This early part of Paul’s letter to a young church contains a meaty prayer. He prays for us to bear fruit as the Spirit does his work in us.

What does fruitfulness look like where you live and work?

God has rescued us, but from what and for what purpose?

What does it mean to be a community built on faith, hope and love?

At the beginning of a new series, we explore these three ancient principles which became the foundation of the early church.

When a woman does something extravagant in the company of Jesus, his disciples are outraged.

Jesus, however, says she has done a beautiful thing that should be remembered for all time.

We are called to worship in all sorts of environments and contexts. It’s not always going to be easy and we may be misunderstood, but Jesus sees our hearts and accepts the offering we bring.

The last and, perhaps most important, question posed to Jesus was this: “What is the greatest commandment?”

Jesus’ response was clear and simple – Love God and love your neighbour.

You can’t love God without it resulting in love for people – the two are inseparable.

Jesus was challenged by all those who had authority and who had a stake in things staying the same as they were. Change would threaten them.

One of the groups that tried to trip him up were the Sadducees. They didn’t believe in resurrection, and so they asked him about it. It gave Jesus a chance to explore what life after death would really mean.

It’s the question that still matters to many of us.

The way he dealt with them also offers us an example for how to engage in the difficult questions.

The tax question was designed to see which side Jesus was on; the Romans, or the Jews.

But he sidesteps the question, because he’s building a new kingdom.

How does this help us in our workplaces?