The Vision (10.24.25): And God Almighty give you mercy

 

Image: Fall Morning Scene, North Garden, Virginia, October 2025

Note: Devotional taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 43.

And God Almighty give you mercy… (Genesis 43:14).

Perhaps the greatest theme in the record of Joseph (Genesis chapters 37—50) is providence, but a key subtheme is reconciliation, both vertical (men with their God) and, especially, horizontal (among men).

Four straight chapters are devoted to this theme in its account of Joseph’s reconciliation with his brothers (Genesis 42-43-44-45), and it even reappears in the final chapter, as the brothers fear Joseph’s retribution when their father dies (see 50:20).

Genesis 42 ended with a cliffhanger. There is a terrible famine. Simeon is being held hostage. Jacob refuses to send Benjamin to Egypt.

Genesis 43 continues and advances the record of holy history relaying how Jacob/Israel finally relented in the face of terrible famine to send his precious son Benjamin with his remaining sons to Egypt. He did so with a prayer for them, “And God Almighty [El Shaddai] give you mercy before the man….” (43:14a).

Israel continues in v. 14b, offering up his resignation to the circumstances: “If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.” Sometimes men today say, “It’s going to be what it’s going to be.” This sounds like the Doris Day song “Whatever will be, will be” from the classic Hitchcock film The Man Who Knew Too Much. It’s hard to discern whether this is a sentiment which Moses commends as a godly response or whether it is a sign of Jacob’s spiritual weakness. No matter, all things are indeed in the Lord’s hands.

Maybe some hearing this today may think they are in a similar situation. If so, we are called to offer up our circumstances to the just judgements of an all-wise God and pray for his mercy for all involved.

God heard Israel’s prayer. When the brothers arrived in Egypt, Joseph welcomed them to his home (43:17). His steward washed their feet (43:24). And Joseph spread a table and “set on bread” for them (43:31-32).

Joseph might be seen again as a type for Christ. We can reasonably see in Joseph’s gracious reception of his brothers what the Lord does for every believer. He meets our prayer for mercy with mercy. He welcomes us into his household, ministers to us, and spreads a table before us.

May God Almighty give us mercy.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

WM 341: Article: Father, Forgive Them: The Case for the Authenticity of Luke 23:34a

 

Read the article here on my academia.edu page.

JTR

WM 340: Analysis: Are "THEOLOGICAL JUDGEMENTS IRRELEVANT" for establishing the TEXT of Holy Scripture?

 

JTR

The Vision (10.17.25): What is this that God hath done unto us?

 

Image: Nandina, North Garden, Virginia, October 2025.

Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 42.

And he said unto his brethren, My money is restored; and lo, it is even in my sack: and their heart failed them, and they were afraid, saying one to another, What is this that God hath done unto us? (Genesis 42:28).

Genesis 42 introduces yet another spiritual theme that is present in the Joseph record of Genesis. This is the theme of repentance and even reconciliation. It involves reconciliation on the horizontal level, especially centered on Joseph’s relationship with the brothers, but also upon the vertical level between all these men and the Lord.

Joseph meets his brothers when they come to Egypt, but they do not recognize him. He overhears his brothers acknowledging their sin again the brother they sold into slavery (Joseph himself!) and connecting it to their chastisement: “We are verily guilty concerning our brother… therefore is this distress come upon us” (Gen 42:21).

Though Joseph might have done his brothers great harm, he sends them home with food and money in their sacks. God is working reconciliation.

What spiritual applications might we draw from Genesis 42?

First, we can look at the brothers, and by looking at them we are looking in a mirror.

We have sinned against God. We might think we can hide and obfuscate this, but one day our sin will find us out (Num 32:23), if not in this world, then before the judgement seat of Christ at the end of the ages.

We are not “true men” (Gen 42:11). We have broken God’s law, including bearing false witness, and the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23).

The Lord in his mercy makes this known to us. We know we are “verily guilty” and deserving of God’s wrath and punishment, and so we have anguish of soul.

Even as believers we can backslide. And when the Father lovingly brings corrective chastisement, we might ask, as did the brothers of Joseph, “What is this that God hath done unto us?” If we are not feeling it now, we likely will one day.

Might we see this as the Lord preparing us for reconciliation with men, and, most importantly, with God himself?

Second, we can look at Joseph as a type or anticipation of Christ.

Joseph suffered on account of his brethren. Christ suffered on account of our sin, but he still works to do us good.

Joseph gave liberally to his brothers. Christ supplies us with an outrageous generosity.

Joseph fed his brethren. Christ taught that we should love and even feed our enemies (Matt 5:44; Rom 12:20).

No payment can ever be made for the salvation that comes from Christ. It is a free gift, so the money is always left, as it were, at the mouth of the sack.

Salvation by grace is a one-way transaction. We do nothing to deserve it. He does everything to provide it. Thus, we exclaim, What is this that God hath done unto us!

If Joseph acted in a generous and forgiving way toward his brethren, how much more has Christ done for us!

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

New Book from Bible League Trust: It is Written: A Believer's Guide to the Doctrine of Scripture

The book It Is Written: A Believer's Guide to the Doctrine of Scripture, published in the UK by Bible League Trust, is now available in the US (including amazon).

I contributed two of the 23 main articles in the book:

Chapter 12: A Defence of the Authenticity of Mark 16:9-20. Chapter 13: A Defence of the "Three Heavenly Witnesses."

Look here for endorsements, and ordering info.

Table of Contents:

JTR

WM 339: How much actual SECOND CENTURY evidence is there for "RECONSTRUCTING" the GREEK NT?

 

JTR

The Vision (10.10.25): A man in whom the Spirit of God is

 

Image: The Saqqara relief showing famine scene on the causeway of the Pyramid of Unas, Egypt,

c. 2500 B.C.

Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 41.

And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom the Spirit of God is? (Genesis 41:38).

Perhaps the key doctrinal term in the narrative of Joseph is providence. God was at work in the life of Joseph to bring about greater and wider purposes than even Joseph was aware. God was providing for Joseph and through him for the people of Israel and, indeed, for all men. He was preparing the way for the Messiah. In time of grievous famine, Joseph would preserve the nations, including his own family, including the brothers who had betrayed him, including unrighteous Judah, who had suggested he be sold into slavery (Gen 37:2-27). But who came from Judah in the fullness of time? The Lord Jesus Christ.

I’ve suggested the theme verse of Genesis chapters 37—50 might be Joseph’s words to his brothers in Genesis 50:10, “ye thought evil against me, but God meant it for good.”

The New Testament equivalent to that verse is Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

The Lord allowed Joseph to undergo the most outrageous misfortunes and suffer the cruelest injustices, but all the while God was working out his plan of salvation, first heralded in Genesis 3:15. Joseph has a role in that plan.

In Genesis 41 we see the tide dramatically turn in Joseph’s life. He goes from the prison to the king’s palace. The Lord can sovereignly reverse a man’s condition and circumstances in a matter of mere moments. That’s what happens when we are saved. We go from sinners to saints, from orphans to co-heirs with Christ.

What Joseph’s brothers could not see (having been blinded by their own sin) in Joseph, even the pagan king of Egypt saw: That Joseph was a man in whom the Spirit of God was.

God is still at work all around us. As an old saying goes, “We cannot always trace His hand, but we can trust His heart.” Our lives are sometimes like a pebble cast into a pond. We never see where the ripples end. But if we are men and women who have been filled with the Spirit of God, we trust that he has worked in us, he is working in us, and he will work in us in ways that are greater than we could ever ask or imagine.

We entrust all things into his hands. Even our lives.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

WM 338: Analysis: Michael J. Kruger on the "Core Purpose" of Modern Textual Criticism

 

JTR

WM 337: What is TRUE Apostolic Succession?

JTR

The Vision (10.3.25): Forgotten by Men

 

Image: Knockout rose, North Garden, Virginia, October 2025.

Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 40.

“Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him” (Genesis 40:23).

What if your birthday came and not a single person remembered you? You got no gifts, no cards, no texts.

What if you got sick and went into the hospital and got no visitors, no calls from friends, no consolation, no offers of help?

It can indeed be very disappointing to be forgotten by men.

There were men in the Bible who sometimes felt this way. Righteous Job, for example, in the midst of his suffering, lamented, “My kinfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me” (Job 19:14).

Worse yet, some men sense that they have been forgotten by God himself. Psalm 13 begins with the lament, “How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hid thy face from me?” (v. 1).

In Genesis 40 we read how Joseph was cast into prison after being falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife. He had been sold into slavery by his own brothers at age 17 (Genesis 37:2). The next chapter begins two years later when Joseph was 30 (cf. Genesis 41:1, 46). This means in Genesis 40 he was 28 years old and had been in slavery or prison for 11 years (since he was 17)!

Genesis 40 records how two servants of the king of Egypt were also in the prison with Joseph: the butler and the baker. They each had dreams, and Joseph accurately interpreted both, asking the men, “Do not interpretations belong to God?” (v. 8). Just as Joseph had predicted by their dreams, the king ordered the butler restored to his position and the baker put to death. Joseph had asked the butler, “Think on me when it shall be well with thee…” (v. 14), but the chapter ends, “Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him” (v. 23).

Joseph was forgotten by men.

One commentator observed: “It is difficult to fathom, but nowhere in the text does it say that Joseph became discouraged or was in despair” (Currid, Genesis, 2:249).

He had been 11 years a slave and prisoner and would wait two more years forgotten by men, but he did not despair.

Joseph becomes a model for the believer who perseveres in the faith even in the face of the severest of trials. The LORD was with him (see Genesis 39:2-3, 21, 23). We too must continue to trust and to persevere in the Lord. He will not forget us, and He will not forget our works of service to Him. So the apostle wrote, “For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have showed toward his name” (Hebrews 6:10).

The believer might be forgotten by men, but he will never be forgotten by God.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

Online Books by David N. Samuel

David N. Samuel (b. 1930) was the first Presiding Bishop of the Church of England (Continuing) from 1995-2001. I recently read an excerpt from his book Pope or Gospel? on the WM 337: What is TRUE Apostolic Succession? podcast.

I noted on X that I appreciated his writing and that his books did not seem to be in print and were difficult to find. A friend then tracked down these titles available online:

Pope or Gospel? The Crisis of Faith in the Protestant Churches (1982).

A Mirror to the Nation (1999).

Without Excuse: A Vindication of the Argument from Design (2004).

Still looking for:

The Church in Crisis (2004).

Feel free to share any other online resources (or access to print resources) in the comments, and I'll add to the post.

JTR

WM 336: D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones on "this great modern craze for new translations of the Scriptures"

 

JTR

WM 334: Conversation: PREACHING & TEXT

 

JTR

WM 333: "PERFECT SCRIPTURE only reserved for the next life?": The Critic Critiqued Continued

 

JTR

The Vision (9.26.25): And the LORD was with Joseph

 

Image: Scene from morning walk, North Garden, Virginia, September 26, 2025.

Note: Devotional taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 39.

And the LORD was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian (Genesis 39:2).

Notice the three statements in v. 2:

First: “And the LORD was with Joseph.” This key statement is repeated no less than four times in this chapter, twice in the beginning (vv. 2, 3) and twice at the end (vv. 21, 23). Some have called this the Emmanuel Principle. Paul summed this up in Romans 8:31 when he asked, “If God be for us, who can be against us?”

Second: “and he was a prosperous man.” Last we heard of Joseph in Genesis 37 he had been stripped of his coat of many colors, cast into a pit, most likely naked, and sold into slavery. He had no clothes, no money, no possessions, no family (they had sold him!), and yet Moses says, “and he was a prosperous man.” This is before he rose to the top. He was a prosperous man when he was a naked slave at the bottom of a waterless pit. The man who has Christ in his heart is never a poor man, but he is a prosperous man. This statement is not about the outer but the inner man.

Third: “and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian.” Later, Moses will say, “and he served him” (v. 4). Joseph had respect for those in a sphere of authority over him. He was not anti-authoritarian. He trusted in the providence of God. The LORD was with him, and, in the end, the evil done to him would be turned to good (see Genesis 50:20, perhaps the theme verse of the entire Joseph narrative).

As the LORD was with Joseph, so he is always with his elect.

The Dutch Christian Corrie Ten Boom who suffered in a concentration camp in WW2 wrote, “There is no pit so deep enough, that He is not deeper still” (as cited by J. Currid, Genesis 2:232).

In describing the birth of our Lord, Matthew cites Isaiah 7:14 to say of Christ, “and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” (Matthew 1:23). In Hebrews 13:5 the Lord says to his saints by his apostle, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”

Whether we stand at the pinnacle of power or on the floor of the prison, we who believe in Christ know it to be true. He is with us, and that is always enough.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

WM 335: ERIKA KIRK, "Father, forgive them," & the TENACITY of LUKE 23:34a

 

JTR

The Vision (9.19.25): Can anything good come out of unrighteous Judah? (Genesis 38)

Image: Fall tomatoes ripening in the window, North Garden, Virginia, September 2025.

Note: Devotional taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 38.

“And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She hath been more righteous than I…” (Genesis 38:26).

Genesis 37 ended in v. 36 with the note that Joseph was sold as a slave into the house of Potiphar. The Joseph narrative will continue in Genesis 39:1. But what is in-between Genesis 37 and Genesis 39? Genesis 38.

This chapter is not about Joseph. In fact, Joseph’s name is not even mentioned. Some of the old rationalistic scholars of the modern era even went so far as to say, wrongly, that this chapter had been forcibly inserted into the account of Joseph narrative, sort of like trying to ram a square peg into a round hole, denying the unity and integrity and preservation of Holy Scripture.

Genesis 38 is about Joseph’s brother Judah (cf. 37:26-27). So what are we to make of it? What spiritual lessons do we find? It really is a sordid story. It is an R-rated story. Judah does almost everything wrong:

He chooses ungodly companions (vv. 1, 12).

He does not choose a godly wife (v. 2).

He burns with lust (v. 2, 15-16).

He raises two elder sons who are so wicked that God strikes them down (vv. 7-10).

He does not provide for his son’s widow Tamar (v. 11, 14).

He makes promises to her that he either never had any intention of keeping or simply refused to keep (v. 11).

He seeks out a woman whom he thinks is a harlot (but is really Tamar in disguise) (vv. 15-16).

Driven by impetuous lustful desires, he offers up precious tokens (v. 18).

He commits fornication with a woman he thinks is a prostitute (v. 18).

He is a hypocrite, who orders the death penalty for his daughter in law, but takes no accountability for himself (v. 24).

He only seems to express remorse when he is exposed (v. 26).

The label over this entire chapter could be simply, “total depravity.”

The only sliver of light appears when Judah at least acknowledges that Tamar’s righteousness exceeded his own (v. 26). This foreshadows the fact that later when he and his bothers are confronted with what they did to their brother Joseph, they will feel shame and remorse. Relating to Joseph, it also sets up a foil with what happens next to Joseph in Potiphar’s house in Genesis 39. Whereas Judah ran headlong into fornication, Joseph will flee from it (39:18).

Still, we ask: How could anything good come from unrighteous Judah?

As in Genesis 37, God is also seemingly absent from this chapter, his name never being mentioned. He is there, however, as an unmentioned presence working out his will, and pulling it out of even twisted and ungodly circumstances.

Tamar had twin sons of Judah, Pharez (or Phares) and Zarah (vv. 27-30).  To get the significance of this we need to turn to the genealogies of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospels. Matthew 1:3 (in the line of Joseph, Christ’s legal father) lists Phares “of Tamar” in the family tree of our Lord. Luke 3:33 also lists Phares in the line of Mary, his natural mother.

From this line, in the fulness of time, would come the Lord Jesus Christ. As one has put it, God very often strikes straight licks from crooked sticks. From unrighteous Judah came Christ, the standard of righteousness. God is working out his plan of salvation in Christ, in the midst of a fallen world, and this plan cannot be thwarted by the unrighteousness of men!

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (9.12.25): Joseph & the Lord Jesus Christ (Genesis 37)

 

Image: Cobwebs by round bales. North Garden, Virginia. September 2025.

Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 37:

Genesis 37 begins the inspired narrative of the life of Joseph, an account which extends through Genesis 50. It tells us how his envious brothers hated him and sold him into slavery. What do we draw from this inspired account?

We are reminded that there is a sovereign God who is working out his perfect and all-wise will in all the providential circumstances of this life, including in the face of evil, in grief and pain and loss.

It is noteworthy that the name of God nowhere explicitly appears in this chapter. He is not always named, but He is always there.

And we see something in this lesser story, shadows and hints, of a greater story, if we compare Joseph with the Lord Jesus Christ:

Joseph was the beloved son of his father Jacob (Genesis 37:3).

The Lord Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of the Father from all eternity, made flesh in the fullness of time (John 1:14, 18; Galatians 4:4).

Joseph was given special revelation by God, as a dreamer (37:5-11, 19).

Christ is the prophet, priest, and king, who spoke the Word of God. In the Sermon on the Mount, he said, over and again, “Ye have heard it said….but I say unto you…”

Joseph was hated of the brothers he was sent to deliver from the death of famine (37:4).

John said of Christ, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not” (John 1:10). Christ himself said in John 3:19, “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”

Joseph came seeking his brethren to do them good on behalf of their father (37:13).

John 3:16 says, “God so love the world that he gave [sent] his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Christ told in Mark 12 the parable of the vineyard owner whose husbandmen abused his servants sent to them, till finally he sent his own dear son, and they said, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours” (Mark 12:7).

Joseph was stripped of his coat and cast into a waterless pit (37:23).

Christ was stripped of his clothing for which the soldiers cast lots; he was crucified, and then placed in a tomb.

Joseph was sold by his brother for 20 pieces of silver (37:28).

Christ was betrayed by Judas one of the twelve, a friend like a dear brother, for 30 pieces of silver (Matthew 26:15).

Joseph’s coat was dipped in the blood of a kid of a goat (37:31).

Christ shed his own blood on the cross, and He gave himself a ransom for many.

Jacob mourned and wept at the loss of his son, though he did not know Joseph still lived (37:34-35).

The disciples wept and mourned at the death of Christ, not knowing, at first, that he would, as he said, be gloriously raised on the third day.

Our Lord was under the power of death for three days. For 36 terrible hours. 12 hours Friday evening. 24 hours from midnight Friday to midnight Saturday. And for six more hours from midnight Saturday till the early morning on the first day of the week. But then he was gloriously raised just as he said, and death was swallowed up in victory.

One of the great themes throughout this Joseph account will be summed up when Joseph meets those brothers years later in Genesis 50:20, and he says to them, “ye thought evil against me, but God meant it for good.” That is the Old Testament equivalent to Romans 8:28: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

Joseph was a great man with a great story, and he had a great role in God’s plan of salvation. But Christ is a greater man than Joseph, with a greater story. He is the Savior of all men. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

WM 332: Discussion: TYNDALE: The Costly Legacy of Faithful Bible Translations

 

Tyndale Film website.

JTR

The Vision (9.5.25): Ambassador in Bonds

 

Chains, Roman period. Archaeological Museum in Durrës Albania.

Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon on Ephesians 6:18-24.

For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak (Ephesians 6:20).

As Paul draws his epistle to the Ephesians to a close, he exhorts them to pray “always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:18). He asks them to make supplication “for all saints,” including himself: “and for me” (vv. 18-19), just as he beseeched the Thessalonians, “Brethren, pray for us” (1 Thessalonians 5:25).

Paul refers to himself in Ephesians 6:20 as “an ambassador in bonds.” This is a title he also used in his second epistle to the Corinthians:

2 Corinthians 5: ²⁰ Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

²¹ For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

The title of ambassador is one taken from secular diplomacy. The ambassador would represent his sovereign king. He did not make announcements or call for actions based on his own personal authority but merely conveyed the commands and instructions that were given him by his king.

Paul is saying that this was his calling as an apostle and a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ. We might say that call continues today among all his servants.

In a classic book on preaching, the famed Welsh pastor D. M. Lloyd-Jones wrote about the preacher as "ambassador.” He said,

An ambassador is not a man who voices his own thoughts or his own opinions or views, or his own desires… In other words, the content of the sermon is what is called in the New Testament 'The Word.'

I do not bring my own thoughts and ideas, I do not just tell people what I think or surmise: I deliver to them what has been given to me. I have been given it, and I give it to them. I am a vehicle, I am a channel, I am an instrument, I am a representative (Preaching & Preachers, 61).

That is true for every preacher and for every believer who bears witness to his faith in Christ. Christ is our King, and we must faithfully represent him.

Notice that in v. 20b Paul repeats the request made in v. 19: “that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.” This conveys the fact that Paul, though he makes this request from prison, saw himself not as doing something particularly extra-ordinary or praise-worthy. He was simply doing his duty as a minister of Christ, and he asked the church’s prayers to help him maintain this task.

Let us learn from the apostle to be bold, whatever our outward circumstances, to serve as faithful ambassadors for Christ.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

WM 331: "PhD Onlyism": The Critic Critiqued

 

JTR

Newly Revised Edition of Spanish Translation of "John Owen on Scripture"

From my x post.

Got in the mail yesterday a copy of a newly revised edition of the Spanish translation of my book John Owen on Scripture. The revision was completed by David Astudillo and now has Scripture citations using the @tbsbibles Spanish Bible (RV-SBT).

The new edition was prompted by a request from my friend Pastor Julio Benitez who had copies of the new edition of the book printed and distributed earlier this summer to attendees at a conference at @SRLSeminary in Colombia. SDG!

JTR

The Vision (8.29.25): Put on the whole armour of God

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Ephesians 6:10-17.

Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil (Ephesians 6:11).

In Ephesians 6:11-17 the apostle Paul offers one his most expressive, intriguing, and enduring metaphors for the equipment needed by believers for living the Christian life. It requires putting on the whole armour [panoplia] of God.

This is a martial or military image of the Christian life. The Christian life is like a military contest. It involves spiritual warfare. Later theologians will contrast the church on earth as “the church militant,” as over against the church in heaven as “the church at rest.”

There are other places where Paul uses this type of military imagery. He sometimes refers to his ministry colleagues as his “fellowsoldiers.” In Philippians 2:5 he refers to Epaphrodites as “my brother, and companion in labor, and fellowsoldier.” In Philemon 1:2 he refers to Archippus as “our fellowsoldier.” He speaks of Christian service as like that of serving as a soldier in battle. In 1 Timothy 6:12 Paul exhorts Timothy: “Fight the good fight of the faith….” In 2 Timothy 2:3 Paul further exhorted Timothy to “endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”

In modern times, some Christians became uncomfortable with the martial imagery. Back in the 1980s some mainline Protestant churches even removed the hymn “Onward Christian Soldiers” for fear that its words might be misunderstood. BTW, it is still in our Trinity Hymnal (# 490) under the topic line, “The Christian Warfare.”

Paul, in using this martial imagery, was certainly not advocating violence. It is a metaphor. This is what the spiritual struggle of the Christian life is like. Paul exhorts, “Put on the whole armour of God…” (v. 11) and “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God…” (v. 13).

The apostle was drawing an analogy from a reality that was familiar to his first readers. All the Ephesians would likely have seen a Roman soldier (the most lethal and feared and capable warrior of the first century) fully decked out with his military kit, allowing him not only to defend himself when attacked but also to go on the offensive.

The Christian is to arm himself spiritually with the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, having feet shod with the gospel of peace, taking the shield of faith, and taking the helmet of salvation (Ephesians 6:14-17a). Finally, he is to take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (v. 17b).

May we thus arm ourselves so that we might stand “in the evil day” (v. 13).

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

Article: "To the saints which are at Ephesus": Retrieving the Classic Christian Consensus on the Intended Audience of Ephesians

 

Article: Jeffrey T. Riddle, "To the saints which are at Ephesus": Retrieving the Classic Christian Consensus on the Intended Audience of Ephesians," in Bible League Quarterly, No. 502 (July-September, 2025), 24-33. Read the article here on academia.edu.

JTR

The Vision (8.22.25): Duties of Servants and Masters

 

Image: Zinnias, North Garden, Virginia, August 2025.

Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon on Ephesians 6:5-9.

Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh…. And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there any respect of persons with him (Ephesians 6:5a, 9).

Paul’s “household code” in Ephesians 5:21—6:9 addresses three key relationships: wives and husbands, children and fathers, and servant and masters. That third pair is the thorniest to understand and interpret in our contemporary context. Some, including R. C. Sproul, have suggested we consider Paul’s instructions as applying to employees and employers (see Ephesians, 146-147). We can also apply all of this teaching, in general, as principles in living the Christian life and especially how we relate to one another as “superior, inferiors, or equals.”

Here are three gleanings:

First, we should consider this passage if we are employees. Do we serve with fear and trembling, with singleness of heart, as to Christ? Or, do we serve only with eyeservice as menpleasers, rather than as slaves of Christ, doing his will? Do we serve with good will, to the Lord and not to men, knowing one day we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10)?

Second, we should consider this passage if we are employers, managers, or supervisors. How do we treat those who work under our authority? Do we treat them as we would like to be treated (Matthew 7:12)? Do we rely on threatening? Do we understand that we have a Master in heaven?

Third, we are reminded that the church is composed of all kinds of people: women and men, young and old, and people with all kinds of societal standings. And the God we worship is not a respecter of persons.

I’ve been reading again recently through D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones’s classic book Preaching & Preachers. In a chapter on the congregation, he addresses the folly of ministers who are always trying to adjust their message to fit their audience. He noted once preaching the simple gospel at a church in Oxford attended by many university related people. Later a woman approached and thanked him for not trying to put on some kind of intellectual show, but just reminding them they were sinners who needed Christ.

Lloyd-Jones says the preacher does not need to know the particulars of his congregation, but to know there is a general, common need. He writes:

[The Christian preacher] knows the problem of the factory worker, he knows the problem of the professional man; because it is ultimately precisely the same. One may get drunk on beer and the other on wine, as it were, but the point is that they both get drunk; one may sin in rags and the other in an evening dress but they both sin. ‘All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.’ ‘There is righteous, no not one.’ ‘The whole world lieth guilty before God’…. The glory of the Church is that she consists of all these types and kinds and all the possibly varieties and variations of humanity; and yet because they all share this common life they are able to participate together and to enjoy the same preaching (Preaching & Preachers, 135).

We might say the gospel is a simple, one size fits all message, and we, as a church, need always to remember this.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle