Have you ever come away from studying the books of Corinthians or Timothy and felt less than edified? Possibly, it left you more confused or discouraged than before you studied them.
When studying the Bible would you like to:
Better understand how to know that the Holy Spirit is guiding your understanding?
Be able to distinguish between the issues that are relevant to you and those that are not?
Know for certain that living a victorious Christian life in this present time is absolutely possible?
The contemporary church continues to struggle with Corinthians and Timothy because the issues Paul and his companions dealt with were significantly diverse and can be confusing within our modern context.
Some issues were about obvious immorality, but many concern matters of due order, with much of that relating to the culture and context of the specific congregations. If we are unprepared to sort these matters by the light of the Holy Spirit, we can easily end up trying to apply the whole of them to ourselves — or even worse, to others.
These Pauline epistles tend to get skipped over because in times past, they have often caused more harm than good when applied to the Christian life without the sure guidance of the Holy Spirit. However, omitting parts of the Scriptures from our study runs contrary to being Christian, and this leaves us in a dilemma that only the Holy Spirit can solve.
In Toward an Eternal and Exceeding Weight of Glory, Russell M. Stendal helps us approach and understand Paul’s letters to the Corinthians and to Timothy in a way that edifies and empowers us to live a victorious Christian life. However, the reader may find cause to redefine what “victorious” truly looks like. Many Christians are taught that victory is evidenced by the absence of trials and difficulties. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Throughout this book, the author assists us in seeing why this is so.
Russell M. Stendal is the editor and translator of the Jubilee Bible (JUB) and Biblia del Jubileo (JBS) translations that are published in English and Spanish. Well over a million copies of the Biblia del Jubileo have been donated and distributed into the most impoverished regions of Colombia and Venezuela.