Why Read the Old Testament?

June 30, 2023

If I am a New Testament Christian, that is I’m under the new covenant, why should I read the Old Testament? As a reader of the entire Bible, I recognize that the question is short-sighted. It fails to listen to the testimony and evidence of the New Testament. Many reasons for reading the Old Testament alongside the New can be given.

1. The New Testament quotes the Old Testament 96 times without indicating that it is a quotation. We are simply supposed to be familiar enough to recognize it. It cites the Old Testament 238 times with indications of it being a quotation, and it alludes to the Old Testament 1640 times.* Many times, it is helpful for us to be familiar with these passages in the Old Testament context to understand them in the New Testament. The New Testament also mentions by name over 100 people from the Old Testament.

2. Luke reports of Jesus, “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27, ESV). We cut ourselves off from some of the evidence for Jesus being the Christ, the Messiah, if we do not know the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Christ.

3. Paul writes in Romans 15:4, “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (ESV). The Old Testament scriptures still serves the New Testament people of God in encouraging endurance.

4. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:11, “Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come” (ESV). Paul had just surveyed some of the history of the Exodus and Wilderness Wanderings. These Old Testament examples still instruct those under the new covenant. We see good examples to follow, and bad examples that warn us of the paths not to follow.

5. Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (ESV). He has reminded Timothy of the sacred scriptures that he had been acquainted with from his infancy. This is a clear reference to the Old Testament scriptures. So, all scriptures would include both the old and the new. The Old Testament still has a teaching, reproof, correction, and training role in our lives.

Clearly, we must distinguish between the covenants so that we properly understand our covenant obligations. Christians don’t practice animal sacrifices for example. But the New Testament itself gives us ample reasons to continue to read the Old Testament.

—Russ Holden

*Jackson, Jeffrey Glen, and Rick Brannan, eds. New Testament Use of the Old Testament. Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2015.

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Posted by Russell Holden

Knowledge and Love

June 24, 2023

Did you know that you can be right about a topic and yet be completely wrong? Did you know that even if you had a perfect Bible knowledge, you could be very far from the Lord? How can this be?

The church desperately needs to remember these words penned by Paul, “Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies. If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.” (1 Corinthians 8:1b-3 NAS95)

Certainly, the knowledge of God is vital to our Christian walk. It is absolutely critical that we know the word of God and the commands of God. Without the knowledge of God, we would perish. But knowledge is not the entire story! In fact, knowledge without love amounts to nothing! (1 Corinthians 13:2). Walking in knowledge without love makes a person arrogant. Knowledge without love tears down the people of God and the work of God. How many times have we seen brothers or sisters hurt, relationships destroyed, and churches splintered because God’s people are walking in loveless knowledge? Walking in knowledge without love can cause us to sin grievously against one another and against Christ (1 Corinthians 8:12). Walking in knowledge without love can cause us to destroy one for whom Christ died (1 Corinthians 8:11).

But what about love? Love edifies. Love builds people up. Love strengthens the church of God. Love never tears people down. Love transforms the expression of our knowledge and makes it acceptable to God.

Yes, let us always strive to increase our knowledge. Let us always be willing to discuss the correct doctrine and the correct interpretation of the word. Let us always be willing to correct one another, when needed, according to the knowledge of God. But brethren, let us make certain that we do all these things in love.

—Scott Colvin

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Posted by Russell Holden

The Supremacy of Love

June 19, 2023

“If I speak with the tongues of mankind and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give away all my possessions to charity, and if I surrender my body so that I may glory, but do not have love, it does me no good.” (1 Corinthians 13:1–3 NAS20)

Love is the most important quality we can possess. Without love, we are nothing. Let the magnitude of this truth sink in for a moment. You could be the most spiritually gifted person the world has ever seen, but without love you are nothing. You could be a person of great knowledge, but without love, all your knowledge amounts to nothing. You can be a person of great faith, generosity, and service, but without love, none of these things mean anything to God.

Without love we have nothing, but with love we have everything. It is when we walk in love that we truly begin to know who God is. It is when we walk in love that we begin to take on the nature of our God. It is when we walk in love that we fulfill everything that God has commanded in the Law and the Prophets. When Jesus was questioned about the greatest commandment in the law, He replied, “‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND’. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF’. Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:36–40 NAS20) Do you see the supremacy of love? It is both the first and the second greatest command in the Law. Everything God has said hangs upon love.

Brethren, let us walk in love! This is the most important thing we can learn to do. This is something we should devote ourselves to, because without love we are nothing, but with love we are becoming everything that God wants us to be.

—Scott Colvin

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Posted by Russell Holden

Test Yourselves

June 9, 2023

“Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?” (2 Corinthians 13:5 NAS95)

These are the apostle Paul’s instructions to the church at Corinth. The church was struggling with sin—so much so that Paul was afraid of what he would find when he came to visit them. There needed to be some serious testing and self-examination. There needed to be a genuine effort on their part to discover the true nature of their relationship with God. Were they still in the faith? Was Christ still dwelling within them? They needed to test and see.

What is the nature of this self-examination? How can you test to see if you are still in the faith? That Christ is still in you? From the context of the passage, it seems that the test is this: Are you continuing in unrepentant sin? Paul says earlier in chapter 12, “For I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may find you to be not what I wish… that perhaps there will be strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances…” (2 Corinthians 12:20 NAS95) Paul is afraid that he won’t find what he wishes to find, i.e., that they are still in the faith. What would be the evidence of this? Ongoing interpersonal strife. An ongoing unwillingness to get along with each other. When someone continues unrepentantly in these things, they are failing the test!

Paul goes on in the next verse, “I am afraid that when I come again my God may humiliate me before you, and I may mourn over many of those who have sinned in the past and not repented of the impurity, immorality and sensuality which they have practiced.” (2 Corinthians 12:21 NAS95) There needs to be a test! A critical self-examination! Those who continue on in unrepentant sexual immorality are failing the test!

If Christ is really in us, there will be an obvious change in how we live our lives. We don’t fail the test because we sin, or because we struggle with temptation. No, we fail the test when we continue on in a lifestyle of sin.

We fail the test when we choose to not turn from our sins. Is there sin in your life that you need to repent of? Is Christ in you? Let us test ourselves to see if we are in the faith.

—Scott Colvin

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Posted by Russell Holden

They Laughed at Him

June 3, 2023

The situation was grave, and the request was urgent. Jairus’ daughter was dying, so he sought Jesus’ help. When he found Jesus, he fell at his feet and implored him to come to his house. Think about this for a moment. Have you ever felt so desperate that you fell at someone’s feet to make your plea?

Jairus’ only daughter was dying. Let the word “only” sink (Luke 8:42). It is not that with several children you have one that can be expendable. The death of any child would be horrible. Yet, there is a special pain that accompanies the word only. To lose an only daughter is to have no other daughter left to comfort you. To lose an only daughter is to have no other daughter to give you grandchildren.

Do you think Jairus was urgent getting Jesus to move in the direction of his house? After all, the crowds pressed around him. It would be like seeing an ambulance with lights flashing and siren sounding stuck in a traffic jam. Then Jesus himself stopped to ask who touched him. And then a further delay as Jesus spoke with a woman who had been ill for twelve years but was now cured. No doubt a wonderful cause as you worry that the joy of the past twelve years of your life may be fading away.

While Jesus was speaking, the bad news from home arrived: “You daughter is dead; do not trouble the Teacher any more.” Yet, Jesus pressed on. He assured Jairus that she will be well. But when they arrived, they were confronted with the realities of death — weeping and wailing. Jesus responded, “Do not weep, for she is not dead but sleeping.” But the hearers knew death only too well, and they laughed.

This laugh of derision was changed to joy. Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter, but I suspect that the disciples of Jesus heard this kind of laugh again.

  • Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. Acts 17:32, ESV
  • And as he was saying these things in his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are out of your mind; your great learning is driving you out of your mind.” Acts 26:24, ESV

With this laugh, I am reminded that the disciple is not above his master, and what they do to the master, they will do the one who follows. They laughed at Jesus, and some may very well laugh at us, but I am persuaded of the power and reality of Jesus’ resurrection.

—Russ Holden

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Posted by Russell Holden