WelshRev's Podcast

In this Word for the Week we do not spend most of our time in John 3 on the famous verse, John 3:16. That's because the chapter doesn't stress that, but both ends and places the emphasis on verse 36. And that's where this whole conversation with Nicodemus gets resolved. In this Word for the Week we look closely at one Greek word, ἀπειθῶν (apeithōn), the word John chooses at the climax of the chapter instead of the simpler "does not believe" he had already used just a few verses earlier, and we

We've already looked at "refuse" and "receive" in John 3:36. There's a third word hiding in that verse, it's easy to miss, but it opens up a really relevant thread in John's Gospel. The Greek word is μένω (menō), meaning "to remain" or "to abide." John uses it again and again: the Spirit remains on Jesus at His baptism, believers are told to remain in Him like a branch in a vine, and yes, wrath remains on those who reject the Son. Notice the tense. It's not "wrath will come." It's "wrath tha

Last time we looked at apeitheō, the original word in John's account here for refusing Jesus, like a beast that sees the gate but won't come to it. This time it's the other half of John 3:36: "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life." And that means something far more specific than you might think at first. Think of the difference between a farmer saying "I believe that gate's gonna be alright" and a farmer actually putting the heifers in, closing the gate, and walking away confident the

There's a word in John's Gospel that gets flattened every time it's translated into English. John 3:36 says whoever does not believe in the Son will not see life, but the word John actually uses isn't the ordinary word for belief. It's much more about refusing to be persuaded. Picture 'that' heifer, that knows exactly where the gate is, knows the voice calling it in, and simply will not come in ... not because it doesn't understand, but because it won't. That's the sort of picture John is pa

He's in training for a medic course alongside men half his age, and getting the "do you work out?" question a lot lately. His answer's the same as ever: "No, I work outside." But this time there's a training programme behind it too, and that's got him thinking about a much older kind of training programme, one Paul wrote about from a prison cell. "We are wasting away," Paul says plainly. No spin, no positive-thinking veil pulled over it. Body, situation, energy, finances, there's always someth