The Good Samaritan parable teaches that unless one practices doing good rather than just knowing good, his faith will be severely compromised.

It is impossible to become perfect without having mercy or compassion. Jesus' command to become perfect includes showing compassion to our enemies.

The Laodicean congregation had a penchant toward materialism, which sidetracked them from their primary goal of following Christ.

With all the military metaphors in the Bible, there can be no doubt that God likens the Christian life to a war against the evils and temptations we face.

The Bible abounds in metaphors of warfare, indicating that the Christian's walk will be characterized by stress, sacrifice, and deprivation in building faith.

If we want to be like our Savior, then we will live the way He lived, keeping God's commandments — which exemplify the highest form of love.

Understanding Elohim teaches us about the nature of God and where our lives are headed. Elohim refers to a plural family unit in the process of expanding.

The Laodiceans fail to reciprocate Christ's love for them. The comfort of prosperity blinded them to their spiritual condition, especially their need for Christ.

All of the sufferings in the present had their origin in the Garden of Eden when our parents sinned, seemingly in secret. The effects of sins radiate outward.

Laodiceanism is the attitude that dominates the end time. It is a subtle form of worldliness that has infected the church, and Christ warns against it strongly.

We must avoid the world's extremes and sensual excesses in matters of dress and fashion, adopting instead humility, chastity, decency, morality, and self control.

James had to be written as a counterbalance to antinomian elements that twisted Paul's writings to proclaim that that grace nullifies the need for works.

Labor-saving technology seems to have had the effect of separating us from each other and making us indifferent to things that should be important to us.

Fasting puts us in a proper humble and contrite frame of mind, allowing God to respond to us, freeing us from our burdens and guiding us into His Kingdom.