We are taught that we must become upright people who, in God’s sight, are blameless and fully keep His commandments. “In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly” [(Modern Translation: “When Herod was king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah of the division of Abijah, and his wife Elizabeth also came from the family of Aaron. They were righteous before God and faithfully kept all the Lord’s commandments and regulations without fault”)] (Luke 1:5–6). While meditating on this passage, I would like to draw out the lessons given to us: (1) The author of Luke’s Gospel, Luke, first wrote to Theophilus about John the Baptist’s parents. The father’s name was “Zechariah” (meaning, “The LORD remembers...
‘Thanks be to God’ [Romans 6:15-18] Let us review Romans 6:12-14 again [Title: The result of resurrection with Christ]. Just as Jesus Christ died to sin once for all and lives for God forever (v. 10), so we also consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. First, we must live as dead to sin. We must not allow sin to have dominion over our bodies (v. 12). We must not obey the lusts of the body (v. 12). Here, it was said at the Wednesday prayer meeting last week that the word “lust” was translated into eight Greek words, but in fact, it was translated into more than ten. Among those translations, it was also tran...