BE CONCERNED WITH CHRIST

All of the scriptures are written to reveal one message: salvation in Christ. The Bible is not written to tell us how to have more of this world’s goods. It is written to reveal how to be saved from the world. The Bible is not written to tell us how to live a better life in this world. It is written to tell us how to die in faith in Christ. Then seek Christ in the scriptures. No one will ever have any understanding of the scriptures until they see that the message of the scriptures is Christ alone. This was the experience of the apostles. The Lord opened their understanding that they might understand the scriptures after He showed them that everything in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms was written concerning HIM. (Luke 24:44-45)

Entrusted with the Gospel

“But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts” (1 Thess. 2:4).

There is no greater responsibility than to have the gospel entrusted to us. Entrusted means “to give somebody responsibility for something.” God has given to some men and body of believers the responsibility of preaching the gospel of his glory, the declaration of the Person and work of Jesus Christ, God’s Son. We do not have the right to change any part of the gospel so as to make it less offensive, nor to use it for personal gain. But we are to preach it as it is, leaving the results to God alone. What a responsibility and yet what an honor. Let us always guard it with our very lives.

Pastor John Chapman

PHOEBE COMMENDED

“I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the church in Cenchrea, that you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and assist her in whatever business she has need of you; for indeed she has been a helper of many and of myself also.” (Paul the apostle in Romans 16:1)



Phoebe’s name means “radiant”. Truly she was. But not in the sense many might assume. Nor in the sense many unbelieving women desire to be. Rather, Phoebe was radiant with commendability to Christ’s people. God forbid that any woman among His people be uncommendable. But truly blessed is she whom Christ’s minister publicly commends to others. Phoebe was commendable for these reasons: 1. Phoebe was acknowledged by Christ’s minister as “our sister”. She had probably been born in paganism, for she was named for a Greek goddess. But she had forsaken paganism and joined herself to Christ through saving faith in Him, and was therefore a member of His family. 2. Phoebe was a “servant of the church in Cenchrea”. Cenchrea was a village at one of the harbors of Corinth. The church of Corinth evidently assembled in this village. Phoebe was a “servant” of this church. She did not merely have her name on the church roll, nor occupy a pew. Rather, she served Christ in His church. 3. Phoebe was declared by Christ’s minister to be “a helper of many and of myself also”. The Greek word here translated helper means “patroness, caring for the affairs of others and aiding them with her resources” (Thayer’s Greek Definitions). She was a patroness to many of Christ’s people, evidently cheerfully and voluntarily providing for their needs at her own expense. Phoebe therefore was certainly commendable to Christ’s saints in whatever place she visited. She was to be received worthily and assisted necessarily, treated according to her treatment to others. O that we might find many Phoebes in Christ’s churches!

Missionary Daniel Parks

The greatness of a man’s sins does but magnify the riches of God’s free grace. Sins are debts, and God can as easily blot out a debt of many thousands as He can a lesser one. Therefore, let not the greatest sinner despair, but believe; and he shall find that where sin hath abounded, there grace shall much more abound.