps us feel something true about Christ and his beloved.

The church often grows cold. Christ does not. The church is often slow to rise. Christ remains faithful. The bride must learn again to seek, praise, and delight in the Bridegroom who loved her and gave himself for her.

Poetry works in layers, but not without limits. The layers must arise from the text and from the canon, not from the preacher’s need to appear clever before lunch.

Possible Sermon Paths

Song of Solomon can be preached in different ways depending on the church, the preacher, and the amount of time available. A longer series allows the poetry to breathe. A shorter series can still help the church gain better instincts.

A Six-Sermon Path

1. Love Awakened: Song 1:1-2:7

Main idea: God’s good design for love includes desire, delight, patience, and belonging.

Gospel connection: Holy desire awakens our deeper longing for Christ, whose love orders and purifies all lesser loves.

2. Love Seeks and Waits: Song 2:8-3:5

Main idea: Love involves longing, pursuit, and patience rather than grasping or forcing what must be received in wisdom.

Gospel connection: The church knows the beloved Christ and yet waits for the fullness of his presence.

3. Love Moves Toward Covenant Joy: Song 3:6-5:1

Main idea: Love is not merely private desire but covenant joy that moves toward union, celebration, and public belonging.

Gospel connection: Human marriage points beyond itself to the covenant joy of Christ and his bride.

4. Love Pursues Through Strain: Song 5:2-6:10

Main idea: Love under strain must learn to seek, repent, praise, and delight again.

Gospel connection: Christ’s faithful love restores and beautifies his bride, even when her love is weak.

5. Love Belongs and Delights: Song 6:11-8:4

Main idea: Covenant love delights in the beloved with exclusive, personal, and enduring affection.

Gospel connection: The church belongs to Christ, and Christ gives himself to his church in steadfast love.

6. Love Strong as Death: Song 8:5-14

Main idea: True love is fierce, costly, exclusive, and enduring.

Gospel connection: Christ’s love is stronger than death because he entered death, defeated it, and will bring his bride into final joy.

A Four-Sermon Overview Path

1. The Goodness of Holy Love: Song 1:1-2:7

Main idea: Song of Solomon begins by showing love as desire and delight ordered by wisdom.

Gospel connection: Created love is good, but it must be ordered under the greater love of Christ.

2. The Ache of Longing: Song 2:8-3:5

Main idea: Love seeks, waits, and longs without seizing what wisdom says must not yet be awakened.

Gospel connection: The church lives in longing for the Bridegroom who has come and will come again.

3. The Joy and Strain of Covenant Love: Song 3:6-6:10

Main idea: Covenant love moves toward union and delight, but it must also endure strain, absence, and renewed pursuit.

Gospel connection: Christ’s covenant love sustains and restores his bride through weakness and wandering.

4. Love Strong as Death: Song 6:11-8:14

Main idea: The Song ends by showing love as belonging, delight, exclusivity, and strength that cannot be quenched.

Gospel connection: The strongest human love points to the greater love of Christ, who conquers death for his bride.

Cautions for Preaching Song of Solomon

Do not be crude. The book is intimate, but it is holy. Handle it like Scripture, not like a nervous comedy routine.

Do not apologize for the book. God put it in the Bible. The preacher does not need to rescue God from embarrassment.

Do not make it only about marriage. Marriage matters here, but the Song is for the whole church. Do not make single Christians spectators. Single Christians are part of the bride of Christ. They need this book as much as married Christians do.

Do not allegorize every detail. The preacher does not need to find Christ in every tooth, goat, or cluster of henna blossoms. Stay on the line of Scripture.

Do not ignore the body. The Song celebrates embodied love. Christianity is not anti-body. The incarnation should have settled that, but apparently reminders remain necessary.

Do not idolize romance. Human love is good, but it is not ultimate. A spouse cannot carry the weight of salvation.

Do not skip Christ. If the sermon never moves toward Christ, it has not read the Song as Christian Scripture. Do not staple Christ onto the end. The gospel should arise from the Song’s own imagery, movement, and canonical connections.

Do not preach desire without holiness. Desire is not automatically holy because it is intense. Fallen desire must be redeemed and ordered by love for God.

Why the Church Needs the Song

The church needs Song of Solomon because our imaginations about love have been badly malformed. The world trains us to think of desire as entitlement, romance as salvation, sex as identity, singleness as incompleteness, marriage as personal fulfillment, and beauty as something to consume. The church sometimes reacts by becoming embarrassed, silent, shallow, or awkward.

Song of Solomon gives us a better imagination. It teaches us that love is beautiful, but not casual. Desire is good, but not sovereign. Marriage is glorious, but not ultimate. Longing is real, but not hopeless. The body matters, but it is not a god. The beloved is to be cherished, not consumed.

Most of all, the Song helps us long for Christ. The church is the bride of Christ. She has been loved before she was lovely. She has been pursued in grace. She has been cleansed by blood. She is being beautified by the Bridegroom who gave himself for her. She waits for the wedding feast, when faith becomes sight and longing gives way to full presence.

That is why Song of Solomon matters for preaching. It is not merely a difficult book to survive. It is a gift to receive.

Getting Started

To get started in Song of Solomon, begin with reverence. This is holy Scripture. Then remember that it is poetry. Read it slowly. Listen to its images. Feel its movement. Notice its repetitions.

Then read it as part of the whole Bible. The Song belongs between Eden and the new creation, between the first garden and the final wedding feast.

Then read it typologically. The man and woman are real. Their love is real. And their love points beyond itself to Christ and the church.

Then preach it with care. Give your people tools, not merely conclusions. Help them see how human love, rightly ordered, becomes a signpost. Help them see how fallen desire must be redeemed. Help them see how Christ loves his bride.

Song of Solomon is holy love poetry. It celebrates covenant love between a man and a woman while awakening our longing for Christ, the true Bridegroom, and his beloved bride, the church.

The greater Bridegroom has come. He loved his bride when she was not lovely. He gave himself for her. He cleanses her, beautifies her, and will present her in splendor. And the bride still longs for him. That is where the Song finally carries us. That is where faithful preaching should take us.

Getting Started in 1 and 2 Timothy

First and Second Timothy are often called Pastoral Epistles, along with Titus. That label is useful, provided we do not let it shrink the letters. These are not merely private ministry memos from Paul to Timothy. They are also not generic leadership manuals with a few Bible verses attached.

Getting started in 1 and 2 Timothy means learning how to overhear a pastor-to-pastor conversation for the good of the whole church. That matters. Paul writes to Timothy as a father in the faith, a mentor, an apostle, and a pastor nearing the end of his ministry. Timothy is not receiving abstract doctrine in a quiet study. He is being told how to lead real churches with real problems: false teaching, disordered worship, leadership needs, suffering, fear, drift, distraction, and the ever-present temptation to become ashamed of the gospel.

So these letters require careful reading. We must not bypass Timothy as if Paul is speaking directly to every Christian in exactly the same way. Paul is instructing a pastor. But we also must not lock the letters away as if only pastors and elders may benefit from them. These are pastor-to-pastor letters, but they are Scripture for the church.

These Letters Are Addressed to Timothy, but They Belong to the Church

Both letters are addressed to Timothy, but neither letter is only for Timothy. At the end of both letters, Paul closes with “Grace be with you,” and the “you” is plural. The letter is to Timothy, but the grace is for the church.

That gives us an important interpretive guardrail. On one side, we should avoid treating these letters as private pastoral mail. On the other side, we should avoid treating them as direct congregational policy while bypassing Timothy. The meaning comes to the church through the instructions Paul gives to Timothy. That is not a technicality. It changes how we read.

The church is edified by hearing what Paul says to Timothy because the health of the church is deeply tied to the faithfulness of its pastors. The congregation needs to know what pastors are charged to guard. They need to know what kind of men should lead. They need to know why doctrine matters. They need to know why godliness matters. They need to know why public worship, prayer, teaching, correction, endurance, and preaching are not decorative extras in the life of the church. In other words, 1 and 2 Timothy are not only useful for pastors. They help the church know what faithful pastoral ministry is supposed to look like.

A church that does not know what pastors are called to do will eventually reward pastors for doing the wrong things. That rarely ends well, unless the goal is religious activity with a thin coat of biblical paint.

First Timothy: Ordering the Church Around the Gospel

First Timothy was likely written while Timothy was ministering in Ephesus. Years earlier, Paul warned the Ephesian elders that fierce wolves would come in among them and that even from among their own number, men would arise speaking twisted things (Acts 20:29-30). That warning hangs in the background of 1 Timothy. In this letter, the threat is no longer theoretical.

Paul begins by urging Timothy to remain in Ephesus so that he may charge certain persons not to teach different doctrine (1 Timothy 1:3). That sets the tone for the letter. False teaching is not a side issue in 1 Timothy. It is one reason the letter exists.

Yet Paul does more than tell Timothy to fight error. He shows Timothy what kind of church resists error. The answer is not a church obsessed with controversy. The answer is a church ordered around the gospel, led by qualified leaders, marked by prayer and holiness, trained in godliness, and guarded by sound doctrine.

This means the details of 1 Timothy are not random church topics scattered across the desk. Public prayer, men and women in gathered worship, elders and deacons, widows, money, discipline, and Timothy’s personal example all belong to the larger concern of gospel-shaped order in God’s household. That is the difference between healthy doctrinal vigilance and becoming the theological version of a smoke alarm with low batteries. One protects the house. The other just screams until everyone ignores it.

One way to see the structure of 1 Timothy is to follow Paul’s “trustworthy sayings.” These sayings do not explain everything in the letter, but they help mark major movements and major concerns.

The First Trustworthy Saying: Christ Came to Save Sinners

Paul writes: “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners...” (1 Timothy 1:15). This is not merely a beautiful sentence. It is the theological center of the opening movement of the letter. Paul’s testimony becomes an exhibit of the gospel. He had been a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent, but he received mercy. Christ came to save sinners, and Paul knew he belonged in that category.

This gospel truth controls more than we may first expect. It shapes how Timothy should correct false doctrine. It shapes how the church should pray. It shapes how Christians think about rulers and all kinds of people. It shapes the desire that all kinds of people be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. It shapes the confession that there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

This also helps us handle 1 Timothy 2 with care. Paul’s instructions about prayer, worship, men, women, teaching, and authority are not detached from the gospel. They also are not merely dropped under the heading of “gospel” as if that settles every interpretive question. Paul grounds worship order in God’s saving purpose, the created order, and the fall. So preachers and teachers must be careful. We should show how Paul’s instructions serve the health and order of the church without flattening the passage.

If the church gets the gospel wrong, nothing else can be healthy for long. The gospel is not one doctrine among many. It is the blazing center. Christ saves sinners. The church must guard that message, proclaim that message, pray in light of that message, and order its life around that message.

This means 1 Timothy should not be preached as a bag of disconnected church issues. Paul is not wandering from false teaching to prayer to gender roles to elders to widows to money because he misplaced his outline. The details must be handled in light of the gospel and the health of the church.

The Second Trustworthy Saying: Godly Leadership Is a Noble Task

Paul writes: “The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task” (1 Timothy 3:1).

The second trustworthy saying introduces Paul’s instruction about overseers and deacons. This section is not merely about church staffing. It is about the kind of character required among those who serve and lead in the household of God.

The emphasis is striking. Paul does not begin with charisma, entrepreneurial capacity, platform reach, or the ability to draw a crowd. He gives qualifications of character.

An overseer must be above reproach, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money, and faithful in the household. Deacons, too, must be dignified, tested, faithful, and trustworthy.

This is not accidental. The church is “a pillar and buttress of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). Therefore, those who lead in the church must not contradict the truth by their lives. Doctrine and character belong together. A man may be able to explain orthodoxy and still be unqualified if his life contradicts his words.

This is where 1 Timothy is especially helpful in our day. Churches often want competence before character. Paul does not despise competence. Elders must be able to teach. But the weight of the qualifications falls on godliness.

These qualifications are not aspirational ideals we admire while quietly ignoring them when a gifted man seems useful. They are protective boundaries for the church. The church is not helped when spiritually immature men are platformed because they are talented. The church is not protected when character concerns are excused because the ministry appears to be working. God’s leaders require godly character because God’s church belongs to God.

The Third Trustworthy Saying: God’s People Train for Godliness

Once again, Paul writes: “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance.” (1 Timothy 4:9).

The saying in this section is tied to Paul’s call to train for godliness. Bodily training has some value, but godliness is valuable in every way because it holds promise for the present life and the life to come. Godliness is not religious decoration. It is the fitting life of those who belong to the living God. This theme affects how Timothy teaches, how he sets an example, how widows are cared for, how elders are honored, how accusations are handled, how slaves should conduct themselves, how contentment should be pursued, and how the rich should live. Paul is not merely giving church policies. He is teaching Timothy how the gospel produces a particular kind of life together.

First Timothy helps us see that church health cannot be reduced to accurate doctrinal statements, though those are necessary. Nor can it be reduced to moral seriousness, though holiness is necessary. Healthy churches hold gospel truth and visible godliness together. The goal is love that issues from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.

The Final Charge: Guard the Deposit

The last section of 1 Timothy gathers the letter’s concerns and presses them upon Timothy personally. Paul says, “But as for you, O man of God...” (1 Timothy 6:11). That title matters. In the Old Testament, the “man of God” is often one who speaks for God. Paul applies this language to Timothy as he calls him to flee sin, pursue righteousness, fight the good fight of faith, keep the command, and guard the deposit entrusted to him.

The letter ends with urgency. Timothy must guard what has been entrusted to him. The church needs pastors who guard the gospel, pursue godliness, and lead with character. But the deposit is not precious only to pastors. The whole church is entrusted with the gospel. The whole church benefits when pastors guard it well. The whole church suffers when they do not.

Second Timothy: The Ministry Must Continue

Second Timothy feels different from First Timothy. First Timothy gives instructions for ordering the church around the gospel. Second Timothy reads like the final words from a man who knows his ministry is nearly finished. Paul is suffering. He is imprisoned. He expects death. He says the time of his departure has come. Yet 2 Timothy is not a sentimental farewell letter. It is a charge. Paul’s ministry is ending, but the ministry of the Word must continue. That is one of the great lessons of 2 Timothy. Faithful servants die. The gospel does not. Pastors come and go. The Word must be preached. The deposit must be guarded. The truth must be entrusted to faithful men who will teach others also.

Second Timothy gives us something like a base camp vision of ministry. Paul is near the end of his earthly race, but the mission does not collapse when he leaves the field. Timothy must be strengthened. Faithful men must be trained. The church must be reminded. Scripture must be trusted. The Word must be preached. The Lord will preserve his people and his gospel.

Second Timothy is driven by commands. Paul does not merely reflect on ministry. He charges Timothy to act. Here is the movement of the letter in simple terms: do not be ashamed, share in suffering, follow the pattern, guard the deposit, be strengthened, entrust the Word, remember Christ, remind the church, avoid what corrupts, pursue what is holy, continue in Scripture, preach the Word, and keep the mission moving.

Do Not Be Ashamed. Share in Suffering.

Paul tells Timothy not to be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of Paul his prisoner, but to share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God. This is not vague motivational speaking. Paul grounds the call to suffering in the saving purpose of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling because of his own purpose and grace in Christ Jesus. The gospel is worth suffering for because the gospel is God’s saving work in Christ. Timothy must not retreat into embarrassment, fear, or self-protection. This is not only a word for pastors. Churches need to hear it because churches often train pastors to avoid suffering by rewarding comfort. But if the gospel is true, shame must not govern ministry. Faithfulness will cost something.

Follow the Pattern. Guard the Deposit.

Paul tells Timothy to follow the pattern of sound words and to guard the good deposit entrusted to him by the Holy Spirit. This is one of the great pastoral commands in the New Testament. Timothy is not free to reinvent the message. He is not called to improve the apostolic gospel. He is not sent to make doctrine more marketable to people who have already decided that truth needs better public relations. He must follow and guard. That does not mean ministry is static, dull, or lifeless. It means the gospel is not ours to edit. Sound words matter. Doctrine matters. The Holy Spirit guards the church through the faithful guarding of the apostolic message.

Be Strengthened. Entrust the Word.

In 2 Timothy 2, Paul tells Timothy to be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Then he tells him to entrust what he has heard to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. This is ministry succession in one sentence. Paul taught Timothy. Timothy must teach faithful men. Those faithful men must teach others.

The ministry is not built on one personality. It is not supposed to be. Paul is leaving the field, but the Word continues. Timothy must not merely preserve the gospel in a vault. He must entrust it to faithful teachers. This is a word churches need. A healthy church is not merely asking whether the current pastor is gifted. It is asking whether the gospel is being passed on. Are leaders being formed? Are faithful men being trained? Are sound doctrine and godly character being multiplied? A church that only consumes one man’s ministry without developing more faithful servants has confused a base camp with a vacation rental.

Remember Christ. Remind the Church.

Paul tells Timothy to remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in Paul’s gospel. Then Timothy must remind the church of these things and charge them not to quarrel about words. Remember and remind. That is much of pastoral ministry. Pastoral ministry is not a frantic search for novelty. It is gospel remembrance, repeated patiently until the church is formed by what it already knows in Christ. The church needs to remember Christ. It needs to be reminded of the gospel. It needs to be warned against foolish controversies that ruin hearers. It needs workers who rightly handle the word of truth. This is why 2 Timothy speaks so strongly about approved workers and shameful teachers. Handling the Bible rightly matters. Bad handling of Scripture is not harmless. It spreads like gangrene. Paul is not being dramatic. He is being pastoral.

Avoid What Corrupts. Pursue What Is Holy.

Paul tells Timothy to flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace. He also tells him to avoid foolish, ignorant controversies. Avoid and pursue. Both are necessary. Some Christians like avoiding but never seem to pursue much of anything except the next thing to avoid. Others like pursuing but refuse to avoid what corrupts. Paul gives Timothy both. Faithful ministry requires separation from what destroys and pursuit of what builds up. The Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, and correcting opponents with gentleness. That combination matters. Timothy must correct error, but he must not become a combative man. He must be gentle, but he must not become doctrinally limp. Faithful ministry requires both a spine and a shepherd’s heart.

Continue in What You Have Learned

Second Timothy 3 is one of the most important passages in Scripture for understanding Scripture. Paul tells Timothy to continue in what he has learned and firmly believed. He reminds him that the sacred writings are able to make him wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Then he says all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. This is not merely a doctrine of inspiration to be affirmed and then ignored. It is a ministry command. Continue in the Scriptures. Trust the Scriptures. Use the Scriptures. Let the Scriptures equip the man of God for the work of God. The church needs this because Scripture is not one ministry tool among many. Scripture is God’s breathed-out Word. The pastor is not complete because he is clever, relevant, strategic, or admired. The man of God is equipped by the Word of God.

This is also a word to the whole church. A congregation should not merely affirm inerrancy and sufficiency on paper. It should expect Scripture to do what Paul says Scripture does. Scripture gives saving wisdom through faith in Christ. Scripture teaches, reproves, corrects, trains, completes, and equips. A church that confesses the authority of Scripture but will not be corrected by Scripture has not yet understood its confession.

Preach the Word

Paul’s final charge is one of the clearest and weightiest commands ever given to a pastor: “Preach the word…” (2 Timothy 4:2). The charge comes in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead. This is not casual advice. Timothy must preach the Word in season and out of season. He must reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching.

Why? Because people will not always endure sound teaching. They will gather teachers to suit their own passions. They will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths. The answer is preaching. That line matters because Paul’s charge comes with judgment in view and drift in view. Christ will judge. People will wander. Myths will attract. Ears will itch. Therefore, Timothy must preach the Word. Not merely speak. Not merely inspire. Not merely manage. Preach the Word. This matters for the church. A congregation should want the Word preached when it feels timely and when it feels inconvenient. The church should not train its pastors to entertain itching ears. Paul already told us where that road goes.

Paul Leaves, but the Mission Continues

The closing verses of 2 Timothy can seem like personal odds and ends, but they are more than that. Paul names people, places, needs, disappointments, and fellow workers. Some have deserted him. Some are useful. Some must come. Some have been sent. This is ministry on the ground. It is not glamorous. It includes loneliness, conflict, friendship, travel plans, books, parchments, opposition, and hope. It also shows the base camp mentality. Paul is near death, but the work is not dying. People and places remain in motion. The gospel is still going forward. The Lord stood by Paul, strengthened him, and will bring him safely into his heavenly kingdom. Second Timothy does not end with Paul as the hero. It ends with the Lord who preserves his servant and continues his mission.

A Way to Preach 1 and 2 Timothy

Because 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy work differently, they probably should not be preached in exactly the same way.

First Timothy is well suited for larger sections that follow the major themes of the letter. The trustworthy sayings and repeated concerns help the preacher keep the details connected to the whole. Gender roles, elders, deacons, widows, money, and public worship should not be preached as disconnected issues. They belong inside Paul’s concern for gospel order, godly leadership, and the life of the church.

Second Timothy may work better in smaller sections because it is more direct and imperative-driven. Paul’s commands give shape to the sermon units: share in suffering, follow and guard, be strengthened and entrust, remember and remind, avoid and pursue, continue, preach the Word.

A possible 13-week preaching path could look like this:

1 Timothy

1. Get the Gospel Right: 1 Timothy 1:1-11

2. Christ Came to Save Sinners: 1 Timothy 1:12-2:15

3. Character Matters in God’s House: 1 Timothy 3:1-4:5

4. Train Yourself for Godliness: 1 Timothy 4:6-6:10

5. Guard the Deposit: 1 Timothy 6:11-21

2 Timothy

1. Share in Suffering: 2 Timothy 1:1-12

2. Follow and Guard: 2 Timothy 1:13-18

3. Be Strengthened and Entrust: 2 Timothy 2:1-7

4. Remember and Remind: 2 Timothy 2:8-19

5. Avoid and Pursue: 2 Timothy 2:20-3:9

6. Continue in the Scriptures: 2 Timothy 3:10-17

7. Preach the Word: 2 Timothy 4:1-8

8. The Mission Continues: 2 Timothy 4:9-22

A shorter 6-week overview could look like this:

1. The Church Ordered Around the Gospel: 1 Timothy 1:1-2:15

2. Leaders and Life in God’s Household: 1 Timothy 3:1-4:16

3. Godliness, Contentment, and Guarding the Deposit: 1 Timothy 5:1-6:21

4. Do Not Be Ashamed: 2 Timothy 1:1-18

5. Entrust the Word and Endure: 2 Timothy 2:1-3:9

6. Continue in Scripture and Preach the Word: 2 Timothy 3:10-4:22

This is only one possible path. A longer series could slow down, especially in 1 Timothy 2-3 and 2 Timothy 2-4. A shorter series could combine sections. The key is to let each letter’s own shape guide the preaching.

How the Whole Church Should Hear These Letters

The church should hear 1 and 2 Timothy with humility. These letters will correct our expectations. They correct what we expect from pastors. Pastors are not called first to be entrepreneurs, entertainers, activists, therapists, executives, influencers, or religious event hosts. They are called to guard the gospel, teach sound doctrine, model godliness, appoint qualified leaders, correct error, suffer faithfully, entrust the Word, and preach the Word.

These letters correct what we expect from the church. The church is not a voluntary association organized around preference. It is the household of God, the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. They correct what we expect from doctrine. Sound doctrine is not cold theological storage. It produces love, godliness, endurance, worship, and mission. They correct what we expect from godliness. Godliness is not optional seriousness for unusually intense Christians. It is the fitting life of those saved by Christ. They correct what we expect from ministry. Ministry is not always clean, easy, or appreciated. It includes suffering, opposition, abandonment, endurance, and ordinary faithfulness. The Lord remains faithful.

Getting Started

If you are reading 1 and 2 Timothy personally, start by reading each letter in one sitting. They are short enough to take in whole. As you read 1 Timothy, mark the trustworthy sayings and repeated references to doctrine, godliness, teaching, and the church. As you read 2 Timothy, mark the commands Paul gives Timothy.

Then ask a few questions.

What is Paul telling Timothy to guard?

What kind of life must accompany sound doctrine?

What kind of leaders does the church need?

How does the gospel of Christ shape public worship, church order, correction, endurance, and preaching?

How is the church helped by hearing what Paul says to its pastors?

Those questions will help you avoid treating these letters as either private pastoral mail or disconnected church policy. They are neither. They are Spirit-inspired letters for the health of the church. First Timothy helps us see how the church is ordered around the gospel. Second Timothy helps us see how the ministry of the Word continues through suffering, succession, Scripture, and preaching. Together, they remind pastors and churches that Christ saves sinners, character matters, godliness must be pursued, the gospel must be guarded, and the Word must be preached. That is not complicated. It is just increasingly rare, which is why the whole church should pay attention.

Getting Started in Leviticus

Leviticus is where many Bible reading plans go to die. Genesis has creation, flood, patriarchs, promises, and family drama. Exodus has plagues, Passover, the Red Sea, Sinai, and the tabernacle. Then Leviticus opens with burnt offerings, grain offerings, fat portions, blood manipulation, priestly ordination, clean and unclean animals, skin disease, bodily discharges, the Day of Atonement, sexual ethics, holy days, and laws about land, vows, and tithes.

For many readers, Leviticus feels like walking into a room where everyone else knows the dress code, the seating chart, and why someone is carrying a goat.

But Leviticus is not a random collection of religious oddities. It is not an embarrassing Old Testament attic that Christians should visit only when forced. Leviticus is a deeply theological book about the presence of God, the seriousness of sin, the mercy of atonement, the holiness of worship, and the life God forms among his redeemed people.

Leviticus answers one of the most important questions in the Bible: How can a holy God dwell with a sinful people?

That is not a small question. That is the question under everything.

Why Leviticus Matters

To understand Leviticus, remember where it sits in the Bible’s story. In Exodus, God redeems Israel from slavery, brings them to Sinai, gives the covenant, and establishes the tabernacle. At the end of Exodus, the glory of the Lord fills the tabernacle. But Moses cannot enter because the cloud settles on it and the glory of the Lord fills it.

Leviticus begins at that point. God speaks to Moses from the tent of meeting and gives instructions for how his people may draw near. God will dwell among his people, but nearness to God is not casual. Sin is real. Uncleanness is real. Death stains the world. Worship matters. Priests matter. Atonement matters. Holiness matters.

That is why Leviticus would not have been boring to ancient Israel. It was a matter of life and death. This was how the holy God dwelt in the camp without consuming the people in judgment. This was how sinners could be accepted, cleansed, forgiven, restored, and taught to live as God’s holy people.

Christians often struggle with Leviticus because we read it as if it were a disconnected manual of ancient ritual. We see the sacrifices and immediately wonder what we are supposed to do with all the blood, birds, fat, and ashes. We see purity laws and wonder why anyone needed divine instruction about mildew. We see festivals and land laws and feel far away from the world of the text.

But when we read Leviticus through Jesus Christ, the book opens. Leviticus teaches us the categories we need to understand the gospel. Sacrifice, priesthood, holiness, uncleanness, atonement, mediation, substitution, blood, access, worship, and dwelling with God are not minor themes. They are gospel vocabulary.

If we lose Leviticus, we do not lose the gospel, because Christ still saves. But we may lose much of the depth, texture, and glory of what Christ has done. Hebrews makes far less sense when Leviticus is ignored. The cross appears thinner when sacrifice and atonement are flattened. Holiness becomes vague moral improvement rather than the life of a people redeemed to dwell with God.

Leviticus gives us the grammar of atonement and holiness. Jesus gives us fulfillment.

The Main Question of Leviticus

A helpful way to begin Leviticus is to keep one question in front of you:

How can a holy God dwell with a sinful people and form them into a holy people?

The answer unfolds through the book.

God provides sacrifice so sinners may draw near. God provides priests to mediate worship. God teaches his people the difference between clean and unclean, holy and common, life and death. God provides the Day of Atonement to cleanse the sanctuary and the people. God commands his redeemed people to live holy lives before him and with one another. God shapes their calendar, worship, land, vows, and rhythms so that all of life is lived before him.

Leviticus is not only about how Israel worshiped. It is about how Israel lived near God.

That is why the book repeatedly says, “I am the Lord.” God grounds his commands in his identity. Israel is to be holy because the Lord is holy. Holiness is not arbitrary rule-keeping. Holiness is life shaped by the character and presence of God.

The Chiastic Structure of Leviticus

Leviticus can be outlined in several ways. One especially helpful approach is to see the book’s chiastic structure. A chiasm is a literary structure in which the outer sections correspond to each other, then the next inner sections correspond to each other, and so on until the center is reached. The center often carries special weight.

This structure helps us see that Leviticus is not haphazard. It is arranged around the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16.

Here is a simple version:

A. Sacrifices and formal worship: Leviticus 1-7
B. Priests and ordained servants: Leviticus 8-10
C. Clean and unclean in a world of death: Leviticus 11-15
D. The Day of Atonement: Leviticus 16
C’. Holy living in a world of death: Leviticus 17-20
B’. Priestly holiness and acceptable offerings: Leviticus 21-22
A’. Sacred time, worship rhythms, vows, and covenant life: Leviticus 23-27

The outer sections deal with worship and the shape of life before God. Leviticus 1-7 gives the prescribed sacrifices. Leviticus 23-27 gives Israel’s calendar, rhythms, Sabbaths, festivals, land rest, Jubilee, vows, tithes, blessing, and warning.

The next sections deal with priests and holy service. Leviticus 8-10 gives the ordination and consecration of Aaron and his sons, followed by the tragic account of Nadab and Abihu. Leviticus 21-22 returns to priestly standards and the integrity of offerings.

The next sections deal with clean and unclean, holiness and corruption, life and death. Leviticus 11-15 trains Israel to understand impurity in a death-stained world. Leviticus 17-20 moves from ritual purity into moral holiness, including blood, life, sexual holiness, neighbor-love, and the seriousness of covenant faithfulness.

At the center stands Leviticus 16, the Day of Atonement. The whole book turns on this day. Sacrifices, priests, purity, holiness, worship, and covenant life all depend on atonement. Israel cannot dwell with God unless sin and uncleanness are dealt with according to God’s provision.

For Christians, this center directs us to Christ. The Day of Atonement was a shadow. Christ is the substance. Leviticus 16 points us to the cross, where Jesus makes true and final atonement for his people.

A Four-Sermon Minimum Path Through Leviticus

Leviticus can be preached in many ways. A full series could take months. A slower expositional series could take much longer. But a church can also receive a faithful overview of Leviticus in four sermons if the series follows the book’s structure and keeps the center clear.

Here is a four-sermon minimum path.

Sermon 1: Sacrifices and the Worship-Shaped Life

Text: Leviticus 1-7 and 23-27
Main idea: God graciously provides sacrifices and worship rhythms so his redeemed people may live before him.

Leviticus begins with sacrifice. That is significant. The holy God does not begin by telling sinners to polish themselves into acceptability. He provides a way to draw near.

Leviticus 1-7 gives five major offerings.

The burnt offering was completely burned on the altar. The worshiper laid a hand on the animal’s head, and the priests handled the blood. The whole animal was given to God. It taught acceptance and atonement. God provided a way for the worshiper to be welcomed despite sin.

The grain offering was made from the fruit of human labor, often fine flour mixed with oil and frankincense. A memorial portion was burned, and the rest supported the priests. It honored God with the produce of the land and treated worship as holy.

The peace offering expressed restored fellowship. The fat portions were burned as God’s portion, the priests received their portions, and the worshiper shared in a meal. It was often connected to thanksgiving, vows, or freewill offerings. It displayed joy, gratitude, and fellowship with God.

The sin offering dealt with specific sins, guilt, and uncleanness. Blood was used in prescribed ways, fat was burned, and the remaining portions were handled according to the situation. It taught that sin defiles and that forgiveness requires God’s appointed provision.

The guilt offering dealt with wrongdoing that required restitution. A ram was offered, but the sinner also had to repay what was taken or damaged and add an additional fifth. It showed that forgiveness and repair belong together. Grace does not make repentance imaginary.

These sacrifices are not random ritual mechanics. They teach that sinners need atonement, God must provide the way, worship requires holiness, thanksgiving belongs to redeemed people, and reconciliation with God has real implications.

Leviticus 23-27 corresponds to this opening section by showing the broader worship-shaped life of Israel. The weekly Sabbath, Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Weeks, Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, Booths, the lamp, the bread of the Presence, the sabbatical year, Jubilee, vows, tithes, blessings, and warnings all teach Israel that life belongs to God.

Time belongs to God. Harvest belongs to God. Land belongs to God. Worship belongs to God. Rest belongs to God. Mercy for the poor and the foreigner belongs to worship. The whole life of the people is shaped by redemption and ordered before the Lord.

For Christians, this section points us to Christ as the once-for-all sacrifice and the one who fulfills the worship to which these sacrifices pointed. It also reminds us that salvation does not produce a shapeless life. Redeemed people live ordered lives before God.

Sermon 2: Priests, Worship, and Holy Leadership

Text: Leviticus 8-10 and 21-22
Main idea: God protects his people and his worship by appointing priests and demanding holiness from those who handle holy things.

Leviticus 8-10 gives the ordination and consecration of Aaron and his sons. They are washed, clothed, anointed, and marked with blood. The blood is applied to the ear, thumb, and toe, showing that the whole person is claimed for holy service. The priest does not stroll into ministry on the strength of sincerity, charisma, family lineage, or a surprisingly confident personality. He must be consecrated according to God’s command.

Leviticus 9 records the first public priestly service and the Lord's glory appearing to the people. Worship is not merely a human activity directed upward. God himself makes his presence known among his people.

Then Leviticus 10 gives the account of Nadab and Abihu. They offer unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them, and they die before him. The point is sobering. Nearness to God is a gift, but it is not casual. Worship must not be handled flippantly.

Leviticus 21-22 mirrors and deepens this concern. Priests must meet higher standards. Offerings must be acceptable. Those who handle holy things must not corrupt worship. God’s standards protect the worship system, the people, and the honor of his name.

This section connects naturally to the gospel through Jesus Christ, our great High Priest. Hebrews helps us here. Israel needed priests, but every priest was himself sinful and mortal. The priesthood taught the need for mediation, but it could not provide final perfection. Jesus is the priest we need. He is holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He does not merely offer sacrifices. He offers himself.

This section also speaks to church leadership. Pastors and elders are not priests in the Levitical sense, and the church does not repeat Israel’s sacrificial system. Christ has fulfilled that. Still, leadership among God’s people remains a serious matter. Those who teach, shepherd, and lead worship do not do so casually. Character matters. Doctrine matters. Integrity matters. Worship is not a playground for innovation when God has spoken.

Sermon 3: Clean, Unclean, Holy, and Love

Text: Leviticus 11-15 and 17-20
Main idea: God teaches his people to discern life from death, holiness from corruption, and love from the ways of the nations.

Leviticus 11-15 can feel strange to modern readers. Clean and unclean animals. Childbirth. Skin disease. Mildew. Bodily discharges. It is not exactly the inspirational devotional calendar material that gets printed beside mountain photos.

But these chapters are not merely health codes. They train Israel to understand holiness in a world marked by death and corruption. Uncleanness is not always personal sin, but it does affect access to the sanctuary. The categories of clean and unclean teach that God is the God of life and that death is an intruder in his world.

Uncleanness spreads. Corruption spreads. Death stains. The sanctuary must not be defiled. The people must learn that living near God requires cleansing.

Leviticus 17-20 corresponds to this section by moving from ritual purity to moral holiness. Blood and life belong to God. Sexual holiness matters. Family boundaries matter. Neighbor-love matters. The poor, the sojourner, the worker, the deaf, the blind, the aged, and the vulnerable matter. Holiness is not merely avoiding contamination. Holiness includes concrete love.

Leviticus 19 is especially important. “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” is followed by commands about parents, Sabbath, idolatry, offerings, care for the poor, honest dealing, justice, wages, truth, love of neighbor, and reverence for God. Jesus himself identifies the command to love your neighbor as yourself as one of the great commandments.

This section points us to Christ in several ways.

First, uncleanness cuts people off from full access to God’s dwelling. We need more than instruction. We need cleansing.

Second, Jesus enters a world of uncleanness without being contaminated by it. He touches lepers. He is touched by the bleeding woman. He raises the dead. Under ordinary conditions, uncleanness spreads to the clean. But with Jesus, holiness moves toward the unclean and restores. He reverses the flow of contamination because he is life, purity, and holiness in person.

Third, the moral holiness of Leviticus exposes our need for a new heart. God’s commands describe the life of the redeemed, but commands alone cannot produce that life. Christ redeems his people and gives the Spirit so they may walk in holiness and love.

Every page of Leviticus shows how much we need Jesus.

Sermon 4: The Day of Atonement

Text: Leviticus 16
Main idea: God provides atonement so he may dwell with his people.

Leviticus 16 is the center of the book. Everything before it leads toward it. Everything after it depends on it.

On the Day of Atonement, the high priest entered the Most Holy Place with blood. Sacrifices were offered. The sanctuary was cleansed. The sins of the people were confessed over the live goat, which was then sent away into the wilderness. Sin had to be dealt with. Uncleanness had to be removed. The people and the sanctuary needed cleansing.

This day showed both the mercy and the seriousness of God. God provided atonement. But the repeated sacrifices also showed that the work was not yet final. The high priest had to enter again and again, year after year. The blood of bulls and goats could never finally take away sins.

Then Christ came.

Jesus is the true High Priest. Jesus is the true sacrifice. Jesus brings his people into true cleansing. Jesus bears sin away. Jesus enters not into a man-made tent but into heaven itself. Jesus does not offer another animal. He offers himself. His atonement is final, effective, and sufficient.

Leviticus 16 helps us see the cross with greater clarity. The cross is not merely a display of love in vague emotional terms. It is atonement. Sin is judged. Wrath is satisfied. Guilt is removed. The unclean are cleansed. The way into the presence of God is opened through the blood of Christ.

A four-sermon series through Leviticus should land here with weight. The Day of Atonement is not a technical middle chapter. It is the theological center.

Longer Series Options

Four sermons can give a church a faithful overview of Leviticus. But Leviticus can also sustain a longer series. Here are several possibilities.

An Eight-Sermon Series

1. Drawing Near Through Sacrifice: Leviticus 1-7

2. Holy Priests and Serious Worship: Leviticus 8-10

3. Clean and Unclean in a World of Death: Leviticus 11-15

4. Atonement at the Center: Leviticus 16

5. Blood, Life, and Holy Boundaries: Leviticus 17-18

6. Holiness and Neighbor-Love: Leviticus 19-20

7. Priestly Holiness and Acceptable Worship: Leviticus 21-22

8. Sacred Time, Rest, Jubilee, and Covenant Life: Leviticus 23-27

This path follows the basic flow of the book and gives more space to the major theological movements.

A Twelve-Sermon Series

1. The Holy God Who Speaks From the Tent: Leviticus 1:1-2

2. The Burnt, Grain, and Peace Offerings: Leviticus 1-3

3. Sin, Guilt, Forgiveness, and Restitution: Leviticus 4-7

4. Ordained for Holy Service: Leviticus 8-9

5. Unauthorized Worship and the Fear of God: Leviticus 10

6. Clean and Unclean: Leviticus 11-15

7. The Day of Atonement: Leviticus 16

8. Blood, Life, and God’s Claim: Leviticus 17

9. Holy Bodies and Holy Boundaries: Leviticus 18

10. You Shall Be Holy: Leviticus 19-20

11. Holy Priests and Holy Offerings: Leviticus 21-22

12. Sacred Time, Sabbath, Jubilee, and Covenant Faithfulness: Leviticus 23-27

This option allows more careful attention to the offerings, priesthood, purity, atonement, holiness, and worship rhythms.

A Sixteen-Sermon Series

1. How Can God Dwell With Us? Leviticus 1:1-2

2. The Burnt Offering and Acceptance: Leviticus 1

3. The Grain Offering and Worshipful Provision: Leviticus 2

4. The Peace Offering and Fellowship With God: Leviticus 3

5. Sin Offerings and Cleansing: Leviticus 4:1-5:13

6. Guilt Offerings and Restitution: Leviticus 5:14-6:7

7. Priestly Instructions for Sacrifice: Leviticus 6:8-7:38

8. Consecrated Priests: Leviticus 8-9

9. Strange Fire and Serious Worship: Leviticus 10

10. Clean and Unclean Food: Leviticus 11

11. Uncleanness, Disease, and Death’s Reach: Leviticus 12-15

12. The Day of Atonement: Leviticus 16

13. Life Is in the Blood: Leviticus 17

14. Holy Sexuality and Holy Love: Leviticus 18-20

15. Priests, Offerings, and Integrity: Leviticus 21-22

16. Festivals, Sabbath Rest, Jubilee, and Covenant Life: Leviticus 23-27

This longer path works well for a church willing to spend a season letting Leviticus build its categories carefully. It also provides more opportunities to connect Leviticus to Hebrews, the Gospels, and the life of the church.

How to Read Leviticus Personally

Begin by reading the book in large sections. Leviticus is not easy to understand if it is only read in tiny fragments. Read chapters 1-7 together. Read 8-10 together. Read 11-15 together. Read 16 slowly. Read 17-20 together. Read 21-22 together. Read 23-27 together.

As you read, keep several questions in front of you.

1. What does this passage teach about God’s holiness?

2. What does this passage teach about human sin, uncleanness, or weakness?

3. What provision does God give so his people may draw near?

4. How does this passage prepare us to understand Jesus Christ?

5. How does this passage help us understand worship, holiness, repentance, love, or life with God?

6. What would be missing from my understanding of the gospel if this passage were removed from the Bible?

Also watch for repeated words and ideas: holy, clean, unclean, atonement, blood, priest, offering, without blemish, before the Lord, I am the Lord, and dwell.

Do not try to make every detail directly symbolic in a wooden way. Not every fat lobe needs to become a sermon point. But do not dismiss the details either. They build categories. They create weight. They teach us that God decides how sinners draw near.

Teaching Leviticus Without Losing the Room

Leviticus requires careful teaching. Many readers already assume it is boring, strange, or irrelevant. The teacher’s job is not to confirm that suspicion with a forty-minute tour of sacrificial trivia.

Give the people lenses before giving them details. Help them see the big question of the book. Explain where Leviticus sits after Exodus. Show them the structure. Make clear that Leviticus is about God dwelling with his people. Then handle the details in service of the larger message.

Here are several cautions.

Do not preach Leviticus as if Christians are still under the Levitical sacrificial system. Christ has fulfilled the sacrifices. The temple system is not waiting for the church to revive it.

Do not preach Leviticus as mere moralism. The book is not simply saying, “Try harder to be holy.” It shows that holiness requires atonement, cleansing, mediation, and God’s provision.

Do not avoid the hard passages. Leviticus deals with blood, bodies, sexuality, death, holiness, judgment, and worship. These are not embarrassing themes. They are human themes. Our modern world is not too mature for them. It is often too shallow for them.

Do not make the book only about ancient Israel. It is first about ancient Israel, but it is Scripture for the church. It teaches us Christ, the gospel, worship, holiness, and life with God.

Reading Leviticus Through Christ

Christians should read Leviticus through Christ because Jesus himself teaches us to read the Old Testament as Scripture that points to him. This does not mean forcing Jesus into the text through clever allegory. It means reading Leviticus within the whole Bible’s redemptive story.

The sacrifices point to the need for atonement and to the final sacrifice of Christ.

The priests point to the need for mediation and to Jesus, our great High Priest.

The clean and unclean laws point to the reality that death and corruption keep sinners from God’s dwelling and to Jesus, who cleanses the unclean.

The Day of Atonement points to the cross, where sin is judged, guilt is removed, and access to God is opened.

The holiness laws point to the life of a redeemed people, now fulfilled and empowered in those united to Christ and indwelt by the Spirit.

The festivals and calendar point to a life shaped by redemption, remembrance, rest, provision, restoration, and joy before the Lord.

Leviticus is not the gospel in full bloom, but it is part of the soil from which our understanding of the gospel grows. Ignore it, and the gospel may still be true in your confession, but thinner in your imagination.

Leviticus and the Church Today

Leviticus is not a manual for running the local church. Pastors are not Levitical priests. Church buildings are not temples. Communion tables are not altars where Christ is sacrificed again. The finished work of Christ must govern how we apply the book.

Yet Leviticus still speaks powerfully to the church.

It teaches us that God’s presence is the great gift of redemption.

It teaches us that worship is not casual self-expression. God tells his people how to draw near.

It teaches us that sin is deadly and that atonement is necessary.

It teaches us that holiness is not private religious moodiness. Holiness touches worship, bodies, sexuality, truth-telling, money, mercy, justice, leadership, time, and neighbor-love.

It teaches us that God cares about the vulnerable, including the poor, the foreigner, the worker, the disabled, and the aged.

It teaches us that God provides what he requires.

Most of all, Leviticus teaches us to treasure Christ. He is the sacrifice, priest, cleansing, atonement, holiness, and access we need.

Getting Started

Start with the big picture. Leviticus is about the holy God dwelling with his sinful people and making them holy through his gracious provision.

Then follow the structure. Sacrifice. Priesthood. Purity. Atonement. Holiness. Priestly integrity. Worship-shaped life.

Then read toward the center. Leviticus 16 is the theological heart of the book.

Then read through Christ. Leviticus is not fulfilled by our effort, our ceremonies, or our religious seriousness. It is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

That is why Christians can read Leviticus with gratitude. We do not bring bulls, goats, grain, or birds to a tabernacle. We come to God through the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ. We do not rely on mortal priests who must first atone for their own sins. We have a perfect High Priest who lives to intercede for us. We do not wait for an annual Day of Atonement. We rest in the finished atonement accomplished at the cross.

Leviticus teaches us that God is holy, sin is serious, worship matters, atonement is necessary, and God graciously makes a way for his people to dwell with him.

That way is Jesus Christ.

So get started in Leviticus. Read it slowly. Teach it clearly. Preach it with the structure in view and the cross at the center. It is not a dead book full of dead rituals. It is the Word of the living God, and it helps us see the Savior with greater wonder.