Someone noted something to the effect that church groups can be classified based on what Scriptures they tend to quote; specifically, in Reformation times the Protestant reformers leaned more toward the epistles of Paul, while the Anabaptists leaned more toward the Gospels. Today, this method of classification has not necessarily become as obsolete as one might think at first glance. Some groups which descended from the Anabaptists still draw much of their doctrine from the Gospels, and much of Protestant doctrine is still drawn from Paul.

There is only one passage in the New Testament (in the King James Version) in which the term imputed is used to contrast righteousness with works. Whenever we see critical portions of an important doctrine—one that is discussed much in Scripture—based on a single brief passage, it may be to our advantage to carefully consider the evidences and rethink the doctrine.

Mankind became wicked. The sons of God compromised with sinners. Evil filled the earth. God decided to pour out His wrath upon the wickedness. And “the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished” (2 Peter 3:6).

What may have been an advanced civilization was eliminated. An entire world full of plants, animals, and men was destroyed. The face of the earth was reshaped. But astride the waves that pummeled the world into oblivion, a great box—an “ark”—carried the forebears of new life on a new earth.

The President today wouldn’t have to ride in a limousine; after all, he can’t fill all the seats at once! Nor would he have to live in a huge mansion. Nor would leaders of other countries have to sit on thrones. While some of the luxury and display that rulers show is perhaps caused by pride and vanity, there could actually be a useful motive behind some of this pomp and show—impressing those who might harm the ruler’s (or his country’s) interests, showing them the ruler’s authority, and perhaps frightening them into controlling their antagonistic impulses.

2 John is not a long book, not one that mandates our attention simply because of the space it takes up in the Scripture. However, there is a message in this short book, and, as with all God’s messages to us, we may find it beneficial to take a deeper look at it.

“And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.” (Genesis 6:1-2) Thus the Biblical narrative leaves the genealogy of chapter 5 and sets the stage for God’s dramatic judgment of the earth in the next few chapters. “And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.” (Genesis 6:3)

The fifth chapter of Genesis is, perhaps, not quite so full of exciting and dramatic events as the four before it. In this chapter we read of the slow passing of centuries with no recorded major event until the life of Enoch. Then again the narrative continues to tell us the genealogy. But apparently man was not being quiet and still; the previous chapter briefly describes some of the events that occurred with Cain’s family line, and the next chapter tells of the great wickedness of mankind. But we really know very little of the earth before the flood. And while this chapter may hint at the impending judgment, it seems that God was waiting. Waiting for the iniquity to come to its fullness, giving man a chance to repent, raising up a righteous leader for the generation to come.

Think for a moment about the state of Christianity in the roughly seventy year period between the Ascension and the close of the first century. Although Christianity experienced rapid growth, most Gentiles were probably still surrounded by paganism. Their employers, their rulers, their acquaintances could have often been pagans, and the world would continually pull at them from that quarter. Some pagans went beyond persuasion and actively persecuted the church.

In Psalms 38:9, David gives us an unusual perspective on desires that may help us to understand better why we need to be content: “Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee.” We desire things. I doubt there’s one of us who hasn’t wanted something at some point. And David shows us that God knows the things we desire. He sees what things attract us. They are spread out before Him, every one of them, and we can’t hide them.

We know little about Abel, but the little we know is sufficient to show us that he was a man of greatness. He was the first shining light of righteousness in a young world already marred by sin and turmoil. But Cain, one of the wicked, burning with the shame of his own wickedness, slew Abel, and the shining light was quenched. From that time on, for more—probably much more—than a hundred years, the only major event the Bible lets us in on seems to be that Cain had a son and built a city. For more than a hundred years!