What Was Paul's Thorn in the Flesh? (2 Corinthians 12)
This passage gives every indication that the thorn in Paul's flesh is still a present reality and thus represents a prolonged, sustained pain. But what was the thorn?
Articles by Dane Ortlund
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8 Reminders in the Face of the Coronavirus Pandemic
These are strange days, days of fear, days of hysteria. In other words, days that simply bring all our latent anxieties up to the surface.
9 Wrong Ways to Read the Bible (And One Better Way)
The Bible is good news for us. Here are nine common but wrong ways to read the Bible, followed by the right way.
You don’t need to unburden or collect yourself and then come to Jesus. Your very burden is what qualifies you to come.
The crass references to hell we hear in everyday conversation shouldn’t dull the agonizing awareness all believers should have of the pains of hell.
6 Questions about Christ’s Heart for Sinners
We cannot present a reason for Christ to finally close off his heart to his own sheep. No such reason exists.
The Reason We Don't Feel the Weight of Our Sin
Just as we can hardly fathom the divine ferocity awaiting those out of Christ, it is equally true that we can hardly fathom the divine tenderness already resting now on those in Christ.
You Need Christ to Put Your Sin to Death
Christian salvation is fundamentally a matter of grace, rescue, help, deliverance—it is God invading our miserable little lives and triumphing gloriously and persistently over all the sin and self he finds.
We tend to project our natural expectations about who God is onto him instead of fighting to let the Bible surprise us into what God himself says.
With Christ, though, our sins and weaknesses are the very tickets that qualify us to approach him. Nothing but coming to him is required—first at conversion, and ten thousand more times.
Bible Q&A - Why Are There Two Testaments in the Bible?
Dane Ortlund answers why there are two testaments in the Bible.
Bible Q&A - What Is Hermeneutics?
Dane Ortlund discusses what hermeneutics are and why they are important.
Why It Matters That Jesus Was and Still Is Human
The impression often seems to be that the Son of God came down from heaven in incarnate form, spent three decades or so as a human, and then returned to heaven to revert back to his preincarnate state.
The psalms are poems that reflect the beauty of God himself and how he wants to enchant, allure, woo, and draw us up into him.
The Hidden Value of Pastoral Gentleness
As leaders of God’s people, we all long to make a difference for Christ. We don’t want to be unfruitful. The main reason to nurture gentleness is neither pragmatic nor historical, but biblical.
6 Times We See the Heart of Jesus in Action—and What It Means for Us
What we see Jesus claim with his words in Matthew 11:29, we see him prove with his actions time and again in all four Gospels. What he is, he does. His life proves his heart.
Bible Q&A - Why Read the Bible Every Day?
Dane Ortlund explains the purpose behind reading the Bible every day.
It Doesn’t Matter What Paul’s Thorn in the Flesh Was
The thorn’s purpose is to deflate the certainty that Paul would quietly become puffed up over his indescribable experience of heaven. And who wouldn’t, without a thorn to burst that bubble?
How the Book of Psalms Is Like No Other Biblical Book
The book of Psalms is special because it equips us to speak to God.
Do This Breathing Exercise for Healthy Christian Living
Think of Scripture and prayer as inhaling and exhaling because that shows the two necessarily go together.
Growth in Christ Is Not Just Personal Improvement
Jesus is not a concept. Not an ideal. Not a force. Growing in Christ is a relational, not a formulaic, experience. Who then is this person?
Are You Conveying the Loveliness of Christ to Your Kids?
Do our kids know the thing that will sustain and oxygenate them when other vital needs go unmet?
Why Study the Book of 2 Corinthians?
The Christian life is impossible to live without 2 Corinthians.
Bible Q&A - What Does the Bible Say About Swearing?
Dane Ortlund shares what the Bible says about swearing.
Advice for a New Christian Reading the Psalms
We want to read the Scripture, inhale it, and then exhale it out to God in whatever way makes sense for our own life.
Jesus isn’t like you. Even the most intense of human love is but the faintest echo of heaven’s cascading abundance.
When you come to Christ for mercy and love and help in your anguish and perplexity and sinfulness, you are going with the flow of his own deepest wishes, not against them.
Why We Need the Psalms of Lament
The Psalms help us express our pain to God, knowing that he hears our cries.
How Is Jesus Able to “Sympathize with Our Weaknesses”?
This truth is hard to believe because it is so wonderful: even though Jesus is now in heaven he is just as open and tender in his embrace of sinners and sufferers as when he was on earth.
The whole Bible is from heaven, and the whole thing is profitable (2 Tim. 3:16). But different parts of the Bible serve us in different ways.