Works – Three Minute Bible

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).

February 8, 2025February 9, 2025

Colossians 3:8a – Deeds and Weeds

But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: …

Summary: Do we really have to “rid” ourselves of the things on Paul’s list of bad habits? The answer to that question leads us to a deeper understanding of God’s will for us. In the end, we discover that spiritual growth involves work, but this work is a response to God’s grace, not a means of earning salvation.

Our last meditation discovered an interesting link between our Lord’s parable about the kingdom of heaven and how we are to live our lives as believers. In our passage for this meditation, Paul doubles down on that discovery.

What was that discovery, you ask?

Simply this: God expects us to work for his kingdom while we are here.

March 30, 2024March 30, 2024

Galatians 3:17 – Faith and Action

What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.

Summary: Paul restates his argument using a different tack. How are belief in God and faith in the law related?

March 20, 2024March 20, 2024

Galatians 3:10 – His Name is Jesus

For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”

Summary: Following the Law is like following God and doing everything he does just like he does it.

February 28, 2024February 29, 2024

Galatians 2:20e – Living by Faith

I live by faith in the Son of God …

Summary: Paul sets an example for us when he lives by faith in Jesus.

August 24, 2023August 24, 2023

Ephesians 5:15a – So What?

Be very careful, then, how you live —

Summary: Once again, we are confronted by the question of “works.” Paul tells us to be careful how we live, yet we know that we are justified by faith and forgiven by the blood of Jesus (Ephesians 1:7-8). So what’s the big deal?

April 10, 2023April 10, 2023

Ephesians 2:10b – The Stumble Stone

… created in Christ Jesus to do good works …

Summary: Today’s passage is an opportunity to explain why I write about God’s Word here at ThreeMinuteBible.com and explore what Paul means by doing “good works” for Jesus.

September 19, 2021September 19, 2021

2 Peter 1:8a — Talking Blind

For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure …

Summary: Talking blind is like walking blind, only with your mouth. When we talk about spiritual things, we are talking about the unseen. If we are not quoting the Bible, which is our only source of accurate information about spiritual things, then we are making things up.

February 17, 2021February 18, 2021

Titus 2:10 (a) — Works vs Works

… and not to steal from them …

Summary: God commanded the Israelites not to steal, but that was a long time ago. Does faith in God still mean we cannot steal?

February 18, 2019February 18, 2019

A Kind of Pill – John 10: 37-39

“Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp.

What do you look to your father for? Help; guidance; discipline; comfort? What you see in a father probably depends a lot on the kind of father you had, if you were fortunate enough to have a father in your life.

What kind of father is God? In the Old Testament, he is the one who allows Job to be tested, who tells Noah to build the ark and then floods the world, he calls Abraham to the Promised Land, gives him a son in his old age, then tests him by asking that he sacrifice his son. The Old Testament God leads the Israelites into Egypt and then out again. He gives them his law; He gives them a place to live; He is faithful to be patient with them and faithful to punish them.