In the Pastoral Epistles of the Apostle Paul (1 and 2 Timothy and Titus) the phrase “sound doctrine” appears nine times. The Greek term translated “sound” means that which is conducive to health—in this case spiritual health. Paul connects sound doctrine with godly living; in God’s eyes, sound doctrine produces righteous living. For that reason, the church needs to review the command of the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20: “make disciples” by going, baptizing and “teaching all that I have commanded you.” This is the task of the church, and making disciples involves teaching what God has revealed in His Word. How is the church doing in fulfilling this part of the Great Commission? How is it doing in teaching and promoting sound doctrine?

Jesus completes His Sermon on the Mount by focusing on four choices we need to make in life.

The world order put together by the United States after World War II is coming apart. For example, last year marked the 80th anniversary of the 1945 United Nations Charter, a document signed by 51 nations at the close of World War II. The signatories pledged to act “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.” The great powers have not gone to war with one another since, and no U.N. member state has disappeared because of conquest. But over the past decade, that peace has begun to unravel.

Jesus teaches on kingdom priorities and conduct.

One of the most precious terms of the American Republic is liberty. This Republic’s founding documents are rooted in expressing and protecting individual freedom. In the Declaration of independence, Jefferson argued as a “self-evident truth” that we are “endowed by our Creator” with certain “inalienable rights” and among those are “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” The Bill of Rights (the Constitution’s first Ten Amendments) articulates and guarantees a set of rights each citizen enjoys. “Liberty” is indeed a precious and unique dimension of this Republic. But, in 1992, Justice Anthony Kennedy, in the famous Casey abortion ruling, posited a re-definition of human liberty: “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.”

Jesus teaches on the spiritual disciplines of prayer and fasting.

In early December 2025, President Trump’s administration issued its “National Security Strategy” (NSS) document. The 33-page paper is the Administration’s most complete attempt so far to explain its thinking on national security. Editorially, the Wall Street Journal observed: “Eight years ago, in his now-distant first term, President Trump laid out a national security strategy recognizing the new world of great power competition. It was a welcome effort to articulate emerging global threats. The new strategy . . . is an all but explicit retreat from that competition. It will please China and Russia but discomfit America’s allies. The strategy isn’t an isolationist document that you might read at a libertarian think tank. But it is clearly a declaration that America can no longer afford to, and shouldn’t in the national interest, bear the burden of global leadership.”

Jesus completes His interpretation of the Law and now gives focus to the practice of righteousness.

In early December 2025, Australia began enforcing a ban on social media apps for children under the age of 16—becoming the first country to do so. “I’ve always referred to this as the first domino,” Julie Inman Grant, who leads Australia’s online safety regulator, said in remarks. The major platforms have “pushed back,” Grant said, in part because Australia could serve as a proving ground for an approach that has begun to draw interest elsewhere.

Jesus’ interpretation of the Law focuses on the call to internal righteousness, not the facade of external righteousness alone.