It is the Sermon on the Mount. Our Lord has presented the crowd with the Beatitudes. We have been taught to know the gateway to heaven. These are the great Christian truths to which we aspire [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses | The Gospel Of Saint Matthew
Parable Of The Wicked Tenants | Parables Of Jesus | Parables Of The Kingdom | Daily Verses Lent | KJV Audio
Jesus offers the parable of the wicked tenants as part of a larger discourse in which he responds, in the Temple, to the challenge of the scribes and the elders of the people concerning his authority. The parable leads the entrenched Jewish authorities to see the truth for themselves and yet still to reject the truth about themselves. Though their lives could have been enlightened by the parable, they refuse conversion and rather seek to arrest Jesus. They have the option to choose good; they choose evil [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | Love Your Enemies | Neighbours In Christ | Christian Faith | Spiritual Healing | Love Revealed By Jesus
The Sermon on the Mount continues with Christ’s call to reconciliation and forgiveness. Jesus urgently wishes the Jews to be at peace among themselves, and he implores his listeners not to aggravate the Roman oppressors, whose utter brutality in suppressing dissent would indeed ultimately destroy Jerusalem. (We should remember that, prior to AD 70, thousands of Jews could be crucified at just one go to suppress insurrectionary threats.) Just as God’s love is for everyone, so we should see everyone as being our neighbour. This is the truth of the teaching of Levitus (19:18): ‘You shall love your neighbour.’ [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | Jesus’ Teaching | The Fullness Of The Law | Peace And Love In Christian Community | Audio KJV
As we progress through Lent, we listen to Christ’s teaching of the limitations of the Old Law and the complete fulfilment, transcendence and renewal of the Law which Christ, through his life, death and resurrection, gave to us. As St Paul will teach: through the Law, there can be no salvation; salvation is for us through Christ alone [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | Effectiveness Of Prayer | The Golden Rule | Christian Faith And Charity | Audio KJV | Love In Jesus
Our prayer must be true to God. It is natural to petition God for what we need. It would indeed be arrogant to ‘go it alone’ and not humbly to share with God our needs and to ask Him for help, as if He were not our Father and we His children and creation. We are called by Jesus to acknowledge that all we have, we have through God. And we are called to develop our conversation with God through a life of prayer [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | Our Father | The Lord’s Prayer | Forgive Us Our Trespasses | Simple Christian Prayer | Petition | Audio KJV | Love Revealed By Jesus Christ
In Matthew, Jesus teaches the Our Father, the Lord’s Prayer, as part of the Discourse on the Mountain, in which we are instructed in the correct ways of practising almsgiving, prayer and fasting. Certain tendencies of the Jewish converts are corrected, particularly a certain ostentation and vacuity in the manner of prayer, giving and fasting to which they were accustomed. When they are praying, Jesus orders his followers not to be like the Gentiles, who heap up long-winded but ultimately empty phrases in the vain and superstitious belief that this will impress God. True piety means looking to God with simplicity of heart and true love through the course of each day. Spoken prayer is good and necessary, but the words only count if they express the truth of our inner feelings [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | Judgement Day | The Son Of Man Shall Come In Glory | Thirsty, Naked, Sick : Healed, Clothed | Saved In Jesus | Son Of Man
The parables which comprise the eschatological discourse – following the Sermon in the Temple and, on the Mount of Olives, to Christ’s disciples privately – are completed with Christ’s announcement of a rigorous last judgement. The structure of time will be complete. Those who have been true to Christ and his teaching will be admitted to glory. Those who have failed, who have remained in sin, will be forever excluded. There will be justice. Just as we will have implicitly judged ourselves, so Christ will judge [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | Shall The Children Fast? | Christian Faith | Christ’s Church | Jesus Christ The Bridegroom | Audio KJV
Many of the Jews of Christ’s time, including the disciples of John the Baptist, followed complicated rituals of fasting and purification, elaborated to the point where they could obscure genuine piety. It is noted that the followers of Christ do not follow such rituals. This must have seemed particularly strange to the followers of John. After all, John foretold Christ’s coming and saw that he was the Messiah as he began his ministry. Later, John’s uncertainty is such that he will send from prison to ask Christ if he is indeed the one who is to come. The reality of Christ present and the manner of his ministry must have been confusing and troubling to the Jews [ … ]
Ash Wednesday | Daily Bible Verses For Lent | Giving, Prayer And Penance | Christian Faith | King James Audio Bible | KJV
In these Bible verses, from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives to his people instruction regarding the three traditional works of mercy of the Jews, namely almsgiving, prayer and fasting. A key message is that, when we pray, when we fast and when we give charity, this is not supposed to be because we wish to be seen as pious by other people. Jesus satirizes those hypocrites who wish to be glorified by other people for their fasting, their giving of alms and their prayers. They sound a trumpet in the streets and strike extravagant attitudes in the synagogues. They visibly mortify their bodies and pull dismal expressions. Jesus portrays such hypocrites as ridiculous. Their piety is not to do with their love of God; it is to do with their wish to be seen as ‘pious’ by their fellow man. And such will be their reward [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses | Suffer Little Children To Come Unto Me | Jesus As A Child | Boy Jesus | Heaven | King James Audio KJV
In listening to these Gospel verses, questions present themselves. We might ask both why the children are brought to Jesus to be blessed, and why then the disciples rebuke the people bringing the children. We try to see within this scene [ … ]
Jesus Teaches The Lord’s Prayer | Deep And Secret Faith In Jesus Christ | Our Father | Love Our Fellow Human Beings With Jesus | Incommensurate Value Of Human Beings | Christian Love
Jesus teaches this invitation to deeper prayer. Jesus calls us to pray from the heart, in humility and intimacy with the Father. Take a moment to quiet your mind and open your heart.
I invite the Holy Spirit to guide my thoughts. How can my prayer life be more in tune with God’s will?
The Lamp Under A Bushel | Parables Of Jesus | Share The Love Of Jesus Christ With Everyone | Evangelical Christianity
We are called as Christians not only to love God and to offer our days to Him, but also to shine as a living example to the people we meet each day. We are called to that apostolate which is a part of being a Christian, to proclaim the truth of Christ to the world. There are all sorts of ways in which we can approach this mission. There are those who feel called to preach the Gospel aloud in busy streets, asking passers by to pause for a moment and listen to the word of God. For others, it might seem a brave act to say to a person who might not know us very well, in the course of conversation: I am a Christian [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses | Jesus Begins To Preach | The Kingdom Of Heaven Is At Hand | Christmas Gospel Readings
Jesus’ public ministry begins as John the Baptist’s concludes, John being imprisoned by Herod for speaking out against the immorality of Herod’s sexual relationship with his brother’s wife. Mission comes with danger, and John the Baptist was not afraid. Nor now is Jesus. Indeed, Jesus begins to preach with the very same words with which John had warned the people to beware of their sins: Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses | The Feast Of Saint Stephen | King James Audio Bible KJV | Advent And Christmas
There is an extraordinary contrast between yesterday’s celebration of the birth of Jesus, and today’s of the first Christian martyr, Stephen, stoned to death because he had to the courage to believe in Jesus, and would not be cowed into silence by the repressive actions of the Jewish authorities [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses Advent & Christmas | Genealogy Of Jesus | Matthew’s Gospel
Christ is to be saviour of all mankind, in accordance with the promise to Abraham, and he is to bring an everlasting kingdom to the Jewish people, as prophesized to King David. He is identified right at the start of Matthew’s Gospel as the son of David and the son of Abraham. From one perspective, the genealogy then presented confirms these truths and roots Christ in a line that is itself a record of salvation history, which in the birth of the Son of God reaches its climax [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Advent | Christian Faith | Prayer | Jesus Teaching in the Temple | By What Authority? | King James Audio Bible KJV | Love Revealed By Jesus Christ
Today’s verses hold a message for those early Christians of the time when the Gospel was being written. Those Christians faced persecution at the hands of the Roman authority. It would have been reassuring for them to hear of how Jesus challenged authority, helping them to find the courage to keep their faith [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses Advent & Christmas | Elijah As John The Baptist | Christian Social Justice | Kingdom Of God
The disciples Peter, James and John have just witnessed the Transfiguration on the mountain. They have seen the glorified Christ, and now they are puzzled, because they have been taught that Elijah would come before the Messiah. These are the verses from the prophet Malachi, which are the last words of the Old Testament:
Daily Bible Verses For Advent | Christ’s Reproach To This Generation | Children In The Marketplace | Kingdom Of Heaven | Kingdom Of God
The image of children in these Bible verses is curious. We could read the lines as suggesting childishness, with one group of children expecting to amuse another and reacting peevishly when those others do not move according to the music they play. We could more broadly read these verses as suggesting a disconnect between various children, a failure of communication, recognition, response, which is emblematic of Christ and his followers and those who reject him …
Daily Bible Verses For Advent | John The Baptist | The Kingdom Of Heaven | King James Audio Bible KJV
In today’s verses, Jesus pays tribute to John the Baptist, telling the crowds that John the Baptist, until the dawn of the New Testament, the arrival of the Kingdom of God, was the greatest of people. John the Baptist was a courageous, inspirational figure and had the honour of proclaiming Christ’s presence, then he looked on satisfied as his disciples went from him to follow Christ: ‘He must increase, but I must decrease.’
Daily Bible For Advent | Jesus And The Christian Cross | My Yoke Is Easy And My Burden Is Light | Celebrate Christmas
We all face difficulties in our lives. The crowds who listen to Jesus must have felt cruelly burdened, labouring and seeming to find no true reward. They must have sensed injustice and longed for their Messiah to set them free [ … ]
Daily Bible For Advent | Parables Of Jesus Recalled | The Lost Sheep | Children In Christian Faith | Jesus And A Child
In these verses of the Bible, Christ expresses the love of God for all people. Christ’s is not an exclusive calling, nor especially a calling to those who most clearly, visibly, seem to adhere to the requirements of the Old Law; he has come to bring home to God those who have wandered, sinners who have fallen far from the Law. When a sinner comes home to God, there is incredible rejoicing in heaven. So we, though we may sin, should never be afraid to return to the Church, to say sorry, confess our sins, and find forgiveness [ … ]
Daily Bible For Advent | Jesus’ Jewish Heritage | Christian Faith | The Lost Sheep Of Israel | Kingdom Of God
Today’s Bible verses, as per the Roman lectionary, notably elide Matthew 10: 5: ‘Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not.’ This omission is curious, though understandable: during the Mass especially, we are to contemplate inclusion rather than exclusion, and the intentions behind Jesus’ initial injunctions to those he sends to preach might well require explanation. Jesus, then, tells his missionary disciples: you are sent now to preach to the Jews alone, not to Gentiles, not to Samaritans, but to Jews alone [ … ]
Daily Bible For Advent | Healing Miracles | Faith And Sin | Prayer | Jesus Heals Two Blind Men | King James Audio Bible
While the Pharisees deny him, two blind men, who because of their blindness would be excluded from normal Jewish worship, are able to see Jesus for who and what he is. The way in which the blind men hail Jesus is significant: ‘Thou Son of David.’ This implies recognition of Jesus as the Messiah. It is as if, despite physical blindness, there is an inner light – and this is a thought we may all take to ourselves as we seek Jesus [ … ]
Daily Bible For Advent | Jesus’ Prayer And Healing | The Sermon On The Mount Concludes | Sin And Faith | The House Built On A Rock
Matthew’s account of the Sermon on the Mount has been related through the whole of chapters five, six and seven of his Gospel. Jesus concludes his teachings with today’s Bible verses, which carry both a promise and a warning. Commencing with the Beatitudes, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount has presented to the people, toward the start of his ministry, a most beautiful, transformative understanding of God’s call to us to be with Him and to live according to the real, inner truth of the law [ … ]
Daily Bible For Advent | Wednesday Week 1 | The Second Miracle Of The Loaves And Fishes | Jesus Is The Bread Of Life
This, in Matthew’s Gospel, is the second miracle of the loaves and the fishes. Jesus is preaching and working his healing miracles in the border country, where Jews and pagans live side by side. The landscape seems symbolic, archetypal; as Jesus nears the Sea of Galilee, he goes up into a mountain. It is here that Jesus’ miracles lead both Jews and pagans to glorify the God of Israel [ … ]
Daily Bible For Advent | Monday Week 1 | Jesus Heals The Centurion’s Servant | Jesus Is Coming Soon
Today’s Bible verses present an extraordinary scene. The centurion is not merely a Gentile; he is an officer of the occupying Roman army – the enemy! – and he comes to a Jew for help. Further to this, the centurion has come to Jesus to ask him to help his servant. This might seem to us an awful lot of care expressed by a Roman officer for a servant, whom we might presume to be a slave. Further to this, the centurion has the tact to know that Jesus should not enter into a Gentile’s house, because this would be seen by the Jews as making him impure [ … ]
Parables Of Jesus | Parable Of The Talents | King James Audio Bible KJV | Daily Bible Verses
We are taught to use the great gifts God has given us, not to bury our abilities, to take risks, not to be afraid of your Master, to work the gifts we have received to bear fruit for God and the Kingdom, to open ourselves fully to God in the spirit of the New Law, then the Kingdom will grow and welcome all of us.
In the Parable of the Talents, the gifts each servant receives are not identical [ … ]
Parable Of The Ten Virgins | Wise And Foolish Virgins | Parables Of Jesus | King James Audio Bible KJV | True Faith
It may seem strange to the modern Christian that Christ should have so earnestly told his disciples to remain on high alert for his coming. Jesus does not speak of a repeat Nativity, of his coming once again being in the form of a vulnerable infant, humbled by the obscurity of the place of his birth. Nor does it seem that those of the elect who live to witness his coming might be easily deceived by the false claims of others to be the Messiah. Rather Jesus’ return is to be unmistakeable. He will come in ‘clouds of glory’. This will be an apocalypse. No one knows when this will be, but we feel it is imminent [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses | Woe Unto You, Scribes And Pharisees, Hypocrites | Ye Are The Children Of Them Which Killed The Prophets | Jesus Christ | Jewish Temple Authorities | King James Audio Bible KJV
Jesus’ critique of the scribes and the Pharisees continues in today’s Gospel verses. The accusation is constant: they are hypocrites. The imagery in part remains constant: these hypocrites put on outward shows of purity, and yet their hearts are corrupt and their behaviour is corrupt. This imagery now develops. Woe unto you! For you are as painted tombs, all white and purportedly pure and true on the outside, while within the dead flesh rots. In their souls, the scribes and the Pharisees are unclean. Ironically, they are in themselves a violation of the laws of purity. In their hearts, the scribes and the Pharisees carry spiritual death [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses | Woe Unto You, Scribes, Pharisees, Hypocrites | True Cleanliness Of Soul And Ritual Cleanliness | Jesus And The Temple | Jewish Authorities | King James Audio Bible KJV
Jesus’ rebuke of the scribes and the Pharisees continues in today’s Gospel verses. Woe unto you – hypocrites. Jesus’ hard condemnation of the scribes and the Pharisees centres upon hypocrisy as upon clerical abuse. These two evils erode life together within the practice of the scribes and the Pharisees [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses | Woe Unto You! | Hypocrisy Of The Pharisees | Jesus And Jewish Temple Authorities | Radical Christianity | True Faith | Audio KJV
Today’s Gospel verses continue Jesus’ stinging critique of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. Jesus condemns the Pharisees’ conduct, threatening them with punishment – ‘Woe unto you!’ – if they do not repent and mend their ways. Having over the centuries acquired a degree of power in Jerusalem, the Pharisees now abuse that power. Greedy for honour and recognition as they are, their show of great virtue is merely that, a show, while in essence they live in gross discordance with the truth of God [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses For Lent | Scribes And Pharisees | Hypocrites | Jesus And Temple Judaism | True Faith | Audio KJV
Through the Sermon in the Temple, Jesus’ attack on the Pharisees and the scribes who side with them is clear, hard and definitive. Their way of life is corrupt and vicious. They are blind guides and hypocrites. They will be condemned – ‘Woe to you’ – because they kill the true message of God through their failure of love, mercy, justice, faith. They are serpents who drag the people they preach to down with them [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses | The Greatest Commandment | Love Of Jesus Christ Revealed | Audio KJV
In Jerusalem, Jesus teaches in the Temple and is tested by the Sadducees and the Pharisees. These are tests concerning Scripture, concerning the Law, and concerning Jesus’ identity, i.e. concerning Jesus being God the Son. Jesus’ response to the tests flows from two sources especially: from Jesus’ perfect knowledge of Scripture, and from Jesus’ true identity as God the Son incarnate. Ultimately, Jesus’ knowledge of Scripture, and freedom perfectly to interpret Scripture, flows from his true identity as God the Son [ … ]
Parables Of Jesus | Parable Of The Marriage Feast | King James Audio Bible | KJV | Love Revealed By Jesus Christ
In the parable of the marriage feast, Jesus continues to attack the scribes and the Pharisees, the Jewish authorities, who have found themselves threatened by Jesus and who reject him. It is a bold and dangerous message to those who have established power in the Jewish community. Jesus could hardly be telling them more clearly that they have got it wrong, that they were called, by God, long, long ago, and yet they have rejected God’s invitation, that, for all their trappings of piety, they are not with God; they have rejected Him [ … ]
Parables Of Jesus | Parable Of The Workers In The Vineyard | King James Audio Bible | Gospel Faith | KJV
The parable of the workers in the vineyard is addressed especially to the Jewish people, who were called long ago by God to be his people. Now, through the course of the day, new labourers are hired to go into the vineyard. These are the Gentiles, non-Jewish people, who are called now to become part of the new people of God [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses | A Camel Through The Eye Of A Needle | With God All Things Are Possible | Jesus And The Rich Young Man | Christian Faith | Salvation | Audio KJV
Peter says to Jesus, in effect: ‘Look, we have left everything, and we’ve followed you. So what do we get in return? Where is the return on our risk, on our investment?’ [ … ]
Daily Bible Verses | Holy Christian Marriage | What God Hath Joined, Let Not Man Put Asunder | Jesus With Moses | Christian Faith | King James Audio Bible
Jesus tells us that, from the beginning, a man and a woman joined in marriage would become one flesh. There is this complementarity of man and woman in sexual union. Divorce marks a falling away from God’s intentions for men and women in marriage. It is an aberration, a failure of docility before God. Jesus tells us that Moses’ command (see Deuteronomy 24:1) was because of the hardness of people’s hearts in rejecting God’s initial ordering of male and female sexual relations. Indeed, it can be seen as a liberal command, protective of women, in that it required the husband to write out a certificate of divorce, freeing the woman rather than merely excluding and rejecting her. There is no real trap here for Jesus, as the Pharisees tempt him; God’s creation of man and woman to become one flesh in marriage remains truth [ … ]
Parable Of The Unforgiving Servant | Parables Of Jesus | Love Revealed By Jesus Christ | King James Audio Bible
There are people who say: I forgive, but I do not forget. Why? we may ask. Of what use is this? It is as if we were to attach a condition to our forgiveness, saying, in effect, that we forgive up to a point, but that our forgiveness is not total. Our forgiveness comes with a threat: Your crime is noted. We are really saying: we don’t forgive you all [ … ]