Coffee and Bible Time Podcast
Join host Ellen Krause—co-creator of Coffee and Bible Time—as she sits down with authors, pastors, theologians, and everyday believers to explore Scripture, identity, relationships, and how to truly keep Jesus at the center of it all. Whether you're just starting your faith journey or looking to go deeper, this podcast is a space to learn, be encouraged, and draw closer to Christ.
Coffee and Bible Time Podcast
Hearing God's Voice in Scripture | Dr. Holly Beers
How can the Holy Spirit guide our study of the Bible? In this episode, New Testament scholar Dr. Holly Beers joins Ellen to discuss what it means to invite His presence into our time in Scripture. Using Colossians and Philemon as an example, Holly shows how scholarly tools and spiritual sensitivity go hand in hand when studying God's word.
Scriptures referenced:
- Luke 8
- 1 Corinthians 12-14
- Colossians 1:7
- Colossians 3:11
- Acts 14:22
- 1 Peter 3:17-18
Colossians and Philemon: A Transformative Bible Commentary for Spirit-Filled Christians
About Dr. Holly Beers:
Faculty Page | Messages
Favorite Bible: NLT | NRSV
Favorite Journaling Supplies: Colored Markers | Colored Pens
Favorite Apps: Accordance | Bible Gateway
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At the Coffee and Bible Time podcast. Our goal is to help you delight in God's Word and thrive in Christian living. Each week, we talk to subject matter experts who broaden your biblical understanding, encourage you in hard times and provide life-building tips to enhance your Christian walk. We are so glad you have joined us. Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Coffee and Bible Time podcast. This is Ellen, your host, and I'm so glad that you're here today. Let me ask you something as we get started.
Ellen Krause:Have you ever wondered how to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit while studying the Bible? Or maybe you've asked what it really looks like to follow Jesus, even when doing so costs you something your comfort, your reputation, maybe even relationships? Well, if you've ever asked questions like these, then this episode is for you. Today we are diving into a conversation that brings together two powerful realities the unchanging truth of scripture and the living, active presence of the Holy Spirit. We're talking about what it means to listen for the Spirit's voice while reading your Bible, how Paul's letters to the early church still speak into the cultural challenges that we're facing today, and how God may be inviting you into a life of deeper love, costly obedience and spirit-led courage.
Ellen Krause:Our guest today is Dr Holly Beers, a Bible scholar and teacher who earned her PhD from the London School of Theology and is an associate professor of religious studies at Westmont College. Dr Beers is the author of a powerful commentary on Colossians and Philemon that is part of the Word and Spirit Commentary Series. She also regularly preaches and teaches, so whether you've never read a commentary before or you're someone who loves diving deep, I think today's episode will open your eyes to new ways of reading scripture and encountering Jesus in the process. Welcome.
Dr. Holly Beers:Holly, thanks so much for having me. Happy to be here.
Ellen Krause:Wonderful. Well, we are so glad that you're here and, to be very honest, I've always wanted to have someone on our program to help us understand how the charismatic movement is part of the broader evangelical world but adds an emphasis on the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts. So I'm very excited to have you share that with us. Why don't you start out by just telling us a little bit about yourself and how you came to know the Lord?
Dr. Holly Beers:Well, I was raised in a Christian family, in a Pentecostal Christian family, so I grew up in a space where people regularly talked about their relationship with Jesus and talked about listening to the Spirit. Though I think I was about five or six, actually, when I first had a conversation with my dad about what it meant to follow Jesus for myself and not just rely on the faith of my parents. I remember we were in my bedroom, and my childhood bedroom had purple walls and pink carpet, so I loved it.
Dr. Holly Beers:I chose those things, yes, and I remember being with my dad and asking him if I was a Christian, and he said well, do you follow Jesus? And I said something like you know well, you and mom do, so I do. And he said no, you need to choose for yourself. So he prayed with me that night and that's how it started. But really, it was the faith of that entire church that I was raised in who nurtured me and helped me understand what it meant to follow Jesus me and helped me understand what it meant to follow Jesus.
Ellen Krause:Well, obviously it had a very profound influence on you, because you ended up becoming a Bible scholar. Tell us what your road to that looked like.
Dr. Holly Beers:Honestly, I'm still surprised that I'm in this place, because it was not on my radar at all. I didn't know even that there were Bible scholars when I was growing up, but I've always loved the Bible always and I was a kid who actually read my adult Bible and had questions. I was the kid who had the questions that people weren't always sure how to answer, but my parents weren't afraid of my questions. They just didn't always have the kinds of answers that I was looking for, and I've always been good at school and liked school. So it actually happened in college where I had a professor, a theology professor, who said to me Holly, you could do what I do, and no one had ever said anything like that to me before. So he really changed my life in that way, because he helped me imagine a space for myself that I hadn't even been able to picture before. That.
Ellen Krause:That's incredible. Does he know now that how much?
Dr. Holly Beers:he's influenced you. He does when I finished my dissertation my PhD actually and I dedicated it to a bunch of people, but he was the first person I mentioned.
Ellen Krause:Oh, that's so beautiful. Well, what books of the Bible have been your primary focus of study, and how has that work translated to your walk with Christ?
Dr. Holly Beers:Well, as a good Pentecostal, I love the book of Acts. It's always been my favorite and has been my primary area of research and specialty. So, because the author of Acts also writes the book of Luke, I've also spent a lot of time in Luke and Luke is my favorite gospel. Those two are probably the most. But, as you mentioned, I've written a commentary on Colossians and Philemon. So in the last five to seven years I've spent a lot more time in some of Paul's letters, especially Colossians and Philemon. So I would say those four Luke, acts, colossians and Philemon are probably my key areas and honestly, I've just been shaped and formed so much by all of them. I mean walking.
Dr. Holly Beers:When I read Luke's gospel I imagine myself following Jesus in real time with the women Luke mentions in chapter eight Joanna, susanna and Mary Magdalene. I mean they're my friends and my imagination, and so I imagine myself with them and listening to Jesus and watching Jesus and considering always what his calls to discipleship mean for me. You know he talks a lot about money. He talks a lot about the way that we treat people. He talks a lot about how what's inside of us comes out of us and I want all of that to honor God in my life, so that's been really formative.
Dr. Holly Beers:And then watching the Holy Spirit and the book of Acts empower all kinds of different people and communities all over the Roman empire is so incredible. That book has really shaped the way my husband and I and our family live, into our local community here, our church community. What does it mean for us to treat our Jesus family like real family Because that's the model we get in Acts is that these communities are like extended family groups as they follow Jesus together. How do they take care of each other? How do they sacrifice for each other? So Acts has been really formative.
Dr. Holly Beers:And then with Colossians and Philemon I mean in Philemon Paul's really challenging this man named Philemon. He's really pushing him pretty hard in his discipleship and I think a lot about the ways that people have pushed me in my discipleship in good way. You know it's hard sometimes but it's good for us, it's what's best for us. So that's really shaped the way that I receive that kind of pushing. You know, I think I'm hopefully I'm less resistant than I used to be when someone kind of tries to nudge me in the right direction in my walk.
Ellen Krause:So that's and and obviously right, that's the goal of scripture is not just to know more about it, but to be actively living it out. Yes, yes, that's so encouraging to hear. Well, let's talk about inviting the Holy Spirit into Bible study.
Ellen Krause:There's a paragraph in your commentary in Colossians that I wanted to just read to our audience and then we can talk about it a little bit. It says perhaps the time has come when more and more in the global church will embrace other followers of Jesus, while creating a new and bigger center and reducing or eliminating the size of the margin. This does not mean that significant areas of disagreement are ignored. It does mean that forgiveness and respectful conversation oriented toward understanding are paramount. How we treat one another as Christians is a powerful witness to a watching world, and it is sad that we have often squandered our opportunities to demonstrate Christian love to other holy ones. And then you go on to say love in the New Testament typically is characterized not by emotions or feelings but by sacrifice and commitment, and its goal is redemptive in moving us towards God's purposes.
Ellen Krause:It is this to which the Colossian Christians and Christians today are called. I wanted to share this because our conversation today is really exemplifying what Paul is talking about, and you're part of the charismatic tradition, and I'm not and I'm so excited for us and our listeners to all learn from each other. It's exciting that we together can sit as sisters in Christ and learn from one another. Give us some background for those who are listening and are not familiar with more of the charismatic ways about how the Holy Spirit is working today. What does that look like for you to listen to the Spirit's voice as you teach or study scripture?
Dr. Holly Beers:This for me really comes from my tradition, as you mentioned, where people regularly talked about what God said to them or what the Spirit was prompting them to do. So I feel like I've grown up with that language and that got practiced and manifested through spiritual gifts. So charismatics today are not just theoretically open to spiritual gifts that we hear about in places like 1 Corinthians 12 to 14, but they actively practice them like first Corinthians 12 to 14, but they actively practice them. So so I grew up hearing people give words of knowledge. People regularly prayed for healing and I've seen many people get healed. People speak in tongues often, and I have since I was a kid, before I even knew what I was supposed to be doing, you know, it was just part of my childhood experience. So I feel like that context gave me a heightened sensitivity to listening to the Spirit in a certain kind of way. And when I study scripture honestly, I regularly, as I'm getting started, I regularly pray for myself out loud, or, if I'm with a group, we pray. We say Spirit of God. What are you up to in this text today? What were you up to in the ancient world when you worked through the human author to write this text and then what are you up to today? What do you want to say to us today? And then we try to listen to that. I listen If I'm with a group, we try to listen and we talk about what we're hearing.
Dr. Holly Beers:So in some ways it's very similar, I think, to what a lot of people do when they're in a Bible study or something.
Dr. Holly Beers:They might go around the circle and talk about what God is doing in the text or what they think the text might mean for them. So it's not that different in that way. But I think the naming of it and saying we're going to listen to the spirit today, we're going to listen to the spirit today, we're going to open ourselves up, you know, we say give us soft hearts and help us to hear, help us not to miss what you might be trying to say. And then we, you know, try to pay attention to a prompting, maybe, or an image that comes to mind, or a phrase or something like that. That's often what it looks like for me, and when I write my scholarship I do the same thing. I say Spirit of God, you inspired this text and I want you to inspire me to understand it well and to write about it well so that I can help other people understand the Bible in better ways. That's really what I feel like I'm passionate about doing.
Ellen Krause:That's really what I feel like I'm passionate about doing, for is hearing from God and knowing what it is that he's trying to teach us. How do you balance listening for the voice of the Spirit speaking through the text while also having a strong awareness of the cultural differences that were going on, the context of the original audience? Tell us about that process.
Dr. Holly Beers:Well, because of what I do for a living, those things almost always go together for me, though sometimes one of them comes first. So, for example, if I'm in a New Testament text and I know the New Testament much better than I know the Old Testament but I'm working, I'm continually working on that, you know, spending more time with the Old Testament so that I feel like I can hear even the echoes of the Old Testament that show up in the New Testament. I want to hear those things, be able to be able to connect them. But often, because I know the New Testament fairly well, when I come to a text I already know a lot of the historical and cultural background to it. So I'm coming into it with some of those pieces already in mind. But and then I'll say spirit of God, show me what, help me to see what you want me to see. What should I notice in this text? You know, is there part of it that you want to use to form me today? That kind of thing is what I do.
Dr. Holly Beers:And then, when I'm in the old Testament especially, or some texts that maybe I don't know quite as well, I notice what I notice, and I hear a lot of people when they study the Bible. We don't use that language. I notice what I notice and then and I say you know God, how are you trying to form me through this? And sometimes that will lead to a historical or cultural question where, as I read the text, I think, oh, I wonder, what's going on here? This feels like it's not something that in our time and place, something people would do or say. So what's going on here historically? And then maybe I check a commentary to see, and once I understand that, that always deepens my relationship with the text and, for me at least, helps God form me more powerfully. So for me those pieces go together and I kind of move back and forth, even if one sometimes comes first and the other one comes second and they might flip the next time around.
Ellen Krause:Yeah, I can see how it's so important to be praying through the process of understanding God's word, and that's something that we all need to be doing as we're reading the scripture. Well, let's talk a little bit about Colossians and Philemon, which is your latest area of expertise. What's one historical or culture insight about these letters that really changed the way you understood it?
Dr. Holly Beers:Great question. So I'm sure I had heard it previously but it didn't really sink in that Paul didn't plant the church in Colossae until I started working on these letters. It's very clear that he doesn't know this community very well Because we hear in Colossians 1-7 that this guy named Epaphras actually planted that church. Once I started really thinking through that I realized, oh my word, Paul's kind of minimal relationship with this church is shaping the way he's saying all kinds of things. In the letter to the Colossians, For example, he doesn't push them quite as hard as he does the communities in some of his other letters. Think about how hard he pushes the Corinthian church and something like 1 Corinthians. I mean he knows those people well. He's lived with them for about a year and a half, day in, day out. He knows those people well, you know he's lived with them for about a year and a half, day in, day out. So he pushes them pretty hard and there's lots of really personal information in 1 Corinthians and Paul's critiquing them pretty directly and we don't get that kind of agitation or that kind of pressure in Colossians. It's a little gentler which makes sense. If Paul doesn't know them very well, he's trying to move them forward in their discipleship, but he's really inviting them in in a way that's much more careful. That just affected all kinds of things as I was reading the text, because in the household code section, for example, where Paul talks about husbands and wives and children and parents and slaves and masters, he's not very radical in terms of what he's asking them to do. A lot of what he's asking them to do would be known and understood in their broader culture, but he is pushing them a little bit to change in their relationships with each other because the relationships need to be formed by kingdom of God values.
Dr. Holly Beers:And I thought, wow, this helps me understand Paul's whole approach, his style as a communicator. And the reason that matters so much is that in the letter to Philemon he clearly knows Philemon very well. This guy is his friend, they are good buddies, they are social peers, equals according to cultural standards, and so Paul pushes Philemon much, much harder, but he can because he knows Philemon well. So when we compare and contrast those letters, we can see the different approach in communication and that's really shaped the way I think about communicating with audiences. I don't know very well how can I be appropriate and careful but also push people gently in their discipleship. And then someone I do know very well how can I push much harder Because the relationship allows for it, and how do I allow people who know me well to push me much harder? So that's probably one of the key historical pieces that really shaped my understanding of the letters.
Ellen Krause:That's so interesting, and definitely something that we're always encouraging our listeners, is the importance of understanding the context of a passage, and what you've just described here is just so enlightening as to how he pushed people, so to speak, differently, and I love how you apply that to us, even today. I mean, there's times where we need to be more sensitive.
Ellen Krause:And then like you said, knowing others. Well, it's, and that's what I want, right, as a strong believer, I want someone to hold me accountable, whereas maybe when I was a baby Christian that you know, there's just different steps that you take as you're growing, yes, well, how does the theme of brotherhood and equality in Christ intertwine in these books?
Dr. Holly Beers:Well, those are two main themes in these two books. I mean, in the letter to the Colossians he calls them brothers and sisters. Some Bible translations will say brothers, but their word brother got used the way that our word guys often gets used, where if I say hey, guys, you know I can use that to address a male and female mixed group. So even if your Bible translation just says brothers, we need to think of that as brothers and sisters. Paul's calling them family, basically siblings and siblings are social peers. And then he uses brother language in the letter to Philemon too. So that's part of it.
Dr. Holly Beers:In Colossians 3, paul has one of his famous verses where he says here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and in all. You know there's a famous text like that in Galatians as well, and that kind of leveling out of people, that kind of equality, that vision, that image was very rare in Paul's day, in that time and place. I mean, everybody was ranked according to social status and it it was very clear Everybody knew where everybody else ranked. So for Paul to level that out and say no, in Jesus, basically we're all family, we're all equals was, was crazy and surprising. So what we see Paul doing in Colossians with that is encouraging people because their siblings, their family're family and they're social peers to live in ways that make sense in light of that. And that gets kind of turbocharged in the letter to Philemon. Because in Philemon Paul says hey brother, hey brother in Christ, you know this slave. You have Onesimus. Yeah, I want you to welcome him back, not as a slave but as a brother, and nobody in Paul's world would have called their slave. If they owned one, no one would have called that person a sibling because obviously slaves rank way below masters.
Dr. Holly Beers:But Paul's playing with those categories and leveling out in an equality-based way Philemon's relationship with his slave. I think Philemon is Paul's most radical letter. I think Philemon is Paul's most radical letter. He pushes back so hard against slavery and says no, in the Jesus family, like we are brothers and sisters, and that means that you, philemon, need to take this really seriously. So it's one thing for Philemon to have heard and I'm sure he did hear Paul say things like oh, there's no slavery, free, or Jew or Gentile or any of that, we're all one in Christ. I'm sure Philemon had heard Paul say that, but now in the letter to Philemon, paul's asking Philemon to actually live it, because now it's going to affect his relationship with his slave, and I just find that so powerful.
Ellen Krause:Yes, it sure is. Again, we're back to the hearing versus doing yes, and he really was putting his feet to the fire. Well, you know, we see in Paul's life that following Christ was a sacrifice in a lot of ways. Tell us about you know. What would you say to believers who are in a season where following Jesus is coming at a cost?
Dr. Holly Beers:Yes, well, paul's life models that for us. I mean Paul's at the heart of kingdom of God. You know vision, and he has a lot of sacrifices he has to make, but of course that's based on Jesus. Jesus as the inaugurator, the bringer of the kingdom of God, paid the ultimate cost his life. So in that way, it shouldn't surprise us when we have sacrifices to make, when we go through hardships, because that is the model Jesus actually gives us. As I've said, I love the book of Acts and there's this passage in chapter 14 where Paul and Barnabas go to encourage some of these early churches, these followers of Jesus in some of these areas, and these are new Christians.
Dr. Holly Beers:And in verse 22, luke tells us that Paul and Barnabas encourage these new Christians by saying we must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God. That's their encouragement. I've thought about that so often for years and years, because what does it mean for that to be encouraging? Well, it's, it's realistic, it's a way to say this is part of what it looks like to live in the kingdom, and and we need to be honest about that and talk about that, and then do that together in community too, because you know, he's not telling Paul and Barnabas aren't telling just an individual person that they're communicating that to groups of Christians. In the book of 1 Peter, actually, peter says that when followers of Jesus in the churches to whom he's writing, he says when you're going through persecution, remember that this helps you identify more closely with Jesusesus. Like this connects you more deeply to jesus, because he's the one who suffered for us and I find that to be helpful to my own life, absolutely, absolutely.
Ellen Krause:And when you were talking, what came to my mind was also james and how he says when you encounter trials of various kinds, count it joy, and I love that, though that count means like over time, like we're not going to necessarily experience that immediately, but later, when you have hindsight vision, you can see how God used that experience to mold you and shape you to become more like Christ.
Dr. Holly Beers:Well, and even with Jesus's own example, right, he has to go through the hard time and then, after that is when he gets vindicated, after that is when he gets the glorification piece, when he's raised from the dead and then ascends to the father. So that gives us some kind of model too. It's not necessarily going to be in the moment that we feel great about it, but later God will show what's true, and God will prove what's right.
Ellen Krause:Absolutely, absolutely Well, holly, we've only just sort of hit the tip of the iceberg here with all that you have to offer in the work that you're doing. Where can listeners find out more information about you and your work?
Dr. Holly Beers:listeners find out more information about you and your work. Oh well, in terms of my academic work, the easiest thing would probably be to search for my faculty page at Westmont. If you typed in my name, Holly Beers, and then Westmont College, I'm sure it would pop right up. But I've also done quite a bit of teaching and preaching that's ended up on YouTube, so that would be an easier, probably and maybe more fun way. If you want to see what kinds of books or articles I've written, then go to my faculty page, but if you just want to watch or listen to some of what I've done, it's on YouTube.
Ellen Krause:Awesome, okay, well, we will make sure we put links to those in our show notes. Before we close out, though, I have to take the opportunity to ask you some of our favorite questions here. What Bible do you use and what translation is it?
Dr. Holly Beers:My students always ask me this and they're always disappointed when I say I use all the English translations because I can also check the Greek. So since I teach people how to read the New Testament in the original Greek, that's part of what I do as my job. So because I get to look at the Greek and help students work through that, I regularly reference English translations, but I check a whole range, so I don't necessarily have a favorite English translation. I think they're all good as long as they're done by a committee of people who are working together, so it's not just one person's opinion. Then I think there's a good, healthy place for it in the church. You know the. The different English Bible translations are aimed at different demographics and I think that's okay. I think that's a good, healthy thing. So that's probably kind of disappointing for some of your listeners. I'm sorry, but that's really what I do no, no, no, no, that's okay.
Ellen Krause:I think we're kind of thinking of, like, what's on your bed stand, or something like that.
Dr. Holly Beers:Yeah, I mean, yeah, I just I check a range. Probably most often I check the NRSV and the ESV and the NIV and the NLT. I'm actually on the revision committee for the New Living Translation, the NLT, because all the major English translations get revised on a regular basis. So I've been spending more time in the NLT than I used to because I'm working on it. But I check a whole range.
Ellen Krause:Oh, that's so awesome. Okay, do you have any favorite journaling supplies or?
Dr. Holly Beers:do you do journaling? I am not a consistent journaler, I'm an occasional journaler and I would say I like color. I have a whole range of markers and colored pens because for me that's always been helpful and informative and then when I look back on something I can quickly see how I was thinking about it by the colors I was using and how I organized it in that way. So color is probably markers and pens. That's probably my favorite tool.
Ellen Krause:Awesome. Okay, and lastly, what is your favorite app or website for Bible study tools?
Dr. Holly Beers:Well, I bought one called Accordance that I use regularly in my academic work. But for the free ones, I like Bible Gateway. I think it's very helpful. It gives a lot of good resources and you can check a big range of English translations while you're on it. So I think that's helpful. But my students are regularly asking me to take a look at some app they found and honestly, there are so many good ones out there. I just I don't. I mean, I'm kind of unaware in some ways of all the good resources. So we live in a really amazing time where we have access to so many good options online.
Ellen Krause:Yes, yes, we sure do. Well, dr Beers, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and your heart, your love for Jesus, with us today.
Dr. Holly Beers:I'm happy to be here. Thank you for having me.
Ellen Krause:And to all of our listeners if you've ever wondered how to hold scripture and the spirit together in your faith journey, I hope that today gave you not only some answers, but also a hunger to press into this even more. And so, if this conversation did stir something in your heart, we encourage you to check out Dr Beer's commentary on Colossians and Philemon. We will have it linked in the resources in the show notes and, as always, we hope you will walk away from today's episode encouraged to open your Bible, listen for God's voice and live out your faith boldly wherever God has placed you. Thank you for listening and have a blessed day.
