Monday, 30 Aug 2010

Monday 30 Aug 2010


Romans 12:10-12 (like we were ever gonna get all the way to 12 in one lesson... smile)
10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;
11 Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;
12 Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;

Recapping v10 from last week, emphasizing the preference that one Christian ought to have for other Christians, that is, putting the other person first. It seems to me that "preference" is about more than just an order of importance. That is merely prioritizing. I get a "want to choose" feeling from "preference." As an example, it's been a longstanding "thing" between my wife and I (after 36 years next month) that I am not a restaurant picker. I can prioritize them, sure. I can say that right now, I'd put steak above fried chicken, then italian, then mex (or similar), then... well, whatever. However, that is different, it feels to me, from having a "preference" for any restaurant, because I factually don't care what one we go to. "Preference" contains "want" as I feel it. If I "prefer" I actively try to get that choice to be the choice that actually gets made. "Prioritize" means passively list; "prefer" means actively seek to make choices fit that priority. At least that's my feeling about it.

From v11, "...not slothful in business..." Steve brings out a good point here, "business" here is not commerce, it is more similar to what we mean when we say "none of my business." It is the daily "busy-ness" that we all go about. It is, in fact, the same Greek word used for "diligence" in Romans 12:8 (spoudē or σπουδή if you can read that).

This seems like a good place to look at all the usages, since translation from Greek to the English of King James' day did not always render this word in the same modern day English usage. Before we do, Strong's Concordance outlines the Biblical usage as:
1) haste, with haste
2) earnestness, diligence
.....a) earnestness in accomplishing, promoting, or striving after anything
.....b) to give all diligence, interest one's self most earnestly

With that in mind, here we go:

Five times, spoudē is rendered "diligence."
Rom 12:8 - ...he that ruleth with diligence...
II Cor 8:7 - Therefore, as ye abound in every thing... ...and in all diligence... ...see that ye abound in this grace also
Heb 6:11 - And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance...
II Pet 1:5 - And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge
Jude 1:3 - Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation...

Twice, it is rendered “haste.”
Mark 6:25 - And she came in straightway with haste unto the king, and asked, saying, I will that thou give me by and by in a charger the head of John the Baptist (haste from Herodias, who hated John, and wanted him dead in the worst way, enough to send her daughter in to dance for her husband and many other men)
Luke 1:39 - And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda (haste from Mary just being told she would bear Jesus, conceive of the Holy Ghost, and that Elisabeth, who she hastened to go see in this passage, was proof of such miracles, being pregnant after being barren)

Spoudē is translated “care” three times (once is as “carefulness”), all in II Corinthians. I’ve underlined it in each case so you can pick it out easily.
II Cor 7:11 & 12 - For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter. Wherefore, though I wrote unto you, I did it not for his cause that had done the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear unto you.
II Cor 8:16 - But thanks be to God, which put the same earnest care into the heart of Titus for you

Lastly, once it is “forwardness”
II Cor 8:8 - I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love

So, in context, again, Romans 10:10-12:
10Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;
11Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;
12Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;

So, don’t be lazy (slothful) when it comes to getting done the things that need done, the things one reasonably expect to include haste and care and thinking ahead (forwardness or forward thinking), which, if you think about it, is not a bad description of what diligence ought to mean to people. Making sure it all gets done, and in a timely manner. Leaving no reasonable stone unturned. Seems to me this would include things like meeting our civil obligations; looking after our brothers and sisters in Christ; being where we said we’d be when we said we’d be there; etc, etc, etc.

OK, that was a lot of stuff for one word, but when our modern understanding of a word does not match the meaning God wrote, it seems worth it to me. I hope it does to you, too.

“Fervent in spirit” brings up yet another whole interesting spectrum of understanding that is packed into these few words…

Fervent is zeo, basically Greek for boiling hot, like boiling water, and it’s often used metaphorically. Steve also said it is applied to solids, as in heated until glowing. I didn’t find the solids meaning, yet, but the meaning is still clear. If our spirit, our inner driver, is not jumping with excitement, then that’s plainly something to work on. It was a good line, from Steve, that Pentecostal folks got it all over us when it comes to being excited about God. There’s a point there, and a rabbit trail, as well (um, yes, I rabbit trail. I’ll try to mark them. I promise).

RABBIT TRAIL #1:

Some of us fundamentalists are, I think, scared of about every demonstration of any sort during any kind of service. It seems that “come apart and be ye separate” has come to mean “don’t do anything that they do (whoever the appropriate “they” is today) so you won’t look like them.” Somewhere in this idea, which has some merit, to be sure, the idea of it’s always ok to do biblical things got lost. Excitement, honest excitement, is not only ok, it is good, it is biblical, and it should be normal for every believer in Christ. Now, that obviously does not include manufactured excitement, excitement for the purpose of show, excitement that arises from any source other than being the adopted child of the God that created us by means of the blood of His only begotten Son.

Personally, I think we need to get aware that the “I don’t want to even slightly look like __________” attitude is merely an invitation to Satan to block us off from doing good. All he needs to do is set up shop on that one thing, and we’ll run from it (as opposed to fleeing Satan himself, which we should do) and he can prevent us from doing a whole lot of things we should be doing. Certain musical instruments are not allowed in some churches because they are used by musicians that play, frankly, anti-Christian music. Given that principle, in light of Elton John, Jerry Lee Lewis, Mickey Gilley, Liberace, etc, etc, etc, etc, how can we stomach a piano in our churches?

Frankly, I think Satan is already doing a journeyman’s job of isolating us from what should be commonplace in the life of a believer by that method. If some point in a sermon really, really dug down into your soul and made you more joyous than you’ve been for years, would you dare show it or would you keep it in? Most of us would keep it in. That’s just a fact from observing fundamental church services since 1970. So, all Satan did was set up shop on being demonstrative in church, and we all shut up and swallowed our excitement. Don’t want to look like “them” (whoever the current “them” is). How long until it takes more and more to make us really excited, honestly excited, justly excited? Swallowing it, burying it, hiding it, takes a toll. Yes, I think Satan is already blocking us off from valid, sensible aspects of our Christian life, simply by setting up a fake on that point, and watching us run from both the fake and the real. This is a “right now” thing; this is not a warning just for future consideration, in my view.

RABBIT TRAIL #1 END

Back to zeo, a boiling hot spirit. It’s interesting that boiling starts at the innermost part of the pot; right at the bottom; way down deep. No surface effect here. Also, the whole pot is hot, even though the boiling (the roiling visible water) is on the top, the whole pot is just as hot, or very very close to as hot.

Here’s another interesting application or aspect of zeo boiling. Boiling always starts in a defect. If the bottom of the pan were exactly perfectly completely smooth right down to the molecular level, the water would never boil as we know boiling. The water at the pan surface would heat, but no little tiny steam bubbles would form to set up the circulation. What would happen is that as soon as the water at the bottom became superheated enough to overcome the pressure of the liquid holding it down, it would flash out of the pot. Anybody who observed this (and a few have from time to time, but it’s rare) would call it an explosion, and afterwards, the pot is dry. No, boiling, zeo, happens when an imperfection in the pan, a teeny tiny ding, a teeny tiny crack in the surface heats the tiny bit of water that’s down in it from all sides but the top, so it turns to steam first, and makes a little steam bubble, which then detaches and rises to the surface. Once at the surface, by the way, it cools a little bit, and begins to fall toward the bottom, as the slightly cooler water at the top falls, and the hotter water from the bottom rises. Hence, a circulation is set up.

Therefore, I see two parallels here. First, this excitement, this boiling spirit, does not arise from the “perfect” among us, that is, we don’t have to be “one of the really good Christians” to have this spirit. Boiling can only arise from imperfections. Second, this fervency we see here, this zeo, goes on and on and on and on and on as long as the energy (the thing or things God did or God taught us that caused the excitement) is applied. Hence, we’re not talking about reluctantly letting out a quick, but perhaps authoritative, “amen” in church and thinking we’ve shown our excitement.

A good listen to the Florida Boys song from the mid-70s, “If You’re Happy, Notify Your Face” as Steve mentioned, might do us all some good. OK, for you purists, yes, the Lefevres recorded it the same year. It’s still a good message for all of us. If I had found a link to it being sung by anyone somewhere on the internet, I’d have provided the link.



Until next time, then,

Al



Attributions, Links, and notes:

I access Strong’s Concordance online at http://www.eliyah.com/lexicon.html or at http://www.blueletterbible.org (which is where eliyah.com sends you anyway).

I look up verses and passages using http://www.biblegateway.com.

There are other occasional reference links that I use, which will be provided as I have occasion to use them in this blog.

Thanks to these folks for providing free references on the net for people like us.