Category: What do you think?

What Jesus was really saying in Matthew 7:1 when he said “judge not”

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JEFF TURNER

Matthew 7:1, “Judge not, that you be not judged,” is probably one of the verses most often pulled out of context in everyday conversation. Many people use it to argue that Christians should never criticise anyone or declare one view better than another on any topic. But that reading falls apart the moment you look at what Jesus said just a few verses later in the very same passage, where he tells his listeners to watch for false teachers and identify them by their fruit.

Jesus was not telling his listeners to stop making judgements. He was addressing people who believed they had the authority to render final verdicts on others, specifically the religious leaders of his day who saw themselves as the ultimate judges of all people. His point was that God alone holds that position, and anyone who tries to claim it for themselves will face divine judgement for doing so. Discernment, evaluation, and even calling out false teaching are all things scripture encourages. What Jesus was pushing back against was the arrogance of placing yourself in the seat that belongs only to God.

Do not judge by the outward appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”

John 7:24

Leviathan, the beast, and the God who holds all things

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JOHN COPIC

Scripture has never been afraid of monsters. From the primordial depths of Job’s poetry to the apocalyptic visions of John on Patmos, the Bible sets before us a creature of terrifying proportion: Leviathan, that coiling, fleeing serpent, that dragon in the sea. Do not mistake this for mythology borrowed carelessly from surrounding cultures. This is the language of sovereignty, pressed into poetic form to declare a truth that no philosophical argument could carry so forcefully: chaos has a limit, and that limit is God himself. In Job 41, the Lord asks with quiet thunder, “Who then is he who can stand before me?” No human hand can hook Leviathan. No harpoon can pierce him. Yet the God who made him holds him as a man holds a sparrow. The monster that terrifies creation is, to its Creator, a creature on a leash.

What Isaiah prophesies in chapter 27 is not a quaint mythological aside; it is the thread that, pulled carefully, unravels all the way to the book of Revelation. The beast that rises from the sea in Revelation 13, with its ten horns and seven heads and blasphemous names, is Leviathan wearing a new face. It is the same chaos, the same devouring power, the same human wickedness dressed in political and religious authority, demanding worship it was never owed.

And yet here is the startling thing. The vineyard in Isaiah 27 is tended. Every moment, the Lord waters it. He keeps it day and night. While Leviathan coils and the beast rages and false religion spreads its flattering poison, God is quietly, persistently, sovereignly keeping his people. The exile to Babylon was not abandonment; it was purging. When the scattered people of Israel returned to their land, the Asherah poles were gone. The altars to Baal had crumbled. Idolatry, that stubborn weed, had been scorched from the soil. The exile that looked like catastrophe was the very instrument of cleansing, the fierce east wind that removed what gentler breezes could not. God’s severity and God’s tenderness, it turns out, are not in contradiction. They are both expressions of his love for his vineyard.

The fruit that Israel failed to produce has now been scattered across the earth through the gospel of Jesus Christ. What Colossians 1 captures so beautifully, that the word of truth is “bearing fruit and increasing” throughout the whole world, is the fulfilment of what Isaiah saw from a distance.

The final word, however, belongs to Revelation 20. The devil who deceived, the beast who dominated, the false prophet who flattered, all are cast into the lake of fire. And then death itself follows. What remains is order, the order of a new heaven and a new earth, governed by the God who never once lost control. We are, right now, living in the middle of this story. The chaos is real. But the verdict has already been rendered, pronounced from before the foundation of the world and sealed at an empty tomb on the third day. The one who said “I will raise him up on the last day” will do exactly that. Come then to him, be reconciled to this God, and find yourself on the right side of that last and final morning.

For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death.

1 Corinthians 15:25-26

What Paul’s instructions about head coverings in 1 Corinthians 11 mean for believers today

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JEFF TURNER

The passage in 1 Corinthians 11 where Paul instructs women to wear head coverings in church is one that raises questions about how much of it applies today, but the underlying principle it is built on has not changed at all. In the culture of Corinth, a woman’s head covering was an outward sign of her submission to male leadership. It was a visible symbol that communicated something real about the order God had established. The symbol may look different today, but the principle behind it is not cultural; it is rooted in the way God created men and women to relate to one another.

I believe Paul’s concern was not the specific clothing custom itself but what it represented. A man covering his head in that setting would have reversed the order, and a woman removing her covering would have been a public act of rejection toward God’s design. Today’s cultures use different outward markers to communicate similar things, and Paul’s point is that whatever those markers are, believers should not use their appearance to send a message of rebellion against God’s order. The submission itself, grounded in how God made human beings, is what matters, and nothing outward should contradict it.

Do you disagree? Please leave comments below.

But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.

1 Corinthians 11:3

Who the 144,000 in Revelation 7 are and what they will do during the tribulation

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JEFF TURNER

The number 144,000 in Revelation 7 refers to a specific group of Jewish believers, 12,000 from each of the twelve tribes of Israel, who will be sealed by God during the tribulation. This period falls between the rapture of the church and the return of Christ to establish his thousand-year reign, and it will be marked by a series of escalating judgements on the earth, described in Revelation as seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls, each more intense than the last.

Running alongside that judgement will be a worldwide proclamation of the gospel. Angels will carry the message through the skies, martyrs will be raised back to life to testify, and these 144,000 Jewish men will go out from every tribe to preach. The tribal records were lost when Jerusalem was destroyed, so most Jewish people today have no way of knowing which tribe they belong to, but God knows, and he will call out and ordain these men for this specific mission. The salvation of the nation of Israel as a whole is also part of what Revelation indicates will take place during this remarkable period.

And so we are left with this breathtaking truth: that even in the earth’s darkest hour, when the seals are broken and the trumpets sound and the bowls of wrath are poured out, God will not leave himself without a witness, because he never has, and he never will.

saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the bond-servants of our God on their foreheads.”
And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:

Revelation 7:3-4

Don’t mistake winning an argument for winning a soul

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DAVID INGRAM

If you’ve spent much time defending the Christian faith online or in person, you’ve probably noticed a familiar pattern. It has become so common that it’s almost predictable.

Someone confidently declares, “There is no God.”

When you ask them to support that claim, the response is often, “The burden of proof is on you because you’re the one who believes God exists.”

At first, that may sound reasonable. But think carefully about what has happened.

The statement, “God exists,” is a claim. The statement, “God does not exist,” is also a claim. Both are assertions about reality. The only position that avoids making a claim is, “I don’t know.”

A common mistake in reasoning is to assume that only one side has a burden of proof. This is known as shifting the burden of proof. It occurs when someone makes an assertion but insists that only the other person is responsible for providing evidence. If a person claims there is no God, they have made a claim just as surely as the person who says there is a God. Neither side should be exempt from defending what they affirm.

As Christians, we should never be embarrassed to acknowledge that we are saved by faith given as a gift from God so that no one may boast. To be clear: I believe the Bible tells us that our faith is not something we manufacture on our own or that stems from our own ability to understand.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
— Ephesians 2:8-9

We do not hide our faith because it is God’s gift, not our achievement.

What should concern us is when someone confidently declares there is no God while insisting they owe no explanation for that conclusion. That is not skepticism. It is simply another belief being asserted without defense.

Yet even this is not the heart of the matter.

Christians can become so absorbed in debating logical fallacies that we forget why the conversation matters in the first place. We begin treating apologetics as though our mission is to outthink the unbeliever.

It isn’t.

The deepest reason people reject Christ is rarely intellectual. Scripture says the problem is spiritual.

“The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.'” (Psalm 14:1)

Notice that Scripture does not say the fool has examined all the evidence and reached an unavoidable conclusion. The issue begins in the heart.

Paul explains that humanity already has sufficient knowledge of God through His creation, yet suppresses that truth.

“For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them… So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him.”
— Romans 1:19-21

The Bible teaches that unbelief is not caused by a lack of information. It is a suppression of truth. Sin affects not only what we desire but also how we think.

This does not mean every objection to Christianity is dishonest. People often have sincere questions that deserve thoughtful answers. We should always be prepared to give a reason for the hope within us, doing so “with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15).

But we should never imagine that the right argument alone can produce saving faith.

Paul wrote,

“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
— 1 Corinthians 1:18

And again,

“The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him… because they are spiritually discerned.”
— 1 Corinthians 2:14

No one is argued into the Kingdom apart from the work of the Holy Spirit.

That should change the way we engage unbelievers.

Yes, expose faulty reasoning when it appears. Correct logical fallacies when necessary. Defend the truth faithfully. But do not mistake exposing an error in logic for addressing the real issue. A person can lose every argument and still reject Christ. Another can ask difficult questions and, by God’s grace, come to faith.

Our confidence should never rest in our ability to corner someone intellectually. Scripture warns us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5).

Don’t work so hard to open the door of human reason that you neglect the door only the Holy Spirit can open.

Winning an argument is not the mission.

Leading people to the Savior is.