Romans, Part 80

Posted on July 14, 2016 by admin

Perhaps every old human (παλαιὸν ἄνθρωπον, translated old man) should come with this warning label, but love says: Now receive the one who is weak in the faith, and do not have disputes over differing opinions.^[1] Paul continued his discussion of love with a then current example (Romans 14:2, 3a NET):

One person believes in eating everything, but the weak (ἀσθενῶν, a form of ἀσθενέω) person eats only vegetables. The one who eats everything must not despise (ἐξουθενείτω, a form of ἐξουθενέω) the one who does not…

Luke introduced Jesus’ parable contrasting religious and righteous prayer this way: Jesus also told this parable to some who were confident that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else.^[2] The Greek word translated looked down is ἐξουθενοῦντας (another form of ἐξουθενέω) like ἐξουθενείτω, translated despise in Romans 14:3. Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, replied, “Rulers of the people and elders^[3]….This Jesus is the stone that was rejected (ἐξουθενηθεὶς, another form of ἐξουθενέω) by you, the builders, that has become the cornerstone.”^[4] Paul wrote believers in Corinth (1 Corinthians 1:26-31 NET Table):

Think about the circumstances of your call, brothers and sisters. Not many were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were born to a privileged position. But God chose what the world thinks foolish to shame the wise, and God chose what the world thinks weak (ἀσθενῆ, a form of ἀσθενής) to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised (ἐξουθενημένα, another form of ἐξουθενέω) in the world, what is regarded as nothing, to set aside what is regarded as something, so that no one can boast in his presence. He is the reason you have a relationship with Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Love doesn’t despise the faith-weak the way the world despises all believers. And love doesn’t judge those who do not adhere to the rules the faith-weak live by. Paul continued (Romans 14:3b NET):

…and the one who abstains must not judge (κρινέτω, a form of κρίνω) the one who eats everything, for God has accepted (προσελάβετο, a form of προσλαμβάνω) him.

Therefore do not let anyone judge (κρινέτω, a form of κρίνω) you with respect to food or drink, Paul wrote believers in Colossae, or in the matter of a feast, new moon, or Sabbath days – these are only the shadow of the things to come, but the reality is Christ!^[5] Yet of love Paul wrote (1 Corinthians 8):

With regard to food sacrificed to idols, we know that “we all have knowledge.” Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. If someone thinks he knows something, he does not yet know to the degree that he needs to know. But if someone loves God, he is known by God.

With regard then to eating food sacrificed to idols, we know that “an idol in this world is nothing,” and that “there is no God but one.” If after all there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we live, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we live.

But this knowledge is not shared by all. And some, by being accustomed to idols in former times, eat this food as an idol sacrifice, and their conscience, because it is weak (ἀσθενὴς, another form of ἀσθενής), is defiled. Now food will not bring us close to God. We are no worse if we do not eat and no better if we do. But be careful that this liberty of yours does not become a hindrance to the weak (ἀσθενέσιν, another form of ἀσθενής). For if someone weak (ἀσθενοῦς, another form of ἀσθενής) sees you who possess knowledge dining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience be “strengthened” to eat food offered to idols? So by your knowledge the weak (ἀσθενῶν, a form of ἀσθενέω) brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed. If you sin against your brothers or sisters in this way and wound their weak (ἀσθενοῦσαν, another form of ἀσθενέω) conscience, you sin against Christ. For this reason, if food causes my brother or sister to sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I may not cause one of them to sin.

Paul continued for believers in Rome (Romans 14:4a NET):

Who are you to pass judgment (κρίνων, another form of κρίνω) on another’s servant? Before his own master he stands or falls.

Jesus said, there is One who seeks and judges^[6] (ἔστιν ὁ ζητῶν καὶ κρίνων). I quoted the NAS because the NET translation reads, There is one who demands it, and he also judges. This leaves me with the impression that Jesus told the Ἰουδαῖοι (Judeans, NET; Jews, NAS) that his Father demanded glory for Jesus from them and would judge them for failing to deliver it. The latter is simply false, the Father does not judge (κρίνει, another form of κρίνω) anyone, but has assigned all judgment (κρίσιν, a form of κρίσις) to the Son…^[7] What the Father seeks (ζητῶν, a form of ζητέω) was specified earlier in John’s Gospel: But a time is coming – and now is here – when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks (ζητεῖ, another form of ζητέω) such people to be his worshipers.^[8]

I think Jesus meant what He said: I am not trying to get (ζητῶ, another form of ζητέω) praise (δόξαν, a form of δόξα) for myself.^[9] The person who speaks on his own authority desires (ζητεῖ, a form of ζητέω) to receive honor (δόξαν, a form of δόξα) for himself; the one who desires (ζητῶν, a form of ζητέω) the honor (δόξαν, a form of δόξα) of the one who sent him is a man of integrity (ἀληθής), and there is no unrighteousness in him.^[10] Clearly, the translators of the NET thought of δόξαν as honor, also translated praise, something originating with people. The Father has assigned all judgment to the Son, so that all people will honor (τιμῶσι, a form of τιμάω) the Son just as they honor (τιμῶσι, a form of τιμάω) the Father.^[11]

In that light then since the Father seeks true worshipers who worship…in spirit and truth, then He might also seek honor from those worshippers for his Son. The one who does not honor (τιμῶν, another form of τιμάω) the Son does not honor (τιμᾷ, another form of τιμάω) the Father who sent him.^[12] And granted, Jesus prefaced his remarks with, I honor (τιμῶ, another form of τιμάω) my Father – and yet you dishonor (ἀτιμάζετε, a form of ἀτιμάζω) me.^[13] But I’m still not convinced that made δόξαν a synonym for τιμάω.

I think Jesus meant glory from or of God, his Father. “If I glorify (δοξάσω, a form of δοξάζω) myself, my glory (δόξα) is worthless. The one who glorifies (δοξάζων, another form of δοξάζω) me is my Father, about whom you people say, ‘He is our God.’”^[14] I glorified (ἐδόξασα, another form of δοξάζω) you on earth, Jesus prayed to his Father, by completing the work you gave me to do.^[15] And I think Jesus was focused on that work, both to seek the Father’s true worshiper’s—For whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise^[16]—and to do it in a way that satisfied the Father’s judgment (of Him as opposed to others). I think Jesus expressed a relationship to his Father very similar to the relationship Paul expressed to Jesus (1 Corinthians 4:3, 4 NET):

So for me, it is a minor matter that I am judged (ἀνακριθῶ, a form of ἀνακρίνω) by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge (ἀνακρίνω) myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not acquitted because of this. The one who judges (ἀνακρίνων) me is the Lord.

And that relationship answers why He was so impressed with the faith of the centurion: “just say the word and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I say to this one, ‘Go’ and he goes, and to another ‘Come’ and he comes, and to my slave ‘Do this’ and he does it.”^[17] The servant and the slave honored the centurion but Caesar glorified him.

I consider when Jesus sought his own glory and what He did with it: “Father, the time has come. Glorify (δόξασον, another form of δοξάζω) your Son, so that your Son may glorify (δοξάσῃ, another form of δοξάζω) you…^[18] Now, Father, glorify (δόξασον, another form of δοξάζω) Me together with Yourself, with the glory (δόξῃ, another form of δόξα) which I had with You before the world was.”^[19] Then He took that glory and nailed it naked, bruised and bleeding to a cross; Jesus said (John 10:17, 18; Matthew 26:53, 54 NET):

This is why the Father loves me – because I lay down my life, so that I may take it back again. No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down of my own free will. I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to take it back again. This commandment I received from my Father.

Or do you think that I cannot call on my Father, and that he would send me more than twelve legions of angels right now? [Table] How then would the scriptures that say it must happen this way be fulfilled?

The prophet Isaiah described it this way (Isaiah 53 NET):

Who would have believed what we just heard? When was the Lord’s (y^ehôvâh, יהוה) power revealed through him?

He sprouted up like a twig before God, like a root out of parched soil; he had no stately form or majesty that might catch our attention, no special appearance that we should want to follow him.

He was despised and rejected by people, one who experienced pain and was acquainted with illness; people hid their faces from him; he was despised, and we considered him insignificant.

But he lifted up our illnesses, he carried our pain; even though we thought he was being punished, attacked by God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהים), and afflicted for something he had done.

He was wounded because of our rebellious deeds, crushed because of our sins; he endured punishment that made us well; because of his wounds we have been healed.

All of us had wandered off like sheep; each of us had strayed off on his own path, but the Lord (y^ehôvâh, ויהוה) caused the sin of all of us to attack him.

He was treated harshly and afflicted, but he did not even open his mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughtering block, like a sheep silent before her shearers, he did not even open his mouth.

He was led away after an unjust trial – but who even cared? Indeed, he was cut off from the land of the living; because of the rebellion of his own people he was wounded.

They intended to bury him with criminals, but he ended up in a rich man’s tomb, because he had committed no violent deeds, nor had he spoken deceitfully.

Though the Lord (y^ehôvâh, ויהוה) desired to crush him and make him ill, once restitution is made, he will see descendants and enjoy long life, and the Lord’s (y^ehôvâh, יהוה) purpose will be accomplished through him.

Having suffered, he will reflect on his work, he will be satisfied when he understands what he has done.

“My servant will acquit many, for he carried their sins. So I will assign him a portion with the multitudes, he will divide the spoils of victory with the powerful, because he willingly submitted to death and was numbered with the rebels, when he lifted up the sin of many and intervened on behalf of the rebels.”

Paul described it this way for believers in Rome, For God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened (ἠσθένει, another form of ἀσθενέω) through the flesh. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.^[20] And he described it this way for believers in Corinth: God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.^[21]

Who are you to pass judgment on another’s servant? Paul wrote. Before his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.^[22] Though it may seem at first that this latter applies only to the less faith-weak, I don’t think that is the case. I as a believer stand not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness – a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ’s faithfulness.^[23] And this confidence in Christ’s faithfulness may be the ultimate meaning of thinking of one another.

Romans, Part 81

Back to Who Am I? Part 4

^[1] Romans 14:1 (NET)

^[2] Luke 18:9 (NET)

^[3] Acts 4:8 (NET)

^[4] Acts 4:11 (NET)

^[5] Colossians 2:16, 17 (NET)

^[6] John 8:50b (NAS)

^[7] John 5:22 (NET)

^[8] John 4:23 (NET)

^[9] John 8:50a (NET)

^[10] John 7:18 (NET)

^[11] John 5:22b, 23a (NET)

^[12] John 5:23b (NET)

^[13] John 8:49b (NET)

^[14] John 8:54 (NET)

^[15] John 17:4 (NET)

^[16] John 5:19b (NET)

^[17] Matthew 8:8b, 9 (NET) Table

^[18] John 17:1b (NET)

^[19] John 17:5 (NAS)

^[20] Romans 8:3, 4 (NET)

^[21] 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NET)

^[22] Romans 14:4 (NET) Table

^[23] Philippians 3:9 (NET)

Jesus’ Artifacts, Part 4

Posted on May 30, 2012 by admin

Now to get back to where I started: How does all this information about the DNA-RNA-protein complex expand the context of my biblical understanding and prohibit me from calling this narrative PREACHERS DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT THE BIBLE?

When a child is conceived, the beginning is one fertilized cell. That cell divides and becomes two, then four, then eight, and sixteen and so on. But there is no body there; all the cells are identical. At some point in this process of division, differentiation begins. Some cells become blood inside blood vessels, or muscle, or bone. Organs begin to form, like eyes or a liver. The differences in the cells in these different organs or structures are accounted for by the different proteins, which catalyze, or facilitate, different chemical reactions which do different things and make the cells, well, different.

With my admittedly small understanding of the DNA-RNA-protein complex it is exciting to consider that different proteins are produced by different sections of the DNA chain unzipping, being transcribed and translated into protein. Which section of DNA unzips? Well, part of the answer is related to which sections are free to unzip and which are held fast by a repressor molecule. Suddenly I can speculate—and it is still a guess, but an educated guess—that it is “possible to think of development—the process of growth from a single fertilized egg into a staggeringly complex adult human—as an enormous exercise in gene-switching: as tissues arise through development, so whole suites of genes must be switched on and off.”¹ And, I will add, at the right place or location in the forming body, and at the right time, or in the correct sequence.

Now, since I believe the DNA-RNA-protein complex is an artifact of Jesus’ creation, everything I just discovered and speculated on becomes an analogy for me about another body, the body of Christ. For just as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body² – though many – are one body, so too is Christ.³ The preacher, not unlike messenger RNA, seeks out a quiet inner sanctuary, like the nucleus of a cell, where he can spend time alone with a passage from the Bible, like a section of DNA. His sermon is not an exact copy of the Bible, but more like a mirror image reflecting the Bible and the times and circumstances of his own congregation. He preaches his sermon to the congregation along with an application: “in the light of these things this is what should be done.” Now, unlike the amino acids in the cell, individual members of the congregation have a choice whether or not to heed and act on the preacher’s admonition. Those who act, form the protein, if you will, which catalyzes this particular function of this particular cell of the body of Christ. And the different functions catalyzed by the different sermons are the very things that differentiate the congregations, or cells, from one another.

For in fact the body is not a single member, but many, Paul wrote the Corinthians. If the whole body were an eye, what part would do the hearing? If the whole were an ear, what part would exercise the sense of smell? But as a matter of fact, God has placed each of the members in the body just as he decided. If they were all the same member, where would the body be?⁴ Remember that mass of identical, undifferentiated, cells we all start out as?

So the laundry list of Solomon’s wealth and power might unzip, as it were, for a particular preacher, who produces a timely sermon that touches the hearts of certain members of a specific congregation, who in turn catalyze a specific function in a specific cell of the body of Christ. All the while, it is completely possible that another preacher studying the laundry list of Solomon’s wealth and power and God’s promise to bless Solomon with the wisdom he asked for and the wealth he did not ask for might produce an entirely different sermon that results in the accomplishment of yet another function in another cell of the body of Christ. Still another preacher may study the laundry list of Solomon’s wealth and power and compare it to the list of things God forbade Israel’s kings, and produce an entirely different sermon with entirely different results.

Though it is highly unlikely that any preacher would hold all three passages before his congregation, plus an illustration from the DNA-RNA-protein complex, in the twenty minutes or so allotted to him before Sunday dinner burns, even this has become a meaningful sermon to me.

I will sooner understand where and when to switch-off gene suites in the developing human being than I will grasp even the vaguest outline of the body of Christ, let alone a specific need or function of a specific cell at an appropriate time. My criticism of preachers’ sermons, therefore, whether good or bad, is completely irrelevant, because it is not based on any knowledge of the needs and functions of any specific cell of the body of Christ, but on the preachers’ apparent affirmation or contradiction of the current state of my understanding of the Bible. And though the process through which I arrive at my abstract truth is very vibrant and alive to me, any written results are little better than an autopsy report. Future like-minded investigators may be able to study my autopsy report to point out where I went wrong. But neither they nor I will help a single preacher find a single timely sermon by writing autopsy reports or post-mortems on autopsy reports.

So then, application one of my would-be sermon is something like: “Hey, Dan! Lay off the preachers! Who are you to pass judgment on another’s servant? Paul wrote the Romans rhetorically. The explicit context was in reference to relations between the strong and weak in faith, that they should not despise or judge each other. Before his own master he stands or falls, Paul continued. And he will stand, for the Lord⁵ is⁶ able⁷ to make him stand.⁸ Would I be stretching the context too far to offer this same courtesy to priests, pastors, preachers and Bible teachers all over the world?

Addendum: January 17, 2019
Tables comparing 1 Corinthians 12:12 and Romans 14:4 in the NET and KJV follow.

1 Corinthians 12:12 (NET)	1 Corinthians 12:12 (KJV)
For just as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body – though many – are one body, so too is Christ.	For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
Καθάπερ γὰρ τὸ σῶμα ἕν ἐστιν καὶ μέλη πολλὰ ἔχει, πάντα δὲ τὰ μέλη τοῦ σώματος πολλὰ ὄντα ἕν ἐστιν σῶμα, οὕτως καὶ ὁ Χριστός	καθαπερ γαρ το σωμα εν εστιν και μελη εχει πολλα παντα δε τα μελη του σωματος του ενος πολλα οντα εν εστιν σωμα ουτως και ο χριστος	καθαπερ γαρ το σωμα εν εστιν και μελη εχει πολλα παντα δε τα μελη του σωματος του ενος πολλα οντα εν εστιν σωμα ουτως και ο χριστος

Romans 14:4 (NET)	Romans 14:4 (KJV)
Who are you to pass judgment on another’s servant? Before his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.	Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
σὺ τίς εἶ ὁ κρίνων ἀλλότριον οἰκέτην; τῷ ἰδίῳ κυρίῳ στήκει ἢ πίπτει· σταθήσεται δέ, δυνατεῖ γὰρ ὁ κύριος στῆσαι αὐτόν	συ τις ει ο κρινων αλλοτριον οικετην τω ιδιω κυριω στηκει η πιπτει σταθησεται δε δυνατος γαρ εστιν ο θεος στησαι αυτον	συ τις ει ο κρινων αλλοτριον οικετην τω ιδιω κυριω στηκει η πιπτει σταθησεται δε δυνατος γαρ εστιν ο θεος στησαι αυτον