Tom Wright
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Born of God
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Born of God
by SPCK - N T Wright
Born of God 1 John 3.1-10 There are many stories about people who are blind who then receive the gift of sight. One of the most remarkable, of course, is found in chapter 9 of John’s gospel, where Jesus heals a man who had been born blind. But there are plenty more such stories i…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - People of the Lie
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - People of the Lie
by SPCK - N T Wright
People of the Lie 1 John 2. 15-29 The late psychotherapist M. Scott Peck once wrote a book called People of the Lie. It wasn’t, perhaps, as famous as his remarkable (though still controversial) book The Road Less Travelled, but I found it more thought-provoking. In People of the …
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - God's New Commandment
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - God's New Commandment
by SPCK - N T Wright
God’s New Commandment 1 John 2. 3-14 Sometimes when we sing hymns, the hymns tell a story. They move from one idea to another, in a linear fashion. There is something satisfying about this. We all like stories, and even when the ‘story’ is a sequence of ideas, it makes sense to u…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - God's Light and our Darkness
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - God's Light and our Darkness
by SPCK - N T Wright
God’s Light and Our Darkness 1 John 1. 5-2.2 Elizabeth faced a difficult choice. She had moved into her new home a few weeks before, and her parents, who had been overjoyed when she got the new job and so could set up on her own, had been determined to do something special for he…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - The Word of Life
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - The Word of Life
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Word of Life 1 John 1. 1-4 ‘I have seen the future; and it works.’ That notorious statement was made by an American journalist, Lincoln Steffens, in 1919. He had just returned from a visit to the recently established ‘Soviet Union’, formed on Marxist principles after the Russ…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - God's Patience
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - God's Patience
by SPCK - N T Wright
God’s Patience 2 Peter 3.11-18 Early Christian Letters for Everyone 11Since everything is going to dissolve in this way, what sort of people should you be? You should live lives that are holy and godly, 12as you look for God’s day to appear, and indeed hurry it on its way – the d…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - The Day of the Lord
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - The Day of the Lord
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Day of the Lord 2 Peter 3.1-10 The late Bishop Stephen Neill spent some time, early in his life, as a missionary teacher in India. Once he suspected that the class he was teaching had been cheating. The boys who were not so good at the subject had been copying from the work o…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - From Bad to Worse
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - From Bad to Worse
by SPCK - N T Wright
From Bad to Worse 2 Peter 2.10b-22 ‘A year or two ago I was invited to dinner with some friends, who had also invited a judge. I don’t often meet senior members of the legal profession, and I was intrigued to hear what he might say about his work. My anticipation turned to shock …
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - False Prophets
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - False Prophets
by SPCK - N T Wright
False Prophets 2 Peter 2.1-10a ‘I told you it was easy to get lost.’ Our host stood on the doorstep with a wry smile on his face. We had assumed we more or less knew the way. We have a good sense of direction. We had even been there before; surely we would remember the route once…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Prophecy Made Sure
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Prophecy Made Sure
by SPCK - N T Wright
Prophecy Made Sure 2 Peter 1.12-21 I am writing this in the middle of winter. First thing in the morning, when I get up, there is no sunlight visible at all. The sky is dark. But, if the clouds are not too thick, there is a light which from ancient times has been seen as an early…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Confirm Your Call
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Confirm Your Call
by SPCK - N T Wright
Confirm Your Call! 2 Peter 1.1-11 My grandson, aged one and a half, was taken the other day into a big toyshop. It was a riot of exciting things, all in bright colours. From floor to ceiling, from one end of the shop to the other, and all over the tables and stands in the middle,…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Standing firm by God's Power
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Standing firm by God's Power
by SPCK - N T Wright
Standing Firm by God’s Power 1 Peter 5.8-14 One of the great advances in tropical medicine came when researchers discovered how malaria was spread. They had been trying to treat the disease for a long time, but it seemed hopeless. As fast as you helped one patient, three more wer…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Humble Shepherds
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Humble Shepherds
by SPCK - N T Wright
Humble Shepherds 1 Peter 5.1-7 From time to time the television or the newspapers tell us that there is a crisis of ‘leadership’. What that means, often enough, is that the media disapprove of the actual political leaders we happen to have at the moment, but even without that rat…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Sharing the Messiah's Suffering
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Sharing the Messiah's Suffering
by SPCK - N T Wright
Sharing the Messiah’s Sufferings 1 Peter 4.12-19 Early Christian Letters for Everyone 12Beloved, don’t be surprised at the fiery ordeal which is coming upon you to test you, as though this were some strange thing that was happening to you. 13Rather, celebrate! You are sharing the…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Transformed Living
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Transformed Living
by SPCK - N T Wright
Transformed Living 1 Peter 4.1-11 My dental hygienist was enthusing the other day about a new kind of electric toothbrush. Only two minutes, she said, morning and night; that’s all it will take. Just what you need. I lay there in the chair, my mouth full of dentistry, and did the…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Suffering for Doing Right
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Suffering for Doing Right
by SPCK - N T Wright
Suffering for Doing Right 1 Peter 3.17-22 The older I get, the more I dislike things which need to be put together, after you buy them, by following complicated instructions and diagrams. Part of my dislike is my sense that I will probably get it wrong, force something where it w…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - The New Way of Life
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - The New Way of Life
by SPCK - N T Wright
The New Way of Life 1 Peter 3.8-16 Most of us know the feeling of getting into a car we haven’t driven before. You have a look round, see where the switch for the lights is, check the angle of the mirrors, and so on. It may take a moment to figure out, with some of today’s cars, …
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Marriage and Its Challenges