As Jesus confronts a hypocritical way of praying in Matthew 6, he makes a profound statement about the relationship of kingdom disciples to the King when he begins his model prayer with the words, “Our Father.” To be sure, the concept of God’s fatherhood and the corresponding ideas of adoption and sonship do not originate in Jesus’ teaching. For example, Israel is called God’s firstborn son (Exod 4:22; Hos 11:1), and the Davidic king was designated God’s son (Ps 2:7). Neverth

In the second half of Matthew 5, Jesus lays out the relationship of the children of the kingdom to the law according to his own fulfillment of it. In the first half of Matthew 6, we encounter a further development of what it means to live in the kingdom according to Jesus’ fulfillment of the law, but these words are focused on a few important ways in which righteousness must be practiced perfectly. The first of these practices is giving to the needy, which stands as a concret

More than 2,000 elders gathered in Louisville, KY, for this year’s annual meeting of the Presbyterian Church in America from June 22 to 25. This is an important meeting for our denomination, as we gather to review the work of the past year and prepare for the future. The first two days are taken up with committee meetings and other preparations. The rest of the time is reserved for the business of the assembly. I served on the committee that reviewed the work of the PCA Admin

Among the antithetical sayings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus raises an issue with the marriage vow by quoting the words of Moses from Deut 24:1-4. Broadly speaking, the intent of those verses in Deuteronomy was not to establish divorce as normative but to highlight simultaneously the sanctity of marriage and the effective power of speech via marriage vows. If a man marries a woman but then divorces her, he cannot take her back, “for that is an abomination before

Many squirm at the mention and reality of hell. It is a hard pill to swallow, knowing that there will be a cohort of impenitent individuals who will experience the eternal judgement of God. To shirk such an idea, some would suggest that wrath, judgement, and punishment are found only “in the god of the Old Testament,” while assuming the New Testament presents a God only full of grace and a beloved teacher, Jesus. Yet, we hear of the doctrine of hell from the lips of Jesus mor

Having laid out a provocative sketch of the blessed life in the opening of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus then turns to foundational matters. The inward and outward characteristics of the blessed life correspond to the call for personal integrity and illuminating good works in the lives of those who follow Christ. That the Christian life is more than personal piety is made clear by our Lord when he calls his disciples to let their “light shine before others so that they may s

At the end of Matthew 4, we learned that Jesus had gathered a huge following as he preached, taught, and performed signs and wonders. Jesus’ residence in Capernaum, in Galilee of the Gentiles, signaled the dawning of the light of salvation on a land dwelling in deep darkness. His words brought light to his disciples as well as the great crowds and his works brought life to the masses as the domain of darkness was pushed back by the kingdom of light. By Jesus’ words and works,

As Matthew introduces us to the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry in Galilee, he presents the core of Jesus’ proclamation in continuity with that of the Messiah’s forerunner, John the Baptist: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt 5:17). At the same time, the unfolding of that message by Jesus will take a somewhat different course than John’s because Jesus brings the kingdom in himself with power. This is especially the case when we consider the summary of Je

Because we are not God, we will always wrestle with the problem of evil. Why does it exist? How did it come into existence? Indeed, why does the Holy Spirit drive Jesus into the wilderness for the express purpose of being subjected to evil, specifically the temptations of Satan (Matt 4:1)? There are at least two interrelated approaches to addressing this problem. The first approach recognizes that Jesus’ role as the mediator of the covenant of grace includes an element of spi

When John the Baptist objects to Jesus’ attempt to be baptized by him, Jesus responds, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matt 3:15 ESV). Jesus’ response is filled with wisdom and love, and the purpose of this reflection is to focus on the concept of fittingness. After all, Jesus could have said that it was necessary; he could have said that it was, for the sake of appearances, the right thing to do. Something different, though, is

It can seem as though preaching on John the Baptist’s preparatory message in Matthew 3 has parallels with a lame duck presidency. The new thing has already happened, so what is the benefit of giving space to the old? Of course, that line of thinking could be applied universally to the Old Testament—and that would be wrong—but it seems more pressing with John the Baptist because of the proximity of his ministry to Jesus’ ministry. Why not just skip John’s message of preparatio

Besides the fulfillment of Scripture, a secondary theme that weaves throughout Matthew 2:13-23 is the ordinary way in which the early life of Jesus unfolds. Especially when Luke’s birth narrative is considered alongside Matthew’s telling, we have no doubt that this child of Mary is expected to be someone great. But when the page is turned from the visit of the magi to the events in Matt 2:13-23, one may wonder why things seem to fall out in such an ordinary way. To be sure, t