God calls us never to do anything—however legitimate in itself—that could cause a brother or sister in Christ to stumble. That’s the principle. If the strong ignore the warning and insist on their right to eat meat, they will (among other things) “distress” (14:15), “tear down” (14:20), and even “destroy” a brother or sister in Christ.

It is sometimes said that all sins are equal in the sight of God, but it is not true. Some sins are more grievous than others. In referring to Jesus’ warning in Matt 18:6 about causing “one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble”, Warfield describes the offence as “a sin almost too great for words.”

In the previous post, I sketched Paul’s argument in Romans 14-15. In this post and the next, I will ask, “Why do disputable matters matter so much to God? What did Paul think was at stake?”

In this post I will seek to trace Paul’s argument in Rom 14-15. I will not get into detailed exegesis. At the same time, I want to do more than just note Paul’s basic thesis. So neither a birds-eye view, nor a detailed mapping of the terrain; more like tracing the contour lines of the argument.

In Romans 14:1–15:13, Paul gives pastoral counsel to the house churches of Rome, with the aim of bringing joyful unity where there is presently judgmentalism and division. It is a masterpiece of pastoral instruction.

This post starts a short series of reflections on these chapters, with a particular eye to where we can easily go astray in either our interpretation or application of Paul’s teaching.

Several years ago, in about 2009-10, I read three books on the Rwandan Genocide. I can’t remember what prompted me to engage such a grim topic at the time—perhaps it was watching Hotel Rwanda—but I remember the gloom that settled over my soul for days afterwards.

Towards the end of Romans 1, the apostle Paul shows the horrific consequences of humanity turning away from God and his truth. People embrace a lie based on the distorted desires of the heart. As punishment, God gives them what they want, or as Paul puts it, “hands them over” (vv. 24, 26, 28) to their desires and allows them to reap the fruit of their folly.

In 1 Samuel 3:13, God explains to the boy Samuel that he will hold Eli to account, not for what he has done personally, but for what he has allowed to continue under his watch:

“And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them.” (ESV, my emphasis)

As is often observed, when the apostle John speaks of the eternal Word becoming flesh, and “taking up residence” or “pitching a tent” among us, he is alluding to Israel’s time in the desert, where God once dwelt among his people in the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting.

Abuse NDAs (Non-Disclosure Agreements) are an offence to God, and an assault on the dignity of his image bearers. Here are ten reasons why.

As is often the way in the Bible, our attention is drawn to insignificant people who find themselves at the centre of God’s purposes for the world. This is the first and the last that we hear of the Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah.

The sixth instalment in a series on Matthew 7:15-23, continuing to think about what it means to recognise wolves by their fruit (Matthew 7:16, 20). This post considers how the fruit test gets misapplied as a performance test.