Dr Paul Allen

In a world awash with information, we as believers desperately need wisdom. But what is it exactly? That is a surprisingly difficult question to answer simply. Based on the Bible, we can define wisdom as the ability to discern good from evil and apply knowledge, skill, and experience in order to live in right relationship with God and others within the world that God made. Let’s briefly unpack the elements of this definition.  Discern good from evil. Discernment refers to making distinctions. The most fundamental distinction is between good and evil, right and wrong. Yet oftentimes the hardest distinctions to make are between good, better, and best. Wisdom is the ability to make such distinctions, especially when the issue at hand is not one of obvious right from wrong.  Apply knowledge, skill, and experience. Wisdom is based on knowledge but goes beyond it. Skill refers to abilities that one acquires over an extended period of time. Experience provides the necessary perspecti...

I have to forgive someone who hasn't repented? Let's explain that Scripture points to two levels of forgiveness:  1. An unconditional heart posture that releases bitterness and entrusts the offender to God as judge,  2. A relational forgiveness that is granted when the offender repents.  Mark 11:25    And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” Romans 12:19  Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”[a] says the Lord.  Luke 17:3  “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them." Matthew 18:20-35  The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant 21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but sev...

Serve one another T he first three chapters of Ephesians have dealt with the theological argument that God has made us alive with Christ; that He has saved us by grace and that, therefore, Jews and Gentiles together are coheirs, members of the same body, partners in the promise of Christ; and that Paul is the proclaimer of this gospel. The Key Theme of Unity and Diversity In chapter 4, we see now the implications of these truths. In particular, 4:1–16 is really about how the church as a whole should live together and how the church will walk according to this unity that Christ has created in His own body. We’ll see that this body of Christ needs different body parts—that is, there is one body, a unified body, but there is diversity within the body; the body has different body parts. So the theme of unity and diversity is the key theme through Eph 4:1–16. The Structure of the Passage This passage is constructed in two parts. First, 1–6 is about walking in unity, really stressing the imp...

  This segment of Eph 4 is verses 4–6, where Paul says, “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope at your calling—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.” We can see that this passage is brought to us by the number 1; Paul is really emphasising the oneness of the body of Christ, the oneness of the church. Of course, this is an implication of much of the argument through chapters 2–3—Jew and Gentile being brought together [and] forming the one temple of God, the one building in which God would dwell by His Spirit. The Church as the Body of Christ So the oneness of God’s people has already been developed theologically. This is kind of a recap, emphasising the point in this chapter about the body of Christ. But it’s worth going through each of these elements that Paul lists. He says that “There is one body” in verse 4. In 1:22–23 he refers to Christ’s body as being the church, the people of G...

Here we have some of the most difficult and challenging verses of the Letter to the Ephesians in 4:7–10. Paul says, “Now grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of the Messiah’s gift. For it says: When He ascended on high, He took prisoners into captivity; He gave gifts to people. But what does ‘He ascended’ mean except that He descended to the lower parts of the earth? The One who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.” There are two difficult parts of this passage: first, verses 7–8 and what the quotation is all about from Psa 68; and then what on earth verses 9–10 is all about. The Reference to Psalm 68 First, the psalm. Paul is quoting from Psa 68:18. It’s important, whenever an OT citation is quoted in the NT, that we pause and think about the context of that passage because it’s been demonstrated that the NT authors often had the wider context in mind as they cited a particular text. So what is Psa 68 ab...

Martin Bucer (1491–1551) was among the first generation of Protestant Reformers, spending most of his ministerial life in Strasbourg and serving in later years as regius professor of divinity at the University of Cambridge.  This was his prayer:  Show me your grace and favour so that I may truly learn to hate my sins. Instead of lulling myself to sleep in sin, let me be so cast down in heart that I may confess with my mouth the honour, glory, and praise due to your holy name. In your great mercy, you instruct us by your holy word. For your name’s sake, then, allow your instruction to so lighten and clear our conscience that in due examination of all our holy life we may truly learn to be angry and displeased with all our former and corrupt living. Please draw near to us and guide our footsteps truly and perfectly in obedience to your holy laws and commandments. Send your holy angel to protect us; the enemy’s infernal army can never prevail against us. With strong faith in Jes...

 

 

 

“Without the Spirit we can neither love God, nor keep His commandments.”   The doctrine of the Holy Spirit is like any other mainline doctrine, both saturated with variety and overflowing with controversies. The Holy Spirit, being God, makes a rather unruly subject matter in that He is too incomprehensibly vast for us to tackle with full authority, especially in the brevity of this paper. As Clark Pinnock writes, In fact, of the themes of theology, the Spirit may be the most elusive of all. How does one speak at all of the power that enables us to know God? How can one put the Spirit-breath into a conceptual bottle? Yet, the graciously given presence of the Spirit is surely the most wonderful thing one experiences and that which brings God unspeakably close.  Yet scripture provides both a reasonable description of what the Holy Spirit’s interaction with His creation is, and what we might have as a standard expectation for our own understanding and teaching.  Regardin...