When God’s people do God’s work faithful to God’s ways, opposition is inevitable, and compromise must be resisted. Although the opposition may prevail in the short run, God in Christ has already secured the final victory, and has given us ways to handle the opposition we face today.

Like the Christian walk in general, fatherhood can be a great challenge at times. Thankfully, scripture points us to our gracious Father in heaven in whom we find both the forgiveness of sins and the strength to live as godly fathers and disciples in our day.

Weakness may not seem like a prerequisite for building a strong family or a strong Christian walk, but it is absolutely essential in God's design. Paul shares a personal example of his own weakness so that we might better understand how the strength of Christ may flourish in our lives.

Love is an essential element for building strong families and churches. God's Word shows us just how much we lack it, just how much Christ embodies it, and just how much we may reflect it when His love abides in us.

Strong families can be broken down into component parts, each of which is firmly rooted in God's Word. Though we don't know much about Timothy's mother, Eunice, or his grandmother, Lois, we see the fruit of their motherhood in the life of a man who knew God's grace in Christ and strove to make that grace known to others.

From the very outset of his ministry, Paul had learned that advancing the gospel of Christ is a team mission. God designed it that way on purpose to reflect His own Triune Nature. As Paul concludes his first letter to the Corinthians he provides many clear examples of how we may live and serve together through the grace of Jesus Christ.

Greed is one of the most difficult things to detect and dislodge from our Christian lives. Indeed, apart from Christ it is impossible to overcome. Through the power of Jesus' resurrection, however, we have been given all that we need to live generous lives in the light of eternity.