Wednesday in the Word

When talk of “true and false believers” starts to hit close to home, it is easy to quietly panic: What if I’m not really saved? 

In this episode on 1 John 2:12–17, we watch John pause his warnings long enough to reassure his readers that he sees real faith in them—little children, young men, and fathers—and then urge them not to give their hearts to a world that is already passing away. 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• Why John’s strong words about sin and righteousness can make sincere Christians feel spiritually “sick,” and how he comforts them by pointing to their genuine faith
• What John means by “little children,” “young men,” and “fathers”—not stages of life, but stages of spiritual maturity, from new believers to long-tested saints
• How each group is encouraged: forgiven children who know the Father, steadfast fathers who know the One “from the beginning,” and strong young believers who have “overcome the evil one”
• Why the real battleground of the Christian life is faith—persevering trust in Christ—rather than flawless performance or religious achievement
• What it means not to “love the world”: choosing God’s values over the culture’s, resisting the pull of “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life”
• How John’s reminder that “the world is passing away” reorders our priorities, from careers, causes, and accomplishments toward the lasting work of knowing and loving the Father

After listening, you’ll come away with a steadier assurance that real faith can exist alongside weakness, immaturity, and struggle—and that God treasures the simple, persevering trust of His people. You’ll be invited to loosen your grip on the trophies and pressures of this age, to ask God first and most for a stronger faith, and to build your life on what will endure when the world and its desires are gone.

Series: 1 John: Discerning the True Gospel

Most people fail at Bible study because no one ever taught them how. Bible Study Boot Camp fixes that: one short email a day for a week, plus a worksheet you can use on any passage for the rest of your life.

Sign up for Bible Study Boot Camp

When Christians disagree, how do we know which issues are essential and which ones we can hold more loosely? In this episode on 1 John 2:1–11, we look at how John helps us sort through that question by pointing to two non-negotiables: who Jesus is and how we understand sin and righteousness. Along the way, we see how Jesus, our righteous Advocate and the propitiation for our sins, anchors both our assurance and our call to obedience. 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• Why not every doctrinal disagreement is “make or break,” and why our view of Jesus and our view of sin sit at the very center of the Christian faith
• How John’s description of Jesus as our Advocate and “propitiation” offers comfort when we sin and guards us from turning grace into a license to sin
• The different ways Christians have understood the scope of the atonement—and how John’s main point is that there is only one way of salvation for the whole world through Christ
• What it means to abide in Christ
• How the “old” and “new” commandment of love brings clarity to the law and exposes the emptiness of any claim to be in the light while hating a brother or sister
• The marks of saving faith: honest awareness of our sin, hunger for righteousness, humility before God, and trust that He will make us holy through the blood of Christ
• Practical implications for church life: valuing inward repentance over outward religiosity, loving people more than programs, and engaging disagreements with seriousness and charity

After listening, you’ll come away with a clearer framework for which issues you cannot compromise on and which ones you can discuss with patience and respect. You’ll be invited to rest in Jesus’ ongoing advocacy when you fail, to renew your desire to keep His commandments, and to love fellow believers as fellow sinners walking the same narrow but hopeful path toward the life God has promised. 

Series: 1 John: Discerning the True Gospel

Most people fail at Bible study because no one ever taught them how. Bible Study Boot Camp fixes that: one short email a day for a week, plus a worksheet you can use on any passage for the rest of your life.

Sign up for Bible Study Boot Camp

1 John 1:5–10 brings us face to face with a hard but hopeful truth: God is pure light, and we are not. In this episode, we look at what it really means to “walk in the light,” why genuine Christians are honest about their sin, and how confession is grounded not in guilt or fear but in trust that God is faithful to forgive. 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• Why self-help strategies can’t change our hearts, and why true transformation requires God’s Spirit reshaping how we see reality
• What John means when he says “God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all,” and how that anchors a high view of holiness and truth
• The contrast between “walking in the light” and “walking in darkness” as a pattern of life, not a moment-by-moment scorecard of perfection
• How false gospels minimize sin—whether through spiritual elitism, license to indulge, or the illusion that we’re basically good people
• What it looks like to take sin seriously without despair: confessing our sinfulness, trusting Christ’s blood to cleanse us, and resting in God’s faithful, just forgiveness
• A simple four-part definition of saving faith that holds together our awareness of sin, our hunger for righteousness, and our confidence in Christ

After listening, you’ll come away with a clearer understanding of why Christians must never deny or downplay sin—and why, at the same time, we have every reason to face it without fear. You’ll be invited to examine the overall direction of your life, to renew your hope in God’s promise to forgive and cleanse, and to walk in the light with a deeper, steadier confidence in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Series: 1 John: Discerning the True Gospel

Most people fail at Bible study because no one ever taught them how. Bible Study Boot Camp fixes that: one short email a day for a week, plus a worksheet you can use on any passage for the rest of your life.

Sign up for Bible Study Boot Camp

The opening verses of 1 John confront a question that feels very modern: in a world full of persuasive, polished, and competing voices, whose message about Jesus can you trust? 

In this episode, we look at 1 John 1:1–4, where the apostle John grounds the Christian gospel in eyewitness testimony and a clear purpose: to proclaim the “word of life” so that believers might share true fellowship with God and one another. 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• How our culture’s obsession with charisma, credentials, youth, and appearance affects whom we listen to—even in the church 
• The historical moment behind 1 John: an aging apostle, rising heresies, and a confused younger generation trying to sort out competing claims about Jesus 
• What John means by “the word of life” and why 1 John emphasizes life in the age to come rather than spiritual success in the present age 
• The difference between “testifying” and “proclaiming,” and how both reveal the unique authority of the apostles as eyewitnesses commissioned by Christ 
• How John links the true gospel to fellowship and joy—sharing in the life of the Father and the Son, not just belonging to a religious community 
• Why the gospel is not a program for building a utopian society, yet still radically shapes how believers love, give, and endure in a broken world 

After listening, you’ll come away with a clearer sense of which voices about Jesus carry real authority and why John insists we measure every message by its source and substance. You’ll be invited to rest in the promise of eternal life in the final age, to pursue a quiet, faithful life of obedience here and now, and to entrust the task of “saving the world” to God rather than to your own exhausted efforts. 

Series: 1 John: Discerning the True Gospel

Most people fail at Bible study because no one ever taught them how. Bible Study Boot Camp fixes that: one short email a day for a week, plus a worksheet you can use on any passage for the rest of your life.

Sign up for Bible Study Boot Camp

Peter closes 2 Peter with a sobering and hopeful vision: this world as we know it will end, Christ will return, and God will make a new creation where righteousness truly dwells. In this episode on 2 Peter 3:10–18, we explore how the promise of the “day of the Lord” is meant not to fuel speculation, but to shape how we live right now—awake, repentant, and eager for the kingdom to come. 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• What the Bible means by “the day of the Lord,” how the Old Testament sometimes uses it for past interventions and how the New Testament uses it for the final judgment and Christ’s return
• Peter’s image of the day of the Lord coming “like a thief,” and why Jesus and Paul use the same picture to call believers to constant readiness rather than last-minute scrambling
• How Peter’s language of fire, dissolving heavens, and exposed works functions—whether literal or metaphorical—as a picture of total, final judgment on sin and a complete remaking of creation
• The promise of “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells,” and how Peter stands in continuity with Isaiah’s vision of a renewed, enduring creation where God’s people are finally at home
• Why our future hope is not just “living forever,” but being morally transformed—freed from corruption so that we share God’s holy character
• How this future hope drives the present call: “what sort of people ought you to be?” in lives of holiness, godliness, peace, and repentance rather than complacency
• Peter’s reminder that God’s “delay” is mercy, and his echo of Paul’s teaching about patience, judgment, and salvation—along with the warning that some twist Paul’s words (and Scripture as a whole) to justify lawlessness
• The danger of being “carried away with the error of lawless people” versus the lifelong call to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”
• The letter’s three major themes: the certainty of Christ’s return, the moral transformation at the heart of Christian hope, and the way that hope reorients our priorities, desires, and choices today

By the end of the episode, you’ll see 2 Peter 3:10–18 not as abstract end-times speculation, but as a clear call to live with your eyes on the horizon. You’ll be invited to weigh your current path in light of where it leads, to treat sin as something to repent of rather than to manage, and to anchor your life in the promise that Christ will return, creation will be made new, and those who trust Him will finally live in a world where righteousness truly reigns.

Series: 2 Peter: How to find Life

Most people fail at Bible study because no one ever taught them how. Bible Study Boot Camp fixes that: one short email a day for a week, plus a worksheet you can use on any passage for the rest of your life.

Sign up for Bible Study Boot Camp