Devotionals

Daily readings to encourage your heart and mind in the pursuit of God and his glory.

  • The Keys of the Kingdom

    Matthew 16:13–20

    There are two extremes when it comes to church authority. One extreme says that the church is always right no matter what it says. The other extreme says the church has no authority over the individual Christian. God’s Word tells ...Read More

  • Achan’s Sin at Ai

    Joshua 7

    None of us should think that our private sins will not have an effect on others. Persistent, impenitent, serious sin can bring shame on the church and mar its holiness. This is one reason why we must be quick to ...Read More

  • The Authority of the Church

    1 Corinthians 5

    Today’s passage is a proof text for question and answer 85 of the Heidelberg Catechism, which deals with how church discipline opens and shuts the door to the kingdom of heaven. Excommunication shuts the door by declaring that the excommunicated ...Read More

  • The Church and Forgiveness

    John 20:19–23

    John Calvin comments that Christ “does not convey to [the Apostles and their successors] what is peculiar to himself. It belongs to him to forgive sins… . [Instead, He] enjoins them, in his name, to proclaim the forgiveness of sins, ...Read More

  • Church Authority

    Matthew 18:18–20

    The church’s ability to liberate people, says John Calvin, is not limited to the restoration of disciplined members to full participation in the congregation. Such liberation is also discharged when elders, according to Scripture, assure repentant people of pardon after ...Read More

  • Church Discipline

    1 Corinthians 5:9–13

    The doctrine of justification by faith makes no sense if God is not a God of judgment. When people see God’s judgments in the church, they ought to tremble and must come to grips once again with their free justification ...Read More

  • Consciences Stirred

    Genesis 42:18–28

    Scripture is clear that church discipline is not to be carried out with the aim of vengeance. Instead, restoration must be the aim, and a disciplined person is to be forgiven when he repents (2 Cor. 2:5–11). All Christians are ...Read More

  • The Cords of Sin

    Proverbs 5:22–23

    Romans 2:5 indicates that the impenitent are storing up wrath for themselves, wrath that they will feel in its most intense form on that final day when God judges the living and the dead. Remembering this truth will help us ...Read More

  • Danger from Within

    Judges 9:22–57

    When God’s people do not deal with heinous sin, both the sinner and the people who aid and abet him will be destroyed. Too often, church leaders have overlooked sin in the congregation, and the results have been catastrophic for ...Read More

  • The Discipline of the Lord

    Proverbs 3:11–12

    God does not delight in seeing His children suffer; rather, He imposes discipline for the greater good of our maturity in Christ. The discipline that we feel for our sin is not a sign that God hates us or is ...Read More

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