The tension: Job 15:14, Isaiah 64:6, and Romans 3:10 deny anyone is righteous — all our righteousness is as filthy rags, there is none righteous, no, not one.
The tension: James 1:13 draws a hard line: "God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man." Genesis 22:1 opens the Akedah by saying "God did tempt Abraham" a…
The tension: The Decalogue and a long chorus of prophetic, wisdom, and epistolary texts prohibit lying absolutely — false witness, false reports, deception are abominations.
The tension: Dozens of texts describe YHWH as merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abundant in loyalty — Exodus 34:6, Deut 4:31, the Psalms, the prophets, the New Testament l…
The tension: Jesus in Matthew 7:1 and Luke 6:37 commands his followers not to judge, and Paul echoes that in Romans 2:1 and 14:10 along with James 4:12.
The tension: Psalm 37:25, Psalm 112:1-3, Proverbs 13:22, and Proverbs 15:6 all treat wealth as a marker of divine favor — the righteous never beg, their houses fill with tr…
The tension: Paul stacks Romans 3:28, Romans 4:13, Galatians 2:16, Galatians 3:11-12, and Ephesians 2:8-9 to insist humans are justified by faith apart from works of the la…
The tension: John 1:1, 1:14 identifies the Word (Logos) as God and says the Word became flesh — the classic textual foundation for the deity of Christ.
The tension: First John lays down the test plainly: anyone who confesses that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, is born of God and indwelt by God (1 John 4:2, 4:15, 5:1).
The tension: Luke 16:8 has Jesus declare, in the parable of the unjust steward, that "the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light."…
The tension: Ephesians 4:26 says "Be ye angry, and sin not" — anger is permitted, even commanded, as long as it doesn't lead to sin and isn't carried into the next day.
The tension: James 1:2 tells believers to count it all joy when they fall into various peirasmoi — testings or temptations — because the testing of faith produces endurance.
