Resources by Jeremy Bacon:
Jeremy Bacon
Jeremy is a divorced single dad who lives in Illinois with his three amazing children. He has a bachelors and masters in theology, which is not always super-useful at the retail job he's worked since 2006.
Sermon on the Mount: What Is God’s Answer to the Problem of Evil?
Everyone knows what it is to suffer. It’s just part of the human experience. Someone once made the observation that, no matter how diverse our cultures may be, you can always relate to a person on the level of suffering. It’s universal. We all speak that language. At least one major religion–Buddhism–takes suffering as its...
Jeremy Bacon
Sermon on the Mount: Poor in Spirit
What’s so special about the “poor in spirit”? Why does Jesus mention them first in the Beatitudes (Matt. 5:3), and why do they get the umbrella reward of “the Kingdom”? The waters get muddied on the “poor in spirit” because Matthew usually annoys or embarrasses scholars on this one. It looks like Luke has the...
Jeremy Bacon
Sermon on the Mount: the Pursuit of Happiness
Writing about the Beatitudes is intimidating. In Matt. 5:3-12, it’s stunning how much Jesus says in so few words. It’s hard to make a general statement about them that’s not an oversimplification. Are they attitudes that we should imitate? Not exactly. For instance, what’s the attitude of “being persecuted”? Or can we say that Jesus...
Jeremy Bacon
Sermon on the Mount: The Sermon’s Most Important Word
The most important word for understanding the Sermon on the Mount is, believe it or not, “heaven.” I found this out by accident when I did a study on every time the Greek word (ouranos) is used in the New Testament. In the most basic sense, heaven is, first of all, where the birds fly...
Jeremy Bacon
Sermon on the Mount: Crowds or Disciples?
The Sermon on the Mount is a very dangerous sermon. Now, in focusing on the Sermon on the Mount, we’re not trying to promote some kind of “canon within the canon.” It’s not like the Sermon on the Mount is somehow “more inspired” than the rest of Scripture. However, Matthew did fully intend this sermon...
Jeremy Bacon
Sermon on the Mount: Who Does Jesus Think He Is?
The most important thing about the Sermon on the Mount is Jesus himself. We may be so numbed by “Sunday school answers,” that we may actually miss this. Jesus’ audience didn’t. After Jesus is done and they walk home trying to process what they just experienced, their main takeaway has to do with the man...
Jeremy Bacon
A Reckoning for the Church
This one is going to be rough. We spent a lot of time looking at “Judge not, lest you be judged” (Mt. 7:1-6) because judgmentalism is probably the great sin of the contemporary American church. Let me explain. There are two kinds of unbelievers in the United States–those who haven’t heard of Jesus and those...
Jeremy Bacon
When Should You Confront a Fellow Christian’s Sin? Part 2
For Part 1, click here. We need to figure out how to love our fellow Christians enough to confront their sin. Yet we avoid the question. Why? Why are we reluctant to intervene with fellow believers engaged in obvious disobedience? First, perhaps we’re afraid of their spiritual immaturity. As we’ve looked at in-depth, people do...
Jeremy Bacon
When Should You Confront a Fellow Christian’s Sin? Part 1
When it comes to judging the sins of our fellow Christians, do we get a green light or red light from God? We see plenty of verses in the rest of the New Testament that match Jesus’ warning against judging in Matt. 7:1-6. (For more articles on Jesus’ take on judging, see this, this, and...
Jeremy Bacon
What’s the Alternative to Judgmentalism?
There is a consequence to judging: “Judge not, lest you be judged” (Matt. 7:1). Apparently, I need to watch my back. But watch out for whom? Who is the one judging me? Is Jesus warning that I would be judged by other people? The idea is that, when I come at them, they’ll come right...
Jeremy Bacon
Pigs and Dogs: What is Jesus Talking About?
What’s with the pigs and the dogs? Taken by itself, Matt. 7:6 is a weird thing to say: “Don’t give holy things to dogs, don’t throw your pearls to pigs, lest they trample them under their feet and, turning, tear you to pieces” (author’s translation). If this is a stand-alone verse, then we just have...
Jeremy Bacon
Did Jesus Really Mean “Judge Not”?!
“Judge not, lest you be judged” (Matthew 7:1; popular paraphrase). Can we talk about what Jesus is saying here? Or do we have to address the elephant in the room? Sigh. Elephant it is. Because when church people hear the verse, “Judge not, lest you be judged,” we don’t hear Jesus saying it. We hear...
Jeremy Bacon