Sermon Tone Analysis

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

And let the peace of Christ rule in your

hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.

And be thankful.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.

You are serving the Lord Christ

And now, my daughter, do not fear.

I will do for you all that you ask, for all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman.

This is the same word hayyil used to describe the excellent wife of proverbs 31 and and 12!

Wenham notes that “as the lines of the blessing lengthen, their content becomes richer, producing a crescendo that culminates in the word peace (26)

P. Miller adds that “the first clause of each line [invokes] God’s movement towards his people, the second clause his activity on their behalf.”

The first and final words of the benediction are both forms of brk, forming a beautiful poetic inclusio.

Dress yourselves in burlap and weep, you priests!

Wail, you who serve before the altar!

Dress yourselves in burlap and weep, you priests!

Wail, you who serve before the altar

Interesting that this is the command here, but later it says rend your heart not your garments.

This must be a reference to a repentant heart, not a command about clothing

Come back to me and live!

Come back to the Lord and live!

But still you would not return to me,”

says the Lord.

But still you would not return to me,”

says the Lord.

But still you would not return to me,”

says the Lord.

But still you would not return to me,”

says the Lord.

Do what is good and run from evil

so that you may live!

Then the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies will be your helper,

just as you have claimed.

In 1 Timothy Paul stated two purposes for writing.

First, he directed Timothy to give vigorous personal opposition to the false doctrine developing in Ephesus (1:3).

Second, he instructed Timothy about the kind of behavior that should characterize Ephesian believers as members of “God’s household” (3:15)

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The presence and rapid development of the false teachers provided both the occasion and purpose for Paul’s statement in 1:3.

The need for presenting a committed Christian life-style in contrast with the corrupt, self-seeking practices of the false teachers provided the occasion and purpose for the statement of 3:15.

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The problem makers, were Jewish in background, claimed an interest in the law (1:7–8), and observed dietary restrictions (4:3).

The teachers claimed access to a superior knowledge (6:20–21) and expended their energies in word-battles (6:4), fables, and genealogies (1:4).

Apparently a strain of Greek influence caused the false teachers to disparage the body and prohibit marriage (4:3).

The character of the false teachers was utterly corrupted and deceitful (4:2; 6:5).

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The weakness of this view is perhaps also demonstrated by the fact that the entire spectrum of church government, from the hierarchical episcopacy of Roman Catholicism, through the mediating expression of Presbyterianism, to the extreme congregationalism of the Plymouth Brethren, all find support for their polity in these letters.

If the Pastor intended with these letters to set the church in order, he seems not to have altogether succeeded.

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These writings are not a church manual but an ad hoc statement intended to provide Timothy and Titus with directions to correct doctrinal and life-style variations in the church of their day

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The mention of these offices in Phil 1:1 suggests that the offices were also used in other churches at an earlier time

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Paul’s aim in church organization seems to have been to devise a workable, efficient organization that functioned well in the specific circumstances in Ephesus and in Crete.

The lack of clear discussion about the duties of these leaders is a likely indication that he did not intend for later churches to feel bound to duplicate every

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The assignment mentioned in 1 Thess 3:1–10 was an effort to encourage a congregation that faced serious persecution

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the quality and conduct of life in the kingdom’.

With Kittel he can take the demands as purposely exaggerated so as to drive man to a sense of failure (and hence to repent and believe), or with Windisch he can differentiate between historical and theological exegesis and defend the practicability of the demands.

With Dibelius he can interpret

the great moral imperatives as the absolute ethic of the inbreaking kingdom, or with the Dispensationalists he can relegate the entire sermon to a future millennial reign of Christ.

Inaugurated eschatology thus seems most in keeping with Jesus’ teaching on the kingdom more generally.

Inaugurated eschatology recognizes an “already/not yet” tension in which the sermon’s ethic remains the ideal or goal for all Christians in every age but which will never be fully realized until the consummation of the kingdom at Christ’s return

special meaning not just for the believer but for the entire Christian community; it was an ordinance of the church.

BB:SNCC

If any understand the weighty importance of baptism they will fear its reception more than its delay.”

BB:SNCC

While catechumens possessed salvation because of their saving faith, they were not “Christians” in the sense of being identified with the church.

This identification came with baptism

BB:SNCC

The life of a believer is a series of miracles wrought by “the Mighty God.”

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.

The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

It is too light a thing that you should be my servant

to raise up the tribes of Jacob

and to bring back the preserved of Israel;

I will make you as a light for the nations,

that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.”

— Hebrews 5:8

We are told that the Captain of our salvation was made perfect through suffering, therefore we who are sinful, and who are far from being perfect, must not wonder if we are called to pass through suffering too.

Shall the head be crowned with thorns, and shall the other members of the body be rocked upon the dainty lap of ease?

Must Christ pass through seas of his own blood to win the crown, and are we to walk to heaven dryshod in silver slippers?

No, our Master’s experience teaches us that suffering is necessary, and the true-born child of God must not, would not, escape it if he might.

But there is one very comforting thought in the fact of Christ’s “being made perfect through suffering”—it is, that he can have complete sympathy with us.

“He is not an high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.”

In this sympathy of Christ we find a sustaining power.

One of the early martyrs said, “I can bear it all, for Jesus suffered, and he suffers in me now; he sympathizes with me, and this makes me strong.”

Believer, lay hold of this thought in all times of agony.

Let the thought of Jesus strengthen you as you follow in his steps.

Find a sweet support in his sympathy; and remember that, to suffer is an honourable thing—to suffer for Christ is glory.

The apostles rejoiced that they were counted worthy to do this.

Just so far as the Lord shall give us grace to suffer for Christ, to suffer with Christ, just so far does he honour us.

The jewels of a Christian are his afflictions.

The regalia of the kings whom God hath anointed are their troubles, their sorrows, and their griefs.

Let us not, therefore, shun being honoured

JVG