Question: Mark 8:38. J. D. A.
Answer: The Lord proved by His words and works that He was the Son of God. He told His disciples He was to be rejected and killed and rise again. Peter rebuked Him, and He had to rebuke Peter very severely. (Verses 32, 33).
He then taught them that the value of the soul is beyond compare with the whole world. “What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Let everything else go, and secure salvation. Then in verse 38, is the warning, “Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me (Jesus) and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when He cometh in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” Ashamed means to deny or disown, and so be disowned by Him in that day. Peter did not deny that Jesus was the Son of God, but he denied that he knew Him. He failed to confess Him, but Peter will not be denied when the Son of Man comes.
Question: What does 1 Peter 4:1, 2 teach us? C. W.
Answer: The truth of our death with Christ is to be applied to our souls in our living. If we are dead with Christ, we should consistently ask ourselves in our every-day actions: Is it to please myself that I am living? or is it like Christ, our Lord and Savior, seeking to do the will of God? How many difficulties would be removed immediately, and our path made simple and plain, if we did so.
Question: Is Revelation 3:4 present or future?
Answer: “They shall walk with Me in white” is future; “for they are worthy” is present. It is encouraging for our souls to see that the Lord is taking notice of our feeblest efforts to glorify Him.
Revelation 3:10. The “hour of temptation” is future. The saints will be kept from it by the Lord coming to take them to Himself. “Those that dwell on the earth” are a special class who claim the earth. (“Earthly-minded,” Phil. 3:19).
2 Corinthians 12:7-10. These verses teach us that even an apostle had to be kept humble. The flesh in him is the same incorrigible thing as in us. So the Lord sent this “thorn in the flesh,” this “Messenger of Satan” to buffet him. No matter what it was, it ties to keep him humble and dependent, needing the Lord’s help and getting it day by day, with no credit to him, but all praise to the Lord for His faithfulness. So he was willing to be nothing and the Lord alone to be glorified. Having learned this he could say, “Therefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in insults, in necessities, in persecutions, in straits for Christ: for when I am weak, then I am strong.” May it be so with us also.