Video Clip: Will there be evidence of faith in the life of a believer?

 

 

 JTR

Book Note: Archaic or Accurate? The translation of scripture and how we address God in praise and prayer--Thou or You?

From X post:

In confessional Reformed circles we often bemoan the decline of reverence and sobriety in corporate worship. In response we rightly appeal to and advocate for a return to the Protestant teaching and practice of the Regulative Principle of worship.

In addition, among English speakers, one wonders what has been the impact of declining use of reverential pronouns in addressing God? How was this decline been another result of the downgrade of many modern translations? This shift has, in fact, only been relatively recent.

Is it possible that we English speakers might make reverential pronouns “great again” in our prayers and sung praise?

I’ve been reading this little book Archaic or Accurate? The translation of the scriptures, and how we address God in praise and prayer—Thou or You? and have found it helpful. It is a collection of short articles on this theme from the Bible League Quarterly, edited by John Thackway. I commend it.

Here are a few samples from "Archaic or Accurate?": the opening paragraph to the book’s Foreword and the opening paragraph plus from one of its best short articles on “The Use of Thee and Thou in Prayer.”

Subscription to the Bible League Quarterly is a bargain. You can get the online version for just 5 pounds (less that 7 dollars) per year. Great devotional resource for all Christians and helpful sermon resource for pastors.

https://bibleleaguetrust.org/the-quarterly/

JTR

Note: On the translation/interpretation of Ephesians 4:12

From X post:

Believe it or not, I only rarely ever address issues related to text or translation of the Bible from the pulpit in my regular Lord’s Day preaching (given our church’s uniformity of practice), but yesterday I did briefly address the translation/interpretation of Ephesians 4:12 (listen to the sermon here). My notes:

There is a major question about how to translate Ephesians 4:12, and a big part of that involves a single comma.

The older Protestant translations, like the AV, generally list three things that the pastor-teachers are supposed to do:

“For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.”

First, they are to labor at the “perfecting [maturing] of the saints.” Christ said, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). In Colossians 1:28 Paul said the goal of his ministry was, “that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.”

Second, they are to do the work of ministry. What is the work of ministry? We get an idea of this from Acts 6:4 when the apostles said they wanted to give themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word.

Third, they labor “for the edifying of the body of Christ.” They want to see the spiritual health, safety, and spiritual growth of God’s people.

In the 20^th century some translations removed the first comma and said Paul was saying the task of ministers was to equip all the saints for the work of ministry. Compare:

NIV: “to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up”

ESV: “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,”

It probably won’t surprise you to learn that I think the older translation is best. I think so for two reasons:

First, it reflects the grammar of the original Greek construction better. There are three distinct prepositional phrases (προς… εις… εις…).

Second, theologically and functionally it fits better the description elsewhere given of the special roles given to ministers.

The new translations reflect a modern egalitarian view. I remember growing up in SBC churches where the theme in many of those churches was “every member a minister.” To a certain degree that is true. All Christians are called to ministry. But not all are called to be pastors and teachers. See James 3:1: “My brethren, be not many master [teachers]….” And it is this special role that Paul is describing here.

JTR

The Vision (5.30.25): One Lord, one faith, one baptism

 

Image: "Knockout" roses, North Garden, Virginia, May 2025.

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Ephesians 4:1-6.

One Lord, one faith, one baptism (Ephesians 4:5).

In Ephesians 4:1-3 the apostle Paul describes several marks of those who are “walking worthy of the vocation” to which they were called. In other words, these are marks of those who profess to be Christians and who then conduct themselves as Christians. One of those marks is “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (4:3).

In Ephesians 4:4-6 Paul stresses the importance of unity among believers. He then uses the term “one” no less than seven times to emphasize the ground for Christian unity. We have one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all.

Let me focus on three of those “one”s which are listed in quick order in v. 5:

As Christians we have one Lord. That is the Lord Jesus Christ. There are not many Saviors and many Lords but one Lord. As Peter preached in Jerusalem, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

We have one faith. Here faith means not merely the personal trust in Christ, but one orthodox (right-believing) confession of faith. In Titus 1:4 Paul called Titus his own son, “after the common faith.” In Jude 3, that servant of Jesus Christ exhorted believers, “that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” Orthodox doctrine does not divide. It unites faithful Christians.

And there is one baptism. Not only was Paul saying that baptism, when rightly ordered, should happen just once in the believer’s life, but also that true baptism (by the Spirit and then by water) comes to those who hear the preaching of the gospel, repent of their sins and believe in Christ. The one baptism is that experienced by those who have been born again.

May the Lord grant us unity, upon the basis of these marks, within our particular local church and with believers around the world.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

R. L. Dabney on those who delight in criticizing and amending "the received English version"

 

From X post:

R. L. Dabney warns against those who delight in criticizing and amending “the received English version” “this precious work of our ancestors”:

"The most reprehensible pedantry of all is that which delights in criticizing and amending the received English version. Instead of seeking for opportunities to point out errors in this precious work of our ancestors, its credit should be carefully sustained before the people, whenever this can be done without an actual sacrifice of our integrity and of the truth of the text. The general excellence of the translation merits this treatment. Such were the learning and labour of its authors, that he who is most deeply acquainted with sacred criticism will be found most modest in assailing their accuracy in any point. But it is far more important to remark, that this version is practically the Bible of the common people—the only one to which they can have familiar access. If their confidence in its fidelity is overthrown, they are virtually robbed of the written word of God…. Thus let the confidence of your hearers in their English Bibles be preserved and fortified."

-Evangelical Eloquence, 162-163.

WM 329: Scrivener Series.Part 3 of 3: Did Scrivener "Back Translate" his Greek NT from the KJV?

 

JTR

The Vision (5.23.25): Unto him be glory in the church

 

Image: Roses, North Garden, Virginia, May 2025.

Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon on Ephesians 3:14-21.

Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen (Ephesians 3:21).

The third chapter of Ephesians ends with a prayer by the apostle Paul. It begins in v. 14, “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Kneeling is not the only Biblically sanctioned posture for prayer. The reference to Paul‘s kneeling reflects his humility before the Lord in worship.

Paul was a man of prayer. He urged believers to engage in constant prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:17). We talk about something bursting into flames. Paul would sometimes burst into spontaneous prayer! Here it is in writing. If he did this in writing one can only imagine how he must have done so in normal conversation.

We can notice a prayer pattern. Paul first worships the Lord (vv. 14-15), bending the knee before him. He then petitions the Lord (vv. 16-19). He asks the Lord, according to his riches in glory, to strengthen the believers in the inner man (v. 16). We tend to think first of needs of the outer man, the external condition. But Paul teaches in this prayer another priority. He pleads for the strengthening of the inward condition of believers.

He further asks that Christ “may dwell in your hearts by faith” (v. 17a). R. C. Sproul points out, despite the popularity among evangelicals of this image of Christ dwelling in the believer’s heart, that this is “the only place in the whole Bible that mentions Christ dwelling in our hearts” (Ephesians, p. 87).

In v. 17b Paul mixes metaphors of agriculture and masonry, asking that believers might be rooted (an organic, agricultural image) and grounded (a structural image, cf. 2:20-21) in love.

To what end? That we might be able to comprehend the vast greatness of God in Christ (v. 18). That we might know “with all saints” the breadth (the wideness, the thickness) and the length, and depth, and height of God. The theologians remind us that the finite cannot comprehend the infinite. We cannot know all of God, or we would be God. But to some limited degree he allows us to comprehend his magnitude and his vast greatness.

Paul petitions, in particular, that the Ephesian believers might know “the love of Christ” and fill them “with all the fullness of God” (v. 19).

Finally, Paul concludes with doxology and adoration (vv. 20-21). He ascribes glory to the one who is able to do more than we could ever ask or imagine (v. 20).

His final petition is that God might be given glory “in the church” (v. 21). In answer to the question as to man’s chief end, the Catechism teaches, “To glorify God and to enjoy him forever.”

God gets glory in his creation and through the lives of individual believers, but here Paul reminds us that God also gets glory in the church. This includes the invisible (mystical) church of all times and places, and the concrete, visible, and local church.

Why does our particular church, or any other church, exist? To give glory to God.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (5.16.25): The Mystery of Christ

 

Image: Red Hot Poker (Torch Lily), North Garden, Virginia, May 2025.

Note: Devotion based on sermon on May 11, 2025 on Ephesians 3:1-13.

In Ephesians 3:4 Paul speak of “the mystery of Christ,” and in v. 5 he notes the unprecedented revelation of the knowledge of this mystery that was being made known to believers in their own day, “Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.”

This conveys the privileges that are given to all believers who live in the gospel age. Peter said something similar in 1 Peter 1:12 when he noted that the gospel now revealed includes things which “the angels desire to look into.” The humblest believer in this age knows things the angels desired to know and that Moses and Isaiah did not yet see clearly.

And what is this mystery now revealed? See Ephesians 3:6: “That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel.”

Notice the three descriptions:

First, the Gentiles are “fellowheirs.” In Romans 8:17 Paul calls believers “joint heirs with Christ.” But Paul’s point here is that we Gentile believers are fellowheirs with Jewish believers like Peter and Paul. We have received an inheritance that was not ours. We were “written into the will” as it were, even though we are outsiders!

Second, they are “of the same body.” See Ephesians 2:16: We were reconciled unto God “in one body by the cross.”

Third, they are partakers of his promise in Christ. All the promises given to the Old Testament saints are now given to us: That God would be our God, and we would be his people. That he would redeem us and dwell with us. That he would give to us the heavenly country.

We are co-heirs, co-bodied, and co-partakers. All this is “by the gospel.” By the good news of what God has accomplished in the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle