I’m hoping God lets me continue a series beginning with today’s “Paul’s Potentially Prejudiced Personal Paraphrase.” I told Lorie, my wife, about it, and she said, “Perfect!” (LOL).
1 John 3:7, NASB: “Little children, let no one lead you astray. He who does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.”
1 John 3:7, PPPPP: “Don’t be tricked into thinking that you have imputed righteousness unless you can see imparted righteousness in your life. If God is not training you in righteousness, then he is not theorizing that you are righteous despite your unrighteous behavior. Walk by the Spirit and thus perform the good works you were created in Christ Jesus to do, and you will be one of the blessed ones whom the Lord will not charge with sin.” (Related Bible passages: Rom.4:8 & 8:1-14; Eph. 2:8-10 & 4:20-24; Gal. 5:16-6:9)
In keeping with Hollywood tradition, you get a double dose in this series pilot.
1 John 5:13, NASB: “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.”
1 John 5:13, PPPPP: “I told you this whole letter to believers in Jesus so they can know that they have eternal life. Please stop assuring people who hate one or more of their brothers, don’t keep Jesus commands, talk about loving others without serving others, and who love the world and the things in it that they have eternal life!” (References: 1 Jn. 3:15; 1 Jn. 2:3-4; 1 Jn. 3:18-19; 1 Jn. 2:15)
Related
About Paul Pavao
I am married, the father of six, and currently the grandfather of five. I teach, and I am always trying to learn to disciple others better than I have before. I believe God has gifted me to restore proper theological foundations to the Christian faith. In order to ensure that I do not become a heretic, I read the early church fathers from the second and third centuries. They were around when all the churches founded by the apostles were in unity.
My philosophy for Bible reading is to understand each verse for exactly what it says in its local context. Only after accepting the verse for what it says do I compare it with other verses to develop my theology. If other verses seem to contradict a verse I just read, I will wait to say anything about those verses until I have an explanation that allows me to accept all the verses for what they say. This takes time, sometimes years, but eventually I have always been able to find something that does not require explaining verses away. The early church fathers have helped a lot with this.
I argue and discuss these foundational doctrines with others to make sure my teaching really lines up with Scripture. I am encouraged by the fact that the several missionaries and pastors that I know well and admire as holy men love the things I teach. I hope you will be encouraged too.
I am indeed tearing up old foundations created by tradition in order to re-establish the foundations found in Scripture and lived on by the churches during their 300 years of unity.
