Grace – Three Minute Bible

April 11, 2025April 11, 2025

Colossians 4:6a – Lessons in Grace

Let your conversation be always full of grace …

Summary: Paul admonishes us to fill our conversations with outsiders with grace. While that sounds simple, understanding what grace means requires some reflection on our Lord Jesus.

This verse is important because it is the last verse of instruction in Paul’s letter to the Colossians. Everything after this involves personal business. So, let’s savor what this last sentence has to offer.

The larger context of this passage is how we act towards “others.” My understanding of “others” in this context is people “other than” the believers who are already part of the church body. When Paul says, “Let your conversation be always full of grace …” he is talking about conversations with those who might need more grace.

February 18, 2025February 18, 2025

Colossians 3:9b – Choosing Jesus

Picture of a man in bed thinking about the cross...

… since you have taken off your old self with its practices …

Summary: Understanding Paul’s words sometimes forces us to try and see things from God’s perspective.

Being the person I am, the brain God gave me tends to dwell on the details. Maybe “obsess” would be a better word. In this passage, Paul writes that we have “taken off [our] old self.” This isn’t the first time he has referred to this.

Just a few verses ago, he wrote, “Since you died with Christ …” (Col 2:20), which he followed up with “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ …” (Col 3:1).

June 11, 2024June 12, 2024

Galatians 5:4b – A Place Called Grace

… you have fallen away from grace.

Summary: Falling away from grace doesn’t sound so scary until we realize that God’s grace is essential for true life in the flesh and eternal life in the spirit.

June 10, 2024June 10, 2024

Galatians 5:4a – Christ or Antichrist?

You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ;

Summary: Paul’s insistence on this point is leading us to deeper levels of understanding God’s power of salvation through Jesus Christ.

June 8, 2024June 9, 2024

Galatians 5:3 – A Horrible Thought!

Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law.

Summary: Paul’s discourse on the law and God’s family has opened up a whole new world of understanding for this writer.

January 31, 2024January 31, 2024

Galatians 2:9a – Esteemed as Pillars

James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me.

Summary: Paul continues to provide evidence of the validity of his gospel. This passage is especially powerful in that it links Paul with the most authoritative people on the planet.

January 2, 2024January 2, 2024

Galatians 1:15b – Trusting Jesus

… and called me by his grace,

Summary: Sometimes, a thought experiment can help us understand what the Bible is saying. This passage inspires us to consider what it means to be “called” by God.

December 4, 2023December 5, 2023

Galatians 1:3a – From Grump to Grace

Grace …

Summary: What a word means depends to some extent on its context. The usage tells us what the author or speaker intends it to mean.

June 17, 2023June 18, 2023

Ephesians 4:7 – The Key to Happiness

But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.

Summary: Words are important. The wrong word can lead us to the wrong understanding. In this mediation, we look at the word “apportioned” and examine how this word can affect our happiness in God.

May 17, 2023May 17, 2023

Ephesians 3:7b – Redirection

… by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power.

Summary: Paul wasn’t just sitting on the side of the road when God met up with him. He was on his way to change the world. God stopped him, changed him, and then set him off again in a different direction.