WelshRev's Podcast

We've already looked at "refuse" and "receive" in John 3:36. There's a third word hiding in that verse, it's easy to miss, but it opens up a really relevant thread in John's Gospel. The Greek word is μένω (menō), meaning "to remain" or "to abide." John uses it again and again: the Spirit remains on Jesus at His baptism, believers are told to remain in Him like a branch in a vine, and yes, wrath remains on those who reject the Son. Notice the tense. It's not "wrath will come." It's "wrath tha

Last time we looked at apeitheō, the original word in John's account here for refusing Jesus, like a beast that sees the gate but won't come to it. This time it's the other half of John 3:36: "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life." And that means something far more specific than you might think at first. Think of the difference between a farmer saying "I believe that gate's gonna be alright" and a farmer actually putting the heifers in, closing the gate, and walking away confident the

There's a word in John's Gospel that gets flattened every time it's translated into English. John 3:36 says whoever does not believe in the Son will not see life, but the word John actually uses isn't the ordinary word for belief. It's much more about refusing to be persuaded. Picture 'that' heifer, that knows exactly where the gate is, knows the voice calling it in, and simply will not come in ... not because it doesn't understand, but because it won't. That's the sort of picture John is pa

He's in training for a medic course alongside men half his age, and getting the "do you work out?" question a lot lately. His answer's the same as ever: "No, I work outside." But this time there's a training programme behind it too, and that's got him thinking about a much older kind of training programme, one Paul wrote about from a prison cell. "We are wasting away," Paul says plainly. No spin, no positive-thinking veil pulled over it. Body, situation, energy, finances, there's always someth

Have you ever said "I've got nothing to hide"? Paul says the same thing about the gospel itself, no small print, no softened sales pitch, no catch hidden until it's too late. In 2 Corinthians 4:2, Paul refuses to tamper with the message to make it look easier than it is. That cuts both ways: the Good News really is good, but following Christ really does reorder your whole life. Nothing hidden, nothing oversold. This is part of a short series working through 2 Corinthians 4, exploring what it m