Faith With Its Sleeves Rolled Up

 Everything so far has been about the heart. This part is about your hands and your calendar.

Jesus never let faith stay theoretical. He kept turning it into food, water, clothes, and visits.

These three commands push us out the door.

29. You Did It to Me

Matthew 25:34-40

Jesus described the day he separates the sheep from the goats, and the list he reads is not what people expect.

I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I was naked and you gave me clothing. I was sick and you cared for me. I was in prison and you visited me.

The righteous are confused. They ask when they ever saw him like that. And Jesus gives the line that changes everything. When you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me.

The world says: Charity is nice when you have extra.

But God's Word says: How you treat the forgotten is how you treat Jesus.

Look at the list again. None of it is impressive. A meal. A coat. Showing up. Ordinary people doing ordinary things, and Jesus counted every one of them as done to him.

You do not need a ministry title. You need a coat and an afternoon.

30. You Got It Free. Give It Free.

Matthew 10:8

Jesus sent out the twelve with a short instruction about their new power.

Heal the sick. Raise the dead. Cure those with leprosy. Cast out demons. Then he added the line that governs all of it. Give as freely as you have received.

They did not earn any of it. It was handed to them. So they were not allowed to put a price on it.

The world says: Get paid what you are worth. Nothing is free.

But God's Word says: It was free to you. Pass it on the same way.

This goes beyond money. Think about what you have been given. Grace you did not earn. Time. Skills. A second chance somebody gave you once.

Hold any of it too tightly and you forget how you got it.

31. Do Not Guard the Gate

Mark 9:38-40

John came to Jesus feeling pretty good about something the disciples had done.

They saw a man casting out demons in Jesus' name, and they told him to stop. Why? Because he was not part of their group.

Jesus told them to leave him alone. Anyone doing a miracle in his name is not going to turn around and curse him. Then he said it simply. Anyone who is not against us is for us.

The world says: They do it differently. They are not really with us.

But God's Word says: God works outside your circle. Be glad about it.

This one gets me. It is so easy to protect our own corner. Our church. Our method. Our tribe.

Meanwhile God is out there working through people we have never heard of, in ways we would not have picked. The right response is joy, not a turf check.

Where This Leaves Us

These three take faith out of your head and put it in the world.

Serve people who cannot pay you back. Give away what was given to you. Cheer for God's work even when it is not yours.

Jesus said the world would know us by our love. Not by our doctrine statement. By what people actually receive from us.

Try this week: Find one need you can meet with your own hands this week. A meal. A ride. A visit. Do not organize it. Just do it.

Ask yourself: When was the last time I did something for someone who could never repay me?

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Abide, remain, dwell, continue, and hold fast (John 15:4)

I'm reading Abide by Warren Wiersbe, "Understanding the secrets of living for Jesus." I was wondering why we don't translate it as "remain" so I did a little digging. Abide 

(Abide, Continue, Endure) Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. (John 15:4)

The central theme is abiding: God invites people to remain in Him, receive life from Him, and reflect His character through changing circumstances. These passages connect lasting security with God’s presence, spiritual growth with dependence on Christ, and genuine faith with love and obedience. Their central question is: Where do we make our home, and what does that produce in our lives?

AIM: Depend on Christ daily so His truth and love shape your response to every circumstance.

Themes that emerge

Theme	What it reveals about God	What it reveals about people	What it reveals about circumstances	Key passages
Dependence and fruitfulness	Christ supplies spiritual life and growth.	We need continuing dependence on Him to bear fruit.	Productivity and activity alone do not establish spiritual fruitfulness.	John 15:4–5
Presence and belonging	God gives His Spirit and dwells in His people.	Believers are invited into an enduring relationship with Him.	God’s presence accompanies believers wherever they are.	John 14:17; 1 John 4:13–16
Truth and discernment	His Word gives life and remains trustworthy.	We must receive, remember, and continue in Christ’s teaching.	Deception and competing messages make discernment necessary.	John 8:31; 1 John 2:24–27; 2 John 9
Love expressed through action	God is love, and His presence shapes our relationships.	Love becomes visible through generosity and care.	Another person’s need becomes an opportunity to express God’s love.	1 John 3:14–18; 4:12–16
Obedience and holiness	God is holy and calls His people to reflect Jesus.	Claims of fellowship should correspond with how we live.	Temptation exposes whether we are following Christ or resisting Him.	John 15:10; 1 John 2:6; 3:6–9
Refuge and endurance	God protects, sustains, and remains faithful.	Trust enables perseverance amid fear and loss.	Trouble can coexist with faithful fellowship with God.	Psalm 91:1; 125:1; Hebrews 10:34
Permanence and accountability	God endures and judges evil.	Our lives are brief, and our response to Him matters eternally.	Possessions and worldly desires pass away; God’s purposes endure.	Psalm 102:12; 1 John 2:17; John 3:36

What “abide” means in context

In the passages about relationship with Christ, abiding means continuing in trusting fellowship with Him, allowing His words, love, and commands to shape life. Jesus connects this relationship with prayer, obedience, love, and lasting fruit.

The same English word carries several meanings:

• Remain somewhere: staying in a house, territory, or shelter.
• Continue in relationship: remaining in Christ, His love, or His teaching.
• Endure or last: possessions, work, or truth that survive.
• Withstand: enduring judgment or fire.

These uses contribute different insights. For example, the hidden attackers in Judges 16 are “abiding” in a room, but that occurrence does not teach spiritual fellowship.

How the passages interpret one another

Three connections help hold the themes together:

• Refuge and suffering: Psalm 91 promises God’s presence in trouble. Hebrews 10 describes faithful people suffering imprisonment and property loss. Together, they support confidence in God’s care without making comfort the measure of faithfulness.
• Holiness and confession: First John 3 strongly challenges continuing in sin. First John 1:8–9 also acknowledges believers’ sin and calls for confession. Read together, they describe transformed lives that include honest repentance.
• Dependence and action: Jesus’ vine metaphor connects receiving life from Him with actively loving others. Abiding produces participation, obedience, and service.

A useful framework is presence → dependence → transformation → endurance. This is a synthesis of the passages, rather than a sequence explicitly stated in one verse.

Strongest conclusion

The strongest conclusion is that abiding in God becomes visible in enduring trust, practical love, and growing obedience. Repeated passages support this more strongly than any interpretation based on a single occurrence of “abide.”

Two interpretations fail the broader context:

• “Abiding guarantees freedom from suffering” conflicts with Hebrews 10:32–34.
• “Abiding means believers never sin” conflicts with 1 John 1:8–9.

Questions for deeper study

These passages suggest three useful questions:

• God: What does He provide here that people cannot supply themselves?
• People: What response demonstrates that His truth and love are taking root?
• Circumstances: How does fellowship with God change our response when the situation remains difficult?

Suggested action items:

• Read John 15:1–17 and identify God’s provision and our response. 
• Choose one concrete act of love from 1 John 3:16–18.  
• Name one difficult circumstance and pray through Psalm 91:15.  

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Cross in the Colosseum: Telemachus and the Cost of Making Peace

Watching this video  Should Christians OPPOSE the Death Penalty?! (What Bible Says…) ft. David Nasser | Live Free, pastor talked about Telemachus and a cross in the Colosseum which made me want to explore who this is. Walk into Rome’s Colosseum and you will see a large wooden cross standing on the arena’s northern side.  Many people link the cross to Telemachus, a monk said to have died trying to stop gladiatorial combat. The earliest account comes from Theodoret of Cyrrhus, a fifth-century bishop and church historian (Ecclesiastical History, Book V, chapter 26). According to Theodoret:

• Telemachus lived an ascetic, monastic life and traveled from the East to Rome.
• He entered an arena during a gladiatorial contest and tried to separate the fighters.
• The enraged spectators stoned him to death.
• Emperor Honorius honored him as a martyr and ended the gladiatorial spectacle.

That is the historical core: a Christian peacemaker stepped into public violence and became its victim.

What the Bible says about people like Telemachus

Telemachus is not in Scripture, but his story echoes Scripture’s pattern in several ways.

Peacemakers step into the danger

Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9). He adds a blessing for those persecuted for righteousness (Matthew 5:10-12). Peacemaking in the Bible is rarely safe.

• Abigail rode out to meet an armed David and stopped a massacre, taking the blame on herself (1 Samuel 25:18-35).
• Jonathan stood between David and his father Saul’s violence (1 Samuel 19:1-7).
• Esther risked her life before the king for her people: “If I perish, I perish” (Esther 4:14-16).

Evil is overcome by good

Paul writes, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21). The pattern runs through Scripture. Joseph tells the brothers who sold him that they meant evil but God meant it for good (Genesis 50:19-21). David spares Saul when he could have killed him (1 Samuel 24). Jesus prays for his executioners: “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34).

Love that lays down its life

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). John applies it directly: “we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters” (1 John 3:16).

The closest biblical parallel to Telemachus is Stephen. He was stoned by an angry crowd and prayed for his killers as he died (Acts 7:54-60). Like Telemachus in Theodoret’s account, Stephen died by stoning, and his death did not end his witness. Acts shows his death scattering believers and spreading the message (Acts 8:1-4).

Others in Scripture were willing to die rather than compromise. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego trusted God whether or not he rescued them (Daniel 3:16-18). Jesus told the church in Smyrna, “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown” (Revelation 2:10).

A place of violence, a place of remembrance

The cross in the Colosseum gives this reflection a physical setting. A site associated with public cruelty became a place to remember Christ’s self-giving love. The Bible has promises that fit this movement:

• God promises “a crown of beauty instead of ashes” (Isaiah 61:3).
• He promises that swords will be beaten into plowshares and nations will not learn war anymore (Isaiah 2:4).
• And he promises to wipe away every tear (Revelation 21:4).

The pattern is older than the Colosseum cross. Golgotha was a place of public execution before it became the center of Christian hope (John 19:17-18). 

Why the story matters

Hebrews describes those who were mocked, flogged, stoned and killed, “of whom the world was not worthy” (Hebrews 11:35-38). It then says we are surrounded by “such a great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1).

We may never know exactly where Telemachus died, what he said, or how the crowd reacted. The Bible’s promise does not depend on that. God does not forget acts of costly love: “God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him” (Hebrews 6:10). Jesus says even a cup of cold water given in his name will not go unrewarded (Matthew 10:42).

Telemachus, at the least, is remembered as someone who walked into another person’s suffering at personal risk. That call is not limited to monks in ancient Rome. It is the invitation of Matthew 5:9, Romans 12:21 and John 15:13 to everyone who follows Jesus: make peace, overcome evil with good, and love when it costs something.

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A Gentle Answer (Romans 3:25)

God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished (Romans 3:25)

I’m approaching one million views on this blog, and I’m grateful.

Thank you to BSF, and to my friend Jason, who encouraged me to share my faith online. When I started writing, I wanted a place to keep my homiletics and remember the big ideas before walking through Scripture with my mentees. I did not expect these notes to travel so far. God has been kind to let them reach people I may never meet.

A view is a number on a screen. A reader is a person with questions, burdens, hopes, and a story I do not know. Remembering that changes how I want to write.

Why this week’s reminder matters

This week’s leader training is Communicating Value through a Gentle Answer. The timing feels right. We are studying atonement in Romans 3:21–26, and the way I speak about it should fit the grace I am trying to explain.

“A gentle answer turns away wrath” (Proverbs 15:1). Peter likewise tells believers to be ready to explain their hope, doing so with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15). A gentle answer can be clear about sin and honest about the cross. It listens, speaks truth, and remembers that the person asking matters.

If this blog’s reach has taught me anything, it is that I cannot argue someone into trusting me. I can welcome a question, open the passage, and point to Christ. The outcome belongs to God.

A roadmap through Romans

Paul begins Romans by calling the gospel God’s power for salvation (Romans 1:16–17). Then he explains why everyone needs that good news. Sin is not merely someone else’s problem; all have fallen short (Romans 3:9–23).

Two words in Romans 3:21 turn the corner: “But now.” Having shown that we cannot make ourselves righteous before God, Paul describes what God has done. Righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ. People are justified freely by grace through the redemption Christ accomplished. God presented Jesus as the sacrifice of atonement, showing that He is both just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus (Romans 3:21–26).

The road continues beyond this week’s lesson. Abraham believed God, and that faith was credited to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:3). Those justified through faith have peace with God through Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1). God’s love meets us while we are still sinners (Romans 5:8). This is the movement from guilt to grace that makes Romans such a hopeful book.

Four words worth slowing down for

Righteousness tells us something about God before it tells us anything about ourselves. He loves justice and does what is right (Psalm 33:5; 89:14). Romans 3 announces that God provides the right standing we cannot earn. Paul later describes his hope as a righteousness from God through faith in Christ (Philippians 3:9).

Grace means that this standing is given, not achieved. Romans 3:24 calls our justification free. The kindness of God does not wait for us to become worthy of it (Titus 3:4–7).

Redemption speaks of release at a cost. Paul says that redemption came by Christ Jesus (Romans 3:24). Peter reminds believers that they were redeemed through the precious blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:18–19).

Justification answers a question many people carry: How can I stand before a holy God? Paul’s answer is faith in Jesus Christ, not a claim that I have lived well enough (Romans 3:26; Galatians 2:16). This declaration also begins a changed life; grace teaches us to turn from sin and live for God (Titus 2:11–14).

These words are connected. God’s righteousness explains why sin matters. His grace explains why sinners may hope. Christ’s redemption tells us what that gift cost. Justification names the standing God gives to those who trust Jesus.

The cross holds justice and love together

Atonement can sound like a classroom word. Romans makes it deeply personal. God does not overlook sin or ask us to repair it by trying harder. In love, He gives His Son. Isaiah foresaw the righteous servant bearing the sins of many (Isaiah 53:10–11). Hebrews contrasts repeated sacrifices with Christ’s decisive offering (Hebrews 10:1–18). John says God’s love was shown in sending His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:10).

That is why I want to speak about the cross carefully. The truth is serious: sin separates us from God, and His justice matters. The invitation is tender: the God who is just has made a way for sinners to be justified through Jesus. Paul would later say that God reconciled us to Himself through Christ and entrusted believers with a message of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18–21).

A gentle answer does not make that message smaller. It helps another person hear it.

Making room for the person in front of us

This week’s homiletics connection has me thinking about how people learn. One person may need to trace Paul’s argument from Romans 1 through chapter 3. Another may need plain definitions of grace, redemption, and justification. Someone else may first ask, “How could God forgive me and still be just?”

We can meet each person’s question without changing the passage. We can read Romans 3:21–26 together, pause over its words, and let the text lead. The aim is understanding that opens the way to faith, not a polished explanation that leaves no room for a response.

An invitation

Week 6 · Lesson 5 · October 16, 2026
Passage: Romans 3:21–26, How God Saves Sinners
Leader training: Communicating Value through a Gentle Answer

If you have been reading along, thank you. If you have questions about Jesus, faith, or what it means to be made right with God, you are welcome here.

BSF’s Life in Christ Romans mini-study is in its second week, and this lesson turns to Romans 3. You can begin with the passage, bring your questions, and study with others. And if someone came to mind while you read this, consider inviting them to join you.

I began this blog to remember the big ideas before conversations with a few people. Nearly a million views later, that purpose remains: open God’s Word, make room for people, and point to the grace of Jesus Christ.

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How We Treat Each Other

The commands in this part are about people you cannot avoid.

Family. Your small group. The person two rows back at church. The people you are stuck with.

Jesus knew we would hurt each other. He did not act surprised by it. He gave us a way through it.

25. Settle It Fast

Matthew 5:25

Jesus said come to terms with your enemy quickly, before it goes any further.

He was picturing two people on the way to court. Handle it now, on the road. Once a judge is involved, you lose control of what happens next.

The word that matters here is quickly. Not eventually. Not when you cool off. Not when they apologize first.

The world says: Give it time. Let things settle down.

But God's Word says: Go now, while it is still small.

Conflict does not age well. It hardens. What could have been fixed with one honest conversation on Tuesday turns into two years of avoiding someone in the hallway.

Make the call. Today, if you can.

26. Forgive Like You Have Been Forgiven

Matthew 6:12-15; Mark 11:25

This is the part of the Lord's Prayer we would rather skip.

Forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. Then Jesus stopped and explained it. If you forgive others, your Father will forgive you. If you refuse to forgive, he will not forgive you either.

Mark says it plainly too. When you stand praying, first forgive anyone you are holding something against.

The world says: They have to earn it back. They have to admit what they did.

But God's Word says: Forgive, because you have been forgiven far more.

A few honest things about forgiveness.

It is not saying it did not matter. It did.

It is not trust. Trust is rebuilt slowly, and some people never earn it back.

It is not staying in danger. You can forgive someone and still keep your distance.

It is releasing your claim to get even. That is all, and it is everything.

27. Go to the Person First

Matthew 18:15-17

Jesus gave us an actual order of operations for when someone sins against us.

Go to them privately, one on one. If they listen, you just won back a friend. That is the goal of the whole thing.

If they will not listen, bring one or two others along. If they still refuse, bring it to the church.

Notice what he did not say. He never said tell everyone else first. He never said post about it. He never said let it sit and go cold.

The world says: Tell your friends what they did. Build your case.

But God's Word says: Go to the person. Privately. First.

The goal is restoration, not being right. If you would rather win than have your brother back, you are not ready to go yet.

28. Watch Over the Little Ones

Matthew 18:10

Jesus warned against looking down on any of these little ones.

He said their angels in heaven are always in the presence of his Father. The people the world overlooks are the ones heaven is watching most closely.

He was talking about children. He was also talking about anyone small and easy to ignore. New believers. The person who does not fit in. Anyone who cannot do anything for you.

The world says: Spend your time with people who matter.

But God's Word says: They all matter, and God is paying attention.

This one has teeth. A church is measured by how it treats the people with no power in the room. Protect them. Believe them. Make room for them.

Where This Leaves Us

Four commands, and all of them cost your pride.

Go first. Forgive first. Talk to them, not about them. Notice the person nobody is noticing.

None of it is complicated. All of it is hard. That is usually how you know it came from Jesus.

Try this week: Think of one conflict you have been avoiding. Send the message. Keep it short and kind, and do not build your case.

Ask yourself: Is there anyone I am holding something against right now? What is it costing me to keep holding it? 

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