Our friend and Kingdom worker @irnawan silitonga mentioned books by Marvin Vincent. His famous Word Studies have assisted many. His is a true scholar, especially compared to all the "scholars" and "doctors" in the church today.

Looking at this essay I was reminded of road trips where one wrong turn necessitated many more turns in order to simply return to the previous starting point. The church today is so far from the scriptural patterns that controversies about church government became endless. And as he observes, most of our research is undertaken to validate our own opinions and systems.

Things have become much more complicated and expensive than the apostles themselves could have ever imagined.