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December 25th, 2021

12/25/2021

This Sunday is the First Sunday after Christmas, and we will continue to look at the epistle texts. This week the text is from Colossians [3:12-17].

We have been looking at how Christianity was ‘spoken against’ in the book of Acts (28:22), and near the beginning of St. Paul’s letter to the church at Colossae, he writes how the gospel has come to them, ‘as also in all the world it is bearing fruit and growing’ (1:6). Christianity is spoken against in many places, but, in stark contrast, it is also bearing fruit and growing ‘in all the world’. It may continue to be spoken against by mankind, but, because of the Lord’s doing, is still bearing fruit and growing.

And it is certainly a great thing to know how the gospel is bearing fruit and growing. But it is also good to know how it is being spoken against. The heresy that is in the church at Colossae has some similarities to the teachings of the Jews.

To get an idea of what St. Paul has to deal with when it comes to the false teaching that is going on at Colossae, it may be helpful to start when he gives his first ‘therefore’. At the beginning of the letter, he lays out the importance of Christ. And the connection that they have to this ‘anointed one’ is important. Note how important Jesus is, especially when compared to the things that people do; those things are not so important.

The following somewhat-literal translation is from 2:6-3:11. You may wish to compare it to a translation that you already have. It is a long text, but it has some great points. And it lists some specific commands that can creep into our lives and overtake the gospel with all its good news about something that was done for you.

This text is also a good ending for this week’s ‘journey’. These are the verses that are before the text for this Sunday. And since that text starts with a ‘therefore’, I thought it would be good to point out what it was there for—but actually the ESV translation has ‘then’.

Therefore, as you received the Christ Jesus, the Lord, walk in him, having been rooted and having been built up in him, and being confirmed in the faith, as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

Look, lest anyone of you will be robbing through the philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world and not according to Christ; because in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are in him, having been filled, who is the head of all rule and authority, in whom also you were circumcised with a circumcision not made by hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, co-buried with him in the baptism, in whom also you were co-raised through the faith of the working of the God, the one raising him from dead; and you, being dead in the transgressions and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he co-enlivened you with him, forgiving us all the transgressions; wiping out against us the handwriting in the dogma which was contrary to us, and has taken it out of the midst, nailing it to the cross; putting off the rulers and the authorities, he exposed them with boldness, triumphing them in it.

Therefore, let not anyone judge you in eating and in drinking or in respect of a feast or new moon or of sabbaths, things which are a shadow of the things coming, but the body is of Christ. Let no one give you judgment against, wishing in [false] humility and worship of the angels, things which he has seen intruding into, being puffed up in vain by the mind of his flesh, and not holding the head, from whom all the body, through the joints and bands, having been supplied and having been joined together, will grow the growth of God.

If you died with Christ from the elements of the world, why as living in the world are you subject to dogma: Do not touch nor taste nor handle, things which are all for corruption in the using, according to the commands and teachings of the men? Things which are a word, indeed having wisdom in self-chosen worship and humility and unsparing of the body, not in any honor for satisfaction of the flesh.

Therefore, if you were co-raised with Christ, seek the things above, where the Christ is at the right of the God, sitting; think the things above, not the things upon the earth. For you died, and your life has been hidden with the Christ in the God; whenever the Christ is manifested, the life of us, then also you yourselves will be manifested with him in glory.

Therefore, put to death the members, the ones upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, bad desire, and the covetousness, which is idolatry, because of these things the wrath of the God is coming upon the sons of disobedience; in which, indeed, you yourselves walked then, when you were living in these things; but now, you yourselves put away also all things, wrath, anger, malice, blasphemy, shameful words, out of your mouth; do not lie to one another, having put off the old man with the practices of him, and having put on the new, the one being renewed in full knowledge according to the image of the One creating him; where there is no Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, freeman, but on the contrary, all things and in all is Christ.

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December 19th, 2021

12/19/2021

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This Sunday is the Fourth (and last) Sunday in Advent. This time the epistle text is Hebrews 10:5-10. And that is a significantly different text from the previous readings.

We are not even sure who wrote this letter to the Hebrews; many believe that Saint Paul also wrote this one. Whoever wrote it meant it to be anonymous. So our focus should be even more on the content rather than the author. The letter has the structure of a ‘word of exhortation’ [see Hebrews 13:22], and it was originally written to the Jews who were followers of Christ. Incidentally, those Jews in Jerusalem are described in Acts as numbering ‘thousands’ or, literally, myriads [see Acts 21:20].

We have been looking at how Christianity was ‘spoken against’ in the book of Acts, and it was certainly spoken against by the Jews at various places in that book. It starts relatively close to the beginning of the book, on the Day of Pentecost, with a relatively jovial accusation. When the Spirit comes down and the followers of Jesus begin to speak in tongues which they did not know, we are told that some people around them mocked them and said that they were filled with ‘sweet wine’ [Acts 2:13; the word ‘sweet’ is basically the word ‘glucose’].

When the followers of Jesus end up in Rome, the accusations that end up are significantly greater. Note in the following quotation spoken by the Jewish people in Rome that St. Paul himself is not accused of anything bad. What they have heard bad things about is that ‘heresy’, that ‘sect’, this Christianity (and this is a somewhat-literal translation):

We ourselves received neither letters about you from Judea, nor anyone of the brothers, arriving, told or spoke anything evil about you. And we think it worthy from you to hear what things you think, for, indeed, concerning this heresy, it is known that everywhere it is spoken against [Acts 28:21-22].

There are many more details about the ‘speaking against’ after what was just spoken (and, again, this is a somewhat-literal translation):

And arranging with him a day, they came to him in the lodging, more, to whom he set forth, solemnly witnessing the kingdom of God, and persuading them the things concerning Jesus from both the law of Moses and the prophets, from morning until evening. And, on the one hand, some were persuaded by the things being said; and, on the other hand, some disbelieved, and being with one another, they disagreed, they were dismissed, Paul, having said one word:

Well the Holy Spirit spoke through Isaiah, the prophet, to your fathers, saying, ‘Go to this people and say: in hearing, you will hear, and not at all understand, and looking, you will look, and not at all see. For the heart of this people was thickened, and with the ears, they heard heavily, and their eyes, they closed; lest at any time they see with the eyes and hear with the ears, and understand with the heart and turn, and I will cure them. Therefore, let it be known to you that to the nations the salvation of God was sent; and they will hear [Acts 28:23-28].

The contrast is interesting. At Pentecost the Jews from around the known world say, ‘We hear them speaking in our tongues the great deeds of God [Acts 2:11].’ When the followers of Jesus finally make it to Rome, St. Paul says at the very end of his ‘one word’ that ‘the salvation of God was sent to the nations, and they will hear’.

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December 11th, 2021

12/11/2021

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This Sunday is the Third Sunday in Advent, and this Sunday’s epistle text is again from Philippians, but this time the text is near the very end of the epistle [4:4-7]. And we will continue to see how Christianity was ‘spoken against’ in the book of Acts [see 28:22], in the European city of Philippi.

Last week Christianity was spoken against in that city in a very subtle way, by a woman who was possessed by a demon [Acts 16:16ff]. The demon had a somewhat positive statement to make, and it seems that since this statement was not followed by a clearer and more significant one, it was eventually dealt with by St. Paul. This week we will look at an act of speaking against Christianity that followed the exorcism.

After the woman in Philippi was healed, the ‘masters’ of that woman realized that they just lost their source of income from the woman’s ‘fortunetelling’ by the demon, and they dragged Paul and Silas into the marketplace before the magistrates. What follows is the accusation (in a somewhat-literal translation), what they said when they spoke against Christianity—although they seem to be speaking against the Jews [Acts 16:20b-21]:

These men are greatly disturbing OUR city, being really Jews, and announce customs which it is not lawful for us to receive, nor to do, being Romans.

There are a couple of things with this translation that might be helpful if noted. Within the Greek language, often the placement of a word within the sentence is not necessary to give its meaning. Because of the endings that are at the end of almost every word, one can emphasize a certain word by its special placement within the sentence.

In the Greek text, the word ‘our’ in the sentence appears sooner than it needs to be and sooner than it usually appears. And so, in the above translation, the word was capitalized, to show the emphasis that comes across in the word order in the original language. And the words that are connected to two words, ‘Jews’ and ‘Romans’, are both from one word in the Greek, and they both have the idea of existence, but they are not the same word, and the first word was translated as ‘being really’ to show a difference between the words. Now both of these points point out that, in this accusation, there is a stark contrast between the Jews and the Romans. [For more details on this second point, see A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Christian Literature, revised and edited by Frederick William Danker; Third Edition, Chicago, Illinois, USA: University of Chicago, 2000; page 1029f.]

Christianity is spoken against in the above situation, and, within this scenario, it is closely related to the Jews. Although the Jewish religion was allowed in the Roman Empire, that does not seem to matter to those who are making this accusation.

This seems to be an accusation with a strong political/cultural focus, and sometimes that happens even today. The problem is essentially that often people are too focused on the ‘here and the now’—in whatever century they are living in.

Sometimes people forget that God has ultimately ruled all the kingdoms of this earth, although not so obviously. Things will become obvious on the Last Day. And that is why Advent is so helpful.

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December 4th, 2021

12/4/2021

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This Sunday is the Second Sunday in Advent. And this Sunday’s epistle text is from Philippians [1:2-11]. Last week we started looking at the epistle readings from a perspective given in the book of Acts, that near the very end of the book, it is said about Christianity (in Acts 28:22) that ‘everywhere it is spoken against’. So last week we looked at how Christianity was spoken against in Thessalonica. And this week we will be looking at how Christianity was spoken against in Philippi.

It should be said, first of all, that Philippi was a significantly different city than the ones that St. Paul and those who were with him were visiting previously (see Acts 16). The significant difference begins with St. Paul receiving a vision of a man calling to him, asking him for help in Macedonia, and this is a part of Europe. They do end up going to Macedonia, and the first city they get to is Philippi.

The city is also described in the text (Acts 16:12) as a ‘first’ city, a leading city, of that part of Macedonia. And at first something positive happens there. And then something happens that is somewhat positive. And then something definitely negative happens.
What follows is a look at the event that is somewhat positive. It could be said that Christianity is SOMEWHAT spoken against in the following text (in a somewhat-literal translation):

And it happened, we, going into the place of prayer, a certain maid, having the spirit of a python [study bibles will typically explain this word], to meet us, who brought much gain to the lords of her, fortunetelling. This one, following after Paul and us, cried out, saying, ‘These men are slaves of the God of the most high, who announce to you a way of salvation.’ And this she did over many days. But Paul, becoming greatly troubled, and turning to the spirit, he said, ‘I charge you, in the name of Jesus Christ, to come out from her.’ And it came out in that hour [Acts 16:16-18].

Much could be said about these verses. Much has been written about these verses. But just a few things will be pointed out here.

Note that this evil spirit was not stopped immediately for what it was saying. Also note that the spirit was not allowed to continue doing for an extremely long time what that spirit was doing. And the reason for the reaction being somewhat in the middle is most likely because of what that spirit was saying. Here it is again: ‘These men are slaves of the God of the most high, who announce to you a way of salvation.’

In a nutshell, at first the statement seems like something good. The ‘most high’ God is obviously in a category of his own; he is not a ‘high’ God or a ‘higher’ God. But after just having to deal with that statement for a while, it becomes obvious that something more and better could be said. It is a good start; but it is only a start.

In fact, a very similar saying to this occurs in the Book of Daniel. And a very similar outcome occurs.

In the Old Testament event of Daniel’s three friends and the fiery furnace, after the three men have been thrown into the fiery furnace and the Most High God has protected them, the king says (in Daniel 3:26; in a somewhat-literal translation), ‘Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, slaves of him who is the God, the Most High; come out, and come here!’ But he does not end the statement there. And these are the words that follow:

At then, the ones coming out, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, from inside of the fire. And ones crowding around, the satraps, the prefects, and the governors and advisers of the royalty, ones seeing to these men that the fire harmed them not to their body, and the hair of their head was not singed, and the robes of them were not scorched, and the smell of fire was not on them. Nebuchadnezzar, answering and saying, ‘Being praised, their God, of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who sent his angel and rescued to his slaves, who trusted in him, and the command of the king they defied, and they gave up their body that not they would serve, and not they would worship to any god except to their God. And from me a decree is issued that all people of the nation and language who says anything against their God, of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, will be cut into pieces, and his house will be turned into a pile of rubble, for all of that, there is no other god who is able to save like this (Daniel 3:26-29; a somewhat-literal translation).’

The true God is certainly the Most High God. Other gods are literally nothing. But more could be said than that he is simply the most high or the highest. And more IS said. His way of salvation is certainly unique. As Nebuchadnezzar said, ‘…there is no other god who is able to save like this.’ And that certainly remains true when it comes to Jesus.

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