Around the age of 20, I had my first “adult” teaching experience. What I mean by that is that in the previous couple of years before this time, our church’s youth minister had assigned me the “privilege” of teaching middle school-age students on Wednesday nights. To this day, that may have been the toughest crowd I’ve ever taught!
Therefore, I jumped at the chance to teach a Bible study to college students of my own age one summer when asked by another minister at our church. He handed me Warren Wiersbe’s Be Mature which covers the New Testament letter by James. I’m not certain it was the first commentary I ever owned, but it was definitely the first one I ever pored over and read cover to cover.
I was immediately engaged by Wiersbe’s clear writing style. His illustrations and analogies made the sometimes difficult concepts of the Bible much more accessible—and definitely easier to understand. If anything, I probably leaned on Wiersbe a bit too much in that first study I taught, but it was a learning experience, and a good one at that.
After I was asked to teach a Bible study on James, I first read through the entire book in my Bible before I ever consulted Wiersbe or any other commentaries or helps (a good practice to this day!). I was troubled by James 1:4, which read in my translation of choice at the time (the 1977 New American Standard) this way:
And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
My issue was with that word perfect, which I knew I was not and didn’t feel I ever would be. I had never had a Greek class, so I had no understanding of the underlying word (τέλειος/teleios) which some translations, such as the NIV, better translated as mature. Fortunately, Wiersbe was able to help me understand the concept that James was trying to get across. In the aptly named Be Mature, Wiersbe explained:
But James was not discussing an array of miscellaneous problems. All of these problems had a common cause: spiritual immaturity. These Christians simply were not growing up. This gives us a hint as to the basic theme of this letter: the marks of maturity in the Christian life. James used the word perfect several times, a word that means “mature, complete” (see James 1:4, 17, 25; 2:22; 3:2). By “a perfect man” (James 3:2) James did not mean a sinless man, but rather one who is mature, balanced, grown-up.
That helped a lot! I didn’t think I was ever going to be perfect in this life, but I definitely knew that I could mature, become more balanced and grow up. And, yes, I still have room for progress in this area, but Warren Wiersbe’s Be Mature helped me understand all those years ago that we can all continue to grow in our maturity in the Christian faith.
Warren Wiersbe’s BE Series has been requested by Accordance users for quite a while. Well, we’ve heard you, and we are pleased today to announce its immediate release for Accordance. All of Wiersbe’s “BE” titles are here, covering the entire Bible: 27 Old Testament titles and all 23 for the New Testament.
Each “BE” book includes an introduction that provides the important background of the book of the Bible covered in that volume. The introduction, like the commentary that follows, immediately bridges the ancient to modern gap by making the situations from biblical times relevant to today. I mentioned earlier the illustrations and analogies that Wiersbe uses. This is perhaps Wierbe’s greatest gift in the series to the reader. Wiersbe has an incredible ability to put cultural practices or biblical and theological concepts into basic terms that modern people can not only understand, but relate to as well.
Wiersbe’s commentaries have been a favorite resource for pastors for many years for his illustrations and analogies, but that’s not the only use for them. These volumes are also perfect for group or individual study. Each chapter comes with a series of questions and answers for reflection and discussion.
In Accordance 11, Wiersbe’s BE Series installs by default in the Commentary section of your Accordance Library. It can be used by itself or in parallel with a biblical text or other reference titles that are arranged by verse references. The BE Series has been tagged with the following search fields: Reference, Titles, English Content, Scripture, Transliteration, and Page Numbers. This tagged content allows you to make very specific searches in the title itself or with other titles in the Research window.
Warren Wiersbe’s BE Series is now available at the regular price of $199 for all 50 volumes.
Wiersbe’s BE Series Commentary only $199