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E100-85: Colossians 1:1 – 1:23: The Supremacy of Christ

August 13, 2010 No comments

Apsismosaik. Ravenna, 545 (Photo by Gryffindor)

Colossians – like Ephesians and the Pastorals (1 & 2 Tim and Titus) is often thought to be by someone copying Paul but it’s ideas (and some wording) seem to have been used in Ephesians, which would make it very early if it is not not really by Paul. I cannot understand the excitement over debating back and forward whether Paul wrote it. It is in the Bible, it is addressed a very early church, and has messages that are important for us. What more matters?

Our reading starts with the introduction to the letter.  First the greeting (Col 1:1-3) then a thanksgiving for the Colossians faith, love and hope, then Paul and his colleagues pray for the Colossians to know God’s will and so lead lives pleasing to God, to be strengthened and prepared to endure, while giving thanks to the Father.

Then Col 1:14-23 presents solid doctrine about who Christ is and what he has done.

This reading really ought to have come earlier in this week! It contains the Intro to a letter and also an Intro to thinking Christianly.

In Col 1:13-14 the hearers of the letter are reminded that they have been redeemed from sin, the power of darkness (bought out of slavery) into the kingdom of the beloved son cf. Israel ransomed from slavery to Egypt/Pharaoh to become child of Yhwh.

The in Col 1:15-20 there is a glorious hymn to Christ

He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation;

for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created,
things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers-
- all things have been created through him and for him.

He himself is before all things,
and in him all things hold together.

He is the head of the body, the church;
he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
so that he might come to have first place in everything.

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things,
whether on earth or in heaven,
by making peace through the blood of his cross.

Col 1:21-23 reminds them that this hymn describes their experience – estranged from God but now reconciled by Christ through his death, provided that they remain firm…

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E100-84: Philippians 4:2 – 4:9: Rejoice in the Lord

August 12, 2010 1 comment

I searched for a picture on "confusion" and found this photo by bogenfreund

Unlike Paul’s other letters Philippians seems disjointed which can make it difficult to read. Goodspeed wrote that:

In chapter 1 he is making the best of his imprisonment; in chapter 2 he is sending Epaphroditus back to them; in chapter 3 he bursts forth against the Judaizers; in chapter 4 he acknowledges the gift Epaphroditus has brought him. Paul is usually much more orderly than this.

Polycarp (c.60-150AD) writing to the Philippians mentions that Paul “wrote letters” (plural) to Philippi. Maybe what we have is parts of more than one letter.

Despite the muddle the letter is treasured because it contains so many good things: like the Christological hymn in ch.2, and the line “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice” (Phil 4:4)  or the blessing in our reading (Phil 4:7) But our seven verse reading shows up the confusion too, since it opens with the sort of personal greetings and instructions we expect right at the end of the letter: urging Eudoia and Syntache to get along etc. then we return material suited to the more general body of a letter (Phil 4:4-6)

A lovely passage from a great if somewhat confusing letter – I like to imagine that the people who think sheets from more than one letter to Phillipi have got jumbled together somehow are right, then this letter is also a fine example of God bringing out fine pearls from human error and muddle and confusion. For “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guards us in Christ Jesus.”

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E100-82: Galatians 5:16 – 6:10: The Fruit of the Spirit

August 10, 2010 No comments

The grave of JRR Tolkien and his wife in Wolvercote Cemetery, Oxford (Photo by Michael Parry)

Unlike the theological treatise in Romans, Galatians seems to be written to particular people known to Paul, and with a particular situation in mind – Jewish Christian preachers who were calling for restoration of Biblical Principles (observance of the Old Testament law).

So after the greeting, Paul starts combatitively in Gal 1:6-10. In the light of this he needs to spend the rest of chapter 1 and all of 2 defending himself as an Apostle. Chs 3-4 the centre of the epistle. They present again the core gospel that we need not, cannot earn salvation but that we can receive it as a free gift. As with Romans the last major section chapters 5-6 show what this means in practice.

In our reading he starts by showing that liberty is not licence, that our freedom in Christ is freedom to become better not freedom to sink into depravity. How given salvation as a gift, we also receive the gift of the Spirit which is the power to overcome our base desires and to really live in freedom.

Running through the passage are two metaphors:

  • fruitfulness: “fruits of the spirit”, “you reap what you sow”
  • dying and rising with Christ.

If in Christ we die to our “old” natural – broken spoiled and twisted human nature – then with Christ we can be raised to a new and healthy life, because the Spirit produces lifegiving fruit:

…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)

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E100-77: Acts 13:1 – 14:28: The First Missionary Journey

August 3, 2010 No comments

Paul’s summarises the Old Testament story from a Jewish-Christian perspective as a world looking for a saviour. Then John showed that still “today” not just in ancient times people are looking for a saviour. Jesus not only died, but rose, and this is the keeping of God’s ancient promises. In Jesus God fills out, fully, the hopes and promises of the past. In Jesus, we are set free from sin - sin is not a trendy term today, but we still suffer from living in a world that is wrong. The advert reminds us that while we sream of how things would be “in a perfect world” we don’t live in a perfect world! That’s what sin is, our share in the brokenness of the world, and Jesus begins to put it right starting with us!

Why was the message not popular? Because salvation becomes something we can not earn. Because God does not only choose good people (like us) to heal. Because it reduces the chance to make money out of human need.

Despite reminding us of the signs and clues to God’s power and love in the everyday gifts of food and sunshine Paul’s gospel is not all sunshine. He was no more a prosperity gospel televangelist than Jesus was!

Strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith, they said: “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.”

This is encouragement!

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Acts, E100, Sin , ,

E100-76: Acts 9:1 – 9:31: The Road to Damascus

August 2, 2010 No comments

Road to Damascus today photo by upyernoz

“The Road” or “The Way” common Biblical picture language for a way of life or the direction we are “going”, but it is also used several times in Acts (almost, or probably, only in Acts) as a name for being a Christian. It is a good name because metanoia, repentance, is about turning round and going a different way. Acts also is a book about journeys, with lots of individual voyages, and also the journey of the gospel from Jerusalem to Rome – from Jewish sect to global faith.

In this chapter we hear of Paul’s journeys – the one he planned and the one he ended up taking, that took him from being persecutor to preacher, from grand inquisitor to ardent follower.

The other name for Christian followers in this chapter is the adelphoi, brothers and sisters – it’s interesting question what is a good literal translation today of adelphoi for though the singular adelphos means a brother, and a different word means a sister, often the plural adelphoi explicitly includes women as well as men. So, usually in Bible (unless we have reason to believe only men are meant) the best rendering today is “brothers and sisters”.

Paul’s story is a great example too of how God takes and uses people as they are, does not remake us into different people but redeems the ones we are. So, Saul the enthusiast, stringent, hard-line Pharisee enforcer becomes Paul the ardent, flexible but demanding Christian evangelist.

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Acts, E100, Narrative , , ,
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