Timothy & Countering The Culture (part 28)

Verse one of chapter six also introduces yet another counter-cultural element.  As one is careful to understand that the slavery mentioned herein is not the race-based slavery with which most in the western world are familiar, but more likely the debt-based (or subjugation-based) slavery that was prevalent in the world of Paul, one reads “Those who are under the yoke as slaves must regard their own masters as deserving of full respect” (1 Timothy 6:1a).  Though some take Paul to task here for not simply condemning slavery, which would have been the ultimate counter-cultural move (and ultimately counter-productive at that point), or for not ordering Christian masters to release their slaves, this is really not the issue at hand.  At the same time, this was probably not a sensibility possessed by the tiny church at this point. 

Slavery was a social institution that provided stability, while also providing life’s basic necessities for the one forced into slavery, along with a mechanism for the erasure of debts and the achievement of a state of freedom.  It was not necessarily a permanent situation, and it was not necessarily a state that was indiscriminately inflicted upon a class of people.  Slaves could and did become free men.  Some slaves would hold slaves of their own, who had become indebted to them.  Slavery, in some cases, was preferable to freedom, especially if freedom meant going without food, clothing, and shelter.  If one wants to see Paul’s treatment of the issue of slavery, an observer would need to look to his letter to Philemon (in which Paul sends a believing, runaway slave back to his believing master, who were both going to be a part of the same body of people that worshiped Jesus as Lord). 

In the case of Timothy, and with his words, Paul is being quite counter-cultural.  Inside the church, it was well understood that there were no class-distinctions, and that all were equal.  Outside the church, however, was a different story.  Clearly, with the words of the first verse, Paul is addressing an issue with Timothy involving slaves that were part of the church body, whose masters were not a part of the church body. 

This is quite a bit different than the picture painted by the letter to Philemon, or for that matter, that of the circular letter that has come to be called Ephesians, or the letter to the Colossians.  Both of these letters, along with the letter to Philemon, offer instructions to both slaves and masters, though the “instructions” in Philemon (Paul presents them as requests, as the letter is quite rhetorical in nature) are primarily directed to the recipient.  Such is absent from this letter to Timothy.  Paul deals only with the response of slaves to their masters. 

The encouragement to “regard their own masters as deserving of full respect” would represent quite the change of pace in that day, as most slaves, as can be imagined, probably treated their masters with a grudging respect.  Naturally, it is not difficult to surmise that this would have been quite the counter-cultural witness, which provokes Paul’s additional statement that “This will prevent the name of God and Christian teaching from being discredited” (6:1b).  The Christians had enough issues with being called atheists, while also being viewed as seditious and disruptive of social order and harmony, so the last thing that was needed was to sow seeds of disruption and potential recalcitrance in this area as well. 

In addition, this conferring of respect, in light of the knowledge of the humanity that the Creator God truly expected, in which situations of master and slave did not exist, would certainly be an act of love, self-sacrifice, and preferential treatment that could only be explained by the activity of the Spirit of that God through believers.  Again, this is not to sanction the social arrangements, but rather, to “prevent the name of God and Christian teaching from being discredited.” 

Fleshly Desires & Despising Authority (part 3 of 3)

Continuing to ground the Petrine letter in the soil of the first century and the very real struggles of the earliest believers and Christ-followers, a great number of which were Jews and therefore viewed the world through their own defining narrative and understanding of their God, and thus potentially harboring desires for violent overthrow of their oppressors, it is possible to understand the author attempting to communicate the idea that through their insults and their speaking against the governing authorities in such a way as to stir up sedition and rebellion with the goal of a violent clash, the result will be their “suffering harm as the wages for their harmful ways” (2 Peter 2:13a). 

It is also quite possible to hear the author here insisting that they make light of the gravity of what it is that they are doing and the destruction to come that they are fostering, “By considering it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight” (2:13b).  In this, “they are stains and blemishes, indulging in their deceitful pleasures when they feast together with you” (2:13c).  They are insistent in their proclamation of their destructive heresy, as “they entice unstable people” (2:14b).  Clearly, it is worthwhile to place such thoughts on terra firma in conjunction with very real concerns, rather than letting them continue to float in the air of actions that are often looked to as being less than holy. 

Here, it can be said that they are enticing those that are not firmly rooted in the faith-granted belief in the Gospel of Jesus.  No words are minced, as it is said that “They have trained their hearts for greed, these cursed children!” (2:14c).  Their desire for revolution and overthrow is rooted in greed, and their end will be the curse of being hanged on a tree, as Rome will apply its punishment of the cross to those that rebel.  Indeed, “By forsaking the right path,” that being the path of belief in Jesus and His kingdom model which suffers violence rather than attempting to violently bring in the kingdom of God by force, they are said to “have gone astray” (2:15). 

Going further, one finds that “These men are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm, for whom the utter depths of darkness have been reserved” (2:17).  This seems to speak of death.  Why is this said?  Because “by speaking high-sounding but empty words they are able to entice, with fleshly desires and debauchery, people who have just escaped from those who reside in error” (2:18).  Perhaps they particularly focus their attention on new believers?  Those new believers, at least initially it seems, would spring from the ranks of Israel.  With their new belief in Jesus, they are asked to forsake the way of national revolution.  Before these new believers are able to fully comprehend what it means to believe in Jesus’ Gospel, and what is implied by His Kingship, those who deny this way of true revolution attempt to win them back to the old way. 

It is said that “Although these false teachers promise such people freedom,” if they will join in the effort to cast off their worldly oppressors, “they themselves are enslaved to immorality” (2:19a).  What is this immorality?  Perhaps it is the continual rejection of God’s insistence that His covenant people strive to be a light to the Gentile nations (then and now), rather than wanting to condemn them and subjugate them (then and now), while holding on to the notions of exclusivity and provincialism (then and now) that were flatly rejected by Jesus Himself.  Ultimately, these deniers and despisers are enslaved to their lust for power, and while they pretend to have a desire to vindicate their God through their actions and gain their freedom accordingly, instead it is the case that “whatever a person succumbs to, to that he is enslaved” (2:19b).  Those that live by the sword, will die by the sword, and power will have its way with them.    

Let Nature Sing! (part 1 of 2)

Let the sky rejoice, and the earth be happy!  Let the sea and everything in it shout! – Psalm 96:11  (NET)

Let the sky rejoice?  Let the earth be happy?  Let the sea and everything in it shout?  We could probably agree that this is rather odd language.  Can the sky rejoice?  Can the earth be happy?  Can the sea and everything in it actually shout?  In the way we would think of such things, of course not.  So is this hyperbole?  Of course it is.  However, this use of hyperbole, and its use here in the Scriptures, also points to the eternal plan of the Creator God, and is an interesting contrast to what can be read in the eighth chapter of Romans.  There, the reader is given a glimpse into a situation in which the sky is not rejoicing, the earth is not happy, and the sea is not shouting.  We read “For we know that whole creation groans and suffers together until now” (8:22). 

This is more hyperbole, as it is understood that the creation does not literally groan (though natural disasters and plagues could certainly be looked upon in such a way).  Why does the creation groan?  It groans because “it was subjected to futility---not willingly but because of God who subjected it” (8:20).  As this is heard, one should not forget the exodus connotation to the text, with Paul alluding to the groaning of the Israelites under Egyptian bondage. 

Why was the creation subjected?  The Creator God subjected it because He gave dominion over creation to the being that He had created in His image, to tend the creation, to reflect His glory into the creation, to remind the creation of its Lord, and to gather up the praises of the creation (rejoicing, happiness, shouting) and return them to that Creator.  Man, however, by not trusting God and living up to his calling (covenant), brought the curse of death and decay upon his race, while also foisting that curse upon the creation.  So yes, the creation was subjected to futility.  It was cursed with thorns and thistles.  So it groans, as the Apostle says, “in hope that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children” (8:20b-21). 

What is the glorious freedom of the children of the Creator God?  The glorious freedom is the eternal life (the life of the age to come) in which believers participate upon their confession of Jesus as King (the Gospel), and which his fully and finally consummated in their being resurrected from the dead in the same way that Christ was resurrected from the dead, as was understood by the earliest of Jesus believers. 

The glorious freedom, among other things, is a glorified body (animated by the life of the age to come) that experiences the Resurrection power of God, just as was experienced by Jesus the Christ, here in the midst of God’s creation (again, just like Jesus the Christ).  This is a state in which the believer is free from death and decay---free from sorrows, pain, and suffering (just like Jesus the Christ)  Paul insists, reflecting widespread and fairly standard Jewish hope concerning the eschaton, that the creation itself hopes for that freedom, in the same way that those “who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we eagerly await our adoption, the redemption of our bodies” (8:23). 

Slavery (part 2 of 2)

This turn of events was not going to go well for Israel.  This was a blatant violation of the terms of their covenant.  Forgetting and forsaking their tradition that celebrated the deliverance from slavery, many went right back to being oppressors.  With this, there was a failure to remember Egypt and their God’s saving action.  Thus, the Creator God’s response to this is to grant His people freedom.  Yes, in the midst of this continued rebellious forsaking of covenant, together with the refusal to rightly bear the image of their God, God says “Therefore, I will grant you freedom, the freedom to die in war, or by starvation or disease.  I, the Lord, affirm it.  I will make all the kingdoms of the earth horrified at what happens to you” (34:17b).  Not only is this a summary of the Levitical and Deuteronomic curses, but this is also an effective summary of what was experienced by the Egyptians at the hands of the Creator God of Israel. 

Since Jeremiah has been speaking of Egypt, we should not then be surprised to find ourselves being reminded of Egypt and Moses and the dealings with Pharaoh as we hear these words from the Lord.  What happened in those dealings?  As we know, and as Israel would be more than aware, Pharaoh would agree to release the slaves, in essence granting them freedom in expectation; but then, he would have a “change of heart,” and turn right around, taking back the people that had been given a proclamation of freedom, forcing them to be slaves again.  Ultimately, what was Pharaoh able to earn through this?  As was just indicated, Israel’s God granted Pharaoh and Egypt the “freedom to die in war,” which we see when they attempt to re-take a freed people back into bondage.  We see that along with the freedom to experience “starvation and disease,” as they most certainly did because of the plagues that God brought upon the land, in which locusts ate up the crops, and in which the peoples were afflicted with painful boils.

Is there an application for Jesus believers in all of this?  It would certainly seem that there is, as each believer can consider himself or herself to have been a slave, earning nothing more than death, with no hope for liberation.  However, through the hearing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Lord, along with the subsequent believing and ordering of life according to the Gospel’s proclamation (Jesus is Lord of all), “He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son He loves, in Whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14).  For the covenant people of the Creator God, throughout the Bible, the state of non-forgiveness of sins is equated with the state of exile (enslaved by oppressors).  As was done for Israel, that same God reaches into that state of exile and removes a people that are purposed to reflect His glory into the world and to have a hand in establishing His kingdom on earth. 

Before God exercises His saving power towards us, by grace, we share that state of exile from Him and from the blessings of His covenant, with every other person.  Now obviously, we know that some of us are delivered from exile before others.  For some reason, there is a tendency on the part of those that have already experienced their liberation, when they see others experience their deliverance from exile and slavery---when their fellow countrymen are granted freedom and enter into a covenant to that effect---to turn right around and attempt to enslave those that have been newly liberated, to traditions, creeds, subjective requirements, and supposed standards of Christian performance that somehow reflect true holiness. 

Analogously, it would seem that the Creator God’s response to this, and to those that attempt to re-enslave their fellow countrymen, to re-enslave those with whom they shared exile (just as all Israel had been slaves), is to say “I will grant you freedom, the freedom to die in war, or by starvation or disease.  I, the Lord, affirm it” (34:17b).  Let us cease and desist from playing God and becoming Pharaohs to His chosen ones.  Let us really and truly believe, perhaps for the first time, that there is a God, that there is a Holy Spirit, that the Gospel message that we purport to believe truly is the power of God unto salvation, and that “the One Who began a good work” (Philippians 1:6b) is also capable of completing the work by the same power that raised Christ from the dead, empowers His image-bearers via the preaching of the Gospel, and effects transformation into the image of the God in Christ through faith.       

Remembering Egypt (part 2 of 2)

In his desire to make it so that the people of Israel “remember the day” that they “came out of the land of Egypt” all the days of their lives, Moses continues to present the mighty hand and outstretched arm of Israel’s faithful God, recounting “His signs and His deeds that He did in Egypt…and what He did to the army of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 11:3-4).  Though the people continued to cast their eyes and hopes backwards in a longing for what they thought of as simpler days, Moses bids them look forward, saying that “the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt” (11:10).  Because it is the land that is the covenant gift of their God, it is better.  So that they would not be taken by faulty memories of supposed freedom from the want of the wilderness, Moses speaks again of the Lord “Who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery” (13:5).  Belaboring the point, Moses repeatedly refers to “the land of Egypt” as “the house of slavery” (13:10), regardless of the people’s present struggles as they made their way to their promised land.  He goes on to quite bluntly inform the people to “remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you” (15:15). 

When they came to the season of Passover, its purpose was to remind the people that “the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night” (16:1).  They were to remember that they “came out of the land of Egypt in haste” (16:3), wasting no time at all in coming out, because of the great oppression “of the land of Egypt” (16:3).  Moses was very clear in telling the people that God was giving them this celebration of remembrance to mark “the time you came out of Egypt” (16:6), with each person reminding himself, “that you were a slave in Egypt” (16:12).  God wanted His people to have a clean break from Egypt, relying on it for nothing, not even allowing one of their future kings to consider a “return to Egypt to acquire many horses” (17:16).  God is clear in informing His people that He can provide them all things of need and value.  Even in the midst of the fear of those who would come against them with horses and chariots, they were not to turn back, but find value in calling to mind that “the Lord your God is with you, Who brought you up out of the land of Egypt” (20:1).  It was made to be understood that there was power in remembering the deliverance provided by the Lord. 

Even their dealings with foreign nations were to be defined by such remembrance.  Ammonites and Moabites were not allowed to “enter the assembly of the Lord” (23:3).  Why was this?  “Because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt” (23:4).  Israel’s treatment of foreigners, the fatherless, and widows was determined according to God’s deliverance, regulated by the remembrance “that you were a slave in the land of Egypt” (24:22).  Later in Israel’s history, God would direct His kings to show no mercy to the Amalekites, because of what they “did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt” (25:17). 

When the people told their story, they were to include the fact that their forefathers “went down into Egypt and sojourned there” (26:5), even though the slavery experienced there would be a source of shame and derision.  This part of the story must be told, for then the rest of the story, that of their faithful, covenant God could be told, and the people could exclaim that “the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders” (26:8).  This story of their covenant God would necessarily include a recounting of the potential for blessings or curses which He presented to them.  The dreaded curses spoke of “the boils of Egypt” (28:27), and “the diseases of Egypt” (28:60), recounting the plagues that befell those that would attempt to stand against this mighty God.  The greatest of all of the curses associated with Israel’s failure to be faithful to the demands of the covenant, would be for “the Lord” to “bring you back in ships to Egypt” to “offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves” (28:68). 

As he is reported to have worked towards the conclusion of his message to the people, once again, Moses is heard to declare that “You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt” (29:2).  Lest the people begin to be deceived by the recollections of the life lived in Egypt, Moses says “You know how we lived in the land of Egypt” (29:16).  If the people began to engage in the practices in which, no doubt, many were engaging in while living in their land of slavery, the Lord would bring calamity upon His people, and “Then people would say, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt, and went and served other gods and worshiped them’.” (29:25)  God’s people would know, by this daily remembrance, that when misfortune befell them, such perdition was of themselves.            

The Creator God, through Moses, seems to have repeated Himself a great deal here.  With that, we who assent to the confession of the covenant (Jesus is Lord) can take a moment to agree and say “Yes, we would do very well indeed to keep the memories of where it was from which our God redeemed His covenant people, and that from which He delivered, close at hand and near to our hearts.”  We do well to remember being dragged out of the house of slavery (which is no doubt on the mind of somebody like the Apostle Paul, in his references to slavery), but along with that, to remember the place that God had originally intended for His creation, and the place from which the divine image bearers fell.  In this, we can have a vision of the place to which our God is bringing us in restoration and renewal and salvation.  Indeed, as it was of great value for God’s covenant people in that day, so it is of great value for God’s covenant people in this day, to not only remember that He brings into covenant for a purpose, but also to hearken to the words spoken by the man who spoke to God face to face, to cast our eyes rearward, so “that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt.” 

Conduct In Step With The Gospel (part 2 of 3)

Having laid the foundation through our examination of the second chapter of Galatians, and specifically, the meal separation that was being fostered by the circumcision party, we can now move on to the fifth chapter of Galatians, which begins with “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (5:1).  To what is Paul referring when he speaks of slavery?  We do not have to wait long to find out, as we read “Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you” (5:2).  The thing that brought slavery was fairly clear.    

                          

Before we consider this issue of slavery, does this not bring us quickly back to the second chapter, and Peter’s separation of himself from the Gentiles for fear of the circumcision party?  Are we not made to contemplate the rebuilding, based on the ongoing idea of a need for circumcision and other delineations of national Israel, of what it was that Christ tore down, as also mentioned in the second chapter?  The things that God had commanded Israel to do as their end of being faithful to the covenant, which would have made them a light to the nations, had not been kept.  Not keeping to those things had brought God’s judgment.  That judgment, among other things, had taken the form of subjection to foreign powers, which could easily be thought of as a yoke of slavery. 

Pointing back to his discourse of the second chapter, Paul once again says “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace” (5:4).  Holding to the standards of the old covenant, rather than the new covenant of the Gospel, results in nothing more than being severed from Christ.  Under the old covenant, though there were times in which Israel had been blessed, cursing was what Israel had achieved.  Insisting on old covenant requirements, such as circumcision and separation and the making of distinctions based on national boundaries, would only keep one under the curse of exile, slavery, and judgment, rather than in the grace of God, awaiting “the hope of righteousness” (5:5b), which was an expectation of God’s faithful fulfillment of His covenant of renewal and ultimate restoration of His people and His creation. 

Paul goes on, writing “For you were called to freedom, brothers.  Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh” (5:13a).  Here, just like in the first verse, we find that use of the word “freedom,” making it an important facet to truly understanding Paul as we move forward.  In light of all that we have seen, what should we suppose that Paul means when he talks about opportunities for the flesh?  Well, it seems rather clear, based on the theme of the letter up to this point, that the opportunities for the flesh, which for Paul is also a sign of the old age prior to the Christ-event that changed everything, were somehow connected to the circumcision party, and the re-institution of the previously torn down marks of Israel, as seen in the desire to keep separate table fellowship, rather than acknowledge equality with Gentiles under the principle of the new covenant and the universal Lordship of Christ.  Rather, Paul insists that they should “through love serve one another” (5:13).  This was freedom.  The presentation of freedom should have effectively reminded them of the slavery that resulted from doing what it was that they were intending to do.    

As he observed the continuance of separation, Paul would say, “This persuasion is not from Him Who calls you” (5:8).  Jew & Gentile were to serve one another through love.  Taking opportunities for the flesh, insisting on an analysis and verification of circumcision, in the context of the standards of the now old covenant, was the opposite of the love that was dictated by the Spirit of Christ.  To this line of thinking, Paul adds, “walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for they are opposed to each other” (5:16-17a). 

Clearly, what Christ demanded, and which He expected to be carried out by the Spirit that would be gifted to His chosen, covenant people, was not to be found in maintaining standards and boundaries that would be conductive of separation and isolation.  Israel had done this before, and in so doing, had not been the light of the world and the reflectors of the glory of God for all peoples.  Doing anything along such lines would, once again, defeat God’s purposes for the calling out of a distinct, covenant people to be a blessing to all nations.  The movement of the Spirit would be a movement of unity and the elimination of that which divided, whereas the desires of the flesh, in this case, would actually serve “to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (5:17b)