Ike Miller

By embracing love, especially through God's love and love for others, we can overcome the corrosive effects of jealousy and live in freedom. 5/5

Despite being the heir to the throne, Jonathan acts out of love & recognizes David’s future kingship, surrendering his royal insignia to him. The text underscores that love is not competitive but collaborative. 4/

The antidote to envy is the Love of God. When we speak of "The Love of God" we can mean our love of God, or God's love for us. God's love for us is the antidote to envy b/c in our envy, what we are actually saying is "God didn't love me enough to make me like so and so." 1/

Together, the four Gospels offer complementary accounts, providing a richer, multifaceted understanding of Jesus' life and mission, with no single Gospel being more "accurate" than the others. 6/6

John's Gospel also includes longer discourses and fewer parables, focusing on intimate encounters with individuals. 5/

What's different between the 4 Gospels? The four Gospels each provide unique perspectives on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. While they all tell the story of Christ, they do so with different emphases based on their authors' backgrounds and audiences. 1/

In summary, the Bible’s order prioritizes the progression of God's plan over a strict historical timeline, creating a cohesive narrative for theological understanding. 6/6

The placement of books also depends on the type of literature. For example, poetry and wisdom books like Psalms and Proverbs are grouped together, as are the prophetic writings. This arrangement helps readers follow the Bible's spiritual and theological messages more easily. 5/

A common question from folks in my church, why aren’t the books of the Bible in order of when they were written? The Bible is not entirely in chronological order because its books are arranged based on content and purpose rather than strict historical sequence. 1/

@micahodor Thanks! That’s a helpful additional thought.

@Ikefmiller Good writeup, Ike. As usual. I think it's also instructive to look at what the surrounding nations did when they were victorious. We (as a culture) don't have any category for a "good and honorable death" but the OT behavior is more merciful than the standard of the day.

How do we make sense of violence in the Old Testament? The Old Testament contains difficult passages where God commands violence, often raising questions about His nature and justice. 1/

@ogarcia07 My take is that the revelation of God in Jesus Christ is the clarity of God’s view on violence and redemption that speaks for all time, in a way that the Old Testament was a “triage” for our sin and brokenness waiting on the full healing in Jesus.

@ogarcia07 That is the crux of the issue, and yet I think to assume that it was just OT authors understanding this as God’s will is an “out” of the problem that the text doesn’t give us. It relieves the issue but at the cost of questioning the intentionality of inspiration to speak clearly.