Timothy & Countering The Culture (part 8)

Continuing, Paul grandly celebrates this patronage that he enjoys, writing “our Lord’s grace was abundant, bringing faith and love in Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 1:14).  Creating something of an inscription minus the monument or the building (though it has no real bearing on the point that is being made, one can think about Peter’s insistence, as he operates within the same cultural milieu as Paul, that the members of the body of Christ are “living stones… built up as a spiritual house” on which the Gospel is inscribed in both word and deed) , he goes on to write “This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance: ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’---and I am the worst of them!”  (1:15) 

Overflowing with praises, Paul continues with “But here is why I was treated with mercy: so that in me as the worst, Christ Jesus could demonstrate His utmost patience, as an example for those who are going to believe in Him for eternal life” (1:16).  Concluding the heralding of his patron and utilizing the words that were reserved for the Caesar (and thus standing counter to the culture): “Now to the eternal King, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever!  Amen” (1:17).  

The brief mention of Ephesians previously, and the Jew/Gentile issues that were present in that community, serves as a reminder that Timothy was himself in Ephesus.  Therefore, church-related issues with which Paul specifically deals in his personal letter to Timothy are the same types of church-related issues with which Paul will deal in the letter to the Ephesians.  Strangely enough, the first letter to Timothy and the letter to Ephesus share a stark similarity that sets them apart from Paul’s other writings, as these two letters contain obvious and easily recognizable odes from a client to a patron as part of their introductions.  Combined (and whether or not the two letters are Pauline, deutero-Pauline, or pseudo-Pauline---it matters not in this case), this certainly says something about the culture of Ephesus, and that culture (the knowledge of which is bolstered by the record of Acts) stands as a backdrop to the way one must hear the patron-directed praise. 

Though other church letters contain very short doxologies from Paul in their introductions, Ephesians exceeds them all, and one can Paul’s words with everything that has been said to this point in this study firmly in mind (with the patron-client relationship and counter-cultural/imperial concerns serving to enlighten this reading in a new and significant way, in the midst of heavy doctrinal, covenant-with-Israel-dependent, and Scripturally-derived thematic elements): “Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ.  For He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we may be holy and unblemished in His sight in love.  He did this by predestining us to adoption as his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure of His will---to the praise of the glory of His grace that He has freely bestowed on us in His dearly loved Son.  In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace that He lavished on us in all wisdom and insight.  He did this when He revealed to us the secret of His will, according to His good pleasure that He set forth in Christ, toward the administration of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ---the things in heaven and the things on earth.” 

Paul continues: “In Christ we too have been claimed as God’s own possession, since we were predestined according to the one purpose of Him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of His will so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, would be to the praise of His glory… I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you spiritual wisdom and revelation in your growing knowledge of Him---since the eyes of your heart have been enlightened---so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what is the wealth of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the incomparable greatness of His power toward us who believe, as displayed in the exercise of His immense strength.  This power He exercised in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms far above every rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.  And God put all things under Christ’s feet and He gave Him to the church as head over all things.  Now the church is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (1:3-12,17-23). 

Love On John's Terms (part 2)

Working backwards then, when coming to the words of Jesus there is an almost automatic presumption that what Jesus means when He commands His disciples to love one another accords neatly with pre-constructed opinions about the nature of love.  However, it behooves the reader to approach these words of Jesus apart from his or her own terms.  These words of Jesus are not to be approached based upon what is believed to be Jesus’ terms (defined self-referentially through subjective ideas concerning love), as outlined by the portraits painted by the authors of the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), or by the path laid out by New Testament authors such as Paul, Peter, James, Jude, the author of the letter to the Hebrews, or John the Revelator.  Rather, one must approach these words of Jesus and attempt to understand their full import according to the terms that are presented by the author of this particular Gospel. 

Thus, it is necessary to hear the witness of the Johannine community concerning love, doing so through the Gospel and the Epistles that bear the same name.  Jesus’ words must be heard from within the narrative construct and presentation of Jesus that is offered by this author as He seeks to present a specific picture of Jesus.  Love must be allowed to be defined on John’s terms.  When this is done, the reader is them positioned as a disciple that is ready to adequately respond to Jesus’ command to love one another and so be identified as a member of the people who have thrown their lot in with Him.   

If one is going to attempt to come to grips with the concept of Christian love, then the New Testament’s Johannine compilation is a reasonable place to turn.  If one is looking to ascertain the conception of love, and to do so on the terms of a particular New Testament author, while considering the topic as vital to Christian living, then the collection of “John” writings should be the preferred destination. 

In the Gospel of John, a term that is translated as “love” is employed twenty times.  “Loved” appears twenty-one times.  Adding the epistles of John, one finds “love” used an additional twenty-eight times (twenty-three for 1 John, three in 2 John, and two in 3 John).  The epistles employ “loved” three times, with all three appearances in the first letter of John.  In total, “love” or “loved” is employed a total of seventy-two times in the Johannine corpus.  This is unsurprising, as the author refers to himself in terms of love.  He is known self-referentially as the “disciple whom Jesus loved.”

By way of comparison, a quick glance through the synoptic Gospels provides a total of twenty-five variations on “love” (love-22, loved-2, loving-1).  Surprisingly, while it details the activities of the early church, the Acts of the Apostles contains no mentions of “love” or any of its variations.  The New Testament letters however, excluding those of John, are well-represented in this area of “love”.  Romans, the letters to Corinth, and the letter to the Ephesians all reach into the double digits in their employment of the term. 

In the sixteen chapters of Romans, “love” or “loved” appears on fifteen occasions (twelve and three respectively).  The first Corinthian letter uses love thirteen times (six times in the “love chapter”).  The second letter to the Corinthian church scores twelve uses of “love” and “loved” (eleven and one).  The relatively short letter to Ephesus (though, because it does not contain the types of specifics to be found in other Pauline letters, and because it doesn’t seem to deal with any particular vexing issues or pressing matters within a particular church, as it may have originally been a circular letter designed to be shared by a number of churches) clocks in with nineteen mentions of “love” or “loved” (fourteen and five) within its scant six chapters. 

Regarded As Nothing (part 2 of 2)

There were those in the synagogue in Ephesus who, as usual, rejected Paul’s preaching of “the Way” (19:9), so eventually Paul left the synagogue and took up his teaching “every day in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.  This went on for two years, so that all who lived in the province of Asia, both Jews and Greeks, heard the Word of the Lord” (19:9b-10).  Again, this Word of the Lord, as can be construed from the record of Paul’s preaching (as provided by Acts) and from his writing, would have been that Jesus is Lord.  That was the message of the Gospel, and that alone, as it seems according to Paul’s thinking, represents the message that would grow in power and prevail.  If one desires consistency with the text of the New Testament, there would need to be some level of agreement that there is no other message that could be described in such a way.    

Due to the apparent effectiveness of the preaching of the message of the Gospel, as it grew in power and prevailed, the previously mentioned Demetrius’ business was most likely suffering.  So he called a meeting of the craftsmen, “along with the workmen in similar trades, and said, ‘Men, you know that our prosperity comes from this business.  And you see and hear that this Paul has persuaded and turned away a large crowd, not only in Ephesus but in practically all of the province of Asia, by saying that gods made by hands are not gods at all” (19:25b-26).  This is where one comes upon his statement that “There is danger not only that this business of ours will come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be regarded as nothing” (19:27a).  He concludes his statement with “and she whom all the province of Asia and the world worship will suffer the loss of her greatness” (19:27b).

In that day, this temple, which was considered to be one of the wonders of the ancient world, had been in place for over five-hundred years.  As a significant place of worship, it drew thousands of pilgrims from all over the world.  It seems that the devotees of Artemis, as the goddess of Ephesus (whose temple was the source of much wealth and influence), could quickly fill a fifty-thousand seat theater, and when prodded, gladly shout “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” (19:34b) for two solid hours.  Nevertheless, the tireless preaching of the Gospel, of the foolish and confounding message of a crucified man that had been raised from the dead by the Creator God of Israel, was believed to be a threat to the temple and its goddess, with that threat thought to be able to reach the point that both would be “regarded as nothing,” and that the world would suffer the loss of her (Artemis) greatness. 

Surely, that speaks directly to the inherent, transformative, and world-shaping power of the preaching of the message of Jesus.  There is no message besides the message of Jesus Christ crucified and raised that has such power.  It is this message that goes forth by the Holy Spirit and transforms hearts and minds.  It is the message that Paul preached.  It was the message that Jesus’ disciples took into the world.  It is the message, supreme above anything else that could ever be preached or taught, that the devotees of the Jesus cult should be carrying into this world on a daily basis.  All other messages are secondary, and if the secondary message is not rooted in the Gospel proclamation (Jesus is Lord of all) and appended with the message of the cross and an empty tomb, then, at least according to the example of the Apostle, it may be considered to be rather frivolous.        

Regarded As Nothing (part 1 of 2)

There is danger not only that this business of ours will come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be regarded as nothing – Acts 19:27a  (NET)

The words above are reported to have been spoken by a man named Demetrius.  He lived and worked in the city of Ephesus.  According to Acts, his trade was that of “a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis” (19:24b).  With the way that his story is presented, it appears to be the case that Demetrius was quite the influential man in the city of Ephesus, as it was his instigating words that would nearly bring the whole of the city (using hyperbole) to the point of riot.  This influence, if it was indeed what it appears to be, was gained from the fact that he “brought a great deal of business to the craftsmen” (19:24c).  While also being a man of influence, he was also a man of awareness.  Like any good businessman, he kept abreast of current events that could have an effect on his business, whether for good or for ill.  Quite recently, as the story goes, an event had occurred in Ephesus that was of considerable concern to Demetrius.

Backing up a bit in the nineteenth chapter of Acts, one discovers the report that “God was performing extraordinary miracles by Paul’s hands, so that even when handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his body were brought to the sick, their diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them” (19:11-12).  These things are taking place in Ephesus.  As would be imagined, such events would make quite the impression on those that were their witnesses. 

Apparently, these things that were taking place at the hands of the apostle Paul also served as something of an inspiration, as Luke reports that “some itinerant Jewish exorcists tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were possessed by evil spirits, saying, ‘I sternly warn you by Jesus Whom Paul preaches’.” (19:13)  The reader can go on to learn, in fact, that it was seven brothers that were doing this very thing.  Fascinatingly, “the evil spirit replied to them, ‘I know about Jesus and I am acquainted with Paul, but who are you?’  Then the man who was possessed by the evil spirit jumped on them and beat them all into submission.  He prevailed against them so that they fled from that house naked and wounded” (19:16). 

What happened following this rather interesting event?  Again, not surprisingly, “This became known to all who lived in Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks; fear came over them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was praised” (19:17).  Though the aspiring exorcists had failed in their invocation of the name of Jesus in order to cast out the evil spirit, the subsequent occurrences of their being overpowered still, oddly, seeing as how it was the voice of the evil spirit itself, had the result of bringing praise to Jesus.  This provoked a response on the part of the people which enables one to go on to find that “the Word of the Lord continued to grow in power and to prevail” (19:20b).  Naturally, this leads to the question, which must be answered according to the context of the narrative of Acts and Paul’s over-arching message, was what “Word of the Lord” was it that was growing in power and prevailing? 

That seems to be a rather simple question to answer, as it was obviously the Gospel that Paul was preaching.  The Lordship of Jesus was the sum and substance of Paul’s message, and it was highlighted by talk of the crucifixion (which would militate against Lordship) and Resurrection (which would aid in vindicating that Lordship).  Earlier in this same chapter, it is said that “Paul entered the synagogue and spoke out fearlessly for three months, addressing and convincing them about the kingdom of God” (19:8).  Paul’s preaching of the kingdom could not possibly be disconnected with His preaching of Jesus as the crucified and resurrected Messiah of Israel, Who was the Son of God, Lord and King of the world (the Gospel).  Paul would not be preaching a kingdom without its King, that being Jesus; and apart from His crucifixion and Resurrection, Jesus could not be spoken of as King.