Tag Archives: Ephesians 4:14

Romans, Part 48

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I want to continue with the next item in Paul’s list of the different gifts (χαρίσματα, a form of χάρισμα) we have according to the grace given to us.[2]  If [the gift] is leadership (προϊστάμενος, a form of προΐστημι), he must do so with diligence (σπουδῇ)…[4]

I want προϊστάμενος to mean προηγούμενοι (a form of προηγέομαι), go first and leave a trail.  That’s what the Holy Spirit says to me about leadership.  Follow me, Jesus said.  Paul wrote, Be devoted to one another with mutual love, showing eagerness (προηγούμενοι, a form of προηγέομαι) in honoring one another.[6]  So when Paul used προηγούμενοι he wanted me to “lead the way” in honoring others.  When he wrote about leadership he used the word προϊστάμενος (a form of προΐστημι), which seems to imply a less itinerant existence, the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep by living among them and protecting them rather than dying for them.

To overcome my own bias I’ll start with things Paul didn’t mean about προϊστάμενος (leadership).  He certainly didn’t mean πλανάω, “to lead astray.”  Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Paul asked rhetorically.  Do not be deceived (πλανᾶσθε, a form of πλανάω)!  The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, passive homosexual partners, practicing homosexuals, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, the verbally abusive, and swindlers will not[7] inherit the kingdom of God.[8]  And the implication is that some claiming the gift of leadership were teaching these very things.

I don’t want this to come down disproportionately hard on those who favor the “Side A” position discussed on the Gay Christian Network website.[9]  My reasons can wait for another essay.  For now I will simply quote Paul’s own words (1 Corinthians 6:11 NET):

Some of you once lived this way.  But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

In other words, despite his assertion that such sinners will not inherit the kingdom of God, Paul did not dispute that God called, sanctified, and justified them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.  The most anyone can assert about this passage is the Apostle’s fervent belief that sinners who were washed…sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God would not continue in sin.

Do not be deceived (πλανᾶσθε, a form of πλανάω): “Bad company corrupts good morals.”  Sober up as you should, and stop sinning!  For some have no knowledge of God – I say this to your shame![10]  Do not be deceived (πλανᾶσθε, a form of πλανάω).  God will not be made a fool.  For a person will reap what he sows, because the person who sows to his own flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.[11]  But evil people and charlatans will go from bad to worse, deceiving (πλανῶντες, another form of πλανάω) others and being deceived (πλανώμενοι, another form of πλανάω) themselves.[12]

Still, for Paul it was not a simple matter of “we” the good guys versus “they” the evil deceivers leading themselves and others astray:  For we too were once foolish, disobedient, misled (πλανώμενοι, another form of πλανάω), enslaved to various passions and desires, spending our lives (διάγοντες, a form of διάγω) in evil and envy, hateful and hating one another.[14]  Here we are introduced to ἄγω, the primary verb to lead.  I’ll look at that after I finish with πλανάω.

The difference between Paul in his past as Saul along with others who were led astray, and Paul in his present as an Apostle of Christ, was the Father’s call through the resurrected Jesus and the indwelling Holy Spirit, God, in a word and not something intrinsic in Paul himself.  For the appeal we make does not come from error (πλάνης, a form of πλάνη) or impurity or with deceit, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we declare it, not to please people but God, who examines our hearts.[17]

For Paul the word πλάνη (one led astray) not only described his former life but the natural state of all humanity.   Hear, for instance, how he described God’s wrath[18] on those who worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator:[19] God gave them over to dishonorable passions.  For their women exchanged the natural sexual relations for unnatural ones, and likewise the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed in their passions for one another.  Men committed shameless acts with men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error (πλάνης, a form of πλάνη) [Table].[20]

But in Christ we are all empowered to overcome our natural state: So we are no longer to be children, tossed back and forth by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching by the trickery of people who craftily carry out their deceitful schemes (μεθοδείαν τῆς πλάνης).[22]  While there is nothing particularly wrong with translating πλάνης error or deceitful, it implies awareness and ill-purpose.  And we might be led astray by the earnest sincerity of one led astray, one who does not know that his method or way leads others astray, one who wasn’t gifted with leadership (προϊστάμενος, a form of προΐστημι).

Paul also wrote (2 Corinthians 2:4-11 NET Table1 Table2):

For out of great distress and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not to make you sad, but to let you know the love (ἀγάπην, a form of ἀγάπη) that I have especially for you.  But if anyone has caused sadness, he has not saddened me alone, but to some extent (not to exaggerate) he has saddened all of you as well.  This punishment on such an individual by the majority is enough for him, so that now instead you should rather forgive (χαρίσασθαι, a form of χαρίζομαι) and comfort (παρακαλέσαι, a form of παρακαλέω) him.  This will keep him from being overwhelmed by excessive grief to the point of despair.  Therefore I urge (παρακαλῶ, a form of παρακαλέω) you to reaffirm your love (ἀγάπην, a form of ἀγάπη) for him.  For this reason also I wrote you: to test you to see if you are obedient in everything.  If you forgive (χαρίζεσθε, a form of χαρίζομαι) anyone for anything, I also forgive him – for indeed what I have forgiven (κεχάρισμαι, a form of χαρίζομαι) (if I have forgiven [κεχάρισμαι, a form of χαρίζομαι] anything) I did so for you in the presence of Christ, so that we may not be exploited by Satan (for we are not ignorant of his schemes [νοήματα, a form of νόημα]).

I can’t help but think that the forgiveness, comfort and love that played such an important role in keeping the Corinthians from being exploited by Satan’s schemes might be key as well to thwarting people’s methods or ways that lead astray (μεθοδείαν τῆς πλάνης).

As I turn here to ἄγω it is possible to glean what the gift of leadership (προϊστάμενος, a form of προΐστημι) is like.  God’s kindness leads (ἄγει, a form of ἄγω) you to repentance.[27]  It is not too much to expect one with the gift of leadership to exhibit God’s kindness, forbearance, and patience.  The gifted leader exhorts us with: all who are led (ἄγονται, a form of ἄγω) by the Spirit of God are the sons of God,[28] and teaches us: if you are led (ἄγεσθε, a form of ἄγω) by the Spirit, you are not under the law.[29]  The gifted leader is not overly interested in money.  For the love of money is the root of all evils.  Some people in reaching for it have strayed (ἀπεπλανήθησαν, a form of ἀποπλανάω) from the faith and stabbed themselves with many pains.[31]

Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, Paul wrote the Thessalonians, to acknowledge those who labor among you and preside over (προϊσταμένους, another form of προΐστημι) you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them most highly in love because of their work.[32]  [The overseer] must manage (προϊστάμενον, another form of προΐστημι) his own household well and keep his children in control without losing his dignity.[33]  Though the overseer may be an itinerant position, one must exhibit that lay-down-his-life leadership at home first with his family.

Paul’s exhortation, Do not lag (σπουδῇ) in zeal, be enthusiastic in spirit, serve the Lord,[34] gives me a picture of the diligence (σπουδῇ) one should demonstrate in the exercise of God’s gift of leadership.   It is translated eagerness in, But as you excel in everything – in faith, in speech, in knowledge, and in all eagerness (σπουδῇ) and in the love from us that is in you – make sure that you excel in this act of kindness too.[35]

Romans, Part 49

Back to My Reasons and My Reason, Part 1

[2] Romans 12:6a (NET)

[4] Romans 12:8 (NET)

[6] Romans 12:10 (NET)

[7] The Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had οὐ here.  The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 did not.

[8] 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10 (NET) Table

[10] 1 Corinthians 15:33, 34 (NET)

[11] Galatians 6:7, 8 (NET)

[12] 2 Timothy 3:13 (NET)

[14] Titus 3:3 (NET)

[17] 1 Thessalonians 2:3, 4 (NET)

[18] Romans 1:18 (NET)

[19] Romans 1:25 (NET)

[20] Romans 1:26, 27 (NET)

[22] Ephesians 4:14 (NET)

[27] Romans 2:4b (NET)

[28] Romans 8:14 (NET)

[29] Galatians 5:18 (NET)

[31] 1 Timothy 6:10 (NET)

[32] 1 Thessalonians 5:12, 13 (NET)

[33] 1 Timothy 3:4 (NET)

[34] Romans 12:11 (NET) Table

[35] 2 Corinthians 8:7 (NET)

Romans, Part 35

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After the crescendo of faith and victory in Christ at the end of chapter eight, Paul’s abrupt admission at the beginning of chapter nine is disconcerting.  I am telling the truth in Christ (I am not lying!), for my conscience assures me in the Holy Spirit – I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.[1]  But the sense of his great sorrow and unceasing anguish comes with its cause.  For I could wish that I myself were accursed – cut off from Christ – for the sake of my people, my fellow countrymen, who are Israelites.[2]  This has become more personal to me as I reflect on the fundamentalist Christians who are my people by birth.

To them, Paul continued writing about the descendants of Israel, belong the adoption as sons, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises.  To them belong the patriarchs, and from them, by human descent, came the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever!  Amen.[3]  While this is objectively true of Israel I grew up feeling it subjectively, that fundamentalist Christians were the true heirs of it all.  It is not as though the word of God had failed,[4] Paul continued.  What does it mean for the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe[5] when the people for whom it was prepared rejected the Gospel of Christ?

This sounds, even to my ear, like a harsh judgment of the fundamentalist Christians I call my people.  But I am taking the absence of internet chatter regarding the movie “Courageous” as anecdotal evidence.  I only found one comment from a Lutheran theologian criticizing “Courageous” for being too synergistic (not monergistic enough).  I had to look it up, too, so I won’t choose up sides and argue theological jargon.  It makes me feel a little too much like a Gentile living in the futility of [my] thinking.[6]

I will simply say that the character Adam in the movie sought to have his own righteousness derived from his own reading of the Bible as a list of rules he resolved (or, swore an oath) to keep.  Then he became a stumblingblock to others as they followed him in his defection from Christ’s righteousness.  This is clearly part of the dung[7] Paul had rejected of his past life as a Pharisee.  And the silence on the internet is deafening when compared to the outrage over the movie “End of the Spear,” when a gay Christian was hired to portray a missionary and his son.

As I have written before I didn’t see this either as I watched the movie.  We fundamentalist Christians are so accustomed to being tossed back and forth by waves of the latest spiritual fad, and carried about by every wind of teaching by the trickery of people who craftily carry out their deceitful schemes,[8] and so dissatisfied with the lives we lead by faith alone[9] that Adam’s neo-Phariseeism seems completely right and natural to us.  We are they who maintain the outward appearance of religion but…have repudiated its power,[10] the power he exercised in Christ when he raised him from the dead,[11] the righteousness that comes from his Spirit, his love, his joy, his peace, his patience, his kindness, his goodness, his faithfulness, his gentleness, and his self-control.[12]

For not all those who are descended from Israel are truly Israel,[13] Paul began to explain how the word of God had not failed, nor are all the children Abraham’s true descendants; rather “through Isaac will your descendants be counted.”[14]  This seemed like an ad hoc argument to me, since all the descendants of Israel (Jacob) were also descendents of Isaac his father.  But then Paul reiterated the point he had made over and over in Romans, This means it is not the children of the flesh (σαρκὸς, a form of σάρξ)[15] who are the children of God; rather, the children of promise (ἐπαγγελίας, a form of ἐπαγγελία)[16] are counted (λογίζεται, a form of λογίζομαι)[17] as descendants.[18]  This is the same distinction Paul made between those born only of the flesh and those born of the flesh and of the Spirit,[19] and those who live according to the flesh and those who live according the Spirit.[20]

And look, I am sending you what my Father promised[21] (ἐπαγγελίαν, another form of ἐπαγγελία), the resurrected Jesus told the children of promise (all descended from Israel) just before He was taken up into heaven.[22]  While [Jesus] was with them, Luke reiterated in Acts, he declared, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait there for what my Father promised (ἐπαγγελίαν, another form of ἐπαγγελία), which you heard about from me.  For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”[23]  This Jesus God raised up, and we are all witnesses of it, Peter declared in his first sermon on Pentecost.  So then, exalted to the right hand of God, and having received the promise (ἐπαγγελίαν, another form of ἐπαγγελία) of the Holy Spirit from the Father, he has poured out what you both see and hear.[24]

For this is what the promise (ἐπαγγελίας, a form of ἐπαγγελία) declared: Paul continued.  “About a year from now I will return and Sarah will have a son.”[25]  Not only that, but when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our ancestor Isaac – even before they were born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose in election would stand, not by works but by his calling) – it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger,” just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”[26]  This kind of talk rubs those born only of the flesh of Adam, those who are content with their own works, the wrong way.  Paul knew that.

What shall we say then? Paul continued.  Is there injustice with God?[27]  In other words, by what right did God distinguish between Esau and Jacob before they were born or had done anything good or bad?  Too often, I have missed the point here, rationalizing that God knew what Esau and Jacob would do before they were born.  But Paul said, Absolutely not!  For he says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”[28]  Even as He gave Moses the law that defined sin, God reserved for Himself the right to have mercy and compassion on any He chose to have mercy and compassion.  So then, Paul concluded, it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy.[29]

For the scripture says to Pharaoh: Paul continued to make his point doubly strong and doubly clear by declaring its inverse.  “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may demonstrate my power in you, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.”  So then, God has mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy, and he hardens whom he chooses to harden.[30]  Again, such talk infuriates one depending on his own works for glory, honor and salvation.  You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault?  For who has ever resisted his will?”[31]  But Paul didn’t back down (Romans 9:20-29 NET).

But who indeed are you – a mere human being – to talk back to God?  Does what is molded say to the molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special use and another for ordinary use?  But what if God, willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath prepared for destruction?  And what if he is willing to make known the wealth of his glory on the objects of mercy that he has prepared beforehand for glory – even us, whom he has called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?  As he also says in Hosea: “I will call those who were not my people, ‘My people,’ and I will call her who was unloved, ‘My beloved.’”  “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”  And Isaiah cries out on behalf of Israel, “Though the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved, for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth completely and quickly.”  Just as Isaiah predicted, “If the Lord of armies had not left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have resembled Gomorrah.”

Now if one reads the passage above, and suspects that he or she has been hardened by God into an object of wrath, and begins to fear rather than to mock, take heart.  You have begun to hear the word of the Lord.  He is calling you.  And the righteous prayer that justifies is near you, on your lips.  God, be merciful to me, sinner that I am![32]

[1] Romans 9:1, 2 (NET)

[2] Romans 9:3, 4a (NET) Table

[3] Romans 9:4b, 5 (NET)

[4] Romans 9:6a (NET)

[5] Romans 3:22 (NET)

[8] Ephesians 4:14 (NET)

[9] James 2:14-26 (NET)

[10] 2 Timothy 3:5 (NET)

[11] Ephesians 1:20 (NET)

[12] Galatians 5:22, 23 (NET)

[13] Romans 9:6b (NET)

[14] Romans 9:7 (NET)

[18] Romans 9:8 (NET)

[21] Luke 24:49a (NET) Table

[22] Luke 24:51 (NET)

[23] Acts 1:4, 5 (NET)

[24] Acts 2:32, 33 (NET) Table

[26] Romans 9:9-13 (NET)

[27] Romans 9:14a (NET)

[28] Romans 9:14b, 15 (NET)

[29] Romans 9:16 (NET)

[30] Romans 9:17, 18 (NET)

[31] Romans 9:19 (NET)

[32] Luke 18:13, 14 (NET); Religious and Righteous Prayer

Jesus’ Artifacts, Part 7

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I’m not saying one word against the truth of the Bible, even its universal absolute truth.  Believers, however, rarely argue among themselves that the Bible in all its context is the universal absolute truth.  The arguments are over someone’s understanding of some part of the Bible, in other words we argue over sermons.  I don’t even intend to argue against the absolute truth of a sermon prepared and delivered as the Lord intended for a particular congregation that has produced actual obedient results.  I am simply saying that it is not necessarily universally applicable to every other congregation on the planet any more than the absolutely correct protein for, say, a liver cell is necessarily (for that reason alone) the absolutely correct protein for eyes, skin, teeth or lungs.  So I am using my current knowledge of the DNA-RNA-protein complex as an analogy to demonstrate how even absolute truth might not be universally applicable and might appear to be completely contradictory when that universality is tacitly assumed.

So how true is this analogy?  Or, another way of saying essentially the same thing is, How binding should  this analogy be in your thoughts and actions?  Guess what?  For you, it is only as true and binding as you believe it to be.  In this sense faith (and its consequent commitments) is a protection against wild swings of trajectory or action.  So we are no longer to be children, tossed back and forth by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching by the trickery of people who craftily carry out their deceitful schemes,1 is how Paul put it.

I am working not only with my acknowledged understanding of the Bible but with my understanding of others’ understanding of microscopic physical phenomena.  That is at least two, probably three, times removed from the simple goodness of “God said it; I believe it; that settles it.”  No matter what your current belief about the validity of my analogy is, it is likely to change.  Human knowledge of the DNA-RNA-protein complex will undoubtedly change.  Our current knowledge is the first knowledge of a rather small piece of the whole genome.  As we learn more about the rest it may reinforce and exalt our current understanding, or it may demonstrate that what we now know is relatively insignificant or even fundamentally flawed.

But for me, having gone through the process, I’m going to stand for the time being by what I have learned.  Perhaps the most obvious stance I am taking is that this is not called PREACHERS DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT THE BIBLE, it is called WHAT KIND OF CARPENTER IS JESUS.

Well, have I learned anything about that?

I’ve already mentioned that I recognized Jesus as a cleverer programmer than I am.  (And perhaps now is as good a time as any to acknowledge that any of my inferences will be about Jesus as a craftsman in general rather than a carpenter specifically.)  I am so taken with the DNA-RNA-protein complex I would love to wax poetic in my praise of his excellent craftsmanship.  The only thing that stops me from doing that here is the recognition that it is faith that allows me to see things that way.  James Watson, for instance, looked at the same DNA-RNA-protein complex and did not conclude that it is “absolutely the best and most efficient way”2 to do things.  “‘Why does the information in DNA need to go through an RNA intermediate before it can be translated into a protein?”3 he asked.

Frankly, I’m not wise enough to criticize the Lord’s creation like this.  All I know of DNA, RNA and proteins comes from James Watson and a few others like him.  So I am compelled to fall back on my one little skill, that philosophical bent of my mind.

Watson pointed out that DNA can store information but can’t catalyze chemical reactions.  Proteins catalyze chemical reactions but can’t store information.  DNA and proteins are each dependent on the existence of the other.  RNA on the other hand “can store and replicate genetic information” and “can catalyze critical chemical reactions.”  So Francis Crick imagined an RNA world that pre-existed the DNA-RNA-protein complex understood presently.  RNA persists today as a kind of piecemeal vestige of that evolutionary history, according to Watson.  For Watson, apparently, a DNA-protein complex would be more efficient than the DNA-RNA-protein complex.  An RNA-protein complex would be out of the question because RNA is not a very stable molecule.  DNA is a definite improvement for long-term information storage.  Why proteins came into the picture is not entirely clear, except that the only chemical reaction Watson mentioned that RNA catalyzes is the bonding of the amino acids that make the chains that fold into proteins.  But remember, DNA is not able to catalyze these chemical bonds.

Even after Watson’s explanation I was left scratching my head and still thinking that the DNA-RNA-protein complex sounded like the best thing for the job at hand.  You see, James Watson and I have different agendas.  If the DNA-RNA-protein complex proves to be the irreducible level of complexity necessary for the existence of life, I’m unconcerned.  God is smart enough to handle that level of complexity from the very beginning.  Watson’s faith in the theory of evolution, on the other hand, would be called into question.  This is an awful lot to ask of chance-directed processes.  So in my opinion it is Watson’s faith that prompts him to question the efficiency of the DNA-RNA-protein complex while my faith prompts me to praise Jesus.

So while engaging in poetic praise of Jesus’ craftsmanship is a good and necessary thing for me to do as a matter of worship, here I’ll limit myself to a simple observation.  What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit,4 Jesus told Nicodemus.  We have known for nearly two thousand years that this life “born of the Spirit” had some relationship to the Bible.  We’ve argued over the details of that relationship for most of that time, but generally agree to some manner of relationship.  It is interesting to me at this late date to find an information storage and retrieval system like the DNA-RNA-protein complex in some relationship to life “born of the flesh.”

I didn’t create the DNA-RNA-protein complex out of my imagination.  In fact, I learned about it from people who might reasonably be called hostile witnesses.  Yet even in the descriptions of hostile witnesses I can recognize enough of the hallmarks of a particular individual’s craftsmanship—in both the Bible-Preacher-obedient-congregation complex’s relationship to life born of the Spirit and the DNA-RNA-protein complex’s relationship to life born of the flesh—to be willing to modify my views about the former by reference to the latter.

What kind of carpenter is Jesus?  He is the kind of craftsman whose handiwork displays the individually recognizable traits of his craftsmanship.  In other words, whatever those distinguishing features are that make it possible to recognize a favorite composer’s music, or a favorite artist’s paintings, or a favorite architect’s buildings, those features are also evident in the artifacts of Jesus’ creation—the DNA-RNA-protein complex and the Bible-Preacher-obedient-congregation complex, life born of the flesh and life born of the Spirit respectively.

1 Ephesians 4:14 (NET)

2 DNA: The Secret of Life, James D. Watson with Andrew Berry, Copyright 2003 by DNA Show LLC, published by Knopf, a Borzoi Book, August 2004, pg. 85

3 Ibid, pg. 83

4 John 3:6 (NET)