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The Sermon on the Mount is not Meant to Make You Feel Bad

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I’ve seen a general pattern in “Christ-centered” or “gospel-centered” Bible teaching, that preaching the gospel requires us to always make ourselves and others feel bad for our sin. That the gospel has not been preached unless we get to the conclusion that “We cannot do what this text is saying, but Jesus can and did, so let’s trust him.” I’ve contributed to this tendency in years past, and have come to see how this actually flattens the Scriptures, often using them in a way contrary to their stated intentions.

One key place where this tendency shows up is in studies on the Sermon on the Mount.

Kevin DeYoung has a wonderful piece, excerpted from a recent book, where he debunks — from the text itself — this way of reading Jesus’ most famous sermon.

If we approach the Sermon on the Mount only or mainly as a means by which we see our sinfulness, we’ve not taken the sermon on its own terms… We’ve turned the Sermon on the Mount into a giant spanking spoon—good for making you squeal in pain, but not a welcome instrument or a way of life. The Great Commission, then, becomes a summons to teach the nations everything Jesus has said—which, of course, they cannot do, and he doesn’t expect them to observe.

DeYoung then observes four ways in which the text points us “away from thinking Jesus means to give us an impossible discipleship plan.”

  1. Jesus presents us with bracing either/or options at several points in his sermon.
  2. Jesus understands that there is an already-and-not-yet dimension to our Christian walk.
  3. Woven into the fabric of Christ’s kingdom living is the expectation that we will need grace and forgiveness.
  4. The Sermon on the Mount is not an impossible standard, because pleasing Jesus is not impossible.

DeYoung observes the text carefully, following the sermon’s own logic, to free us from unnecessary guilt to walk in the joy of allegiance to the Lord Jesus. I highly commend his article to you.

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Top 10 Posts of 2023—Written in 2023

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Many bloggers take advantage of this time of the year to reflect on their most popular posts. Now we know there is a time to follow the crowd (Zech 8:23), and a time not to follow the crowd (Ex 23:2). And I believe the present time to be akin to the former and not the latter. So here we go.

This post lists the top 10 viewed posts this year, from among the posts we wrote this year. Next week, we’ll list the top 10 viewed posts from the full KW archive. May these lists enable you to be warm and well fed while you celebrate the season with joy and delight.

10. Can You Focus on the Bible Too Much?

Technically, this post wasn’t written in 2023. But I republished this older piece for a vacation week, and it got some attention. The easy answer to the title question is: of course you can—if you miss Jesus in the process. But the more difficult answer is that when you use the Bible properly it’s not possible to focus on it too much unless it’s also possible to focus on Jesus too much.

9. The Wisdom of Avoiding Strife

The first of five posts on Proverbs to make the list this year, this piece describes the many causes of strife. Knowing those causes enables you to do the first thing Proverbs recommends you do with strife: avoid it. This post is referring not to everyday disagreements, but to the sort of disagreements that look like knock-down, drag-em-out fights, that turn people into enemies of one another. The book of Proverbs refers to such situations as “strife.”

8. How to Prevent a Spiritually Dry December

This was another re-post for a vacation week, and it came quite late in the year, but it still made quite a splash. This post reminds us of why we study the Bible in the first place, offering some practical suggestions for the dark and difficult winter months.

7. Studying the Bible is not Code Breaking

Just as the title says, the Bible is not a secret code. God wants to be known, so he wrote to us plainly. This doesn’t mean the Bible is trivial or obvious. It takes serious work. But treating it like a code to crack is taking the easy — and foolish — way out.

6. Beware the Leech’s Daughters

Since the Bible is not a code, it’s obscure statements must be interpreted in light of the context and not some secret meaning. Proverbs 30:15a makes sense in light of what comes before and after it. Is it the rejection of ancient wisdom that causes the perpetual dissatisfaction of a generation of leeches? Such that, when you lose your grounding in the reality of God’s world, you have nothing left but to make increasing demands of the people and the world around you? The leech has two daughters. Not only in ancient Israel, but quite alive and well today.

5. What We Miss When We Skip the Book of Nehemiah

Ryan enjoys motivating people to give attention to the obscure parts of the Bible. In this post, he explains how Nehemiah can help us with prayer, God’s word, and money. You won’t want to miss that, so don’t skip it! For insight into other books you wouldn’t want to skip, see: Ezra, Lamentations, Numbers, and the Prophets.

4. Overcome Your Enemies by Dying

As a follow-up to #9 above, this post examines what Proverbs teaches about the sort of strife that can’t be avoided. When you have adopted the fundamental mindset that we can control only what we do and not what others do, there are five tactics that will help you to “win.” Warning: You’ll have to lose first.

3. 5 Misconceptions about Wealth

More help from Proverbs, to help us live well in the world God made. Let’s set aside these detrimental misconceptions, such as: It will make my problems go away. It’s something I ought to feel guilty about. It doesn’t matter whether someone has it or not.

2. The Problem with Proverbs

This year’s most-viewed post on the book of Proverbs describes the pain of trying to read and study this book of wisdom. It’s wild practicality blinds us to its covenantal context. The scattershot jumble of topics cause very little logical flow or coherence (at least, after chapter 9). And the widespread misconception that proverbs are not promises but only probabilities just needs to go, lest we fail to hear what the Proverbs are really saying. Studying this book along its natural contours yields a wealth of results, as it leads us to Jesus, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col 2:2-3).

1. Overlooked Details of the Red Sea Crossing

This most-read post from 2023 had nearly twice as many views as #2 on the list. By looking at four crucial ones in the narrative of Exodus 14, Ryan demonstrates why the details matter. In them we see God’s hands-on involvement in the crossing of the Red Sea. God rescued his people and closed the door to any possible return to Egypt. In tangible ways, the Lord fought for his people as he promised. When God sets out to deliver his people and gain glory for himself, he will make both happen.

Previous years’ top tens: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017

Sample Studies in Colossians

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Kyle Kennicott is teaching Colossians to his youth group, and he’s done us the favor of providing summaries of his messages. He shows how he broke down the text for the series, and for each passage he gives his main point, a brief summary, and chief applications.

I don’t share these sample studies with you so you can take them and teach the exact same message to your youth group or small group. Rather, I know many people need to see good examples of skillful Bible study to help them acquire the skills. And these examples are quite good.

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The Impact of the Old Testament on Colossians

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The writers of the New Testament were saturated in the text and worldview of the Old Testament. So instead of trying to figure things out for ourselves, we’re usually better served by picking up on not only the quotations but also the allusions to the Old Testament.

For example, in this article, G.K. Beale explains three OT allusions in the book of Colossians that are easy to miss.

  1. Col 1:6, 10 – alluding to Gen 1:28
  2. Col 1:9 – alluding to Ex 31:3, 35:31-32
  3. Col 3:16 – alluding to the superscripts of Psalms 67 and 76

Beale doesn’t merely observe these allusions. He also explains how they illuminate Paul’s argument in Colossians.

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Situating Amos

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The minor prophets can often seem distant and difficult. Yet God gave them to us for our growth in faith. So here is a wonderful overview of Amos by John Hartley to help you on your way.

What entrenched and multiplied transgressions brings the Lord to come against his own people? In a word, oppression. In more words, oppression of the poor by an unchecked appetite for luxury and leisure.

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Foundational Beliefs about the Bible

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What must you believe about the Bible in order to properly study the Bible? Joel Beeke and Michael Barrett suggest that we cannot avoid this question:

When we view the Scriptures through faith, we do so with a set of beliefs that we take for granted to be true. These presuppositions are essential and inevitable. It is absolutely impossible to come to the Bible with an open mind. Liberal scholars often claim they approach Scripture with an open mind in order to evaluate the Word of God and judge its accuracy. In reality they come with the presupposition that human reason is superior to divine revelation. That is not an open mind; it is a closed heart that evidences a mindset predisposed against God and truth. Man cannot stand as the judge of Scripture; Scripture stands as the judge of man. As believers, we must come with an open and receptive heart to receive and believe what God says.

And if we believe that God’s word is true, then we must also believe the things the Bible says about itself.

…every time we open the Scripture, we must do so with awe and reverence generated by the certain knowledge that the Bible is not an ordinary book but the very Word of the eternal God, whose veracity is beyond question or doubt. The Bible is not what men define it to be; it is what God declares it to be. Men can believe that or deny that, but they cannot alter that. The premise that the Bible is the inspired, authoritative, infallible, sufficient, and effective Word of God should be the foundation for the study of Scripture. All truth has its source in God and, consequently, His truth is universal and timeless. Although times change, truth is changeless. Although applications of truth can vary, truth is constant. This is good reason to make the Bible a subject for study.

In their brief article, Beeke and Barrett explain what it means for the Bible to be inspired, authoritative, infallible, sufficient, and effective. I commend their reflections to you.

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Why Memorize a Whole Book

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Beth Myers memorized the entire book of Romans and lived to tell us about it. She found the following benefits of such lengthy memorization:

  • Discovery of passages hidden in plain sight
  • Understanding of the Scripture
  • Weapon against anxiety
  • Love of Scripture
  • Duty becomes delight
  • Renewal of the mind
  • Keen sense of the love of Christ for me
  • A soaring of my spirit

Perhaps this is worth trying for yourself. Let Myers encourage you to consider it. Check it out!

How the Reformation Gave us the Bible

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Barry Waugh takes advantage of the anniversary of Martin Luther’s 95 theses to reflect on how the Reformation put the Bible into the hands of God’s people.

Owning Scripture was not only pricey but possession could lead to imprisonment or execution. Fourteenth-century forerunners of the Reformation such as John Wycliffe of England and one of his followers in Bohemia, Jan Hus, were persecuted for providing Bibles in the common language of their people. In the case of Hus, translation work contributed to the heresy case against him resulting in his execution at the stake. In the next century, William Tyndale was hunted down wherever he set up his printing press as he moved from place to place to clandestinely provide Scripture in English. He was eventually caught, strangled, and burned at the stake for publishing the Word in the vernacular. Lives were sacrificed for the translation and distribution of Scripture. If Wycliffe, Hus, and Tyndale could return to visit their homelands today they would likely be encouraged by the availability of the Word, especially with digital Bibles accessible on a variety of devices, but they would also be discouraged by the common indifference to and ignorance of Scripture.

Along with the history lesson comes some helpful advice regarding Bible reading.

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How God Directs His People in the Book of Numbers

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A few weeks ago, I finished reading the book of Number 20 times in a row. From that reading, my draft of the main point is “Yahweh sees his people through the wilderness, though not in a manner any of them hoped or expected.”

Douglas Allison recently posted an overview of Numbers, where he proposes a similar main point: “I have taught that the big idea of Numbers is that Yahweh is his people’s guide to the promised land.”

Allison defends his main point through an outline of the book and an explanation of benefits for reading the book.

As we read today, we can be confident that the same God who led the Israelites through the wilderness in Numbers is the same God who will see us home. Yahweh was Israel’s guide to the Promised Land. And he has not left us without a guide.

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Watch Out for Silly Putty Bible Study

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Consider the following scenario. What do you think could be the problem with it?

…a Christian woman who has been praying for her family’s conversion stumbles upon Acts 16 during her quiet time. Her eyes settle on Paul’s response to the Philippian jailer, who asked, “What must I do to be saved?” “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved,” Paul answered, then added, “you and your household” (vv. 29–31).

Encouraged by these words, the woman begins to claim the “promise” that her own household will be saved, with the justification that “the Holy Spirit gave me this verse.”

This situation comes from a wonderful article from Greg Koukl about how easy it is to treat the Bible like Silly Putty®—a squishy, doughy substance you make into any shape you want. Koukl’s analysis and counsel is very good.

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