Dr Paul Allen

In recent years, it’s become commonplace for employers to put underperforming employees on a performance improvement plan (PIP). Though the employee often interprets them as a sign that termination is inevitable, PIPs crystallize job expectations and highlight how a worker is falling short. This covers the employer in the event of termination and removes cause for accusation on the employee’s part. I considered this modern practice when I read Old Testament scholar Stephen Dempster’s observation about God’s law in his book Dominion and Dynasty:  “Israel is treated differently after [receiving the Ten Commandments at] Sinai. Pre-Sinai violations lead to reprimand; post-Sinai trespass[es] lead to death.” Dempster wouldn’t call the law a PIP, but he observes one sense in which it functions similarly: it clearly reveals where Israel has fallen short of God’s standard. It shows them where they haven’t lived up to God's required performance. But we’re in trouble if that’s our entire pers...

Jesus was pretty stern in his treatment of the Pharisees. In contrast to his usual gentleness, he rebuked them in the hardest, most offensive terms on multiple occasions. Matt 15, 7-9: “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:  ‘“These people honour me with their lips,  but their hearts are far from me.  They worship me in vain;  their teachings are merely human rules.” Matt 23, 15-33: “Woe to you, law teachers and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are…Woe to you, blind guides…you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices – mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law – justice, mercy and faithfulness…You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel…You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of t...

Rev. Roland Mathew The Apostle Paul faced a crucial moment in his missionary endeavours when a number of men came to the church in Antioch from the church in Jerusalem. Their arrival in Antioch triggered a stunning reaction from the Jews who had been amiably fellowshiping and feasting with their gentile brothers and sisters. Immediately upon the arrival of these men from the church in Jerusalem, the Jews who had previously enjoyed table fellowship with their peers in Antioch began to separate themselves.  Alarmingly, among their number were the Apostle Peter and Barnabas, who had been Paul’s co-labourer on his gentile mission. Paul was scandalized by their behaviour, and he recounts this event and his response to the Jews who had separated from their gentile brothers and sisters in Galatians 2:11–21. This was a watershed moment in the life of the early church. What is the basis for table fellowship between Jews and Gentiles? What were the conditions that would enable people who wer...

The Works of the Law by  Thomas R. Schreiner, Graham A. Cole, Oren R. Martin The apostle Paul emphasizes that we are not justified by “works” or the “works of the law,” the question before us is what Paul means when he speaks this way. Paul emphasizes that we don’t receive the Spirit and aren’t justified by the works of the law (Gal. 2:16; Gal. 3:2, 5, 10; Rom. 3:20, 28). The works of the law refer to the entire law.  The New Perspective on Paul argues that the works of the law focus on boundary markers like circumcision, food laws, and Sabbath, but it is more natural to think that the entire law is in view. This is supported by Galatians 3:10, “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.’”  Paul emphasizes here that we must do everything written in the law to be justified, and thus works of the law more naturally refer to the fundamental law. T...

Do you know God? Do you have the assurance that you have eternal life? Knowing that we know God is paramount because salvation ultimately can be boiled down to this one thing: knowing God. In John 17, Jesus, before going to the cross, was praying to the Father for His disciples – both those present at that time and those who would believe in future generations through the preaching of the apostolic word of the gospel. In verse 3, Jesus defines eternal life for us, praying,  “This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” “Eternal life” is a phrase used forty-one times in the New Testament. And in John 17, we see what it means: to know God the Father and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Eternal life is not merely to live forever and never die. It includes that, of course, by definition. But eternal life is not simply an eternal existence of isolation or independence. It is eternal life in a relationship with God. It is a life th...

Paul planted a church community in the city of Corinth, about fifty miles west of Athens, Greece. He was a spiritual father to the believers there, the one who first brought them the gospel. That’s why he was so jealous of their spiritual well-being, bringing both correction and encouragement in his letters to them. In the first of those letters, he wrote,  “Because of God’s grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 3:10–11, NLT). Faith in Something Other Than Jesus But what happens if a faulty foundation is laid? What if people build their faith on someone other than Jesus and something other than the gospel? What then? The results will be disastrous, and sooner or later a collapse will occur. That’s why Jesus was not impressed with the large crowds that followed Him. He was ...

Yes or No? If most Christians were asked if they should keep the Ten Commandments, they would answer, “Of course!” Fundamentally, that answer is correct and reflects the wisdom of the ages, the wisdom that has been passed on from the early church to our own day. And yet the question is more complex than it appears at first glance. As the subtitle of this article implies, the Ten Commandments (literally the “Ten Words” in Hebrew) must be understood in light of the covenant in which they were given. The Ten Commandments must be read in context, and that means they must be read in a covenantal context. God’s Covenants with His People The Ten Commandments were given to Israel on Mount Sinai (Exodus 20:1–17), when Yahweh instituted a covenant with the people of Israel after delivering them from Egypt. These commands were repeated again in Deuteronomy 5 before they were about to enter the Promised Land. The Ten Words were given to Israel in a gracious context since Yahweh had borne them “on ...

  “At the beginning of the year, I wrote down every rule, every guideline, every suggestion, every nugget of advice I could find in the Bible. It’s a very long list. It runs 72 pages. More than 700 rules. Some rules were wise, some completely baffling. Some were baffling at first, then wise. Some were wise first then baffling. Here, some of the highlights, broken down by category. MOST UNEXPECTEDLY WISE AND LIFE-ENHANCING RULES ·       Keep the sabbath . As a workaholic (I check my emails in the middle of movies), I learned the beauty of an enforced pause in the week. No cell phones, no messages, no thinking about deadlines. It was a bizarre and glorious feeling. As one famous rabbi called it, the sabbath is a “sanctuary in time.” ·       “Let your garments be always white ” Ecclesiastes 9:8. I chose to follow this literally – I wore white pants, a white shirt and a white jacket. This was one of the best things I did all year. I felt lighter...

Do Old Testament commands apply today?  1) Theologians have divided the Old Testament laws into moral, ceremonial, and civil law, 2) We are bound by some commands because they are moral principles, 3) We do not follow civil and ceremonial laws, rather we have to recognize that “God had a moral principle that he was applying to a specific society” and then in order to apply those laws to ourselves we have to “stop and ask what is the moral principle that God was applying into that world, and then figure out how do I apply that moral principle into my world today” and 4) Figuring out the moral principle for today is a “harrowing and messy process” because “there is nothing in the Bible that marks the law as moral or ceremonial or civil, we just have to figure it out” and by studying the Bible we can understand what “would God have us do with this particular command.” There is a process for figuring out what God wants us to do in obedience to him -  that is neither ...

How the OT law should be applied was one of the most debated issues during the ministry of Jesus and in the early church. The Jewish authorities constantly were offended by Jesus’ actions and teachings on the law (for example, see Matt 12:1–8). The early church had a major disagreement over whether circumcision should be required of Gentile Christians (Acts 15). Paul even had to warn against useless quarrels about the law (Titus 3:9). Law in the Teaching of Jesus. The popular notion that Jesus set aside the OT law is wrong, in Matthew 5:17 Jesus stated explicitly that He did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it. The discussions of the law in Matthew 5:20–48 show that obeying the law is not accomplished by some external act . Rather, obedience to the law of God includes the “heart,” what people think and feel at the core of their being. Jewish teachers understood the focus of the law to be on proper religious observances and on separation from unclean foods a...