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For Bible Study Nerds

Jesus frequently pointed to God’s place as our Father to emphasize the idea that God cares for us—but that imagery meant something different to his first-century hearers than it does to our so-called “progressive” 21st-century culture. In today’s American culture, the father is important, yes, but often optional in terms of societal necessity. Today a…

Jesus’ exhortation to “ask, seek, knock” in prayer seems a carte blanche promise that God will give anything you or I ask for in prayer. The normal Christian life, on the other hand, seems to discredit this promise on a daily basis. So what gives? Was Jesus lying, or mistaken, or exaggerating for effect? Are…

OK, brace yourself Bible Study Nerd, because this commentary section is going to be longer than normal. You’ve been warned. “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs…” What the heck does that mean? Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:6 are difficult to follow given the context of the verses before…

It would’ve been hard to be a Pharisee sitting in the audience of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Again and again Christ seemed to deliberately antagonize any religious leaders listening to his teaching—singling them out, calling them unflattering names, and mocking them with increasingly absurd insults. Matthew 7:3-5 records another example of this kind of…

“Do not judge…” These words of Jesus that open Matthew 7 have been a source of confusion—and antagonism—for centuries. The problem seems to be that many of us misunderstand the distinctions between similar Greek terms that mean different things. Anakrinō (“to discern”) is a general term that means “to investigate…to examine, scrutinize, question.” It’s a…

“Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness…” Jesus told his hearers on the mountainside (Matthew 6:33). This command was both a promise of freedom (from worry) and a promise of daily provision. So what does it mean to “seek” God’s kingdom and righteousness? The Greek word used here is zeeteo, and it entails a few…

A few random thoughts about Matthew 6:25-34… In Jesus’ time, poverty was the norm, not the exception. Add to that vagaries of crops and crime and war and more, and you can see why people would worry about what they would eat or drink or wear from day to day. Most laborers worked on a…

How odd it seems that Jesus felt compelled to argue with first-century hearers about God’s faithfulness in caring for them. Yet there he is in Matthew 6:25-34, forcefully presenting debate-style arguments to support this seemingly-obvious message. First, when admonishing hearers not to worry, Christ used a common rabbinical debate form known as going from the…

“The eye is the lamp of the body,” Jesus said in his Sermon on the Mount. “If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light” (Matthew 6:22). Jesus employs two familiar symbols for his audience in this teaching: eyes and light. In the ancient Jewish world, a person’s eyes were considered…

“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). This proverb from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is nice poetry and is often quoted as though everyone instantly understands it. But do we really get Christ’s meaning here? Perhaps it’d be helpful for us to take a closer look at two keywords…
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