John Piper

  • Right Words, Wrong Direction

    ByPrasad

    In many cultures — including across Asia and the Middle East — suffering is automatically connected to sin. When a child is born with a disability, when illness hits a family, the whisper follows: What did they do to deserve this? Job’s friends thought the same way. Then Jesus walked past a blind man and His disciples asked: “Who sinned — this man or his parents?” Jesus answered: “Neither.” Today’s devotional looks at what Eliphaz got right, what he got catastrophically wrong, and what Jesus has to say to anyone carrying pain that others have attached to their sin.

  • This Is the Mark

    ByPrasad

    Jesus had seventeen verses to say everything He wanted to say. And when He reached the end — after the vine and the branches, the pruning, the abiding, the friendship, the choosing — He said the same thing He said at the beginning. “These things I command you, so that you will love one another.” The scholars call this an inclusio: a literary bracket that signals everything in between was building toward this. The friendship, the choosing, the access — it was all to free you to do one thing well. This is the mark He chose. Not your doctrine. Not your gifts. The love you have for each other.