Daily Bread Pastor Mike Anderson 2026

No Other Gospel 6I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! 9As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! 10Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. In each letter Paul writes to the churches in Asia Minor and in Greece/Corinth, he is confronting a particular issue. In the case of the church at Galatia, he is confronting the fact that the Galatians are asking male adults who come to Christ to be circumsized acc...

Daily Bread 2010 - 2 Corinthians 13:5-6 “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith, test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you, unless of course you fail the test. ” Paul concludes his second letter to the Corinthians with a challenge. He challenges them to test themselves to see if they are in the faith. We might be tempted to think that this test is related to whether or not we have done enough good things to win God’s approval. Many people have this view of God, that if we do enough good works, or at least the amount of good things we do outweighs the bad things we do, we will pass the test. We hope God grades on a curve like our college professors. But Paul dispels this notion in the next verse by saying, “Don’t you know that Christ Jesus is in you, unless of course you fail the test.” Paul is testing their faith not their amount of good works. He is saying the only way to pass the test is if Christ is in you by faith. That is your hope of...

7To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. This is the classic “thorn in the flesh” passage, where Paul describes a struggle that God allowed in his life, which ended up teaching Paul about the depth and all-sufficiency of God’s grace. There have been many speculations about what that thorn was, but frankly I am okay with the fact that we don’t know what it was. This helps all of us to relate to the passage through our own “thorn in the fl...

Daily Bread 2010 2 Corinthians 11 What anyone else dares to boast about—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast about. 22Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham's descendants? So am I. 23Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. 24Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. 27I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have o...

Daily Bread 2010 – 2 Corinthians 10 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 6And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete. Paul is again confronting those in the church who say he is bold when he writes his letters but “timid” when he sees them face to face. Paul then reveals what he will also teach on Ephesians 6 that the battle we fight is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual powers of darkness. As Paul says in this chapter, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God.” Paul is saying that part of the spiritual warfare we all face as believers is the distortion of truth through bad or corrupt thinking. Before we can take an action agai...

Sowing Generously 6Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9As it is written: "He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever." 10Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. The context of this passage is that Paul is encouraging the Corinthians to make good on the pledges they had made financially to help the church in...

8Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it—I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while— 9yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. 10Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. 11See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter. 12So even though I wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did the wrong or of the injured party, but rather that before God you could see for yourselves how devoted to us you are. 13By all this we are encouraged. In this chapter Paul introduces the concept of “godly sorrow”. ...