From the Pulpit...

These verses cross paragraph boundaries, but a preacher is not prohibited from treating two adjacent paragraphs in a single message! The Bible books are meant to be read sequentially, and this is what we have done. Doing so forced us to try to understand the connection between the end of chapter 3 and the beginning of chapter 4. Thought spent on that kind of question—in all your Bible reading—is thought well spent. If the text says “therefore,” then it is our job to figure out the connection between the parts and not let them just stand alone and ignore the glue that connects them. In this situation, our transformed lives, both now and in the future, call on us to stand firm in the faith of Christ. One very practical way we do that is to deal with the flies in the ointment that sometimes trouble us. Humble ourselves and admit we are wrong, and need to change, and need to be unselfish, and need to forgive, and need to reconcile, and need to admit we do not know everything!