Dr Paul Allen

Stained glass at St John the Baptist's Anglican Church http://www.stjohnsashfield.org.au, Ashfield, New South Wales. Illustrates Jesus' description of himself "I am the Good Shepherd" (from the Gospel of John, chapter 10, verse 11). This version of the image shows the detail of his face. The memorial window is also captioned: "To the Glory of God and in Loving Memory of William Wright. Died 6th November, 1932. Aged 70 Yrs." (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) There is an oft-neglected principle taught in the New Testament . I call it the principle of "graduated responsibility." This principle is taught by Jesus in Luke 12:48: "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded" ( NIV ). This saying is part of the parable of the faithful steward. It underscores the terms of the judgment the lord in the parable renders to his servants . The punishment meted out is given in direct proportion to the prior knowledge each servant had...

Image via Wikipedia " Henceforth I call you not servants ; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." ( John 15:15 )   Some things in Scripture are harder to understand and believe than others. Christ , the Sovereign Creator of all things, the offended Judge who declared the penalty for sin to be death, the One who willingly died to pay that penalty and redeem us from bondage to sin, now calls us His friends. Certainly we would like to consider Him our friend ; but are we really His friends? If He were telling someone about His friends, would He include us? Somehow this seems too much--too good to be true; but He insists it is.   Actually, Christ said, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you" ( John 15:16 ). We are His friends by conscious choice on His part, even though He knows more about our inward nature than we will admit to ourselves. He ha...