Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone. Hosea 4:17, ESV

Idolatry is the natural state of man. Left to themselves, people will worship or idolize someone or something. On the top of the list of those things we place on pedestals of idolatry is self. Professing Christians are not immune. They idolize Christian leaders, their churches, their doctrine, their liberty, their self-righteousness, their denomination, their particular translation of the Bible, and anything else they can view as something that gives them a sense of religious identity. Tragically, most see nothing wrong with this. Genuine Christianity has been supplanted by religiosity and there are only a few left who see the difference. We lament over the growing apostasy in the Church, but should we be surprised? View article →

¹⁶ For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. ¹⁷ For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” ¹⁸ we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. ¹⁹ And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, ²⁰ knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. ²¹ For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. 2 Peter 1:16–21

Several years ago one of the leaders of a cult attacked a friend using the comment section of her blog. He and other members of that cult attempted to shut her down by overwhelming her comment section. She asked me to help. I wasn’t much help, but I confronted the one doing the dirty work with some straightforward Biblical truth that directly contradicted what he and the leader of that cult were teaching and trying to force all Christians to follow. When I did that, they left her blog and attacked mine. Since I moderate comments it did not take very long to ascertain what was going on and to block them from doing the same thing to me that they had done to my friend’s blog. However, before I got that under control the leader of the cult had someone, probably several of his followers, go through the comments on my blog and get the email addresses of everyone who had commented against what they had been saying. They then began a very hateful email attack against me and those faithful friends who had done the very same thing I had done, which is respond to doctrinal error with Biblical Truth. View article →

¹⁹ Μὴ θησαυρίζετε ὑμῖν θησαυροὺς ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, ὅπου σὴς καὶ βρῶσις ἀφανίζει καὶ ὅπου κλέπται διορύσσουσιν καὶ κλέπτουσιν· ²⁰ θησαυρίζετε δὲ ὑμῖν θησαυροὺς ἐν οὐρανῷ, ὅπου οὔτε σὴς οὔτε βρῶσις ἀφανίζει καὶ ὅπου κλέπται οὐ διορύσσουσιν οὐδὲ κλέπτουσιν· ²¹ ὅπου γάρ ἐστιν ὁ θησαυρός σου, ἐκεῖ ἔσται καὶ ἡ καρδία σου. ²² Ὁ λύχνος τοῦ σώματός ἐστιν ὁ ὀφθαλμός. ἐὰν οὖν ᾖ ὁ ὀφθαλμός σου ἁπλοῦς, ὅλον τὸ σῶμά σου φωτεινὸν ἔσται· ²³ ἐὰν δὲ ὁ ὀφθαλμός σου πονηρὸς ᾖ, ὅλον τὸ σῶμά σου σκοτεινὸν ἔσται. εἰ οὖν τὸ φῶς τὸ ἐν σοὶ σκότος ἐστίν, τὸ σκότος πόσον. ²⁴ Οὐδεὶς δύναται δυσὶ κυρίοις δουλεύειν· ἢ γὰρ τὸν ἕνα μισήσει καὶ τὸν ἕτερον ἀγαπήσει, ἢ ἑνὸς ἀνθέξεται καὶ τοῦ ἑτέρου καταφρονήσει. οὐ δύνασθε θεῷ δουλεύειν καὶ μαμωνᾷ. Matt 6:19–24, NA28

¹⁹ “Do not store up for yourselves treasures upon the earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.  ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in nor steal;  ²¹ for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” ²² “The eye of the body is the eye. If, therefore, your eye is healthy, your whole body will be enlightened.  ²³ But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. If, therefore, the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” ²⁴ “No one is able to serve two masters; for either the one he will hate and the other he will love, or one he will hold to and the other he will despise. You are not able to serve God and mammon” Matt 6:19–24, translated from the NA28 Greek text

Our Lord Jesus was the most powerful and best expositor of God’s Word that believers have ever had. He spoke only the truth and he never taught anything from any motive other than that which is the will of God. We are to follow his example in every part of our lives. In the passage above, in v22, the word “healthy” translates the Greek adjective ἁπλοῦς (haplous). Is healthy a deep enough or strong enough definition for us to grasp what our Lord was teaching here? If we look at the context it is obvious that he is making a contrast between people with a “healthy eye of the body” with those who do not. What does this mean? View article →