FOR THIS YOU KNOW WITH CERTAINTY:
touto gar iste (2PRAM) ginoskontes (PAPMPN):
(1Corinthians 6:9,10; Galatians 5:19,21)
Note:
All verbs in
bold red
indicate commands, not suggestions!
Also
hold mouse pointer over
underlined links for pop up of Scripture which stays open and can
be copied.
For (gar)
introduces an explanation. As Eadie puts it gar "states a reason,
and an awful and solemn one it is."
This
(3778)
(touto) makes reference to an entity regarded as a part of the
discourse setting, in this case the vices just mentioned.
You know with
certainty - is actually two verbs, the first (eido) means absolute,
positive, beyond a peradventure of a doubt, knowledge and the second
(ginosko) referring to experiential knowledge. What Paul is doing is
reminding these Gentiles believers that they are absolutely convinced of
the truth of the solemn conclusion he is about to state, a statement
that speaks of one's eternal destiny as it relates to one's behavior. He
is not trying to show that one's bad behavior causes them to be lost
forever but that their unrighteous, unholy behavior is a reflection that
they were never created as a new man in righteousness and holiness of
the truth. Paul wants to make sure using this unusual Greek construction
of two verbs both of which speak of knowing, that his readers are
absolutely sure of what he is about to write!
Wuest attempts to
bring out Paul's use of two verbs...
for this you know absolutely (iste)
and
experientially (ginoskontes)
Know (1097)
(ginosko from gnosis = knowledge) conveys the basic
meaning of taking in knowledge in regard to something or someone,
knowledge that goes beyond the merely factual. The
present tense
conveys the sense of continually knowing.
Know (1492)
(eido) means knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt. The
perfect tense
indicates that this is to be the abiding state of their knowledge.
The mood of this verb is in the form of an
imperative or
command which is very difficult to translate into English. In sum, this
verb in the perfect imperative means the truth Paul is getting ready to
explain is something his readers need to be permanently absolutely,
irrevocably certain about. They have come out the lifestyle he is going
to describe and he does not want them to forget where that lifestyle is
headed in regard to one's eternal destiny!
The Amplified Version probably
conveys the sense of the
imperative mood better
than the NAS...
For be sure of this (Comment:
The idea is you {plural} need to know of a surety or to know beyond a
shadow of a doubt. This is important!
Here is my paraphrase in an attempt
to translate both verbs that relate to knowing...
For
be
absolutely
sure and certain
(command) of this (what he states in last part of verse), knowing from
your own experience...
This truth was not
to slip from their minds! They knew what Paul explains in the next
section from their own direct
personal experience. As Paul reminded them earlier in this letter, they had all
formerly walked according to the
course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among
them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our
flesh, indulging the
desires of the
flesh
and of the mind, and were by nature children of
wrath, even as the rest. (See notes
Ephesians 2:2;
2:3)
How were they to
know with certainty that these things were wrong? Because in every
man's fallen state in Adam (whether they had access to the Law or not)
there is a moral compass, a God given conscience by which God has made
Himself evident within them (Ro 1:19-note)
and which causes all men to know that the practice of evil things is
deserving of death (Ro 1:32-note,
cp Ro 2:14,15-note).
As believers who had been taught by Paul when he pastored the church in
Ephesus, they undoubtedly also knew the truth that
the one who sows
to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who
sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life. (Gal 6:8)
Barnes adds
that Paul is saying...
Be assured of this. The object here
is, to deter from indulgence in those vices by the solemn assurance that
no one who committed them (Ed note: as a lifestyle) could possibly be
saved. (Albert Barnes. Barnes NT Commentary).
THAT NO IMMORAL OR IMPURE PERSON:
hoti pas pornos e akathartos:
(Eph 5:3; Hebrews 13:4)
Immoral
(4205)
(pornos from pernáo = sell
in turn from
peráō = to pass thru, as a merchant would do, passing thru
and then coming to mean to sell) (see also study of related word porneia) means a fornicator,
one who is sexually immoral or who commits sexual immorality. Pornos
originally meant a "male prostitute" but came to be used in the
universal meaning of "fornicator" or one who engages in sexual immorality, whether a man or a
woman. A pornos in secular Greece was a person who
prostituted themselves for gain.
The
KJV translates
pornos as “whoremonger”,
which describes one who consorts with whores (a lecher). One can carry
on the life of a "whoremonger" in "private" on the internet's plethora
of sleazy porn sites, in filthy
magazines at the newsstand (or even at the checkout stand at the grocery
store!), or at the movies (unfortunately even PG Rated can be contaminated
with pornos). In our local cable listings in Austin, Texas
(Summer, 2008) there are some 5-10 channels devoted solely to
pornography (I don't subscribe to any of them by the way). America is in
very serious trouble beloved. Let us pray for revival (2Chr 7:13,14,
6:37, 38, 39)
Here are the 10 uses of pornos
in the NT - 1Cor 5:9, 10, 11; 6:9; Eph. 5:5-note; 1Ti 1:10; describing Esau =
Heb 12:16-note; describing those who defile the marriage bed = Heb 13:4-note;
describing those who will not be in heaven = Rev 21:8-note;
Re 22:15-note.
The NAS translates pornos as fornicators(2), immoral(2), immoral
men(1), immoral people(2), immoral person(1), immoral persons(2). The
KJV as noted translates pornos with the word whoremonger (5 times).
Pornos is not found in the non-apocryphal Septuagint.
NIDNTT has this note on the
classical Greek uses of this word group...
CL porneuo from pernemi (to sell) (Hdt.
onwards), means trans. to prostitute. It is usually in the pass. of the
woman: to prostitute oneself, become a prostitute. But it is also used
of the man, to whore, to fornicate. Derivations include (a) porne (Aristot.
onwards), a woman who is for sale, a prostitute, courtesan; (b) pornos
(likewise Aristot. onwards), the fornicator who has sexual intercourse
with prostitutes, but then also an immoral man, i.e. one who allows
himself to be misused for immoral purposes for money, a male prostitute;
and (c) porneia (Dem. onwards, rare in cl. Gk) harlotry, unchastity
(also of a homosexual nature).
According to G. van der Leeuw,
“the instincts of sex and hunger are the two great impelling factors
whereby the will climbs to power and even rises to heaven; in the face
of these the consciousness of impotence collapses. Food and drink on the
one hand, and on the other sexual intercourse, are therefore not merely
the two outstanding symbols of community with the god, but are also the
means wherewith human potency sets to work” (Religion in its Essence and
Manifestation, 19642, 230). For this the most varied religious actions
and rites are required. These include cultic prostitution as part of the
ancient fertility rites. It was believed that performance of sexual
intercourse in the sanctuary would ensure the fertility of everything
living in the land and prevent the loss of the procreative and
generative faculties. Evidence of cultic prostitution is first found in
Babylon. Hdt. recounts that once in her life every Babylonian woman had
to “sacrifice” herself to the goddess Mylitta by giving her body to a
stranger in the temple precincts (1, 199). Similar customs are attested
in other areas, including Cyprus.
In the Gk. world cultic prostitution
gained acceptance primarily in the great sanctuaries of Corinth, Eryx
and Athens. According to the historian Strabo (8, 378), over a thousand
courtesans consecrated to Venus lived in Corinth alone (cf. H.
Conzelmann, Korinth und die Mädchen der Aphrodite: zur
Religionsgeschichte der Stadt Korinth, 1967). Religious prostitution
played a particular role for Israel in the Baal cult.
(Brown,
Colin, Editor. New International Dictionary of NT Theology. 1986.
Zondervan)
Vine in commenting on the use
of pornos in the description of Esau in Hebrews 12:16 says
that...
the word pornos, fornicator, is not
to be limited to the idea of spiritual fornication, it includes the
actual sin and all such sensual and lustful practices. Esau’s profanity
consisted not merely in his satisfying his immediate desires and
abandoning his birthright, but in treating the holy privileges of the
patriarchal family, the priesthood, and the title to the land, and the
ancestorship of the Messiah, as of no value compared with the
satisfaction of a natural hunger of the moment (“one mess of meat”). The
warning is against renouncing our privileges and duty and “the
recompense of the inheritance” in order to enjoy an indulgence of the
flesh or the pleasures of the world. That is profanity as here
described.
(Vine,
W E: Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament
Words. 1996. Nelson)
Wuest says
pornos is...
a man who prostitutes his body to
another’s lust for hire, a male prostitute, a man who indulges in
unlawful sexual intercourse, a fornicator.
(Wuest,
K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Eerdmans)
Jon Courson makes a strong
statement declaring that...
Paul says your heart tells you and
your spirit confirms that if you are a whoremonger—if you are delighted
by and caught up in pornography—you are not part of the kingdom. You can
come to church every time we meet; you can show up every time the doors
are open. But if you are involved in this stuff—if this is your idol, if
this is what you’re living for—you’re not saved. (Courson,
J. Jon Courson's Application Commentary. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson)
(Bolding added)
Impure
(169)
(akathartos from a = without + kathaíro = cleanse
from katharos = clean, pure, free from the adhesion of anything
that soils, adulterates, corrupts, in an ethical sense, free from
corrupt desire, sin, and guilt)
(See study of related word
akatharsia) in a moral sense
refers to that which is unclean in thought, word, and deed. It can
describe a state of moral impurity, especially sexual sin and the word
foul is an excellent rendering. The idea is that which morally indecent
or filthy. It is not surprising that as noted below this word is
repeatedly applied to filthy demonic spirits in the Gospels.
The related term akatharsia refers to filth or refuse!
Akatharsia figuratively describes a filthiness of heart and mind
(so it is internal) that makes the person defiled. The unclean person
sees dirt in everything. The word akatharsia suggests especially
that it defiles its participants, making them unusable for sacred
purpose. While akatharsia includes sexual sin, it comes from a
wider Septuagint (Greek translation of the Hebrew OT) usage where
“unclean” could refer to anything that made a person unfit to go to the
temple and appear before God. In a medical sense Hippocrates used this
word akatharsia to describe an infected, oozing wound with pus
and crusty impurities that gather around the sore or wound. What is
“impure” is filthy and repulsive, especially to God. Akatharsia
was a general term often used of decaying matter, like the contents of a
grave. In short akatharsia describes any excessive behavior or
lack of restraint and speaks more of an internal disposition. Immoral
filthiness is on the inside whereas the lawless acts of ''immorality''
are on the outside.
William Barclay
writes that the related word akatharsia means...
everything which would unfit a man to
enter into God’s presence. It describes the life muddied with wallowing
in the world’s ways. Kipling prayed
“Teach us to rule ourselves always,
Controlled and cleanly night and day.”
Akatharsia is the very opposite of that clean purity...It can be
used for the pus of an unclean wound, for a tree that has never been
pruned, for material which has never been sifted. In its positive form (katharos,
an adjective meaning pure) it is commonly used in housing contracts to
describe a house that is left clean and in good condition. But its most
suggestive use is that katharos is used of that ceremonial
cleanness which entitles a man to approach his gods. Impurity,
then, is that which makes a man unfit to come before God, the soiling of
life with the things which separate us from him....Jesus used the word
to describe the rottenness of decaying bodies in a tomb (Matthew
23:27). The other ten times the word is used in the New Testament it is
associated with sexual sin. It refers to immoral thoughts, passions,
ideas, fantasies, and every other form of sexual corruption."(Barclay,
W: The Daily Study Bible Series. The Westminster Press
or
Logos)
(Bolding added)
The root
word group (katharos, katharizo, kathairo, katharotes) from which this
adjective is derived describes physical, religious, and moral cleanness
or purity in such senses as clean, free from stains or shame, and free
from adulteration. The word group originally meant clean in a physical
sense as opposed to rhuparos which meant dirty (e.g. pure, clean
water, Eur. Hippolytus 209), then clean, in the sense of free, without
things which come between, as opposed to pleres or mestos, full and then
ritually clean, as opposed to akathartos, unclean and in a religious
sense, morally pure.
NIDNTT writes that...
The negative terms formed by the
addition of alpha-privative, i.e the adj. akathartos and the noun
akatharsia, refer to the whole realm of uncleanness, ranging from
menstruation to moral pollution through wrongdoing
(Brown,
Colin, Editor. New International Dictionary of NT Theology. 1986.
Zondervan).
TDNT writes that in secular
Greek...
At its primitive stage Greek religion
follows the customary pattern. At the historical stage, however, the
gods are seen as friendly forces, though they must be approached with
cultic purity. Rules are thus devised to ward off what is demonic and to
protect the holy nature of the gods. These rules are primarily cultic
but in personal religion, and especially in philosophy, a sublimation
takes place which affects the cultic sphere too. Moral purity as well
as ritual purity is demanded in the approach to deity.
The Old Testament reflects the
same general development. Uncleanness, which may be contracted in
contact with birth or death (Lev 12:2, 4, 5,etc, Nu 19:11) is a positive
defiling force. So is anything linked to a foreign cult. Animals
formerly devoted to deities are disqualified. Hygiene, of course, plays
a role (Lev 11:29, 30). Stress also falls, however, on the holiness of
God, so that the concept of purity develops with special force.
Purifications by washing, sacrifice, or transfer restore forfeited
purity and open up access to God. As God's holiness has moral content,
ritual purity symbolizes moral purity. The prophets emphasize this
aspect even to the point of castigating purely ritual conceptions,
though not of totally rejecting them. Some groups in later Judaism tend
to the opposite extreme, but Hellenistic Judaism (cf. Philo) strongly
spiritualizes the older cultic concept. The cultic rules of cleansing
are upheld, but their significance is primarily symbolical; moral purity
is what God requires. [F. HAUCK, III, 413-17]
(Kittel,
G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. Theological Dictionary of the New
Testament. Eerdmans)
In
Scripture, akathartos pertains to that which may not come into
contact with that which is holy and set apart. (Acts 10:14, 28, 11:8 -
these passages refer to acting in accordance with the Levitical laws -
see all the uses below in Leviticus) In the
Septuagint
akathartos refers almost universally to ceremonial uncleanness or
to whatever (or whomever) is ritually defiled .
In 2Cor 6:17 Paul says to "touch no unclean thing" and in context refers
primarily to those things that relate in some way to idolatry which
defiles everything it touches and was a common practice among the pagans
in Corinth and was part of the "baggage" that many if not most of the
believers brought with them into the church body.
In Rev 17:4 akathartos is associated with sexual immorality or
fornication.
As noted below, all of the uses of akathartos in the Gospels
refer to unclean spirits or demons. In Acts 5:16 Luke describes
"those afflicted with unclean spirits" who were healed (see Acts
8:7).
There are 32 uses of akathartos
in the NT - Mt. 10:1; 12:43; Mk. 1:23, 26, 27; Mk 3:11, 30; 5:2, 8, 13;
6:7; 7:25; 9:25 (All uses in Gospels = unclean spirits = demons); Lk. 4:33, 36; 6:18; 8:29; 9:42; 11:24; Acts 5:16; 8:7;
10:14, 28; 11:8; 1 Co. 7:14; 2 Co. 6:17; Eph. 5:5; Rev. 16:13; 17:4;
18:2. The NAS translates akathartos as impure person(1),
unclean(29), unclean things(1). The KJV translates it as unclean 28,
foul 2.
There
are 122 uses of akathartos in the
Septuagint (LXX)- Lev. 5:2; 7:19, 21; 10:10;
11:4, 5, 6, 24, 25, 26, 31, 32, 33, 38, 39, 40, 43, 47; 12:2, 4, 5; 13:11, 15, 36, 45,
46, 51, 55;
14:19, 36, 40f, 44, 45, 57; 15:2, 4, 5, 6, 16, 17, 18; 17:15; 20:25; 22:5,
6; 27:11,
27; Nu 5:2; 9:6, 7, 10; 18:15; 19:7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21; Deut 12:15, 22;
14:7, 8, 10, 19; 15:22; 26:14; Jdg. 13:4, 7, 14; 2Chr 23:19; Job 15:16;
Pr 3:32; 16:5; 17:15; 20:10; 21:15; Eccl 9:2; Isa 6:5; 35:8; 52:1,
11; 64:6; Lam 4:15; Ezek 4:13; 22:5, 26; 24:14; 44:23; Ho 8:13; 9:3;
Amos 7:17; Zech 13:2
One thing that Paul is teaching in
this section of Ephesians is that
sexuality is a key revealer of a
person's heart (Eph 5:3, 4, 5, 6, 7). In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ
declares sexuality to be an issue of the heart, "Whoever looks at a
woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his
heart" (Mt 5:28-note).
It is not enough to say, "Because I have not physically committed
adultery, therefore I am pure," for lust itself breaks the command
against committing adultery. There is another way of saying this: A
person's behavior in the area of sex is a key revealer of what is ruling
his heart. Paul states it very plainly in Ephesians 5:5: the sexually
immoral person is an idolater. Sex always involves the thoughts,
motives, desires, demands, expectations, treasures, or idols of the
heart. When we deal with sexual sin, it is not enough to simply avoid
committing acts of physical immorality. We must uncover the heart sins
that acts of physical immorality reveal. (Paul
David Tripp)
OR COVETOUS MAN, WHO IS AN
IDOLATER: e pleonektes, o estin (3SPAI) eidololatres:
(Galatians 5:21; Col 3:5; 1Ti 6:10,17; Re 21:8;
22:15)
Covetous
(4123)
(pleonektes from
pleonekteo = to be covetous in turn from
pleíon = more + écho = have) describes one who is
"grasping", one who wants more,
one who is always eager for more and especially for what belongs to
someone else. Greedy for gain. One who desires to have more than is due.
There are only 4 uses in the NT -
1 Corinthians 5:10 I did not
at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the
covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters; for then you would have
to go out of the world.
1 Corinthians 5:11 But
actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if
he should be an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a
reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler-- not even to eat with such a one.
1 Corinthians 6:10 nor
thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor
swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
Ephesians 5:5 For this you
know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous
man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and
God.
As he does in Colossians Paul
associates greed with idolatry...
Therefore consider the members
of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil
desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. (Col 3:5 -
note)
The Greeks defined pleonektes as “the spirit which is
always reaching after more and grabbing that to which it has no right.”
It is aggressive getting. It is not the miser’s spirit, for it aimed to
get in order to spend, so that it could live in more luxury and greater
pleasure and it cared not over whom it took advantage so long as it
could get.
Morris
writes that here is...
Another surprising revelation is that
a "covetous man" is equivalent to an "idolater." In fact, "Thou
shalt not covet" is the last of God's ten commandments (Ex 20:17),
whereas the first two are commands against idolatry (Ex 20:3, 4, 5).
Covetousness, in God's sight, is equivalent to the worship of the
creation rather than the Creator (Ro 1:25-note),
the same as the worship of other aspects of nature as personified in
various gods and goddesses. The god of money and material things is
mammon, and Jesus stressed that "ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Mt
6:24-note).
(Morris,
Henry: Defenders Study Bible. World Publishing)
This verse says essentially the same
thing Paul wrote to the Colossians
Therefore consider
the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion,
evil desire, and greed, which amounts (is) to idolatry (Col
3:5-note)
(Comment: A greedy person is an idolater because he puts things before
God cp note for similar idea where Jesus explains worship of God
versus Mammon in Mt 6:24-note).
Who is an
idolater? Do not think one has to bow to a piece of wood or a
carved stone to be an idolater? As Eadie
writes...
The covetous man makes a god of his
possessions, and offers to them the entire homage of his heart (Ed:
which describes an idolater!) That
world of which the love and worship fill his nature, is his god, for
whose sake he rises up early and sits up late. The phrase...means, that
the covetous man deifying the world rejects the true
Jehovah. Job 8:13; Mt 6:24. (John Eadie, D., LL.D. The Epistle of St
Paul to the Ephesians)
Idolater
(1496)(eidololatres
from
eidolon = idol,
image, a phantom or likeness [from eidos = form, appearance, literally
that which is seen from eido = to see] + látris = servant,
worshiper) (see study of
eidololatreia)
(See
multiple Bile dictionary articles on idolatry) is
literally an
image worshipper or one who serves idols or images representative of
false gods.
Idolatry is the worship of
something created which is in direct opposition to the worship of the
Creator Himself. Ultimately it is placing anything in the place of God,
Who alone deserves the right to be number one in our focus. Originally,
a physical idol helped visualize the god it represented but later people
worshipped the physical object itself (Ro 1:19; 20; 21; 22; 23 see
notes
Ro 1:19;
20;
21;
22;
23).
Eerdman's explains idolatry
as follows...
In the Old Testament, the worship of
gods other than Yahweh, especially through images representing them. The
New Testament extends the concept to include any ultimate confidence in
something other than God, e.g., covetousness, surrender to appetites
(see Eph 5:5-note;
Php 3:19-note;
Col 3:5-note;
cf. "two masters " - Mt 6:24 -note;
1Sa 15:23).
(Myers,
A. C.. The Eerdmans Bible dictionary. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans)
(or
Logos)
Morris has an interesting note
on the meaning of idols writing that they...
are either physical images or
mental constructs with which men try to explain and control the forces
and systems of nature without acknowledging the one true God as Creator
and Sustainer of all things. Paganism, with its pantheism and
polytheism, worshipping the various forces and systems of nature
personified as Mother Earth with all her other personifications as
various gods and goddesses, was rife in John's day and, through various
forms of evolutionism, has always been arrayed in opposition to the true
God of creation and redemption. This is more true today than ever
before, and it is absolutely vital that true Christians should refrain
from all forms of idolatry, whether rationalistic humanism, economic
materialism, or New Age pantheism--all of which are founded on an
evolutionary world view. (Morris,
Henry: Defenders Study Bible. World Publishing)
Unger adds that...
Idolatry may be
classified as follows: (1) the worship of inanimate objects, such as
stones, trees, rivers, etc.; (2) of animals; (3) of the higher powers of
nature, such as the sun, moon, stars; and the forces of nature, as air,
fire, etc.; (4) hero-worship or of deceased ancestors; (5) idealism, or
the worship of abstractions or mental qualities, such as justice.
Another classification is
suggestive: (1) the worship of Jehovah under image or symbol; (2) the
worship of other gods under image or symbol; (3) the worship of the
image or symbol itself. Each of these forms of idolatry had its peculiar
immoral tendency.
(Unger,
M. F., Harrison, R. K., Vos, H. F., Barber, C. J., & Unger, M. F. The
New Unger's Bible Dictionary. Chicago: Moody Press)
We need to be ever vigilant against
the flesh's attraction to idols even in the area of "religion" as sadly
illustrated by the trap Israel fell into with the bronze serpent
episode...
Then (after the people cried out
because they were dying from snake bites) the LORD said to Moses, "Make
a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that
everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he shall live." And Moses
made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came
about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze
serpent, he lived.
(Numbers 21:8,9)
Comment: During the
period of the wilderness wanderings, Israel murmured against the Lord.
As a disciplinary measure, God sent “fiery serpents” among them (Nu
21:5-9). When the stricken people imploringly turned to Moses, he at the
command of God, made a BRONZE SERPENT, a replica of the viper with the
stinging, deadly bite which had already bitten them.
This standard over time (the
details are not in Scripture) degenerated into the idolatrous practice
of BRONZE SERPENT WORSHIP which persisted to the time of King Hezekiah
(729-686 BC, some 700-800 years after the episode in Numbers!)
as recorded in Second Kings...
He (King Hezekiah) removed the
high places and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah.
He also broke in pieces the bronze (nechosheth) serpent
(nahas/nachash) that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of
Israel burned incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan (Hebrew
means "a mere piece of brass" which appears to be a play on the
word nahas/nachash = serpent).
(2Kings 18:4)
What was originally a symbol of sin
judged and salvation given (Jesus made reference to and application of
the serpent episode to the salvation through Himself - see John 3:14 -
see study of
typology),
was perverted into an idol for the practice of idolatry. The flesh is
incorrigible and if it won't worship the Creator, it will end up
worshipping the creation (study Romans 1, beginning in
Romans 1:18ff [see notes])
As we walk by and are led by the Spirit, we must continually choose to
heed the NT imperatives to guard and to flee from seductive idols which
are an abomination to God.
Vine explains that...
Heathen sacrifices were
sacrificed to demons, 1Co 10:19; there was a dire reality in the cup and
table of demons and in the involved communion with demons. In Romans
1:22; 23; 24; 25 (see
notes),
idolatry, the sin of the mind against God (see
Eph 2:3
-note),
and immorality, sins of the flesh, are associated, and are traced
to lack of the acknowledgment of God and of gratitude to Him. An
“idolater” is a slave to the depraved ideas his idols represent, Gal.
4:8, 9; and thereby, to divers lusts,
Titus 3:3
(see note)
(Vine,
W E: Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament
Words. 1996. Nelson)
As Paul explains in Colossians
(see below), greed or covetousness is synonymous with
idolatry because it places selfish desire above obedience to God.
Note that covetousness is the root cause of all sin, because when people
sin, it is basically people doing what they desire, rather than what God
desires. This in turn amounts to worship of self rather than worship of
God, and this is the very essence of idolatry! The great Puritan
writer Stephen Charnock spared no words in describing it this way...
All sin is founded in a secret
atheism.… All the wicked inclination sin the heart… are sparks from this
latent fire; the language of everyone of these is, “I would be a
Lord to myself, and would not have a God superior to me.”… In sins
of omission we own not God, in neglecting to perform what He enjoins; in
sins of commission we set up some lust in the place of God, and pay to
that the homage which is due to our Maker.… We deny His sovereignty when
we violate His laws… Every sin invades the rights of God, and strips Him
of one or other of His perfections.… Every sin is a kind of cursing God
in the heart; an aim at the destruction of the being of God; not
actually, but virtually… A man in every sin aims to set up his own will
as his rule, and his own glory as the end of his actions against the
will and glory of God. (from his book
The Existence and Attributes of God)
(Bolding added)
There are 7 uses of eidololatres
in the NT (and surprisingly none in the Septuagint)--
1 Corinthians 5:10 I did not
at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous
and swindlers, or with idolaters; for then you would have to go
out of the world.
1 Corinthians 5:11 But actually, I wrote to you not to associate
with any so-called brother if he should be an immoral person, or
covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a
swindler-- not even to eat with such a one.
1 Corinthians 6:9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall
not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals,
1 Corinthians 10:7 And do not be idolaters, as some of
them were; as it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and
stood up to play."
Ephesians 5:5 For this you know with certainty, that no immoral
or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an
inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
Revelation 21:8 "But for the
cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral
persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part
will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the
second death."
Revelation 22:15 Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the
immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone
who loves and practices lying.
Vincent reiterates that the
New Testament usage (of eidololatres)
does not confine the term to the worship of images, but extends it to
the soul’s devotion to any object which usurps the place of God.
HAS AN INHERITANCE IN THE
KINGDOM OF CHRIST AND GOD: ouk echei (3SPAI) kleronomian en te basileia
tou Christou kai theou:
Eadie comments that this man
(previously described)...
“has no inheritance," and shall or
can have none; the present stating a fact, or law unalterably
determined. (John Eadie, D., LL.D. The Epistle of St Paul to the
Ephesians)
Has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God - Clearly Paul
is warning that those who have a lifestyle characterized by the sins just
listed are lost, still dead in their sins (Eph 2:1) and on the way to the Lake of fire
(Rev 20:10, 14, 15, Mt 25:41, 46)
and eternal separation from God (2Th 1:9, cp Mt 22:13, Jude 1:13). The
kingdom in simple terms is where
Christ and God rule as King. Those lives as Paul describes have no part in the present invisible
Kingdom (Lk 17:20, 21, 10:9, 10, 11, Mt 12:28, Ro 14:17) nor in the future earthly kingdom of Christ
(Rev 20:4, 5, 6, Mt 25:31,34). Note carefully that
Paul is not referring to the Judgment Seat of Christ (bema
- 2Co 5:10, Ro 14:10) and loss of
rewards (1Co 3:12, 13, 14, 15). The subject is salvation not rewards. They are professors of
Christ but lack the power of Christ which would validate them as
possessors of Christ. Their lifestyle of sinful conduct discloses their
true character as those still in Adam and not those who are by grace
through faith now in Christ. Paul is not
saying of course that they cannot be saved but that the implication is
clear that if the salvation is genuine they will repent of these heinous
sins as a lifestyle.
J Vernon McGee minces no words
declaring that...
It is clearly understood that the
unregenerate man who practices these sins has no portion in the kingdom
of Christ and God. If a professing Christian practices these sins, he
immediately classifies himself. No matter what his testimony may be on
Sunday or what position he may have in the church, such a person is
saying to the lost world that he is not a child of God. To live in the
corruption of the flesh is to place one’s self beyond the pale of a
child of God. (McGee,
J V: Thru the Bible Commentary: Thomas Nelson)
Has
(2192)
(echo) is in the
present tense
which pictures the
continuing negative state.
Inheritance
(2917)
(kleronomia from kleros = lot + némo = hold,
have in one’s power, distribute) (see study of related
Kleronomos) is originally a portion which one
receives by lot in a general distribution. In the NT the idea of chance
attaching to the lot is eliminated. It is the portion or heritage which
one receives by virtue of birth or by special gift from someone who has
died (Lk 12:13). In a figurative sense, kleronomia refers to God's
promised gifts as our inheritance (which is the use in Eph 5:5). (See
dictionary discussion of
Inheritance)
Thayer summarizes kleronomia
as (1) an inheritance, property received (or to be received) by
inheritance, or (2) what is given to one as a possession.
NIDNTT says that in classical
Greek...
kleros is derived from klao, break.
In the first instance it means a lot. Used from Homer on it meant
originally the fragment of stone or piece of wood which was used as a
lot. Lots were drawn to discover the will of the gods. Since land was
divided by lot, probably in the framework of common use of the fields,
kleros came to mean a share, land received by lot, plot of land, and
finally inheritance. The vb. belonging to this is kleroo, to draw lots,
apportion by lot. Kleronomia compounded from kleros and
nemo, allot, is first the activity of dividing by lot, then the
portion so divided, the inheritance. The kleronomos is one who has been
given a kleros, the inheritor.
synkleronomos is a fellow heir, and kleronomeo means be an heir, inherit
What is the difference between kleros
and kleronomia (in the context of the uses in the Septuagint)? Sometimes
both terms are used interchangeably for nahªlâh (e.g. Nu. 18:23f.;
32:18f.; Josh 17:4; cf. Jdg. 2:9). However, kleros, which meant
originally lot, stresses more the individual piece of land allotted by
lot, whereas kleronomia points
more to the fact of inheritance with all its connotations already
mentioned. kleros may be used in the plural, but kleronomia is never so
used. kleronomia has the richer associations in the context of salvation
history.
Here are the 14
uses of kleronomia in the NT - Mt 21:38; Mk 12:7; Lk 12:13;
20:14; Acts 7:5; 20:32; Gal 3:18; Eph 1:14, 18; 5:5; Col 3:24; Heb
9:15; 11:8; 1Pe 1:4.
Kleronomia is us 150 times in
the
Septuagint (LXX)
- Ge 31:14; Ex
15:17; Nu 18:20, 23; 24:18; 26:54, 56; 27:7, 8, 9; 32:18; 34:2; 35:8;
36:2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 12; Deut 2:12; 3:20; 12:9; 19:14; 32:9; 33:4; Jos 1:15;
11:23; 12:6; 13:1, 7, 14, 23, 28; 15:20; 16:5, 8, 9; 17:4; 18:7, 20, 28;
19:1, 8, 9, 10, 16, 23, 31, 39, 47; Jdg. 2:6, 9; 18:1; 20:6; 21:17, 23,
24; Ru
4:5, 6, 10; 1Sa 10:1; 26:19; 2Sa 14:16; 20:1, 19; 21:3; 1Ki 8:12,
36, 51; 12:16, 24; 21:3, 6; 2Ki 21:14; 1Chr 16:18; 21:12; 2Chr
6:27; 10:16; 20:11; 31:1; Esther 4:17; 10:3; Job 31:2; 42:15; Ps 2:8;
16:5f; 28:9; 33:12; 37:18; 47:4; 61:5; 68:9; 74:2; 78:62, 71; 79:1;
94:5, 14; 105:11; 106:5, 40; 111:6; 127:3; 135:12; 136:21, 22; Is 17:14;
19:25; 47:6; 49:8; 54:17; 58:14; 63:17; Je 2:7; 3:19; 10:16; 12:7, 8, 9,
14, 15; 16:18; 50:11; 51:19; La 5:2; Ezek 11:15; 25:4, 10; 44:28; 45:1;
46:16, 17, 18; 47:14, 22, 23; 48:28; Joel 2:17; 3:2; Mic 1:14, 15; 2:2; 7:14, 18;
Zech 4:7; Mal. 1:3
Nave's Topic on Inheritance
has the following Scriptural cross references
INHERITANCE
Provisions for inheritance under Levirate marriages,
Ge. 38:7-11; Num. 36:6-9; Deut. 25:5-10; Ruth 3:1-8; 4:7-17.
Unclassified Scriptures Relating to
Ge 15:3; 21:9, 10, 11; 24:36; 25:5, 6; 48:21, 22; Nu. 27:6, 7, 8,
9, 10, 11; Deut. 21:15, 16, 17; 1Ki 21:3; 2 Chr. 21:3; Job 42:15; Pr
17:2; 20:21; Eccl. 2:18, 19; Je 32:6-8; Ezek 46:16-18; Lk 15:12, 25-31;
Gal 3:15; Heb 9:16, 17
Figurative
Psa. 37:29; Acts 20:32; Acts 26:18; Ro 8:16, 17; Eph. 1:11, 12, 13, 14;
Titus 3:7; Heb. 1:14
Kingdom (932)(basileia
from basileus = a sovereign, king, monarch) denotes sovereignty,
royal power, dominion and refers therefore to the territory or people
over whom a king rules.
The basileia
is the kingdom under the special jurisdiction of its King, and no
one can or dare enter without His sanction...That kingdom which begins
here, but is fully developed in the heavens, is that of Christ and
God...the idea here is, that the inheritance is common to Christ and
God...Theos appears to be added, not merely to exhibit the
authority by which the exclusion
of selfish and covetous men is warranted, but principally to show the
righteous doom of the idolater who has chosen a different deity.
The kingdom is named
Christ's inasmuch as He secures it, prepares it, holds it for us,
and at length conveys us to it; and it is God's as it is His
originally, and would have remained His though Christ had never come;
for He is in Christ, and Christ's mediation is only the working out of
His gracious purposes—God having committed the administration of this
kingdom into His hands.
Into Christ's kingdom the
fornicator and sensualist cannot come; for, unsanctified and unprepared,
they are not susceptible of its spiritual enjoyments, and are filled
with antipathy to its unfleshly occupations; and specially into
God's kingdom “the covetous man, who is an idolater,” cannot come, for
that God is not his god, and disowning the God of the kingdom, he is
self-excluded. As his treasure is not there (Mt 6:20, 21-note),
so neither there could his heart find satisfaction and repose.
(John Eadie, D., LL.D. The Epistle of St Paul to the Ephesians)
The Kingdom of Heaven or Christ and God is the
sphere in which God is acknowledged as King (In hearts giving Him
obedience). In this sense the Kingdom has a spiritual aspect, a present
physical aspect, and a future eternal aspect (beginning with the
millennium,
cf Mt 25:31,34), all of course depending on the context of the passage
in which basileia is found. Paul is careful to remind us that the
Kingdom of Heaven/God is not in observance of ordinances, external and
material, but in the deeper matters of the heart, which are spiritual
and essential (Ro 14:17-note)
Click here
to study over 100 uses of the "Kingdom" most of which refer to
the Kingdom of Heaven/God. See also related discussion on
the Kingdom of Heaven
Paul
addressed the same issue in the Corinthian church writing...
Or do you not know that the
unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?
Do not be deceived
(present
imperative with a
negative = stop being deceived = some were being deceived!);
neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor
homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers,
nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of
you; but (praise God) you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were
justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our
God. (1Cor 6:9-11).
And again Paul gave a similar warning to the
Galatians writing...
Now the deeds of the flesh are
evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry,
sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes,
dissensions, factions, 21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things
like these, of which I forewarn you just as I have
forewarned you (he is reminding them of something he had already
taught - how prone we are to forget, becoming then so prone to wander!
Don't forget this warning beloved of the Father!) that those who
practice (prasso = perform repeatedly or habitually -
present tense
emphasizes this refers to one's
lifestyle, not isolated occurrences of these sins. NLT picks up this
sense rendering it "anyone living that sort of life will not inherit
the Kingdom of God") such things shall not inherit the kingdom of
God. (Galatians 5:19-21)
You
stop chasing sin.
Sin starts chasing you.
Wayne Barber
writes that...
when you become a
Christian, something changes. You stop chasing sin. Sin starts
chasing you. It doesn’t mean you can’t fall in one of those areas,
but it means you cannot pursue it and claim to know Jesus Christ. The
seed of God inside of you will not let that take place (1Jn 3:4, 5, 6,
7, 8, 10)
.
You’ve got to
remember, when you receive Christ (Jn 1:12, 13) it is not some religious insurance
policy, it is the heart change (2Co 5:17, cp Ezek 36:26, 27, 11:19, 20,
Jer 31:31, 32, 33, 34, 32:39, 40, Gal 6:15). The
Spirit
of the living God comes inside of you (1Cor 12:13, Ro 8:9). That doesn’t mean that person
can’t have tendencies and weaknesses and times of wearing the wrong
garment and fall back into it and be pulled that way, but he cannot
habitually (present
tense) pursue it anymore and call himself to be a Christian. (Ephesians 5:6-7: Don't Be Deceived)
S Lewis Johnson
explains that Paul is not talking about
a single act but a lifestyle...
I’m inclined to think the Apostle is
thinking about is not an occasional act, a single act, but what he’s
talking about is a certain kind of lifestyle characterized by these
things. In other words, the person whose lifestyle is characterized by
fornication, he is a fornicator who continually commits the sin of
fornication, or an unclean person, if that characterizes his life, or a
covetous man, if that characterizes his life, then Paul is saying, he
doesn’t have any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God because
the fact that his life is totally characterized by these things is an
evidence that he doesn’t really have salvation.
Because you see, one of the products of genuine salvation is that we are
delivered from the lifestyle that we formerly had (2Co 5:17). We are new creatures
in Christ Jesus. And so, when the Apostle writes here he does not have
any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God, he seems to me to
be saying this person is a lost person. But he’s not lost because of the
commission of one act, but he’s lost if these things characterize him,
if this is the bent of his life. (Pdf
)
D Martyn Lloyd-Jones
explains the concept of the kingdom of Christ and God (the third "component"
below corresponds to the meaning in Ephesians 5:5) noting that...
It means, in its essence, Christ's
rule or the sphere and realm in which He is reigning. It can be
considered in three ways as follows. Many times when He was here in the
days of His flesh our Lord said that the kingdom of heaven was already
present. Wherever He was present and exercising authority, the
kingdom of heaven was there. You remember how on one occasion, when
they charged Him with casting out devils by the power of Beelzebub, He
showed them the utter folly of that, and then went on to say, 'If I cast
out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come
unto you' (Matt 12:28). Here is the kingdom of God. His
authority, His reign was actually in practice. Then there is His phrase
when He said to the Pharisees, 'the kingdom of God is within you, or,
'the kingdom of God is among you' (NAS "is in your midst" Luke 17:21).
It was as though He were saying,
It is being manifested in your
midst. Don't say "look here" or "look there". Get rid of this
materialistic view. I am here amongst you; I am doing things. It is here.
Wherever the reign of Christ is being
manifested, the kingdom of God is there. And when He sent out His
disciples to preach, He told them to tell the cities which received them
not, 'Be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto
you.' (Luke 10:9, 11, cf Luke 19:11, 21:31)
It means that; but it also means
that the kingdom of God is present at this moment in all who are true
believers...In writing to the Colossians he gives thanks to the
Father 'who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath
translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son' (Col 1:13-note).
The 'kingdom of his dear Son' is 'the kingdom of God, it is 'the kingdom
of heaven', it is this new kingdom into which we have entered. Or,
again, in his letter to the Philippians he says, 'Our conversation is in
heaven,' or, `Our citizenship is in heaven.' We are here on earth, we
obey the powers that be, we live our lives in this way. Yes; but 'our
citizenship is in heaven; from whence also we wait for a Saviour' (Php
3:20-note).
We who recognize Christ as our Lord, and in whose lives He is reigning
and ruling at this moment, are in the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom
of heaven is in us. We have been translated into the 'kingdom of his
dear Son'; we have become a 'kingdom of priests. (cf 1Pe 2:9, 10-note,
Rev 1:6 -
note;
Rev 5:10 -note)
The third and last way of looking at the kingdom is this.
There is a sense in which it is yet to come. It has come; it is coming;
it is to come. It was here when He was exercising authority; it is here
in us now; and yet it is to come. It will come when this rule and reign
of Christ will be established over the whole world even in a physical
and material sense. The day is coming when the kingdoms of this world
will have become 'the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, when
Jesus shall reign where'er the sun Doth his successive journeys run; His
kingdom stretch from shore to shore, Till moons shall wax and wane no
more. (Play Isaac Watts precious hymn -
Jesus Shall Reign
sing it out unto the Lord)
It will then have come, completely and entirely, and everything will be
under His dominion and sway. Evil and Satan will be entirely removed;
there will be `new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth
righteousness' (2Pe 3:13-note),
and then the kingdom of heaven will have come in that material way. The
spiritual and the material will become one in a sense, and all things
will be subject to His sway, that 'at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under
the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord, to the glory of God the Father' (Php 2:10, 11-note).
(Lloyd-Jones,
D. M.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount)
(Bolding added)
Christ
(5547)
(Christos from chrio = to anoint, rub with oil, consecrate
to an office) is the Anointed One, the Messiah, Christos being
the Greek equivalent of the transliterated Hebrew word Messiah.
The
Disciple's Study Bible has a sobering note on this verse...
God stands totally opposed to sin.
His willingness to forgive sin does not at all mean His laxity towards
those who practice sinning. His forgiveness only follows our repentance,
our turning from the practice of sin. If we do not turn from our sins,
we will face God's wrath. No trickery with words by any preacher or
teacher can change that. (Disciple's
Study Bible)
Wayne Barber comments on those
who do not have an entrance into the kingdom of heaven noting first that
the...
word "no"
means absolutely none of any kind. They do not have an inheritance in
the kingdom of Christ and of God.
What is he
saying? If you are habitually living the way he has just described, you
do not have an inheritance in the kingdom of God. The argument has
popped up recently in circles, can a man be a Christian and be a
practicing homosexual? Can a man be a Christian and be a habitually
practicing adulterer? No way. Let me show you something. Look at 1 John
3:1-8a and see what you think.
"See how great a
love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children
of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know
us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God,
and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He
appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.
And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself,
just as He is pure. Everyone who practices sin also practices
lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He appeared in
order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides
in Him sins [habitually]; no one who sins [habitually] has seen Him or
knows Him. Little children, let no one deceive you; the one who
practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one
who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the
beginning."
The purpose of the
book of Ephesians is to raise people’s view of salvation.
When you have a
low view of salvation, it allows for that view. So when you have a high
view of salvation, friend, it cuts it out. There is a brand new life. It
doesn’t mean you can’t sin. It doesn’t mean you can’t struggle in an
area of sin. It doesn’t mean that you can’t repeat that sin. But you are
miserable in the process because the Holy Spirit lives within you. The
Holy Spirit is there to convict you and bring you back to the cross to
where you can repent and go on and wear that new garment.
Well, we have an
old garment and a new garment. But what does I John tells us about the
one who habitually wears the old garment? The same thing Ephesians says.
He in no way has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ or of God. If
you have struggles with that, go to the Scriptures and see what it
teaches you. That is the key. Don’t argue with your experience. Go to
see what God’s Word has to say. We need a high view of salvation.
Salvation means more than just joining a church. It means that something
has happened to us and the nature of God has come into us. His Spirit
lives in our lives.
F B Meyer has the following
devotional thoughts on our inheritance...
THE SAINTS' INHERITANCE IN GOD. When
an emigrant first receives the title-deeds of the broad lands made over
to him in the far West, he has no conception, as he descends the steps
of the Government office and passes into the crowd, of all that has been
conveyed to him in the schedule of parchment. And, though acres vast
enough to make an English county are in his possession, rich and loamy
soil, or stored with mines of ore, yet he is not sensibly the richer.
For long days he travels, towards his inheritance and presently pitches
his flimsy shanty upon its borders. But even though he has reached it,
several years must pass before he can understand its value, or compel it
to minister, with all its products, to his need.
O child of God, thy estate has been procured at the cost of blood and
tears; but thou didst not buy it! Its broad acres have been made over to
thee by deed of gift. They became thine in the Council chamber of
eternity, when the Father gave Himself to thee in Jesus. And they became
thine in fact, when thou wast born at the foot of the cross. As soon as
thou didst open thine eyes to behold the crucified Lord, thou didst all
unconsciously become heir to the lengths and breadths, and depths, and
heights of God!
No sooner has the emigrant reached his estate, than he commences to
prospect it. He makes a circuit of its bounds; he ascends its loftiest
hills; he crosses and recrosses it, that he may know all that has come
into his ownership. And this is God's message to thee, O Christian soul!
Look from the place where thou art, northward, and southward, and
eastward, and westward; for all this land is given to thee! Precious
things of the sun and of the moon, for God is light; of the ancient
mountains of his faithfulness, and the everlasting hills of his truth;
of the fountains and brooks of his love, that gush spontaneously forth
to satisfy and enrich.
But next to this, the emigrant encloses some small part of his
inheritance, placing around it a tentative fence or partition; and here
he begins to expend toil and skill. The giant trees are cut down; and
their roots burnt out, or extracted by a team of horses. The
unaccustomed soil is brought beneath the yoke of the plough. The
grassland yields pasture to the cattle; and there is not a square inch
of the enclosed territory that does not minister to the needs of the new
proprietor. But not content with this, in the following year he pushes
his fences back further into the depth of prairie or forest, and again
renews his efforts to compel the land to yield him her secret stores.
Year after year the process is repeated, until, perhaps when twenty
years have come and gone, the fences are needed no longer, because the
extent of occupation is commensurate with the extent of the original
purchase.
Let every reader mark this, that supposing two men obtained a grant of
an equal number of acres, if other things were equal, their wealth would
be in exact proportion to the amount of use which each had made of his
special acres. If one had learnt a swifter art of appropriating the
wealth that lay open to his hand, he would be actually, though perhaps
not potentially, richer than his neighbour. All of which is a parable.
The difference that obtains between Christians is not one of grace, but
of the use we make of grace. That there are diversities of gift is
manifest; and there always will be a vast difference between those who
have five talents and those who have two, in the amount of work done for
the kingdom of God. But as far as our inheritance of God's grace is
concerned, there are no preferences, no step-children's portions, no
arbitrary distinctions. It is not as under the laws of primogeniture,
that one child takes all, while the younger children are dismissed with
meagre allowances. Each soul has the whole of God. God gives Himself to
each. He cannot give more; He will not give less than Himself.
If then you would know why it is that some of God's children live lives
so much fuller and richer than others, you must seek it in the
differences of their appropriation of God. Some have learnt the happy
art of receiving and utilizing every square inch if we may use the
expression of that knowledge of God which has been revealed to them.
They have laid all God's revealed character under contribution. They
have raised harvests of bread out of the Incarnation; and vintages of
blood-red grape from the scenes of Gethsemane and Calvary; and
pomegranates and all manner of fruit out of the mysteries of the
Ascension and the gift of the Holy Ghost. In hours of weakness they drew
on God's power; in those of suffering, on his patience; in those of
misunderstanding and hatred, on his vindication; in those of apparent
defeat and despair, on the promises that gleam over the smoke of the
battle, as the Cross before the gaze of Constantine; in death itself, on
the life and immortality which find their home in the being of Jehovah.
The analogy that we have quoted, however, fails us utterly in its final
working out. The emigrant at last covers his estate, its mines become
exhausted, its forests levelled, its soil impoverished; but when a
million years have passed, the nature of God will lie before us as
utterly unexplored and unexhausted, as when the first-born son of light
commenced like a Columbus in the spiritual realm to explore the contents
of the illimitable continent, God.
When we were children, the map of Africa gave us a few scattered names
around the coast line; but the great interior was blank. Modern maps
containing the results Of the explorations of Livingstone, Stanley,
Burton, tell another story of river, Savannah, tableland, and of myriads
of inhabitants. Probably, ere long the whole will have been opened up to
European civilization and commerce. But with God this shall never be. We
shall never know the far-away springs of the Niles and Congo's of his
nature; we shall never unravel the innermost secret of his being. (The
Reciprocal Inheritance)
