Beware of pride!!!!

Thanks to Pastor Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church (NYC) for this insightful article.

Those of us who consider ourselves 'into' theology or 'reformed' in some sense would do very well to read it.

What do the words 'world' and 'all' mean in the New Testament?

People argue about theology, and often assume they know what words mean. I'm going to list possible definitions of these words from BDAG, the standard, scholarly NT Greek Lexicon

For 'world' (when translating the word 'kosmos') - beautifying adornment, orderly arrangement, the sum total of all existence (the whole universe), the sum total of all beings above the level of animals (including angels), planet earth, humanity in general (especially of a group of humans), collective aspect of an entity or totality (as in the tongue is a world of unrighteousness from James 3:6)

For 'all' (when translating 'pas') - each one of something, any entity out of a totality (any), marks the highest degree of something (greatest), a high degree of completeness, every kind of something

When you're reading the Bible, you don't get to pick which meaning you like for the verse. The surrounding context determines the meaning.

Christians and Vulgarity, Part III

So far we’ve looked at the general subject of Christians and the use of profanity, and then we looked at Ephesians 4:29. We saw that the whole content of what we say is to point people to Jesus – and that that means we shouldn’t be saying things that are untrue or things that result in sin.

This time, let’s look at Ephesians 5:4. We’ll look at the verse and its context first, then make nine observations, then draw and apply conclusions to ourselves.

The Verse and its Context
The translators of the ESV translate Eph. 5:4 as follows: “Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.”

The context of the verse is (as always) the key here to understanding God’s meaning. This is part of a section in which Paul tells God’s children to imitate their divine Father – and that means loving everyone in His Church.

God said this: “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (Eph. 5:1-2).”

Paul then contrasts this with a few things in verses 3-4 – “But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.”

Nine Observations
So – first observation: see that contrast in verse 3? The but? That means that whatever activity and speech are being talked about, they’re being contrasted with loving God’s people as God loves his people.

Second observation – the ‘foolish talk’ and ‘crude joking’ are somehow linked to sexual immorality and covetousness. I’m leaving out ‘filthiness’ because it’s not exclusively about speaking, necessarily; but the word means ‘shameful,’ essentially.

Third observation – ‘foolish talk’ is again from that word ‘logos’ – probably referring to entire speech content, and probably referring to doctrine. In other words, don’t say spiritually stupid stuff. Or in other words – have cross-centered speech.

Fourth observation – crude joking – or as some translations put it, ‘vulgar talk,’ is out. Again, this is about whole speech content, not about vocabulary – though certainly vulgar vocabulary is excluded.

But what is vulgar vocabulary? …let’s see if we can answer that question later.

Fifth observation – verse 5 gives the reason for both verses 3 and 4. So verses 3 and 4 ban a list of things, including stupid (doctrinally wrong!), vulgar talk. And then verse 5 comes in and God says that those things are out because, “everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.”

Sixth observation – these manners of speaking are tied to sexual immorality and greed. A quick survey of all the instances of even the word impurity will show us that Paul ties the idea to sexuality. (As in Romans 1:24.)

Seventh observation – verse 4 contrasts these things that are forbidden with giving thanks. The positive command is ‘give thanks!’

Eight observation – impurity is linked in 4:19 again to sexual lust and material lust (greed) – and contrasted with sound doctrine in verse 25.

Ninth observation – this is all linked to things that non-Christians do in secret (5:12). This is probably talking about sex acts that are against God’s will.

Alright, I think that’s enough; I think we can draw some conclusions.

Conclusions, and How We Should Live and Talk
The content of our speech is to be cross-centered, correct doctrinally, and praising God for how he’s rescued us. In doing so, we love fellow Christians, since we point them to our Savior.

And because we’re to point people to Jesus, we need to avoid things that distract us from him. If we were to summarize all this banned stuff – we end up with this sort of general banned talk: we should not talk about things that cause people to desire stuff that is not God.

That would include making light of sexual sin – because it leads to hell (5:5). That would include greedy talk about material things as well. That might include certain words.

But let’s face it – is this verse about our vocabulary and ‘naughty’ words? Absolutely not! And to make it about that is to just make up a rule that we Christians can easily obey. I can easily not use the F-word – if that genuinely makes someone lust.

This verse is about something deeper. It commands that the entirety of my speech to point to Christ; and negatively commands me not to distract people from him. Do I lust after an i-Phone? A beautiful woman who’s not my wife? An HDTV? Financial security?

Do I express those lusts? Do I cause others to stumble into those hell-earning lusts, rather than being expressly thankful for Jesus, our Messiah, who died for our sins, rose from the dead, and is coming again?

Do you? What do you want? Is it stuff, or Jesus? What do you talk about wanting – stuff or Jesus? What do you happily talk about in general – stuff or Jesus?

I hope that drives the sword of the word of God into your soul! It does mine.

God commands us to be imitators of him – and that’s because we who believe in Jesus are his loved children. His Son died in the our places, and he is coming to collect us into his eternal kingdom. Let’s let that control our desires and talk like it does – and we’ll love our brothers and sisters by doing so.

Christians and Vulgarity, Part II

Go here for Part I.

So we saw last time that there are three main passages used to tell Christians not to say 'naughty' words: Ephesians 4:29; Ephesians 5:4; and Colossians 3:8. I say we take a look at these passages. Shall we?

Ephesians 4:29

Ephesians 4 hits two related topics. It first talks about all that the Holy Spirit is doing to build up Jesus’ Church. It’s cool stuff; check it.

The second topic it hits starts with this command: “Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds”(Ephesians 4:17). In other words, you used to not be a Christian. But now that you are a Christian, you shouldn’t live like a non-Christian.

Simple enough, right? Paul elaborates on what acting like a Christian means, and part of said elaboration is Ephesians 4:29: “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”

The real question we have to answer here is this: what is ‘corrupting talk?’ I’ll just make a series of observations.

1) This passage is about the whole content of your speaking – not about particular words. ‘Corrupting talk,’ as in the ESV, is a decent translation of the Greek here. The NET renders the two words ‘unwholesome word’ – and while technically that’s a possibility, we’re not dealing with a ‘word’ in the English sense here; we’re dealing with a ‘word’ in the Greek sense – as in a message. It doesn’t refer to vocabulary so much as to entire content spoken.

As a matter of fact, Paul uses the word several times in Ephesians. In 1:13, he calls the Gospel itself the ‘word of truth.’ In Ephesians 6:19, Paul asks the Ephesians to pray that a message be given him to proclaim the gospel boldly. Your English translation may say ‘words’ – but the Greek is singular – ‘word.’ So the thing being spoken is a whole message – the whole content of one’s speech.

2) It’s possible that what is being spoken of here, particularly, is speech about doctrine. Again, the word ‘word’ here is used in Ephesians specifically about doctrinal words. See 1:13, 5:6, and 6:19. A quick survey of the word ‘word’ (logos) shows us that Paul doesn’t always mean a doctrinal message – but a majority of the time he does.

3) This speech has bad effects. The word translated ‘corrupting’ in the ESV means that the thing being talked about isn’t producing good stuff, at the very least. And is actually producing bad stuff. The bad stuff (I’m about to show) – is bad doctrine and bad behavior.

4) This speech is contrasted with good speech that’s characterized in three ways: it builds up; the needs of the moment are considered; and the purpose of the speaking is giving grace to those who hear.

Building up is a reference to 4:16 and the preceding verses. It’s about people maturing as Christians – in doctrine, character, and ministry skill.

There’s always a need for being built up, but those needs vary. So we’re to speak with reference to what’s needed.

And the purpose is giving grace to the hearers. Now grace, in Ephesians, always has God as the giver. And it’s always about how God himself is working in his people – in bringing his people home to heaven because of love. So giving grace? It’s getting people to experience Jesus. And how’s that happen? Well, by speaking to each other with – the gospel. With good doctrine, not bad.

So what’s this boil down to? There’s a prohibition placed here on speaking things that aren’t in line with what the Scriptures teach about reality. There’s a positive command to talk to people about the truth of the gospel, to be sensitive to the fact that they need that at different times and in different ways, and that it’s for their spiritual growth.

There’s nothing here about the particular vocabulary that one uses, except that the framework provided by Ephesians 4:29 should be used to examine everything we say.