Jerome on Ephesians 4:16
A few years ago, some friends gave me a copy of The Commentaries of Origen and Jerome on St Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians (by Ronald E. Heine, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002). They give me this book for two reasons: 1) They knew that I loved Ephesians and 2) They wanted to give me something written by someone as old as me. (Thanks again Maël and Cindy… I think.)
Occasionally, as I’m reading through this commentary, I find something that is very helpful. For example, consider this passage from Ephesians:
…from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:16 ESV)
According to Heine, Origen wrote the following as an analogy to help readers understand what Paul is saying (note, this passage actually comes from Jerome’s pen, but is supposedly copied from Origen):
Now another example may be brought into the same analogy to clarify that which we wish to be understood. A child grows up and, unperceived, matures in time to full age. The hand will have increased in size, the feet will undergo their growth, the stomach, without our knowledge, is filled out, the shoulders, although our eyes are deceived, have broadened, and all the ‘members’ throughout the parts thus increase according to their ‘measure’ yet in such a way that they appear not to be increased in themselves but in the body. (p. 180-81)
I think this is a very good way of explaining what Paul writes. As a person ages from childhood toward adulthood, his or her body naturally grows together, each part growing as it should.
This is way it should be in the church: each part growing together. In fact, as with the child growing to an adult, the growth of one part should be related to and comparable to the growth of the other parts.
But, what if one parts grows while the other parts remain stagnant? What would we say about a person whose hand grows larger, but his or her feet remain the same size? What if someone’s head grew, but their torso never changed? We would immediately recognize that something was wrong.
Can we recognize the same types of “abnormal growth” in the church? Are some parts growing while others are stagnant? Do we consider this normal?
The church will not grow and build itself up in love until each part of the body is working together and growing together.
1) Do you agree with Origen’s (Jerome’s) analogy? 2) What do we do if some parts of the church are not growing while others are growing quickly?
Super-gifted vs. less-gifted
Last week, I wrote a short post concerning 1 Corinthians 12:22-25 called “The weaker are indispensable” in which I concluded with the following questions:
Who are the people with “weaker†gifts, and how do we demonstrate that they are indispensable and worthy of greater honor?
Now, Andy at “aBowden Blog” has written a similar post called “Unequally equal?” in which he considers how some people are “gifted” more (or differently) than others. But, Andy does more than ask questions. He says:
The highly gifted, then, end up accumulating more and more responsibility, leaving less and less for the other believers to do. It is easy to understand how such an error was made. After all, wouldn’t it be logical to assume that the most highly gifted should do most of the ministry? Sadly, I think in our ultra-technological age we are beginning to see the tragic consequences of such a flawed assumption. Now the super-gifted do not merely accumulate the ministry within the four walls of a local congregation. Rather, we find that now the most gifted pastors and Christian speakers are not merely confined to their own congregations, but are projected live via satellite to numerous locations throughout the country. If such a practice continues, we could very soon find that five or six super-gifted believers do all this type of ministry for those of us who have an average or sub average gifting in this area.
So it seems, then, that although there remains inequality among beleivers, this does not mean that the most gifted should take on more and more of the work. What is the proper response, then, to such inequality? I think the solution is quite simple. Allow the less gifted a chance to exercise their gifting. There will always be someone more qualified, more gifted, more experienced, more capable. But maybe, just maybe, God delights in using the unlikely, the weak, the bumbling, the foolish. Perhaps it is not about always having the polished delivery, the best, most state of the art, most professional. Perhaps God delights to use those who don’t have their act together, who are still beset with weakness and struggles. Wasn’t it the apostle Paul who talked about God using cracked pots so that the glory would go to the contents, rather than the vessel?
Perhaps Paul had this idea in mind when he wrote, “On the contrary! Those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indespensible, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor†(1 Cor 12:22).
For some reason, God delights to entrust his magnificent gospel to us weak, foolish human beings. Why would he do that? Perhaps, whatever the answer is to that question, it is the for the same reason that he delights to equally use the unequally gifted.
Very well said, Andy! God does delight to use the “weak” to confound and even teach the “strong”… if the “strong” are willing to give the “weak” opportunities to speak and serve (1 Peter 4:10-11).
Could there even be a place for the “weak” and “less-gifted” to speak and serve when the church meets together?
Comfortable habits
I wish I could play guitar. I really do. I even own a very nice Fender Stratocaster. But, I never took the time to learn to play, and much of what I did learn on my own, I learned incorrectly and developed bad habits.
In a post called “Don’t be an Emotional Cop-Out“, Laura from “Who in the World Are We?” discusses guitar playing and bad habits (from the perspective of emotions):
I am a guitar player. I started playing way back in 1974, when I took a summer class at Carnegie Junior High. Two of my earliest tunes were Tom Dooley and Jet Plane. Since those early days, I have played hours upon hours, days upon days. I have trained my body and mind to play guitar. Most of the time when I play now, I don’t really think about it. I look at the chord sheet or hear the song in my head and I play. Years of practice translate across fingers and hands into vibrating strings.
After years of playing guitar, I have developed habits. Some of the habits—maybe most—are good. My left hand knows great many of the required chord shapes: the mind thinks a letter, say G, and the hand makes the shape. My right arm knows rhythms and my ears know how to sync my arm with the drums and bass.
Unfortunately, some of the habits are not good. For example, any player who knows proper form will look at my left thumb wrapped around the neck and clack their tongue: my form is usually terrible. My barre chords either depress the bottom strings or the top strings: never both. To change these habits would require new learning—probably to the point of discomfort, if not pain. At the very least, it would require hard work and time.
I could say, “It’s just how I play,†but the truth is, I developed these habits of guitar playing. I am responsible for the good and for the bad.
In an unrelated post (but related context), Art (from “Church Task Force“) added the following comment to my post called “It is dangerous to ask Why?“:
Even when leaders and Christians come to realize some of the why’s you list as being wrong, and realize what the scriptures actually direct us to do/be, doing so would be very costly. We are comfortable in familiar patterns. We may have much invested – power, position, authority – based the faulty practices and forms, and are not willing to lose them.
Think about the two statement above. Many of the things that we do (or believe) are the result of habit. We have been taught something, we’ve seen it modeled, and we’ve done it enough that it’s now habit.
Some of these habits are good. Some of these habits are bad. But, all of our habits are “comfortable” in the sense that we know what to do and how to do it. We’ve done it. We’ve believed it. It might even “work.”
In the context of guitar playing, very little is riding on our habits. We may not play as well as we could because of the bad habits we’ve developed. But, for the most part, playing guitar with bad habits is relatively low on the priority for most people.
But, what about the way we understand who God is? What about what we think about Scripture? What about the way we understand ourselves and others in relationship to God? What about the way we understand church? What about our understanding our our purpose on earth?
For me, these are very important concepts. In fact, these are “concepts” that must go beyond the conceptual stage. The “concepts” are primarily found in our demonstration not our articulation.
Many of us grew up with a foundation of concepts and living our lives in a certain way. We’re comfortable. And, when something or someone comes along to question our ideals, we fight against it… sometimes without considering other options, and sometimes even when we realize that our understanding is wrong.
Why would we fight against something that might be right? Because we’re comfortable… and anytime we move away from comfort there is pain… hard work… and time.
Lunch Partner
My wife and I had lunch with another couple. After lunch, one of our lunch partners said something like this:
It doesn’t matter how much we study the trinity, we will never understand it. And, continuing to study the trinity isn’t going to help the young girl on the corner to stop selling herself to get drug money.
It is dangerous to ask Why?
As most of my regular readers know, I like to ask questions. Sometimes, the questions that we ask are more important than the answers that we come to. Two and a half years ago, I wrote a post called “It is dangerous to ask ‘Why?’” I like to ask, “Why?” Here are some of the questions that I asked then:
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It is interesting, and sometimes dangerous, to ask why believers traditionally do certain things:
Why do we say that the church is people and people are important, but spend so much money on buildings?
Why is the place where the church meets called a “sanctuary”, “house of God”, or “church”?
When believers meet together, why is it called a “worship service”?
Why is a piece of bread and a thimble of juice and fifteen minutes at the end of a “service” called “the Lord’s Supper”?
Why do men wear suits and women wear dresses when believers meet together on Sunday mornings with other believers?
Why do believers typically bow their heads and close their eyes when they pray?
Why do we use a phrase like “pastoral authority”?
Why do we put all of our “offering” in a joint account, then decide later what to do with it?
Why is the “preacher” or “pastor” allowed to speak when the church meets but no one else is allowed?
Why are some people called “Reverend”?
Why do we need a special “family life center” for sports activities when there are perfectly good community centers?
Why do we call each other “brother” and “sister” when we barely know one another?
Why do we spend one minute shaking hands and call it “fellowship”?
Why do we spend so much time arguing about things that are not in Scripture when we are not obeying what is in Scripture?
Why do we think that God speaks clearest through a sermon?
When we meet with other believers, why do we spend most of our time looking at one person and the back of everyone else’s heads?
Why are only certain believers called “ministers”?
Why do we emphasize, teach, and demand obedience to these things (and others) which are not found in Scripture – and some are even contrary to Scripture – while we de-emphasize, ignore, or explain away other things such as discipleship, fellowship, community, or the “one anothers” which are emphasized in Scripture?
More on stronger and weaker brothers and sisters
Dave Black has been posting “Conclusions” from his study of the strong/weak language in Paul’s letters. This is his sixteenth conclusion (posted only 30 minutes ago – February 3, 2010 at 7:31 pm):
In the Pauline ethic, a firm conviction of monotheism is of less importance than the love of one’s Christian brother. Paul insists that strong Christians should hold their liberty in check in deference to their weaker brethren. Moreover, the duty of the strong is not only to avoid placing stumbling blocks before the weak, but also to remove them.
I wonder what would happen if we always treated one another as the “weaker” brother or sister, meaning we always defer to the other person, always avoid placing stumbling blocks in their way, and always attempt to remove any stumbling blocks that might be there. Will we ever know?
Accepting others glorifies God
I thought the quote below goes along well with some of my previous posts about accepting one another (even when and especially when our beliefs differ). First, the author is commenting on this passage:
May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome (accept) one another as Christ has welcomed (accepted) you, for the glory of God. (Romans 15:5-7 ESV)
Here are the comments:
There is a purpose in this unity. Paul prays that with one heart and mouth his correspondents may glorify God. There were certainly tensions in the Roman church, and the presupposition that the strong and the weak were having some difficulty in getting along with each other underlies the whole section of the letter. But when the church gives itself over to glorifying God there is a deep and satisfying unity. That is what Paul looks for….
Accept one another is surely addressed to the whole community…. The verb rendered accept means wholehearted acceptance…. Just as Christ accepted us, we are to accept other believers. When we are to accept one another, are we to say that we will not take him as a Christian brother? Our attitude to others must flow from the transformation wrought in us by Christ…. His point is that all are to accept those who differ from them. This follows well on Paul’s prayer, for “Nothing glorifies God as much as the unity of His children, which alone is in harmony with His essential will of love” (Leenhardt). And it leads well into what follows, for Paul sees the purpose of Christ’s accepting them as “the glory of God”. God’s glory was promoted when Christ received us sinners, and it is further advanced when we who are by nature sinners and wrapped up in our own concerns instead receive our brothers in Christ with warmth and love. (Leon Morris, The Epistle to the Romans (Pillar New Testament Commentary; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988), p. 502-3) (italics in original)
By the way, did you notice that accepting one another in spite of differing beliefs requires the encouragement and endurance that God provides?
So, if accepting one another (even when our beliefs are different) as brothers and sisters (not distant cousins) brings glory to God, what does refusal to accept one another do?
Sending… who and how?
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” (John 20:21 ESV)
According to the Gospel of John, Jesus spoke these words to his disciples after his resurrection.
Here are a few questions: 1) Was Jesus only sending the disciples that heard this statement? 2) Was Jesus sending all disciples? 3) Was Jesus sending the disciples that heard this statement and a subset of all other disciples? 4) In what way(s) are Jesus’ disciples sent the way he was sent?
Looking forward to a Super Bowl Party
I understand that we’ve been invited to a Super Bowl Party by some good friends this Sunday night. I’m really looking forward to this party. Actually, I look forward to any party involving our friends and family.
Yes, the Super Bowl will be on the television, and we’ll laugh at some of the commercials.
But, my main purpose in going to the Super Bowl Party has nothing to do with the football game or the commercials. Instead, I’m looking forward to building and deepening with relationships with people who are at the party.
I never know what will be discussed during a party like this… but there are always discipling relationships… both for me to help someone else grow in maturity in Christ and for someone else to help me grow. This is what I’m looking forward to the most!
The weaker are indispensable
I’ve been thinking about 1 Corinthians 12 again recently, especially this passage:
On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. (1 Corinthians 12:22-25 ESV)
Paul makes an extraordinary claim here in the context of spiritual gifts. Those people with gifts which seem weaker or less honorable are actually indispensable and worthy of greater honor.
Who are the people with “weaker” gifts, and how do we demonstrate that they are indispensable and worthy of greater honor?