Book Quotes: Paul for Everyone by Tom Wright

Love – which, as Paul will show later in the letter (1 Corinthians 4 v 9 - 12), is a very practical thing – also requires the kind of effort we associate with hard physical work. Hope needs patience, which is also demanding.

When praying, to think back in the presence of God through one’s entire relationship with the church, mulling it over, learning to see God’s strange design in what has gone on, earnestly asking God to complete and bring to perfection the work he has begun. 

Faith needs to grow with every day, with each new trial or test

Resurrection itself means: it doesn’t mean disembodied life in some mid-air ‘heaven’, but the re-embodiment of God’s people to live with and for God in the new, redeemed world that God will make.

Heaven, where Jesus is, isn’t another location within our space, but another dimension.

Hold fast in faith to the gospel message, and you will find in it all the comfort and strength you need.

Learning to thank God for whatever he gives is sometimes difficult

‘The one who calls you is faithful.’

What have we to be thankful for? What gifts have we received at God’s generous hands? What are the signs of God’s strange work in our own day, our own place, and our own churches?

God remains sovereign over all, and will one day put all wrongs to rights, and bring all human empires under the rule and judgment of his own saving kingdom.

We are confident in the Lord about you, that you are doing, and will continue to do, what we instructed you. May the Lord direct your hearts towards the love of God and the patience of the Messiah. (2 Thessalonians 3 v 4-5)

Here again is the paradox of Christian living: because the Lord is faithful and will guard us, therefore we pray that he will do so.