What do the early papyri add to our understanding of the textual heritage of the Catholic Epistles other than their early dates? I submit that the answer is ‘But little’, and even to emphasize their early dates is deceptive . . . In conclusion, we need to ask why it is that the papyri are privileged by most textual critics and editors of an apparatus criticus. Who first promoted their supremely great authority? . . . Some papyri have obviously achieved their greatness just because of their age, and thereby allowing an insight into a tantalizing period in the life the text preceding the time of the great uncials and often problematizing the nature of their text. They are like elder statesmen basking in their own longevity, revered as custodians of an otherwise lost link to the distant past. But most papyri have had their greatness thrust upon them, whatever the dates allocated to them by palaeographers (and a significant number of papyri are indeed later than the fifth century), partly because they are all of recent discovery, thus making their arrival on a scholar’s radar relatively newsworthy, partly because most are published soon after they are unearthed so gaining for themselves a popularity due to their being quickly in the public domain, and partly because the gullible believe that there is an unwarranted magic associated with their having been written on papyrus.

The Early Text of the Catholic Epistles by J. K. Elliott in The Early Text of the New Testament, eds. Charles E. Hill & Michael J. Kruger, 223-224.

Don’t domesticate God’s grace. It is so much better than we realize.

David Platt, Jim Shaddix, and Matt Mason, Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary: Exalting Jesus in Psalms 51-100, 378.

As a Christian, when you think of things that light you up the most about the Christian faith, what comes to mind — the things you’re currently doing or the things Jesus has done? Friend, the Christian gospel isn’t fundamentally an exhortation. It is a report of what God has done to rescue sinners.

David Platt, Jim Shaddix, and Matt Mason, Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary: Exalting Jesus in Psalms 51-100, 377.

The Christian life is fueled by remembrance.

David Platt, Jim Shaddix, and Matt Mason, Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary: Exalting Jesus in Psalms 51-100, 375.

God’s Word always addresses people. It’s always personal, and it always speaks to real need. And there’s always help.

David Platt, Jim Shaddix, and Matt Mason, Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary: Exalting Jesus in Psalms 51-100, 375.

Q. What doth the preface to the Lord’s prayer teach us in general? — A. To begin our prayers with exalted and adoring views of God, Nehemiah 9:5-6 [Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, “Stand up and bless the LORD your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise. You are the LORD, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you.]

John Brown of Haddington, Questions and Answers on the Shorter Catechism, 343.

“The first act of the love of God the Father wherein there is anything ad extra, or without the divine essence, is the person of Christ considered as invested with our nature.”

John Owen [Works, 9:614] quoted in Kelly M. Kapic, Christian Life, 73.

Owen’s claim [quoted above] . . . does not chiefly concern chronology but priority and purity, telos, and goodness.

Kelly M. Kapic, Christian Life, 78.

Sin disorders everything, from our heads to our hearts, from the land to political systems, from our souls to the social structures we inhabit. A realist analysis of Christian life will include, in its proper place, an examination of this disorder. Everything is not terrible, but there is no part of God’s good creation that hasn’t been affected by sin.

Kelly M. Kapic, Christian Life, 72.

Life is God’s great gift, to be preserved for His uses, not thrown away.

John G. Paton, The Autobiography of the Pioneer Missionary to the New Hebrides (Vanuatu), 108.

What two great works of God does the Sabbath day call to our minds? The works of creation and redemption, which, as the catechism informs us, together “contain a short abridgment of religion.” These two works of God, creation and redemption, form the subject matter of the whole Bible. The Bible is the inspired record of God’s works of creation and redemption. The Sabbath day calls these two works of God to our minds and because God instituted the Sabbath when he finished his work of creation, and our Savior Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week, which is the Christian Sabbath.

J. G. Vos, The Westminster Larger Catechism: A Commentary, 337.