Straight to the Heart of 1 & 2 Corinthians
Phil Moore
ISBN 978-0-85721-002-9
Monarch Books
Reviewed by Clint Walker
Lately, there have been several devotional commentaries that have tried to make their way into the Christian book market. More and more people want to do a book by book study of Scripture, having the opportunity to study the Bible passages in context and get a feel of the narrative that book is embedded within.
One of the newest of these new commentaries comes to us from a pastor in England named Phil Moore. Pastor Moore leads a church in Wimbledon and works within a leadership of innovative churches. The series, entitled the "Straight to the Heart" series, attempts to offer "bite-sized" insights of specific sections of Scripture.
The book that I was given the opportunity to review is called Straight to the Heart of 1 & 2 Corinthians. It has sixty brief teachings on 60 different passages within Paul's correspondence to the Corinthians. In addition to the nuggets of wisdom on each of the passages, Rev. Moore introduces different sections of these books, noting movements of themes and purpose. This is especially helpful in the Corinthian correspondence.
The author writes in a way that catches the readers attention. He is earthy without being crass or vulgar. For instance, his titles for different sections both summarize the content and make the reader want to know more about what he is saying. Some of these sections are entitled "Sex in the City" and "Bread, Wine, and Poison".
The catchy titles also lead to well-written devotional summaries of specific passages that get right to the heart of what is happening and deftly relate the ancient text to modern life.
Although I enjoy this book, I do a have a few disappointments. First, I would have created a cover for the book that reflects the author's biblical yet edgy voice. The current cover is far too fuddy-duddy. Also, I was disappointed that the author was not as strongly progressive on the complimentarian-egalatarian issue as I would hope.
Other than that, I think this is a great text. I would recommend it to about anyone in the church I serve as pastor.
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