Theological Fragments

The word "Gospel" comes from an Old English word that means "Good News"--which, of course, is the meaning of the Greek word that "gospel" replaces. When Jesus came to preach his message, it was described as "Good News." So what exactly was that good news? I have preached/taught on this topic many times, and whenever I ask the audience to summarize the Gospel in one verse, they always pick the same one. You know which verse I'm talking about: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ​(John 3:16, ESV) In the Western Church, John 3:16 is considered the most important verse in the Bible. It is so central to the message of the Bible that it has become shorthand for the entire Gospel--hence why people write it on signs and in their greasepaint at sporting events. The idea seems to be that if a person got curious enough to look that verse up, they would fin...

Today, as I prepared for my youth bible study tomorrow morning, I was reading Mark chapter two and I came across one of those passages. You know, the ones that never quite make sense? You hear them over and over again, but you never sit down and just try to make sense of it? Well, today I came across one of those and I realized that, if I’m going to teach this passage tomorrow, I had better sit down with a couple of commentaries and figure it out. Here’s the passage I’m talking about: 18  Now   John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him,   “Why do John's disciples and   the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”   19  And Jesus said to them,   “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.   20  The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and   then they will fast in tha...

[From Part II, Chapter VII: “ Mercifulness, a Work of Love, Even if It Can Give Nothing and is Capable of Giving Nothing ”] “And he called his disciples to him and said to them, ‘Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.’” ~ Mark 12:43-44 (ESV) “‘Do not neglect to do good and to share’[Hebrews 13:16]—but also do not forget that this perpetual worldly talk about doing good and well-doing and charity and charities and gifts and gifts is almost merciless. Let journalists and tax-collectors and parish clerks talk about charity and calculate and calculate; but let us never fail to hear that Christianity speaks essentially of mercifulness, that Christianity would last of all reward this mercilessness, as if poverty and wretchedness were not only lacking in money, etc ., but also were excl...

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