Four Points Church

Men believe they know everything. God knows better. Jeremiah 10:14 reminds us that “Every man is stupid and without knowledge.” Paul, an incredibly learned man, would be seen as a sage among most of the Jewish population in the first century (Philippians 3:4-6; Acts 22:3), yet he denounces his own knowledge and ability when it comes to the gospel. The gospel is something far superior to anything man has ever produced. It takes a wise man to understand that truth.

Most of the time, if you want to confront someone, you start with some good news first. A compliment or an affirmation of your relationship to them might precede the hard conversation. Paul often commends the churches he writes to for things he knows they are doing well. In Galatians, Paul moves directly from the brief reminder of the gospel message to the bad news: in listening to the message of the Judaizers, the Galatians have turned away from the gospel entirely! Paul responds with alarm to the spiritual threat that the Galatians don’t see, in the same way that we would if we saw a friend stepping out into oncoming traffic. No time for pleasantries!

We are fascinated with the origins of things we love. Documentaries cover the history of a particular style of music. Or they tell us about the younger years of our heroes and how their formative experiences shaped their great accomplishments. Shows for “foodies” visit the restaurant that is the “original,” the first to serve a particular dish. In the first few verses of Galatians, Paul introduces one of the important themes of the letter: the origin of the gospel message. Paul contends that both the origin of the gospel and the origin of his apostleship are found in God alone.

Proverbs 8

Proverbs 7

Proverbs 6

Proverbs 5

Proverbs 4

Zechariah 14 is one of the hardest chapters in the Bible to interpret. Every good student of Scripture knows that there is one true interpretation for every passage. Hundreds of applications could come from a text, but only one accurate interpretation. The problem with this chapter is at least seven known interpretations are being taught in Christian circles, with dozens more variations of those known interpretations. It’s enough to make even the best of Bible teachers, like Martin Luther, throw their hands up in the air and say, “I don’t know.” Being 2500 years removed from this time period certainly makes things difficult, but chapter 14 is still “Godbreathed and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Corinthians 3:16). So let’s try our best.