Synonyms: renounce, relinquish, dispense with, forswear, disclaim, disown, disavow, discard, wash one's hands of, give up, stop, cease, drop, forgo, desist from, have done with, abjure, abstain from, discontinue, break off, refrain from, set/lay aside, desert, leave, leave high and dry, turn one's back on, cast aside, break (up) with, vacate, quit, evacuate, withdraw from, surrender, cede, yield, indulge in, give way to, give oneself up to, yield to, lose oneself to/in, uninhibitedness, recklessness, lack of restraint, lack of inhibition, unruliness, wildness, impulsiveness, impetuosity, immoderation, wantonness
Antonyms: keep, claim, continue, stick by, self-control, power through, achieve, defend, bear, hope, acquire, quick visit, adopt, continue along, adhere, remain, pursue, support, take up, keep up, reuse, advocate, stay, persevere, cherish, keep going, carry on
Showing 226 to 250 of 391 results
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... he had received. Instead of Jesus simply commissioning a donkey colt, Matthew’s text has Jesus bringing two animals to his service — the donkey mom, and her foal, her colt. Matthew’s dual-saddle image simply reflects the gospel writer’s desire to adhere to the text he had received. While the Hebrew offers lots of words for donkeys and their offspring, Greek is more limited. As Matthew tried to honor the words he had received and the biblical image that had been fulfilled, he ended up multiplying ...
227. The Runner
Romans 9:30--10:21
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... run. Run for your life!” The messenger of the “euaggalion” was the harbinger of a new future that could be either glorious or gory. There was no in-between. That was the message that Paul was trying to convey to new Christians. The way of adherence to the Law itself was a message of “bad news.” There was no “out” for those who kept trying to keep the letter of the law. There was no “in” that would enable someone, no matter how hard they tried, to meet the “minimum standard requirement ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... She recognized Jesus as the messianic figure, the Son of David. Her appeal to Jesus was for the healing of demonic possession for her daughter, another example that this woman believed that she was confronting a uniquely divinely empowered individual. Initially Jesus seems to adhere to the old school “party line.” The Gentiles are not his problem, and he appears to ignore her plea at first. But the Canaanite woman is not the only one Jesus ignores. As she continues to follow Jesus and his entourage, the ...
229. Faith’s First Impressions
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... the Holy Spirit is not a predictable event. It’s a wonder insurance adjusters even insure Christians. For if we are being faithful to the power and presence of the Spirit we should all be way too unpredictable to insure. The Holy Spirit does not adhere to actuarial tables. Paul’s first pastoral writing to a community he loves praises the ongoing palpable presence of the Holy Spirit in their midst. That is not a communication about calm or comfort, but an invocation of interruptions and an invitation to ...
Sermon
R. Robert Cueni
... don't know what to say will sometimes say nothing. As if the circumstance is not enough, sometimes people suffer from the well-intentioned but thoughtless. Oh the cruelty with which we sometimes treat one another! Luke tells us this group of lepers adhered to the ancient law requiring them to keep a distance from healthy people. From afar they shouted, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" Our Lord looked toward them. What a pathetic sight they must have been. Torn clothes, mussed hair, disfigured hands, pain ...
231. Two Kinds of People
Jeremiah 17:5-10
Sermon
King Duncan
... to our pocketbook--that is a different matter. When it comes to our financial resources, we are like the rich young ruler who was promised life abundant, but he turned slowly away for he could not trust God with his life. For that matter, we dare not adhere to high ethical and moral principles either. We might lose some business. Our friends might think us strange. We might miss out on some pleasure. I mean, what if the Gospel is not true? But it is true and, if we are truly going to experience abundant ...
232. The Happy Hypocrite
Matthew 6:1-4, 5-6, 16-18
Sermon
King Duncan
... to dedicate himself to both principles. Adjusting for inflation, he is often regarded as the richest person in history. Yet long before he accumulated any wealth, even as a 20-year-old, Rockefeller tithed to the Erie Street Baptist Mission Church. Rockefeller adhered to total abstinence from alcohol and tobacco throughout his life. He taught Sunday school, and served as a trustee, clerk, and occasional janitor of his church. Religion was a guiding force throughout his life, and he believed it to be the ...
233. Athaliah and Joash
2 Chron 22:10–23:21
Understanding Series
Louis C. Jonker
... Chronicler’s insertion. Although the Chronicler’s description of the plan set out by Jehoiada follows the source text in 2 Kings 11:5–7, the details differ slightly. The main difference, however, is again in line with the Chronicler’s strict adherence to cultic regulations concerning who may enter the temple. The Chronicler added the words priests and Levites in 2 Chronicles 23:4 to ensure that the narrative portrays those entering the temple as consecrated cultic personnel. This change is in line ...
234. Amaziah King of Judah
2 Chronicles 25:1-28
Understanding Series
Louis C. Jonker
... .” The new king moved swiftly to establish his reign, and after the kingdom was firmly in his control (Hebrew chazaq is used again), he killed the officials who had murdered his father but did not kill their sons. This qualification was made to adhere to what is written in the Law, in the Book of Moses. Second Chronicles 25:4 quotes Deuteronomy 24:16, showing that the expression “the Law, in the Book of Moses” already referred to Deuteronomy (at least in some early form) during the writing ...
Understanding Series
David J. Williams
... did not trouble themselves about the judicial rule,” he says, but simply “took Stephen outside the city and stoned him.” But the text makes no mention of these people, and Luke gives the impression that at least some of the proper forms were adhered to. It seems best, therefore, to regard Stephen’s death as a legal execution. The real difficulty (and the reason most often given for regarding his death as a lynching and not a judicial sentence) lies in the relationship that this incident presupposed ...
Understanding Series
David J. Williams
... . Jonah 3:1). But what did it mean? Clearly, it had to do with the cancellation of the Jewish dietary laws. Not that it mattered in itself if Jewish Christians continued to live by these laws, as long as Christ was all in all. But it did matter that adherence to the dietary laws profoundly affected Jewish-Gentile relations. In the house of a Gentile, a Jew could never be certain that the food had been prepared as required by the law (cf. Gen. 9:4; Lev. 17:10, 11, 14). To eat the food, therefore, was to run ...
Understanding Series
David J. Williams
... them to the Galatians (16:4) and needed only to remind them in broad terms of the dispute (Gal. 2:1–10) and add his own theological arguments against the necessity for anything more than faith in taking hold of salvation. That some Jewish Christians did not adhere to the agreement and had stirred up trouble in the Galatian churches is neither surprising nor grounds for supposing that the council had not yet taken place when Paul wrote. It is also said that Peter’s vacillation in Galatians 2:11–14 is ...
238. In Corinth
Acts 18:1-17
Understanding Series
David J. Williams
... the Christians who did not submit to it from the protection that the Jews enjoyed as a religio licita (a permitted religion). But there is no reason to think that the Jews had any grounds for expecting such an enforcement of their law upon their own adherents. Perhaps, then, the charge related to Roman law. Sherwin-White points out that the best charge for the Jews to bring “was that Paul was preaching to Romans, not to Jews, contrary to the Roman law, not the Jewish law, just as at Philippi” (p. 101 ...
Understanding Series
David J. Williams
... when they heard Paul’s report. But they had to point out that his presence now in the city was likely to cause ructions among the many thousands of Christian Jews who remained zealous for the law (see note on 1:13). On the continuing adherence of large numbers of Jewish Christians to the law, see the introductory remarks to 15:1–21. James’ reference to “thousands” of such believers has been looked at askance by some scholars, since the entire population of Jerusalem was not large (see note on 4 ...
Understanding Series
David J. Williams
... Felix. Or a copy may have been given to Paul as part of the documentation for his appeal to Caesar. It bears the impress of what a Roman officer might have said, including a better presentation of his own conduct than a strict adherence to the truth might have suggested and a rather contemptuous reference to Jewish “questions about their law” (v. 29). However, we probably do not have the letter verbatim. Luke introduces it with the comment that it went “something like this.” The original would ...
Understanding Series
L. Ann Jervis
... place in the new creation and hinder one from participating in it. 6:16 Paul blesses all who follow this rule with peace and mercy. At the beginning of his letter Paul cursed the one preaching a gospel other than his (1:8–9), and here he blesses those who adhere to his standard and calls them the Israel of God. The flip side of this blessing is a curse on those who do not follow this rule; although they may claim to be Israel, they are not truly so. This is the only time that the phrase Israel of God ...
Understanding Series
Arthur G. Patzia
... attempt to harmonize this apparent paradox, it continues to remain one of the more divisive and speculative “mysteries” of the Christian faith. When dealing with this issue, one should avoid the extremes in theory and practice that so often characterize adherents of one view or another. Election to salvation does not imply that God, therefore, predestines the rest of humanity to damnation; nor should election lead to spiritual pride among the elect. Election simply affirms that personal faith rests upon ...
Understanding Series
Gordon D. Fee
... of the close relationship between this appeal and the thanksgiving, modern editors have not all agreed on the best scheme of paragraphing. The paragraphing followed by this commentary (3–5, 6–12, 13–14), which differs from the NIV (vv. 3–7, 8–12, 13–14), adheres closely to Paul’s own sentencing. It is also followed by Kelly and NA26. Although Paul clearly says “through the laying on of my hands” in v. 6, the evidence from 1 Tim. 1:18 and 4:14 suggests that it was by the Spirit (“through ...
244. Praying for Endurance and Healing
James 4:13-17, James 5:1-6, James 5:7-12, James 5:13-20
Understanding Series
Peter H. Davids
... atmosphere, the services of the elders at the bedside will rarely be needed. Second, the prayer of a righteous [person] is powerful and effective. The righteous person is not sinlessly perfect, but is the person who has confessed any known sin and who adheres to the moral standards of the Christian community. With a clear conscience and in unity with God, this person prays a prayer that is powerful and effective. The Greek adds a difficult expression that probably means “when it reaches God and he answers ...
Understanding Series
Louis C. Jonker
... of God’s presence and control, and continues (now . . .) to encourage these leaders for the work ahead. They should, however, devote their heart and soul to seeking the LORD their God. Also those who will work on the temple construction should adhere to the requirements of “seeking the LORD.” Additional Notes 22:2 The Hebrew phrase the house of God (beyt haʾelohim) occurs almost exclusively in postexilic biblical texts. It occurs once in Judges, once in Ecclesiastes, and once in Daniel, but ...
Understanding Series
Leslie C. Allen
... with chapter 8. They functioned like Rahab in the first occupation of the land long before (Josh. 2:9–14). The idealism of having the experience of foreign exile as a qualification for membership was tempered by the practicality of gaining adherents who espoused the community’s own uncompromising stand for orthodoxy. Nonetheless, there still stood out against the rest a group of former exiles who regarded themselves as a faithful minority. Verse 22 contains a last echo of the opening of chapter ...
Understanding Series
Leslie C. Allen
... has “they, our forefathers.” Here the REB takes it in this way and the evident intention to echo 9:2 clinches this interpretation. Ezra 6:21 (written at a later date) used similar language, doubtless inspired by this usage, but it applied to new adherents to the community. Unlike the separation from “all foreigners” in 9:2, here it is from “the peoples of the lands” (NRSV), a phrase that echoes the language of the similar Ezra 9:1. For the sake of is lit. “to,” as the positive purpose ...
Understanding Series
Elizabeth Achtemeier
... the OT. God is above all the living God, a designation seen elsewhere only in Joshua 3:10 and Psalms 42:2 and 84:2. That is, God is the source of life. Hosea is fighting in his ministry a baal fertility religion, which claims to give life to its adherents, and so this passage emphasizes, in the strongest terms, that God is the source of life (cf. 14:5–8). Verse 11, in the Hebrew, reads “and they shall go up from the land,” contrary to the NIV reading. The reference is not to the deliverance from exile ...
Understanding Series
Elizabeth Achtemeier
... God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness” (34:6) renews his covenant with the people, and Moses again returns from the mountain with the Ten Commandments (34:27–29). Exodus 35–40 then recounts the careful obedience with which the people adhere to God’s command to build the tabernacle, assiduously following the instructions given in Exod. 25–30. The description of the tabernacle given in the text is of an ornate sanctuary within a tent structure situated at the very center of Israel ...
Understanding Series
Pamela J. Scalise
... of the book and ties them together in a common chronology. The new terminology in these verses relates Malachi’s message to other parts of the OT. 4:4 Those who fear the Lord or revere the divine name (3:16; 4:2) are known by their adherence to God’s law (torah). The ideal priest in Malachi 2:5–6 “revered” the Lord and taught “true instruction” (torah). Violators of God’s law, epitomized in 3:5, are identified as people who do not fear the Lord. The admonition to Remember the law describes ...
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