Advanced Commentary
Texts -- Acts 5:1-13 (NET)
Pericope
NET
- Act 5:1-11 -- The Judgment on Ananias and Sapphira
- Act 5:12-16 -- The Apostles Perform Miraculous Signs and Wonders
Bible Dictionary
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Sapphira
[ebd] beautiful, the wife of Ananias (q.v.). She was a partner in his guilt and also in his punishment (Acts 5:1-11).
[isbe] SAPPHIRA - sa-fi'-ra (shappira'; Aramaic for either "beautiful" or "sapphire"; Sappheira): Wife of Ananias (Acts 5:1-10). See ANANIAS, (1).
[nave] SAPPHIRA, wife of Ananias. Deceit and death of, Acts 5:1-10.
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Ananias
[ebd] a common Jewish name, the same as Hananiah. (1.) One of the members of the church at Jerusalem, who conspired with his wife Sapphira to deceive the brethren, and who fell down and immediately expired after he had uttered the...
[smith] (whom Jehovah has graciously given) A high priest in (Acts 23:2-5; 24:1) He was the son of Nebedaeus. He was nominated to the office by Herod king of Chalcis in A.D. 48; was deposed shortly before Felix left the province and...
[nave] ANANIAS 1. High priest, before whom Paul was tried, Acts 23:2-5; 24:1; 25:2. 2. A greedy member of church at Jerusalem. Lies and death of, Acts 5:1-11. 3. A Christian in Damascus, Acts 9:10-18; 22:12-16.
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Burial
[isbe] BURIAL - ber'-i-al (qebhurah; compare New Testament to entaphidsai): I. IMMEDIATE BURIAL CONSIDERED URGENT 1. Reasons for This 2. The Burial of Jesus 3. The Usual Time 4. Duties of Next of Kin II. PREPARATIONS FOR BURIAL 1. ...
[nave] BURIAL Rites of, Jer. 34:5. Soon after death, Deut. 21:23; Josh. 8:29; John 19:38-42; Acts 5:9, 10. With spices, 2 Chr. 16:14; Mark 16:1; Luke 23:56. Bier used at, 2 Sam. 3:31; Luke 7:14. Attended by relatives and friend...
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Church
[nave] CHURCH, the collective body of believers. Miscellany of Minor Sub-Topics Called in the O.T., The Congregation, Ex. 12:3, 6, 19, 47; 16:1, 2, 9, 10, 22; Lev. 4:13, 15; 10:17; 24:14. Called in the N.T., Church, Matt. 16:18; ...
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LIE; LYING
[isbe] LIE; LYING - li, (sheqer (usually, e.g. Isa 9:15; Zec 13:3), or kazabh verb (Job 34:6; Mic 2:11); pseudos (Jn 8:44; Rev 21:27), "to speak falsely," "to fabricate," "to make a false statement"; pseudomai, in Acts 5:3,1): 1. L...
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COVETOUSNESS
[isbe] COVETOUSNESS - kuv'-et-us-nes: Has a variety of shades of meaning determined largely by the nature of the particular word used, or the context, or both. Following are some of the uses: (1) To gain dishonestly (batsa`), e.g. ...
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Peter
[nave] PETER Called also Simon Bar-jona and Cephas, Matt. 16:16-19; Mark 3:16; John 1:42. A fisherman, Matt. 4:18; Luke 5:1-7; John 21:3. Call of, Matt. 4:18-20; Mark 1:16-18; Luke 5:1-11. His wife's mother healed, Matt. 8:14; M...
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Vows
[nave] VOWS Mosaic laws concerning, Lev. 23:37, 38; Num. 29:39. Must be voluntary, see below. Must be performed, see below. Estimation of the redemption price of things offered in vows, to be made by the priest, according to age a...
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PETER, THE FIRST EPISTLE OF
[isbe] PETER, THE FIRST EPISTLE OF - || I. CANONICITY OF 1 PETER 1. External Evidence 2. Internal Evidence II. THE ADDRESS Silvanus III. PLACE AND TIME OF COMPOSITION 1. Babylon: Which? 2. Babylon Not Rome IV. DESIGN 1. Persecution...
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Hypocrisy
[nave] HYPOCRISY. Job 8:13-15; Job 13:16; Job 15:31, 33, 34; Job 17:8; Job 20:4, 5 vs. 6-18.; Job 27:8-10 vs. 13-18.; Job 31:33, 34; Job 34:30; Job 36:13, 14; Psa. 5:9; Psa. 50:16, 17; Psa. 52:4; Psa. 55:12-14, 20, 21, 23; Psa. 78...
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Community
[nave] COMMUNITY. Acts 2:44, 45; Acts 4:32, 34-37; Acts 5:1-10
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Lies and Deceits
[nave] LIES AND DECEITS Ex. 23:1; Lev. 6:2-7; Lev. 19:11, 12, 16 Ex. 20:16. Job 13:4; Job 21:34; Job 27:4; Job 31:5, 6, 33; Job 36:4; Psa. 5:6, 9; Psa. 10:7; Psa. 12:2, 3; Psa. 28:3; Psa. 31:18; Psa. 34:13 1 Pet. 3:10. Psa. 36:3; P...
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ANANIAS (1)
[isbe] ANANIAS (1) - an-a-ni'-as (Ananias; Westcott and Hort, The New Testament in Greek, Hananias; chananyah, "Yah has been gracious"): The name was common among the Jews. In its Hebrew form it is frequently found in the Old Testa...
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Judgments of God
[ebd] (1.) The secret decisions of God's will (Ps. 110:5; 36:6). (2.) The revelations of his will (Ex. 21:1; Deut. 6:20; Ps. 119:7-175). (3.) The infliction of punishment on the wicked (Ex. 6:6; 12:12; Ezek. 25:11; Rev. 16:7), suc...
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Women
[nave] WOMEN Creation of, Gen. 1:27; 2:21, 22. Named, Gen. 2:23. Fall of, and curse upon, Gen. 3:1-16; 2 Cor. 11:3; 1 Tim. 2:14. Promise to, Gen. 3:15. Had separate apartments in dwellings, Gen. 24:67; 31:33; Esth. 2:9, 11. Ve...
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TEXT AND MANUSCRIPTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
[isbe] TEXT AND MANUSCRIPTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT - || I. SOURCES OF EVIDENCE FOR THE TEXT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 1. Autographs of the New Testament Writers 2. Papyrus Fragments of the Greek New Testament 3. Greek Copies or Manuscript...
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Death
[nave] DEATH. Called in some versions &ld;Giving Up the Ghost,&rd; Gen. 25:8; 35:29; Lam. 1:19; Acts 5:10. King of Terrors Job 18:14. A Change Job 14:14. Going to your Fathers Gen. 15:15; 25:8; 35:29. Putting Off This Tabe...
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PAPYRUS
[isbe] PAPYRUS - pa-pi'-rus (Cyperus papyrus; bublos, biblos, whence biblion, a roll, ta biblia, "the Books" = the Bible): 1. Papyrus Paper 2. Egyptian Papyri 3. Aramaic Papyri 4. Greek Papyri 5. Their Discovery. 6. Classical Papyr...
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Land
[nave] LAND Appeared on third creative day, Gen. 1:9. Original title to, from God, Gen. 13:14-17; 15:7; Ex. 23:31; Lev. 25:23. Bought and sold, Gen. 23:3-18; 33:19; Acts 4:34; 5:1-8. Sale and redemption of, laws concerning, Lev....
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DEAD
[isbe] DEAD - ded (muth; nekros): Used in several senses: (1) as a substantive, denoting the body deprived of life, as when Abraham speaks of burying his dead (Gen 23); (2) as a collective noun including all those that have passed ...
Arts
Questions
- That's an excellent question. First of all, we're dealing with the primitive church and its own descriptions of the offices of church leaders. In other words, in Titus and elsewhere in the NT when we read of "elders" we...
- The answer to this question revolves around the fact of the two natures of Christ. If he had been just a sinless man, then his destiny would have been that of Adam and all the rest of humanity, but due to the fact He was also...
- God does not tempt any one. He may permit us to be placed in positions where, if left to our own resources, we would fall; but he does not tempt us to evil. Eve said, "The serpent beguiled me." (See Gen. 3:1,4,5,13.) She yiel...
Sermon Illustrations
General;
Wealthy People in the New Testament;
Strategies of Satan with Believers;
Trinity Explained;
2 Corinthians 2:11;
Acts of Satan
Resources/Books
Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable)
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One of the remarkable features of chapters 8 and 9 is the obedience of Moses and Aaron to God's commands (cf. 8:4, 9, 13, 17, 21, 29, 36; 9:5, 7, 10, 21). In chapter 10 there is a notable absence of these references. The care...
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God worded this commandment differently from what we might expect. He might have said, "Thou shalt not lie."The wording indicates the emphasis, which was specifically bearing false witness, namely, character assassination, an...
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Israelites were not to become or to dedicate their children as cult prostitutes as the Canaanites did. They were not to offer to God money earned by prostitution to pay for a vow to Him either. The "dog"(v. 18) was a male san...
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At Jericho, Israel learned God's strength. At Ai, she learned her own weakness. She could only conquer her enemies as she remained faithful to God's covenant."We are never in greater danger than right after we have won a grea...
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Baale-judah (v. 2) may have been the later name of Kiriath-jearim (cf. Josh. 15:9-10).76This was where the ark had evidently rested since the Israelites had moved it from Bethshemesh in Samuel's days (1 Sam. 6; cf. Ps. 132:6-...
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Jeremiah's symbolic act of wearing a yoke led to another symbolic act, the breaking of that yoke. Jeremiah's act brought a false prophet into direct confrontation with the true prophet.28:1 The following event took place in t...
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11:1 The Spirit next lifted Ezekiel up in his vision and transported him to the east (main) gate of the temple courtyards where God's glory had moved (cf. 10:19). There the prophet saw 25 of the governing leaders of the peopl...
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18:30 In closing, God promised to judge each Israelite according to his or her own conduct. He urged His people to turn from their transgressions of His law so their sins would not prove to be what tripped them up as they jou...
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3:5 The Lord also had a message concerning the false prophets who were misleading His people. The false prophets gave benedictions to those who paid them, but people who did not give them anything received maledictions of doo...
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16:18 "I say to you"(cf. 5:18, 20, 22, 28, 32, 34, 39, 44; 8:10) may imply that Jesus would continue the revelation the Father had begun. However the phrase occurs elsewhere where that contrast is not in view. Undoubtedly it ...
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Luke's narration of this miracle focuses on the response of the Samaritan whom Jesus healed. It is not so much a story that he intended to show Jesus' divine identity, though it does that. It is rather another lesson for the ...
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Luke omitted the story of Jesus' anointing in Bethany (Matt. 26:6-13; Mark 14:3-9; John 12:2-8). He had already narrated a similar event that happened on another occasion (7:36-50). By his omission Luke allowed the story of t...
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Following Jesus' announcement of His self-sacrifice and the announcement of His betrayal, the disciples' argument over who of them was the greatest appears thoroughly inappropriate (cf. Matt. 20:17-28; Mark 10:32-45). Jesus u...
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More than once Jesus used His Sabbath activities to make the Jews consider who He was (cf. Matt. 12:1-14; Mark 2:23-3:6; Luke 13:10-17; 14:1-6). Here He wanted them to realize that He had the right to work on the Sabbath as H...
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10:22-23 "At that time"(NASB) is a general reference to the proximity of the feast of Dedication and the events narrated in the previous pericope. It does not mean that the events in the preceding section occurred exactly bef...
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The scene now shifts from the region near Bethany of Perea (1:28; 10:40) to the Bethany in Judea. Both towns became sites where people believed on Jesus.11:17 There is some evidence that the later Jewish rabbis believed that ...
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Longenecker identified five phenomena about the structure of Acts that the reader needs to recognize to appreciate what Luke sought to communicate."1. It begins, like the [Third] Gospel, with an introductory section of distin...
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I. The witness in Jerusalem 1:1-6:7A. The founding of the church 1:1-2:461. The resumptive preface to the book 1:1-52. The command to witness 1:6-83. The ascension of Jesus 1:9-114. Jesus' appointment of a twelfth apostle 1:1...
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The key to the apostles' successful fulfillment of Jesus' commission was their baptism with and consequent indwelling by the Holy Spirit. Without this divine enablement they would only have been able to follow Jesus' example,...
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The Holy Spirit's descent on the day of Pentecost inaugurated a new dispensation in God's administration of the human race.78Luke featured the record of the events of this day to explain the changes in God's dealings with hum...
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2:37 The Holy Spirit used Peter's sermon to bring conviction, as Jesus had predicted (John 16:8-11). He convicted Peter's hearers of the truth of what he said and of their guilt in rejecting Jesus. Their question arose from t...
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Luke now moved from describing what took place on a particular day to a more general description of the life of the early Jerusalem church (cf. 4:32-5:11; 6:1-6). Interestingly he gave comparatively little attention to the in...
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Luke recorded the events of this section (3:1-6:7) to document the continued expansion of the church and to identify the means God used to produce growth. In chapters 3-5 the emphasis is on how the Christians' witness brought...
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In chapters 4-7 there is a series of similar confrontations with each one building up to the crisis of Stephen's death and the persecution that followed. The first four verses of chapter 4 conclude the incident recorded in ch...
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Luke now gave a specific instance of what he had just described in verses 34 and 35. This reference to Barnabas is significant because it introduces him to the reader. Barnabas becomes a major character in Acts later. Further...
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5:1-2 "But"introduces another sacrificial act that looked just as generous as Barnabas' (4:37). However in this case the motive was quite different. Ananias' Jewish name means "Yahweh is gracious,"and Sapphira's Aramaic name ...
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5:7 The answers to questions such as whether someone tried to find Sapphira to tell her of Ananias' death lay outside Luke's purpose in writing. He stressed that she was as guilty as her husband and so experienced the same fa...
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God's power manifest through the apostles in blessing (3:1-26) as well as in judgment (5:1-11) made an increasingly powerful impact on the residents of Jerusalem. The Jewish leaders increased their opposition to the apostles ...
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This pericope is another of Luke's summaries of conditions in the church that introduces what follows (cf. 2:42-47; 4:32-35). It also explains why the Sadducees became so jealous that they arrested not only Peter and John but...
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The scene shifts back to life within the church (cf. 4:32-5:11). Luke wrote this pericope to explain some administrative changes that the growth of the church made necessary. He also wanted to introduce the Hellenistic Jews w...
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6:8 Stephen was full of grace (cf. cf. 4:33; Luke 4:22) and power (cf. 2:22; 4:33) as well as the Holy Spirit (vv. 3, 5), wisdom (v. 3), and faith (v. 5). His ability to perform miracles seems unrelated to his having been app...
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8:14-17 The 12 apostles were, of course, the divinely appointed leaders of the Christians (ch. 1). It was natural and proper, therefore, that they should send representative apostles to investigate the Samaritans' response to...
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Luke recorded this incident to show the method and direction of the church's expansion to God-fearing Gentiles who were attracted to Judaism at this time. This man had visited Jerusalem to worship, was studying the Old Testam...
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Luke recorded Peter's retelling of these events to his critics to impress the significance of this incident on his readers further. Peter stressed particularly God's initiative (vv. v. 8, 9, 12, 15, 16, 17a) and his own inabi...
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"Peter's rescue from prison is an unusually vivid episode in Acts even when simply taken as a story about Peter. Because it is not connected with events in the chapters immediately before and after it, however, it may seem ra...
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In contrast to Herod and like Peter, the word of the Lord, the gospel, continued to grow and multiply through God's supernatural blessing. Therefore the church continued to flourish in Jewish territory as well as among the Ge...
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Luke recorded the events of Paul's first missionary journey to document the extension of the church into new territory and to illustrate the principles and methods by which the church grew. He also did so to show God's supern...
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14:1-2 Iconium was a Greek city-state in the geographic region of Phrygia.". . . while Rome chose Antioch of Pisidia and Lystra as bastions of its authority in the area, Iconium remained largely Greek in temper and somewhat r...
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14:21b-22 The missionaries confined their labors to the Galatian province on this trip. They did not move farther east into the kingdom of Antiochus or the province Cilicia that Paul may have evangelized previously during his...
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15:1 The men from Judea who came down to Antioch appear to have been Jewish Christians who took the former view of Christianity described above. They believed a person could not become a Christian without first becoming a Jew...
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The following incident throws more light on the spiritual darkness that enveloped Ephesus as well as the power of Jesus Christ and the gospel.19:13 "But"introduces a contrast to the good miracles that "God was performing . . ...
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12:3 Paul began this pericope with a reminder of his apostolic authority. He probably did so because what he was about to say required personal application that would affect the conduct of his readers. The Romans had not met ...
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Paul had been somewhat critical of the strong and the weak in the Roman church (14:1-15:13). He now balanced those comments by pointing out other strengths in the church beside the faith of his Roman brethren (1:8).15:14 Paul...
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5:1 "Immorality"is a general translation of the Greek word porneia, which means fornication, specifically sexual relations with a forbidden mate. The precise offense in this case was sexual union with the woman who had marrie...
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The Lord's Supper is more than a personal, introspective remembering, Paul went on to explain. It has implications for the church because in His death Jesus Christ laid the foundation for a new community of believers who bear...
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Paul concluded his exhortation regarding the collection by reminding his readers of the benefits God inevitably bestows on those who give liberally. He did this so they would follow through with their purpose and believe that...
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10:1-2 Paul may have identified himself by name here so his readers would have no doubt that what he proceeded to say indeed came from him. He began by gently asking his readers to respond to his appeal to submit to his apost...
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"After centuries of Christian teaching, we scarcely appreciate the revolutionary nature of Paul's views on family life set forth in this passage. Among the Jews of his day, as also among the Romans and the Greeks, women were ...
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Another threat to the joy and spiritual development of the Philippians was people who advocated lawless living. This is, of course, the opposite extreme from what the Judaizers taught (v. 2). Paul warned his readers of this d...
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Paul next balanced his positive encouragement based on God's dealings with himself (vv. 12-17) with a negative warning based on God's dealings with two unfaithful ministers. He did this to challenge Timothy further to remain ...
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In this pericope Paul reminded Timothy of the apostasy that Jesus Christ had foretold to equip him to identify and to deal with it.143"The change that occurs at 4:1 following the hymn of victory, then, is not unexpected. Oppo...
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Having just encouraged his readers with a reminder of God's help for the faithful (1:14) the writer next urged his readers to be faithful. He did so to warn them of the possibility of retrogressing spiritually and consequentl...
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5:14-15 Prayer is another expression of the believer's trust in Jesus Christ and confidence toward God (cf. 3:21)."Prayer is not a battle, but a response; its power consists in lifting our wills to God, not in trying to bring...
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John turned to see the person who had given him his commission. These verses describe what he saw.1:12 When John turned to see the person who spoke to him he saw a majestic figure clothed in a long robe standing among seven l...
Expositions Of Holy Scripture (Maclaren)
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And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that aught of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.'--Acts 4:32.And great fear came upon...