But doesn’t 2 Timothy 2:15 tell us to study the bible?

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But what about the King James Version (KJV) translation of 2 Timothy 2:15 that says: “Spoudazo study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly cutting-straight-along-a-pattern-of (a) the logos message of [singular] Truth.”  Doesn’t this tell ALL Christians to be bible students?  Or at least “serious Christians” and for sure those who want to “serve the Lord?”  After all, haven’t we heard so many pastors tells us this?  We will find out No!  Paul has already told Timothy what “pattern” to “cut-straight-along” in 2 Timothy 1:13 “Follow the hupotuposis pattern (b) of the hugiaino sound logos messages that you have already heard from me:  in/by/with [singular] trusting-relying-faith and/coupled unconditional-love that are in/by/with Christ Jesus,” but more about this below. <Notes> a) cutting a straight road, without deviation, thus handling or teaching straight along ‘pattern’ given to you, b) hupotuposis:  pattern, outline, form, sketch, example, sample, c) hugiaino: sound, in-balance, all-parts-working, healthy condition.

First, we know that Timothy was the “workman” or “man of God” (a) that Paul is addressing this to – a pastor-in-training, not the average Christian as so many have erroneously applied this to as is often the problem when you don’t discern the intended audience!  <Notes> a) 1 Timothy 6:11; 2 Timothy 3:17.

Second, “the logos message of [singular] Truth” in context has absolutely nothing to do with biblical writings!  Paul clearly defines “the logos message of The Truth” as “the gospel of the salvation of you” (a), “the logos message of The Truth, the gospel” (b), “to us the logos message of this salvation has been sent” (c), just as Peter does:  “God made a choice among you that through-the-realizing-channel-of my mouth the Gentile should hear the logos message of the gospel and/coupled to have trusting-relying-faith” (d). This is particularly obvious when you understand that “The Truth” is gnosis informational-knowledge of the bible at all, but a special NT term used for Jesus Christ as the perfect revelation of the Father (e) and His Spirit (f) – see The Truth page.  Thus the gospel logos message is about Jesus Christ who is The Truth about the Father, and remember that very little of this was even written down for so many years!  The phrase “preach the gospel” is used at least 26 times and so naturally “trusting-relying-faith comes from akouo hearing-to-understand and akouo hearing-to-understand through-the-realizing-channel-of [singular] directly-spoken rhema word of Christ” (g), “but how are they going to akouo hear-to-understand [Christ call them to Himself] without someone preaching” (h)?  There simply isn’t anything here about reading ancient bible writings! <Notes> a) Ephesians 1:13, b) Colossians 1:5, c) Acts 13:26, d) Acts 15:7, e) John 1:14, 17, 8:31, 36, 14:6; Ephesians 4:21, f) John 14:17, 15:26, 16:13; 1 John 4:6, 5:6, g) Romans 10:17, h) Romans 10:14.

As we saw in Bible Info – BT1, the NT writers purposely use terms Jews are familiar with, but they use them in a completely-different-in-kind way, almost redefining them based on New Revelation, and they justify this because many verses say that the OT is but “a copy and/coupled shadow of the heavenly things, of the things to come, but the reality belongs to Christ” (a).  The redefinition of “logos Word of God” has been the subject of all these BLOGs, and so this is just another case of it. <Notes> a) Colossians 2:17; Hebrews 8:5, 9:23, 10:1; 1 Peter 3:21.

Third, Paul did this so Timothy “won’t neglect his prophetically-received grace-gift” (a) of evangelism or preaching the logos gospel message of trusting-relying-faith in/by/with The Truth, who is Jesus Christ (b) and/coupled Christ’s only entole commandment to unconditionally-love one another as He did us.  As stated earlier in 2 Timothy 1:13, this IS the same as Paul’s advise to “Follow the hupotuposis pattern of hugiaino sound logos messages (c) that you have already heard from me” – not the indiscriminate preaching or teaching of OT scriptures – see also Only 2 Commandments!  Paul would be “having some words” with many pastors today! <Notes> a) 1 Timothy 4:14, b) 2 Timothy 4:2, 5, c) 1 Timothy 1:10, 4:6, 6:3.

Fourth, this has nothing to do with “studying” any writings!  The Greek word spoudazo means “endeavor or be so diligent or zealous that it causes you to rush forward.” Www.spoudazogroup.com defines spoudazo as “zealous concentration, earnest, diligent effort – to give maximum effort, do your best, spare no effort, and be eager when pursuing something or carrying out tasks.” Paul was simply telling Timothy to get off his duff and get out there to preach the gospel, to not neglect his grace-gift of evangelism/preaching, lest he “get entangled in civilian pursuits” (a) – preaching the logos gospel message of The Truth based on Paul’s “sound teaching,” not “the irreverent babbling” or “quarreling about words” or “ignorant or foolish controversies” about the Law or “endless genealogies” like the Jewish false teachers did (b)!  <Notes> a) 2 Timothy 2:4, b) 1 Timothy 1:4, 6:4, 20; 2 Timothy 2:14, 16, 23; Titus 3:9 – see Logos Word of God – BT8.

Out of 54 (a) bible translations, only 10 (b) got it wrong by saying spoudazo means “study.” So, why did the KJV start a bad precedence for the other 9?  In 1611, when the KJV was written, the 3rd most common definition of “study,” actually the least common, did mean “to endeavor diligently,” so the translators weren’t completely dishonest in choosing “study” for spoudazo.  However, they still were very misleading to even the readers of their day, because the more common meanings were at that time: “1) to fix the mind closely upon a subject; to muse, to dwell upon in thought; and 2) to apply the mind to books.”  Why then would the translators purposely mislead their readers?  Could it have something to do with the fact that their livelihoods as professors and scholars in universities employed under King James relied on students “hitting the books, learning, analyzing, investigating, examining, scrutinizing, and earnestly contemplating?”  Since this is also our modern definition for “study,” can you see how misleading that this would be to a modern reader? <Notes> a) Such as: ASV, CSB, DARBY, DLNT, EXB, HCSB, MOUNCE, NASB, NKJV, NMB, WEB, and YLT, b) KJV, KJ21, AKJV, AMP, AMPC, BRG, DRA, GNV, JUB, and MEV.

It seems many translators and Christians have fallen into the same ‘trap’ as the scribes and Pharisees.  They were the expert bible students of Christ’s day, but look what Jesus said of them in John 5:39-40:  “You diligently search/study (a) the scriptures (b) because you suppose (c) that in them you will lay hold of zoe genuine-life everlasting, but instead it is they that bear witness of Me, yet you refuse to COME TO ME that you may have zoe genuine-life.”  Clearly their “supposing” was wrong!  They missed the point of the scriptures – to prepare them for Christ!  In fact, their “tables” for rolling out their scrolls to compare and study them had become a “snare, trap, and stumbling block” and God had cursed their efforts with a “retribution – bend backs forever!” (d) – see New Covenant Ways – BT17. Smart people can really get stuck – bent over!  Paul also warns of people “always learning but never able to arrive at a genuine, experiential, relational epignosis knowledge of The Truth” (e). That’s why Paul rhetorically asks about who really was in the Church:  “For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the sunesis ‘connect-the-dots’ understanding of the understanding-ones I will thwart.’  Where is the wise one?  Where is the scribe?  Where is the debater of this age?  Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world” (f)?  Being a bible student wasn’t the answer!  <Notes> a) ereunao:  diligently search, inquire, seek, examine, or investigate in order to sunesis ‘connect-the-dots’ to understand, a major step for gnosis info-knowledge, b) the bible of their day, c) dokeo:  have the opinion of, seem to think, suppose what seems to be, make a subjective mental estimate, which directly reflects the personal values of the person making this a subjective judgment call.  In other words, it may not be the truth at all, d) Romans 11:7-10 quoting Isaiah 28:13, cf. Romans 11:7-10; 1 Corinthians 3:19; Job 5:13, e) 2 Timothy 3:7, f) 1 Corinthians 1:19-20

Reflection:

As Christian musicians, we have to be careful that we aren’t perpetuating wrong doctrines by preaching/teaching from our English bibles, many of which “mishandle” the original texts.  We need to “cut along the pattern” that was actually given us in the NT, not the traditions of the Catholic and Protestant churches that came much later.  Even if we don’t know how to use the many online tools to access more accurate meanings of Greek and Hebrews words, just reading verses carefully in context can keep you from get side-tracked into error.  Just using www.biblegateway.com to read several more modern accurate translations (see Bible Info) can alert you to a possible problem with the text.  But the best way is still to learn how to really eido mentally ‘see’ to perceive/know and/or akouo listen/hear-to-understand the prophetic-rhema words of God from the “One Teacher” of the Holy Spirit, and this happens in proseuche conversational-prayer.

Clearly the Logos Word of God has been redefined from the old covenant scripture to the completely-different-in-kind New Covenant’s Jesus Christ, who is completely The Truth about the Father, and His preached gospel message of unconditional-loving-favor-of-grace which have absolutely nothing to do with even 1 of the 613 commandments, not even the 2 greatest one of “loving God and neighbor” that “sum up The Law and The Prophets.”  The only 2 commandments we have NOW of trusting-relying-faith in Christ and unconditionally-loving others as Christ have absolutely nothing to do with the old covenants commandments.  Christians are set free from “the imprisonment of scripture” to “belong to another – the person of Jesus Christ.”  Now “trusting-relying-faith comes from hearing the prophetic-rhema words of Christ, especially during the preached logos gospel message” – no longer learning about God by reading and studying ancient scrolls as the scribes and Pharisees were “trapped” by.  Let us not fall into the same trap!  We have the promise of the OT – the Holy Spirit Parakletos along-side “One Teacher.”

Prayer:

Lord, keep us from being “snared and trapped” by the study “tables” of the Jewish scribes and Pharisees, “every leaning but never coming to genuine, experiential, relational epignosis knowledge of The Truth” who is Your Son.  We don’t want their punishment for being so stubborn – “bent backs forever.”  We heed to the purpose of ALL biblical writings and that to be as simple little child or other “least among you” to humble and simply “Come close-beside You so that You will come close-beside us.”  Thank You that we no longer need to read and study in order to sunesis ‘connect-the-dots’ to understand and become wise.  All we need to do is “Come to You and take Your yoke of instructions upon us to learn directly from You” by the “One Teacher” of the Holy Spirit.  Thank You that You have simplified the logos Word of God now to Your Son and His gospel message of only 2 commandments to carefully guard to do:  Ongoing trusting-relying-faith in You and unconditionally-loving others the way You do.  Thank You so much for keeping it simple for us!

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Early Church writings validate my research about the use of the Old and New Testaments

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You can also validate my previous BLOG conclusions about OT usage in the NT church if you research early Church practices before 200 AD.  For example, in the The Didache or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (parts written in 48-50AD, but most within 1^st century) included in church services:  “break bread and give thanks” using orthodox Jewish forms for prayer before and after the meals that began with thanksgiving over the cup and the loaf. When offering the cup, the worship leader would give thanks for the “holy vine of David,” likely a reference to the Messianic community in Psalm 80:8, following up with a doxology, “To you be glory forever.”  After the doxology, the worship leader would give thanks over the broken loaf, thanking God “for the life and knowledge You have revealed through Jesus, Your Child,” concluding with another doxology.  That was followed by a community meal called the agape (love) feast.  Not that this early Church service makes no mention of either ‘the body or the blood of Christ?’  Instead, the emphasis is on the gathering of the church Body per 1 Corinthians 10.17.  The worship service as practiced by the first Christians was a “praise-celebration” of the congregation of God’s people, an event where prayers and thanksgiving, interwoven with doxologies, were offered to God. Do you see how simple the early Church was?  Notice the Jewish Orthodoxy in part.

We know from early Clement I of Rome (a) around 92-99 AD that he quotes the OT scriptures ONLY to support the Christian’s resurrection of the dead, to support a Christian’s virtuous life, to cite Messianic prophecies, and to use typology (antitypes and types) to support Christian doctrines. Clement I of Rome, like Ignatius Theophorus of Antioch (b) and Polycarp (c), who were both disciples of Apostle John, looked at Jesus as being the pleroo completed-fulfillment or teleo fulfillment-accomplishment-completing-finishing of the OT scriptures. Bishop Clement of Alexandria (d) used an “open canon, since he seemed practically unconcerned about canonicity,” including many books that had local acceptance such as:  Barnabas, Didache, 1 Clement, Revelation of Peter, The Shepherd of Hermas, Gospel according to Hebrews, Gospel of Egyptians, Preaching of Peter, Traditions of Matthias, Sibylline oracles, and the Oral Gospel. <Notes> a) the 1st Apostolic Father, consecrated by Apostle Peter, 2nd or 3rd Bishop of Rome after Peter, b) 35/50 – 98/107 AD, c) 69-155 AD, d) 150-215 AD.

Later in Justin Martyr’s First Apology (155-157 AD) writes:  “And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles OR the writings of The Prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president (elder-overseer) verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succors the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Savior on the same day rose from the dead. For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday); and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also for your consideration.”  Wow, that’s pretty simple!  You can still see some use of the prophetic OT but it’s now an option!

Around 200 AD, Hippolytus of Rome, a mostly Gentile church, describes in a manual of church order and worship known as the Apostolic Tradition typical church services that consisted only of water-baptisms, consecrations of bishops with the laying on of hands, greetings or kisses of peace, introductory blessings and congregational responses, thanksgiving for Christ’s coming, a narrative of Christ’s suffering, Christ’s words about the Lord’s Supper, recollection of Christ’s death and resurrection, invocation of the Holy Spirit upon the assembly – see Body-Ministry – BT14, and a doxology.  Can you see how the religion of Christianity starts adding more, but not that there are no more OT readings?

That is because by 200 AD the Church was decidedly Gentile, so why would there be any reading of OT scripture prophecies about Jesus?  There were so few Jewish-Christians in the Church!  After 70 AD when the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed and the Jews scattered, there were many Jewish uprisings and wars in the Roman Empire, making it dangerous to even be associated with the Jews.  What’s more important is that the Church was “practicing and persisting in . . . the parklesis summoning, calling near, or invocation” of the Parakletos Holy Spirit (a) as the One who “comes close beside” us to be our “One Teacher” (b) just as 1 Timothy 4:13 was correctly interpreted in Body-Ministry – BT14.  <Notes> a) Parakletos: ‘Close-beside’ caller, summoner, or inviter; helper, succorer, or assistant; encouraging teacher, counselor, comforter, or consoler; defense-attorney, judicial-advocate, or court-intercessor, b) Matthew 23:8-10.

However, it wasn’t long before a Catholic theologian Tertullian in 208 AD, started calling NT writings “graphe scripture.” Nobody before then referred to the NT writings as “sacred or holy gramma letters” let alone graphe scripture, and certainly not Peter as some erroneously twist 2 Peter 3:15-16 to say – see Logos Word of God – BT11.  “The remaining ‘portions of’ scriptures” in context refers to non-prophetic ‘portions of’ scriptures concerning Christ’s coming judgment that these scoffers were also known for twisting/distorting, the actual emphasis in the text, just as they often twisted the prophetic passages in the OT.  They were doing the same with Paul’s prophecies of end times (a) – so “hard to understand” that Paul was forced to write another letter (b) to clear up the confusion!  Paul’s very long arguments, side-tracking, leaving of words out to save space (ellipsis), pronouns ambiguity, and relatively-poor Greek indeed make many things Paul said “hard to understand!”  However the teachers that Paul and Peter speak of were often profiting off the confusion, often financially taking advantage of confused Christians. I question how many people read verses in their context or really study passages from the original languages before building doctrine from them?  Many commentators and translators including the NET Bible correctly note that this “twisting/distorting” is what all cults, denominational sects, and scoffers do, focusing on the more difficult, obscure passages of the bible, often the prophetic and the supernaturally miraculously – not on its plain teachings!  However, Mark Twain correctly noted:  “Most people are bothered by those passages in scripture which they cannot understand.  However, as for me, I have always noticed that the passages which troubled me most are those which I do understand.” <Notes> a) 1 Thessalonians 1:10, 2:19, 4:16-17, 5:2-9, 23, b) 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10, 2:1, 8, 12-14.

We also know that the Catholic theologian Origen between 233-254 AD, according to one well-known historian, “single-handedly fixed the place of the Old Testament in the Catholic Church” through ground-breaking publications: 375 sermons as a commentary on the entire OT based his immense, word-for-word comparison in 240 AD of the Greek OT Septuagint/LXX version, the Hebrew Masoretic text, a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew text, and the other Greek translations Aquila of Sinope, Symmachus the Ebionite, and Theodotion.   He went from relative insignificance to wealth and fame very quickly!  He indeed brought the OT back into the Church for study, preaching, and doctrine!

By then the Church had already become corrupted with power, money (a), inventing the priesthood (b), inventing the mono-episcopacy or “one-bishop” rule (c), a time when all of the bishops were trying to rule larger and larger (richer and richer) cities ultimately to get to become the Bishop of Rome (the Pope), who would receive many favors with the Emperor, thus inventing the division of the Body-of-Christ into “clergy” vs. “laity” (d), and reinstating one OT commandment after another despite all the warnings of the NT, and creating more rules – all to exercise control over the Church. It’s also no coincidence that at this time there had also been a systematic stamping out the charismata grace-gifts, especially prophecy, by labelling it heretical, even though Irenaeus and Tertullian argued for them by giving many proofs. <Notes> a) reinstating OT tithing to pay for a priesthood, b) patterned after the OT, c) patterned after the high-priests of the OT, d) based on the OT idea of the Levites.

It wasn’t until around 300 AD that we have anybody seriously interested in determining the NT canon or “list of official books,” but especially after Emperor Constantine decriminalized Christianity in 313 AD, the writing of Church History by Eusebius in 330 AD, Constantine’s First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, and Constantine’s commissioning of 50 bibles for his Church of Constantinople in 331 AD. It wasn’t until the Council of Laodicea, made up of 30 clergymen in 363 AD, did they “set out of judge which books were to be read aloud in churches,” which excluded Revelation. In 367 AD, Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria gave us the current 27 book canon of the NT.  One guy!  Other canon lists that came after disagreed.  It took Pope Damasus I in 383 AD to fix the canon in the Roman Catholic Church.  Still there were many challenges to it. The Eastern Church, “had a weaker feeling for the necessity of making a sharp delineation with regard to the canon. Similarly the canons of the Syriac, Armenian, Georgian, Egyptian Coptic, and Ethiopian Churches all have minor differences.” Again, if you really dig into this, you will see that there was many political and financial motivations at work here, and there was little agreement that wasn’t somehow forced upon the Church.

According to www.EarlyChristianWritings.com, there were at least 167 early Christian writings that millions of Christians enjoyed reading, but never considered as a “bible” for the first 200 years, and many of the early Church Fathers didn’t even agree on what NT books were “authoritative.” Additionally, 49 more writings came in the next 100 years. And these are just the ones we have found!  Many manuscript experts, historians, theologians, and segments of Judaism and the Christian Church still disagree as to exactly what belongs in the bible – check out Wikipedia’s “Biblical Canon”  and also “Development of the New Testament Canon.”

This isn’t even dealing with the many debates about the integrity of the text – see Bible Info and Wikipedia’s “Textual Variants in the New Testament.”  If you think everybody agrees what the actual text of the bible, guess again!  There are “around 400,000 textual variants of the NT, a staggering number when coupled with the fact that there are only 138,000 words in the Greek NT, meaning there are almost 3 variants per word.  However, less than 4000 (2.8% of the NT) have a good chance of being authentic and changing the meaning of the text,” writes scholar Tim Barnett 5/24/2016.  There are also 3,415 languages translated into and numerous versions within each of these, even 900 English bibles.  If you don’t think much is “lost or modified in translation” you need to compare them – see Wikipedia’s “List of English Bible translations” and at www.biblegateway.com I last counted 63 NT versions and I’ve seen radical differences in meaning in so many passages!

It wasn’t until 1611 when the Protestant King James decided to call the bible a “Holy Bible” though the idea of “sacred or holy books” (biblia sacra) or a “bible” (biblia) for short was first coined in the Middle Ages (465 – 1500 AD) by a Latin Catholic theologian.  However, it wasn’t until 1611 that King James decided to call the OT and NT collection “The Holy Bible.” 1 king gets to make this decision for everybody!

The more you dive into this, the more you realize that only “wise and learned/understanding” men can even start to scratch the surface of making any sense from all this. This certainly can’t be God’s plan for knowing Him or His will?  Is this a perfect God’s plan, or imperfect man’s attempts to get around God’s perfect plan?

Reflection:

Since the NT and the early Church before 200 AD didn’t use more than the OT prophecies concerning Christ and His completely-different-in-kind New Covenant to convert Jews to Christ or keep Jewish-Christians from lapsing back to the Law of Moses as the Logos Word of God – BT6 page and subsequent BLOGs pointed out, then why are we so quick to include OT scripture, even the Law, even writings that have nothing to do with Christ or His New Covenant or His gospel logos message of saving trusting-relying-faith or His cross and resurrection or His supper’s celebration, or His only 2 commandments of having trusting-relying-faith in Him and unconditionally-loving each other like He does?  If you think that the text and canon of scripture is solid, you just haven’t looked into this very deeply.  If you think that the Church always used the OT, then you haven’t studied history.  If you think any of this is God’s idea, then you must have a very imperfect view of a perfect God.

Prayer:

Lord, call us back by Your Holy Spirit to the simplicity of the early Church that You were in control of before legalistic religious men came into to borrow old covenant ideas and drag them forward into your completely-different-in-kind New Covenant to build The Great Wall quenching the Holy Spirit in the Church.

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The New Testament doesn’t promise more gramma writings or teachers to learn from

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There is nothing in the NT about studying Christ’s or anybody else’s “saying” or logos messages in order to live on this as our “daily bread,” for unlike every other famous rabbi teacher who always kept scribes nearby to write his words down in order to teach other disciples, Jesus never asked anybody to record His words.  Instead Jesus said to His disciples, “Do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say” (a), and “Do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour.  For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you” (b). <Notes> a) Luke 12:11-12, b) Matthew 10:19-20.

Jesus explains why:  “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth:  It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Parakletos Alongside-Helper (a) will not come to you.  But if I go, I will send Him to you. . . When the [Holy] Spirit of The Truth comes, He will guide you into ALL the truth” (b).  Earlier Jesus said:  But the Parakletos Alongside-Helper (a), the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you ALL things and bring to your remembrance ALL that I have said to you” (c).  So you can see there was absolutely no need for new writings! <Notes> a) Parakletos:  ‘Close-beside’ caller, summoner, or inviter; helper, succorer, or assistant; encouraging teacher, counselor, comforter, or consoler; defense-attorney, judicial-advocate, or court-intercessor, b) John 16:6-7, 13, c) John 14:26.

Thus Jesus explains why we shouldn’t follow others: “However you are absolutely in fact not to be called ‘rabbi’ (a) for you have ONE Teacher (b) and/but/thus you are ALL brethren (c); and/coupled call in possibility no man your ‘father’ (d) on earth, for you have ONE Father, who is in heaven; moreover not in possibility be called leader (e), for you have ONE Leader, the Christ (f)” (g) – see Coaches and Facilitators page.  It wasn’t soon before the Catholic Church disobeyed all 3 emphatic teachings of Christ, but the Protestants perpetuated the disobedience! <Notes> a) rabbi in Hebrew means esteemed teacher, b) didaskalos: instructor, c) the point is clear that the “brethren” weren’t to be called “teachers,” d) originator, e) kathegetes: literally “to lead down-from,” used of a leader as someone who brings other ‘down the road of learning’ by giving needed instruction, thus a master-teacher-leader; used in Greek literature of educator-facilitators, f) Christ means Anointed Messiah, g) Matthew 23:8-10 – see Teach One Another – BT10.

The Apostle John also reminds ALL Christians in 1 John 2:20, 27 in answer to teachers coming into the Church confusing and deceiving them: “You’all have been anointed by the Holy One [Christ] and/thus you’all had [with ongoing results] eido ‘seen’ to understand/know . . . I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you.  However, the anointing that you have already received from Him ongoingly abides/lives in you and/thus you have absolutely in fact no need than anyone should teach you, but just as His anointing ongoingly teaches you about ALL things and is trustworthy and indeed no lie, just as it has already taught you, ongoingly abide/live in Him.”  Clearly the apostle wasn’t expecting his readers to blindly follow him and his teaching either, but to follow the “One Teacher” of the anointing – and we know that to always be the promised Holy Spirit!

Paul also speaks out against following teachers, even himself (a).  After all, wasn’t it Jesus that said: “Follow Me” so many times (b)?  Thus even Paul qualified “Follow/imitate me” with “as I also [follow/imitate] Christ” (c).  We have to remember that Jesus said:  “The sheep [of His] hear His (d) Voice, and He calls His own sheep by name/authority and leads them out [to pasture].  When He has brought out all His own, He goes before them, and the sheep follow Him, for they eido mentally ‘see’ to perceive/know His Voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they absolutely in fact do not eido mentally ‘see’ to perceive/know the voice of strangers. . . . My sheep listen/hear-to-understand My Voice, and I experientially, relationally ginosko know them, and they follow Me” (e). There simply isn’t anything here about reading ancient logos messages written with gramma letters into a bible, but everything here about prophetic-rhema words which we know is ‘seen’ and ‘heard’ only by the means of the Holy Spirit. <Notes> a) 1 Corinthians 1:12, 3:4, b) Matthew 4:19, 8:22, 9:9, 10:38, 16:24, 19:21; Mark 1:17, 2:14, 8:34, 10:21; Luke 5:27, 9:23, 59, 18:22; John 1:43, 12:26, 21:19, 22, c) 1 Corinthians 11:1, d) the Good Shepherd’s, e) John 10:3-5, 27.

The “Holy Spirit of The Truth” is spoken about often by the Apostle John (a), and since “The Truth” is NT shorthand for “Christ” (b), John could have just as easily said: “The [Holy] Spirit of the Christ,” which is exactly what the other apostles did (c).  Another variation is: “The [Holy] Spirit of the Lord [Jesus]” (d).  Clearly the NT expected “the Holy Spirit of Lord Jesus Christ” to be the ONLY teacher to “follow or imitate” for Christians of the completely-different-in-kind New Covenant, never again putting their trusting-relying-faith in others, and certainly not to an authoritative, top-down hierarchy of teacher-leaders we see enacted in the OT Law.  That didn’t mean that Christians shouldn’t because of Christian love consider heeding the advice of other (e), or “Unconditionally-love one another with devoted family affection, that is, esteeming one another in/by/with perceived-honor/value” (f), but in context the caveat is:  “Let unconditional-love be genuine:  Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is agathos good” (g).  In other words, you shouldn’t follow in man, and only follow their example if they are following Christ so that it’s indeed “good” – inherently the “good” that originates from God alone (h). <Notes> a) John 14:17, 15:26; 1 John 4:6, 5:6, b) see The Truth page, c) Romans 8:9; Philippians 1:19, 1 Peter 1:11, d) Acts 5:9, 8:39; 1 Corinthians 6:17; 2 Corinthians 3:17-18, e) 2 Thessalonians 3:7-9; 1 Corinthians 11:1, Hebrews 13:7, f) Romans 12:10, g) Romans 12:9, h) Mark 10:18; Luke 18:19.

John 20:30-31 explains why John waited until nearly the end of his life to write his logos message gospel account: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are absolutely in fact not written in this book.  However, these things have already been [with lasting results] written in order that you might have trusting-relying-faith that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by having trusting-relying-faith you might have everlasting zoe genuine-life in His name/authority.” And later in John 21:25 he says: “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”  All the logos message gospel accounts were written fairly late (68-100 AD), so apparently it was more of an after-thought by the apostles and only 2 of the 12 wrote anything down, because Mark and Luke we’re even part of the 12 and Gentiles at that, disciples of Paul’s that simply collected information to later report, with no mention that the Holy Spirit was even guiding them.  So until this time, apparently the early Church simply relied on the Holy Spirit to be sufficient as “The One Teacher” for Christians.  If they had this confidence, maybe it’s a good idea to place our trusting-relying-faith there also!  Are we pointing others to the “Who” of Christ’s Spirit or a “What” or ancient writings that came much later and not even collected into a bible for another 200 years!

Reflection:

As Christian musicians, if the early Church for 300 years didn’t have a bible to rely on, and only a few scattered letters after 50-100 years, but instead was taught directly by “The One Teacher” of Christ’s Spirit, and since all the NT writings point to the latter with absolutely no mention of intended writings, let alone a study of them, maybe we should also have that simple childlike faith that learns directly from being “yoked to Jesus”?

Prayer:

Lord, I praise Your name that “You have kept the secrets of the kingdom hidden from the so-called ‘wise and understanding ones’ – the scribe writers/copiers of biblical texts and teacher-leader Pharisees who study and teach them and the philosopher debaters of this world – but instead un-hidden them for little children and the other ‘least among you’ for certainly then “You show no partiality” and “destroy the wisdom of the so-called wise and thwart the understanding of the so-called understanding ones.”  Praise Your name that you eliminated the need for a top-down hierarchy of teacher-leaders under the old covenant to teach us to know You, but under the completely-different-in-kind New Covenant per Jeremiah 31:31-34, there is absolutely in fact and possibility NO NEED that any man teach us, because of the Anointing of the Holy Spirit so that NOW you teach us ALL directly, so that we might ALL eido mentally “see” to perceive/know You and Your will.  What an incredible simple plan that eliminates all sources of error – You taking over complete control of the process!

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The New Testament has only 1 commandment to the UNSAVED

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Even obedience to God has radically changed from the old covenant’s obeying commandments of the Law in order to be “right and pleasing” to God to the completely-different-in-kind New Covenant’s “obedience of trusting-relying-faith” (a) in “Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord” (b), thus NOW simply “obedience to Jesus Christ” (c) and “obeying the gospel” of God about His Son (d).  The UNSAVED have 1 thing to work or do to NOW be “right and pleasing” to God.  <Notes> a) Romans 1:5, 16:26, b) 1 Corinthians 12:3; Romans 10:9; Philippians 2:11, c) 1 Peter 1:2; 2 Corinthians 10:5, d) 1 Peter 4:17; Romans 10:16; 2 Thessalonians 1:8.

To the UNSAVED, Christ gave only 1 entole commandment (a), a word used very infrequently in the NT because of its universally-binding status.  Jesus said:  “The Father who sent Me has Himself given Me a [singular] entole commandment – what to speak.  And I know that His [singular] entole commandment is zoe genuine-life everlasting (b).  So what was it that Jesus said to the UNSAVED Jews?  “Then they said to Him, ‘What must we do, to be doing the [plural] works (aka OT commandments) of God?’ Jesus answered them, ‘This is the [singular] work of God, that you have trusting-relying-faith in Him (the Son) whom He (the Father) has sent’” (c).  Notice that Jesus diverted their attention away from OT plural “works of commandments” to 1 NT commandment.  Paul also speaks of the “work of God” (d) being the “work of trusting-relying-faith” (e).  Jesus also told unbelieving Jews:  “Have trusting-relying-faith in Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me, or at least have trusting-relying-faith on account of the works [of miracles Jesus performed] themselves” (f).  <Notes> a) entole: official-decree, all-authoritative, universal orders – see Only 2 Commandments page, b) John 12:49-50, c) John 6:29-30, d) In the context of Romans 14:20 this is trusting-relying-faith versus obedience to dietary Laws, e) 1 Thessalonians 1:3; 2 Thessalonians 1:11, f) John 14:11.

In other words, the 1 entole official, all-authoritative, universally-binding decree given to Jesus by the Father to give to the UNSAVED Jews who followed the Law of commandments was to “put their trusting-relying-faith instead in Jesus as the Son of God, their Messiah, the Christ or Anointed One and their Lord.”  Similarly, Paul’s logos gospel message to the UNSAVED Athenian intellectuals: “But now He (God) commands-as-over-troops (a) all people everywhere to repent (b), because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by [one] Man [Jesus] whom He has appointed” (c), so the gospel message was one of repentance to turn to Christ (d).  In 14 places where “trusting-relying-faith and unconditional-love” are associated, they are in that order (e), 6 places directly coupled as such (f).

In 5 places the order is reversed to “unconditional-love and trusting-relying-faith” (g).  So as the previous BLOG states, 1 John 3:23 aptly describes GOD’s single entole commandment under the completely-different-in-kind New Covenant, one part to the UNSAVED and one part to the SAVED:  1) that we have trusting-relying-faith in the name/authority of His (the Father’s) Son Jesus Christ, and/coupled 2) unconditional-love one another – just as He gave a [singular] entole commandment to us.” <Notes> a) paraggello: orders or charges, as a commander his troops, b) metanoeo: turning your heart/mind to trusting-relying-faith in Christ, c) Acts 17:30, d) Matthew 3:2, 4:17; Mark 6:12, e) Ephesians 1:15, 3:17; Colossians 1:4; 1 Thessalonians 1:3, 3:6, 5:8; 2 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Timothy 1:14, 2:15, 6:11; 2 Timothy 1:13; 2 Timothy 2:22, 3:10; 1 John 3:23, f) 1 Thessalonians 3:6, 5:8; 1 Timothy 1:14, 2:15; 2 Timothy 1:13, g) Ephesians 6:23; 1 Timothy 4:12; Titus 3:15; Philemon 1:5; Revelations 2:19.

Salvation through the total surrender or repentance, confession, and water-baptism is the “obedience of trusting-relying-faith” Paul preached to the UNSAVED, obedience to 1 commandment.   Repentance, confession, and water-baptism into Christ were closely linked in the Great Commission passages (a) as with: “Whoever has trusting-relying-faith and is water-baptized will be saved, but whoever does not in fact have trusting-relying-faith will be condemned” (b).  Really simple but religious people always try to get around simplicity!  This was integral to the Church’s evangelistic preaching, starting with the first logos gospel message by Peter that concludes in Acts 2:38-39, “Repent and/coupled be water-baptized every one of you in the name/authority of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the grace-gift of the Holy Spirit – for this promise [of the Holy Spirit] is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself.”  If that’s not clear, try Peter later on in 1 Peter 3:21, “Water-baptism, which corresponds to this (c), now saves you – not as a removal of dirt from the body but [saves you] as a pledge/confession/appeal to God for a good/clear conscience – thru-the-realizing-channel-of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”  Nothing saves us unless Jesus rose from the dead, but because He did the same Holy Spirit will raise us from the dead into glorified bodies to be with Christ forever.  This is the blessed hope Paul preached (d).  <Notes> a) Matthew 28:19-20, Luke 24:47, b) Mark 16:16, c) Noah and his family saved through the flood waters, v. 20, d) Romans 8:23-25; Titus 2:13; 1 Peter 1:3.

The outward act of water-baptism, also a common Jewish practice for Gentile conversion that resulted in them being “born-again” Jews, was also viewed during the first 30 years of the mostly Jewish-Church as a person’s public confession or pledge of “trusting-relying-faith in Jesus as Messiah and Lord,” and “appeal” to be cleansed by the blood of Christ for their “conscience to be made good,” but only possible because of “the resurrection of Christ.”  This is just as Paul says in Romans 10:9, “If you homologeo confess (a) that ‘Jesus is Lord’ (b) and/coupled have trusting-relying-faith in your heart that God resurrected Him from the dead, [then] you will be saved.”  Confession was a person’s audible reciprocation of the logos gospel message that was just evangelistically shared or preached to them that “Jesus was Lord,” indicating verbally that they were in total agreement, like when we say “Amen” to mean “so be it.”  See Surrender Control page. <Notes> a) homologeo: literally, to declare the homo same logos message, b) 1 Corinthians 12:3.

The NT and the early Church Christians didn’t try to separate confession from repentance, or separate these from trusting-relying-faith, or separate any of this from “receiving/embracing/welcoming” the logos gospel message, or from water-baptism, or from salvation, or from Spirit-baptism for godly enabling-power and grace-gifts of ministry.  Instead they are ALL intimately and inseparably connected as so many verses show, even in the Great Commission (a). <Notes> a) Matthew 3:11, 28:19; Mark 1:4, 16:16; Luke 3:3, 24:47; Acts 2:38, 41, 8:13, 16, 36-38, 9:18, 10:47-48, 16:15, 33, 18:8, 25, 19:3-5, 22:16; Romans 6:3-4; 1 Corinthians 1:13-17, 12:13; Galatians 3:27; Ephesians 4:5; Colossians 2:12; and 1 Peter 3:21.

It’s irrelevant to debate whether water-baptism is a “saving work” after so many verses that integrate it with repentance and confession of trusting-relying-faith of “Jesus as Lord” all “for the forgiveness of sins” so that “you may receive Spirit-Baptism.”  Water-baptism has always been a Jewish “act of obedience” as an external public testimony of a person’s internal trusting-relying-faith.  Neither is saving by itself because they are integrally and inseparably connected.  The unique Christian difference is the NOW “water-baptism in in the name/authority of Jesus Christ” and we get “Spirit-Baptism” as the “promised grace-gift of the Father.”  Only the later Greek philosophers and western Christian denominations influenced by them would try to separate all these components and say one is saving and one isn’t.  The NT and early Jewish-Church kept them together and so should we!  Neither our repentant turn to trusting-relying-faith in Christ, our Confession of The Faith, or our water-baptism by itself has any ability to save.  It only saves because of Christ’s resurrection and it only saves if we fully participate in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ to get Spirit-Baptized and the only way to do that is to do all components (a) – see also Surrender Control, Water-Baptism, and Spirit-Baptism pages. <Notes> a) see also Acts 2:41, 8:12, 16, 36, 9:18, 10:47-48, 16:33, 18:8, 19:4-5, 22:16, Romans 6:3-4, 8, 8:15; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Galatians 3:27, 4:5-7; Ephesians 4:5; and Colossians 2:12.

Prayer:

Thank You God that Your Son Jesus met ALL the conditions of obedience, and did ALL the “works of commandments” of the OT, so that NOW Your unconditionally-loving-favor-of-grace towards ALL the UNSAVED is to DO only 1 work, 1 rule, 1 law, 1 commandment – to repent or turn their hearts/minds to put their trusting-relying-faith on the finished work of Christ and/coupled publicly confess this through water-baptism so that they can receive Your saving Holy Spirit.  We will not add anything to Your perfect plan!

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The New Testament only has 2 commandments combined in 1

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Jesus gave only 2 entole commandments (a) for the completely-different-in-kind New Covenant.  For even more details, see Only 2 Commandments – BT4.  All of the other OT commandments belong to the palaios old covenant or Law – “old, antiquated, worn-out, and useless.”  And we know from so much negative written in the NT about the Law that absolutely NONE of it carries over into the completely-different-in-kind New Covenant.  In fact, that is what the definition of “New” means (b), and here’s just a few things the NT says about the old:  “filled to completion, fulfilled, accomplished, completed, finished, ended, violently put to death, nailed to the cross, nullified, abolished, set aside, done away with, vanished, passed away, is no longer binding, so we are no longer under it, and freed from it” – see Logos Word of God – BT8.  <Notes> a) entole: official-decree, all-authoritative, universal orders – see Only 2 Commandments page, b) chadash, kainos: fresh, completely-different-in-kind, unprecedented, sharing nothing with its predecessors, unique, and superior.

The NT says there are only 2 commandments for Christians to obey well articulated in 1 John 3:22-23: “We tereo carefully-watch/keep-guard-over the entole commandments of His (Father-God) and/coupled do the things pleasing before-the-watch-of Him, and/coupled this is His entole commandment [compound-singular]:  1) that we have trusting-relying-faith in the name/authority of His (the Father’s) Son Jesus Christ, and 2) unconditional-love one another – just as He gave a [singular] entole commandment to us.”  Jesus says prophetically of the Church, “I know your works – your  unconditional-love and/coupled trusting-relying-faith, and/coupled [in parallel] service and patient-endurance” (a).  The Apostle Paul writes extensively on the Christian’s unique no-strings-attached, unconditional-love that goes far beyond the OT command to “love your neighbor,” and he routinely combines “trusting-relying-faith and unconditional-love” together (b).  Because of these verses and others, and early Church writings, many theologians and historians believe, like myself, that the early Church’s “good works” or “obedience to commands” was indeed that simple, simple enough for “little children” and other “least among you” to get – simply to tereo “carefully-guard” only 2 commandments of Christ until He returns.  It’s no coincidence that Matthew 28:20 Great Commission uses the same 2 key words: “the whatsoever I have entellomai commanded (c) you” to “teach the made-disciples” to “tereo carefully-guard.”  That’s it, just 2!  It wasn’t until much later around 200AD that the Catholic Church started pulling more and more of the OT commandments back in.  Are we complicating our lives and those of others by adding more to what Christ commanded? <Notes> a) Revelation 2:19, b) Ephesians 1:15, 3:17, 6:23; Colossians 1:4; 1 Thessalonians 1:3, 3:6, 4:9, 5:8; 2 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Timothy 1:14, 2:15, 4:12, 6:11; 2 Timothy 1:13; 2 Timothy 2:22, 3:10; Titus 3:15; Philemon 1:5 c) entellomai is a verb form of entole commandment that emphasizes the end-objective, purpose, or consummation of an officially-decreed, universally-binding charge.

Reflection:

As Christian musicians, why are trying to continue the OT commandments when there are so many NT verses that say that every one of them was “fulfilled, completed, nailed to the cross, nullified, finished, so that we are no longer obligated to it, having been replaced with only 2 NT commandment of trusting-relying-faith in Christ and unconditionally-loving one another universally as Christ did?  Remember it’s supposed to be simple enough for the little children and other “least among you” so that nobody, including God, is showing partiality.

Prayer:

Lord, keep us from showing favoritism by complicating the NT logos message to more than trusting-relying-faith in You and unconditionally-loving others like You did us, the only “good works” You have for us now.  Praise Your name for such simplicity!

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Shouldn’t the 2 greatest OT commandments be included in what is “profitable for teaching?”

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What about the 2 greatest OT commandments of “love God and love your neighbor as yourself?”  Shouldn’t these be included in the “profitable for teaching, etc.” scriptures of 2 Timothy 3:16?  Well we know from early BLOGs (a) that the Law was NOT included in Paul’s instructions to Timothy.  After all, didn’t Jesus teach them to His disciples?  Aren’t these to be included in the Great Commission by Jesus to His apostles:  “teaching the disciples you have made to carefully-watch/guard ALL (b) as-much-as-this (c) that I have already definitively/wholly commanded-for-an-end-purpose (d) you” (e)?  Did Jesus ever entellomai command these 2 OT entole commandments to be taught?  Nope! <Notes> a) see Logos Word of God – BT7 and BT8, b) pas typically used for ‘every of a portion of’ as is here – every of the kind that Jesus commanded, c) hosos is a comparative or correlative pronoun meaning: “as/so great a space as, as many whatsoever as of, as/so long time as, as much as this, so much more, in so far as”, d) entellomai is a verb form of entole commandment that emphasizes the end-objective, purpose, or consummation of an officially-decreed, universally-binding charge, e) Matthew 28:20.

The ONLY places you see these 2 OT commandments mentioned by Jesus is when He simply responded to a trick question posed by scheming Pharisaical lawyer-scribes (a).  Jesus never expounds on either one of these to His disciples.  As much as Jesus loved the Father and as important as the “loving God with your whole being” OT entole commandment, Jesus never expounded on it to His disciples.  And the only time He talked about the “love your neighbor” OT entole commandment was to point out to the unbelieving Jews, not His disciples, the deficiency of that command, because “neighbor” in Hebrew and Greek means “those of like status, location, religion, etc.” giving way for the Pharisees to conveniently have another “Tradition of the Elders” entole commandment to “Hate your enemy.”  This allowed the Jews to hate Gentiles, especially the Roman occupiers and half-breed Samaritans.  However, Jesus countered these Jews with: “Love your enemies and proseuchomai conversationally-pray for those who persecute you” (b).   <Notes> a) Matthew 22:38-39 Mark 12:30-31, Luke 10:25-28, b) Matthew 5:43-44, Luke 10:27-36.

What about Paul’s use of these OT entole commandments?  Most of Paul’s citations from the OT are from the prophetic ‘portion of’ scripture to prove that Jesus was the Messiah in order to convert Jews to Christ or to bolster Jewish-Christian’s trusting-relying-faith in Christ instead of the Law that ‘spying’ teachers were pushing.  He would never teach any portion of the Law due to his strong negativity towards it and its teachers (see Logos Word of God – BT8).  He warns Christians to not keep even the smallest part of the Law unless you want to be obligated to keep ALL of it (a).  James says:  “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it” (b).  It’s ALL or nothing with the OT Law, and the NT writers consistently say “nothing or you are obligated to do it ALL.”  <Notes> a) Galatians 5:3, b) James 2:10.

So why does Paul resort to quoting the “love your neighbor” entole commandment?  In one place a frustrated Paul resorts to this particular Law only to make a point to stubborn Jewish-Christians to stay out of debt to avoid conflict with civilians and arbitrating governing authorities in Romans 13:9-10. However, Paul has already appealed to Christian unconditional-love coming from God poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (a), that which comes from Christ dying for us (b) that we can’t be separated from (c).  Paul has already told them to unconditionally-love other genuinely, even with brotherly affection, outdoing each other in the showing of honor, as part of the transformed life (d).  So Paul has already laid the ground-work for Gentile and Jewish Christian love, but now he frustrating appeals to the Jewish-Christians who revered the Law, essentially reminding them that what he asking them to do in Romans 13:9-10 was also said in their revered Law, so really they have no excuse!  However, once Paul deals with this appeal to stubborn Jewish-Christians he goes right back to Christian’s real reason to unconditionally-love – Christ’s death (e) and so his final appeal is “by the unconditional-love of the Spirit” (f).  Why are so many Christians so quick to pull Romans 13:9-10 out of the context of Paul’s many verses in Romans about NT Christian universal unconditional-love just to expound 2 verses on OT Jewish neighborly-love?  <Notes> a) Romans 5:5, b) Romans 5:8, c) Romans 8:35-39, d) Romans 12:9-10, e) Romans 14:15, f) Romans 15:30.

In the only other place Paul frustrating uses this particular OT Law of “love your neighbor” is in Galatians 5:13-14, again only to Jewish-Christians.  He tells them NOT to use their newfound freedom from the OT Law as an opportunity for the flesh to be nasty to each other, but through unconditional-love serve one another.  But Paul already had appealed to the only 2 NT entole commandments (a) of trusting-relying-faith in Christ working through unconditional-love for one another as Christ did for us (b), and Paul tells us where this ability to unconditionally-love like Christ comes from – from His Holy Spirit (c), not ourselves trying to obey the Law!  So once again, Paul returns to the Holy Spirit!  Christ and His Spirit is always the context of unconditional-love for a Christian, not the Jewish Law.  Again, why are so many Christians willing to take isolated appeals to stubborn Jewish-Christians, ignore the larger context that appeals to all Christians, and then try to apply the isolated appeals to all Christians, even Gentiles? <Notes> a) 1 John 3:23 – see Only 2 Commandments. Paul frequently couples faith and love:  1 Thessalonians 3:6, 5:8; 1 Timothy 1:14, 2:15; 2 Timothy 1:13, as Jesus did:  Revelation 2:19.b) Galatians 5:6, c) Galatians 5:22-23.

Reflection:

Why is it that so many Christians are so quick to latch onto OT commandments as their rules for successful Christian living?  Could this be because of “a different spirit” (a) that leads people to “another ‘Great News” gospel” or a “different gospel” (b)?  Or to “itch their ears” away from the “sound teaching” (c) of the Christ’s gospel that accords with godliness (d), that is by trusting-relying-faith (e), with our sanctification/holiness not by the Law but by the Holy Spirit (f) and empowered by Holy Spirit (g) not our only “might and power” to obey the Law?   <Notes> a) 2 Corinthians 11:4, b) Galatians 1:6-7; 2 Corinthians 11:4, c) 2 Timothy 4:3-4; 1 Timothy 1:10; Titus 1:9, 2:1 d) 1 Timothy 6:3, e) Romans 1:16; Philippians 1:27; Colossians 1:23; 1 Thessalonians 3:2, f) Romans 15:16; 1 Corinthians 6:11; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; Hebrews 10:29; 1 Peter 1:2, g) Acts 1:8, 8:19; Romans 15:13, 19; 1 Corinthians 2:4; Ephesians 3:16; 1 Thessalonians 1:5; 2 Timothy 1:7.

Prayer:

Lord, keep me from being distracted from the simplicity of the gospel, so simple that even a little child can live it.  Let me not take verses out of context, miss the point, and build doctrines that cause me to live in the old covenant instead of the completely-different-in-kind New Covenant of “trusting-relying-faith in You and universally unconditional-loving others that way You did.”  Thank You for only giving us these 2 commandments to faithfully watch-over and guard carefully, and that’s what it means to be a disciple of Yours!

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Part 1

Logos Word of God – BT12: Scripture was elementary abc’s for Jews as children, slaves, & prisoners UNTIL Christ

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In Galatians 4:1-5 the apostle Paul regarding the OT Law, as with ALL religious writings of “commandments, legal demands, precepts, regulations, ordinances, works” (a), refers to these gramma writings of the Old Testament (OT) Law as stoicheion “elementary or rudimentary ‘abc’ fundamental principles” for the Jews as nepios ‘minors, not of age, or even as infant children, thus childish, untaught, and unskilled,’ [treated] absolutely-in-fact-NO different from a slave, even-though they-are the owner of everything . . . under-subjugation-to these stoicheion ‘elementary or rudimentary ‘abc’ fundamental principles’ of/belonging-to the world, being CONTINUALLY (b) already-having-been [with ongoing effects] enslaved.”  That’s because the Jews were “born under-subjugation-to the Law . . . who are under-subjugation-to the Law” . . . “under-subjugation-to epitropos ‘household little-child-guardians’ (c) and/coupled oikonomos household-managers (d).”  Why do Gentile-Christians want to put themselves in the original slavery of the Jews?

<Notes> a) Colossians 2:14, 20, 22; Hebrews 9:1, 10; Ephesians 2:15, Romans 3:27, b) rare imperfect tense, c) epitropos:  household steward, manager, curator, guardian, or overseer for the care and tutelage of minors, d) oikonomos were freed slaves that functioned as stewards or household managers that put forth and enforced the nomos law of the home.

Was this intended forever?  No, Paul continues:  Only “achri ‘unto, as far as, to the extent of, or UNTIL the time/season that’ THE-specific beforehand-appointed-time by-their Father . . . When-at-which-time the pleroma ‘abundant, complete fullness’ of-the chronos ‘duration of time/seasons’ HAD come, [when] God sent-forth His Son . . . having-been ginomai ‘brought into existence’ under-subjugation-to [singular: The] Law (Jesus was Jew), in-order-that those under-subjugation-to [singular: The] Law He (the Son) might exagorazo ‘buy-back out-from the slavery of the auction-block in the marketplace.” Again, why do Gentile-Christians want to put themselves in the original “abc’s” mess of the Jews that was ONLY UNTIL Christ came?

Earlier Galatians 3:22-25, Paul made a similar point:  “The graphe scripture (a) sugkleio ‘closed/locked up [them] together in prison without a way of escape and thus subjugated under the power of the jailer’ ALL-things under-subjugation-to sin, in-order-that The Promise out-from trusting-relying-faith of/belonging-to Jesus Christ might-be didomi given-as-a-gift to-those routinely/habitually having trusting-relying-faith . . .

. . . Now-moreover pro ‘BEFORE in time or before others in public view’ THIS THE-Trusting-Relying-Faith (The Christian Faith) had erchomai ‘come from one place to THIS place’, we-were CONTINUOUSLY (b) phroureo ‘held-under or watched-over like a military guard/sentinel’ routinely/habitually been sugkleio ‘closed/locked up together in prison without a way of escape and thus subjugated under the power of the jailer’ eis ‘toward and reaching the goal/purpose of’ THE mello about-to-happen Trusting-Relying-Faith (The Christian Faith) to-be-revealed/unhidden hoste ‘inevitably resulting in that’ The Law, [singular: the] paidagogos little-child-guardian (c) of-us, has already [with ongoing effects] ginomai ‘come into existence as” eis ‘toward and reaching the goal/purpose of’ Christ, in-order-that out-from trusting-relying-faith we-might-become dikaioo ‘made or declared righteous/justified.’ . . .

. . . erchomai ‘having already COME from one place [The Law] to this place’ NOW of/belonging-to The-Trusting-Relying-Faith (The Christian Faith) [we are] absolutely-in-fact-NO LONGER under-subjection-to [singular: the] paidagogos little-child-guardian (c) presently/ongoingly we (Jewish-Christians) eimi ‘are, exist-as, defined-as.’  For-the-reason-is presently/ongoingly you’all (Jewish-Christians) eimi ‘are, exist-as, defined as’ ALL huios ‘mature sons ready for their inheritance as NOW owner of the household’ of God dia ‘thru the realizing channel of’ The-Trusting-Relying-Faith (The Christian Faith) IN Christ (The Anointed One, Messiah) Jesus.”  Again, why do Gentile-Christians want to put themselves in the original childlike state of slavery of the Jews that had NOT yet received their inheritance to then be owners of the household?

<Notes> a) context: The Law ‘portion’, b) the rare imperfect tense, c) paidagogos: servants/slave hired by the upper class to strictly oversee their little boys to/from school UNTIL the age of manhood. They also may be involved in discipline, correction, and instruction.  cf. ‘the 10,000 supervisor-guardians’ 1 Corinthians 4:15.

But now in in Galatians 4:9, Paul questions as “huios ‘mature sons,” having already “come to experientially, relationally ginosko know God, or rather to be experientially, relationally ginosko known under-subjugation-to God [through Christ] (no longer to the Law or to sin), [how can you] presently/ongoingly epistrepho ‘turn BACK or return to/upon’ palin ‘back AGAIN in action’ upon the asthenes ‘weak, infirm, without vigor or strength, depleted, lacking in necessary resources, insufficient, frail, and sick’ and/coupled ptochos ‘crouching/cowering like a beggar, deeply destitute/helpless, insufficient in resources, poor like a pauper’ stoicheion elementary or rudimentary ‘abc’ fundamental principles of/belonging-to the world, to-which palin ‘back AGAIN in action’ anothen ‘over AGAIN in time’ to presently/ongoingly be-enslaved you presently/ongoingly strongly-desire?”   Now you can see why Paul was stoned and beaten by the Jews so many times!  Why are Gentile-Christians embracing what Paul warned Jewish-Christians NOT to go back to AGAIN to be once AGAIN enslaved?

Now in Colossians 2:8, Paul says: “[I strongly urge you to] see to it that in-possibility-NO one routinely/habitually sulagogeo ‘carries you off like a predator with its prey or as spoils of war’ dia ‘thru the realizing channel of’ The-philosophy (a) and/coupled empty/vain deceptiveness, kata down-from/according-to human tradition, kata down-from/according-to The stoicheion elementary or rudimentary ‘abc’ fundamental principles of/belonging-to the world kai and/thus absolutely-in-fact-NOT kata down-from/according-to Christ.”  At this point Paul is attacking the philosophical writings of the Greek and Romans and warning Gentile-Christians about this.  However, evidently Jewish Law-teachers had been trying to convince Gentile-Christians that they needed Moses by what comes next.

<Notes> a) this is a direct slap in the face of the Greek philosophers, Gnostics, and Roman Mystery Religions that loved and prided themselves in their human wisdom, but Paul has already said in Colossians 2:2-3 that “ALL the treasures of wisdom and/coupled gnosis information-knowledge are hidden IN Christ” and from v. 1:9 thus requires proseuche conversational-prayer thru full, genuine, intimate, relational, experiential epignosis knowledge of God and His will to acquire from Christ – see Least Among You – BT8 and New Covenant Ways – BT16.

In Galatians 2:11-13, Paul assures these doubting Gentile-Christians that “in Christ you also were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of/belonging-to Christ, having been buried with Him in water-baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through trusting-relying-faith in the powerful working of God, who raised Him from the dead.  Kai and/subsequently you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh (not being Jews), God made alive together with Him (Christ), having forgiven us all our trespasses.”  How some Christians and churches can’t see the saving nature of water-baptism is beyond me!

Now Paul in Galatians 2:16-18 turns his attention to other Jewish practices that the Gentile-Christians were also likely being pressured to observe, and it’s very likely there were Jewish-Christians also being pressured to continue them.  “Therefore [I strongly urge you to] let no one pass judgment on you in questions of [Jewish] food and drink, or with regard to a [Jewish] festival or a [Jewish] new moon or [Jewish plural] Sabbaths. These [Jewish rules & rituals] are a skia ‘shadow, outline, sketch,’ (a) of the things to come (b), but the soma ‘body or reality’ [is of/belonging to] The Christ (Anointed One).  [I strongly urge you to] let in-possibility-NOT one katabrabeuo ‘call you down/out like an umpire’ (Jews judging that they are rejected by God), routinely/habitually strongly-desiring/willing in/by/with tapeinophrosune ‘self-humbling or depreciating practices like fasting’ (c) and/coupled worship of angels (d), which he-has-already [with ongoing effects] horao ‘seen/perceived with the mind, similar to eido and optanomai prophetic vision’ routinely/habitually embateuo ‘frequently come into possession of and deeply investigated or speculated about,’ eiki purposelessly being routinely/habitually phusioo ‘inflated, swelled up by arrogant, puffed-up thoughts’ under-subjugation-to the mind of their flesh.”

As you can see from the notes below, these ‘activities’ were Jewish commandments reinforced by the Oral Torah being pushed on Gentile & likely Jewish-Christians to continue!  Why are modern Christians trying to bring these back into the Church?  In verse 19, Paul says these people are “absolutely-in-fact-NOT habitually/routinely holding-fast to-the Head out-from WHOM ALL the Body [of Christ] . . . is routinely/habitually being-supplied and/coupled routinely/habitually being-knit-together, presently/ongoingly causing-to-increase/grow with-the increase/growth of/belonging-to God.”  The whole passage is saying Christ and our abiding-connection to Him by trusting-relying-faith IS ALL WE NEED – read John 15:4.

<Notes> a) skia: the shade cast backward from a standing body, Hebrews 8:5, 10:1, b) see ‘copies’ of Hebrews 9:23-24, ‘type’ of Romans 5:14, ‘symbol’ of Hebrews 9:9, ‘corresponds to’ of 1 Peter 3:21, c) the Essenes who followed John the Baptist disciplined the body harshly as the strictest of Jews.  See Mark 9:29 – “and fasting” was added in after “this kind of demon only comes out after prayer,” later by Catholic monks who practiced this OT “tradition of the elders” that is not even specified in OT Law – see Conversational-Prayer – BT4 on fasting but see also Net Bible note.  When Paul’s team appointed elders in every church in Acts 14:23 they did so with proseuchomai conversationally-praying.”  The addition of “and fasting” is not found even in textual variants nor is it warranted because in 3 of the 4 other uses of that form in Acts 1:24 choosing of the 12^th apostles, Acts 6:6 laying hands on the 7 chosen deacons, and Acts 21:5 departing of Paul fellows, there is no implication of fasting.  However, the common rabbinical phrase “fasting and prayer” is found in Acts 13:3 of the early Jewish-Christian church of Antioch prophets and teachers gathered together to OT leitourgeo liturgical-worship-serve the Lord and/coupled fasting.  While doing so the Holy Spirit told them to set apart Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.  Then after again ‘fasting and praying’ they laid their hands on them [likely for anointing, blessing, and ordination] they sent the off.  Clearly the limited use of leitourgeo liturgical-worship-serving indicates that these Christians were Jewish still following many of the OT “traditions & rituals of the elders” like fasting.  As the church became more Gentile you see this fade away until the Catholic Church resurrected many of them after 200 AD, d) In intertestamental Judaism, developed angelology, hierarchies, and invocation is found.  The Jewish Midrash & Talmud laws were enacted to prohibit the worship of angels because it was clearly going on – see Wikipedia “Worship of Angels in Judaism,”.

Part 2

Now Paul really drives it home in Galatians 2:20-23:   “If you-already-have apothnesko ‘died away-from [something]’ together-with Christ away-from the stoicheion elementary or rudimentary ‘abc’ fundamental principles of/belonging-to-the world, [then] why, as if you routinely/habitually were-genuinely-living in [singular: this] world, presently/ongoingly dogmatizo ‘do-you submit to dogma:  authoritative, universally-binding entole commandments of doctrines, precepts, decrees, laws, and ordinances’ (a):  in-possibility-NOT you-should-handle, in-possibility-NOT you-should-taste, in-possibility-NOT you-should touch – which presently/ongoingly are-defined-as/exist ALL eis ‘toward and reaching the goal/purpose of’ phthora ‘deterioration, decay, or rot’ by-the-means-of their use – kata down-from/according-to the entalma ‘result of following the OT entole universally-binding commandments to the end’ and/coupled teachings of/belonging-to men, which presently/ongoingly are-defined-as/exist-as a logos message (b) men is-affirmed-as routinely/habitually holding-to-have of/belonging-to-wisdom by-the-means-of 1) ethelothreskeia ‘self-desired/willed religion via liturgical services & rituals and religious disciplines for righteous holiness & godliness’ kai and/subsequently (c) 2) tapeinophrosune ‘self-humbling or depreciating practices like fasting’ kai and/coupled (c) 3) apheidia ‘unsparing severity of the body to create self-control‘ for righteous holiness & godliness’  – [they are] ouk absolutely-in-fact-NOT with time perceived-value/worth tini THIS (d) pros ‘toward and reaching/accomplishing’ [singular: the] [create self-control over the] indulgence/satisfaction of the flesh.”

<Notes> a) dogma: used negatively in Luke 2:1; Acts 17:7; Colossians 2:14; Ephesians 2:15, and positively only in Acts 16:4, b) a logos message need not be true as in Matthew 28:13 vs. 15, and so many believe here this “reputation/affirmation of excellence is unmerited” as scholars Lightfoot and Liddell & Scott note.  That seems the case because Paul’s argument is that it actually is of “absolutely-in-fact-NO certain honor/value,” c) kai often couples 2 things together as likely the case with #2 and #3 as obviously being related, but #1 is the broader category that contains the #2 & #3 elements, which is the emphasis due to the repetition of similar words, d) tini THIS is an indefinite pronoun moved quite a bit out of position in the phrase to instead place the emphasis on ouk “absolutely-in-fact-NOT.”  It’s in the dative feminine singular, which matches up to the nouns of #1, #2, and #3 so THIS is referring to a “self-desired/willed religion of 2 coupled bodily disciplines of righteousness . . . that despite their “affirmed message of wisdom” and thus “perceived value” actually are “ouk absolutely-in-fact-NOT with perceived-value-worth . . . toward accomplishing self-control over the indulgence of the flesh.

That’s right!  The OT logos message that the Law of commandments and follow-up Oral Law “Traditions of the Elders” “indeed have been affirmed” by Jews for a long time to be “of/belonging-to wisdom” and in this particular case, in applying the “might and power” external resources and internal abilities of man of Zechariah 4:6 under the old covenant to developing self-control over the indulgence of the flesh through many disciplines of the body as with various types of fasting, but Paul says it’s ALL ultimately non-productive.  Zechariah 4:6’s solution is the “By-the-means-of My Spirit” of the completely-different-in-kind chadash/kainos NEW Covenant.

That’s Paul’s solution also in Colossians 1:9 “Spirit-kind-of wisdom and/coupled ‘connect-the-dots’ understanding that is the means/instrument-of being filled-to-the-full by-the-means-of epignosis genuine, full, experiential, relational knowledge of God’s will.”  It’s NOT the “self-desired/willed religion” of the OT, Oral Law, or any other Gentile philosophy or world religion that will work.  Everything come from the dunamis dynamite-like enabling-power of the Holy Spirit of Christ who is the only HEAD, per Colossians 1:11, 29, 2:12!  That’s why Jesus and His disciples didn’t fast even though the disciples of John the Baptist and every other rabbi there has ever been did.  We saw the reasons why in note ‘c’ above for Galatians 2:16-18.

That’s why the Book of Hebrews similarly says “For-the-reason-that The Law routinely/habitually is-holding-to-have a skia ‘shadow/outline/sketch’ of-the routinely/habitually mello ‘about-to-happen’ agathos ‘God-like good, upright/honorable, excellent, beneficial/useful, or praiseworthy’ things, absolutely-in-fact-NOT themselves the eikon ‘prototype image, statue, bust’ of-the pragma ‘regularly/habitually practiced deeds . . . sacrifices each year . . . absolutely-in-fact-NOT ever they-are presently/ongoingly dunamis dynamite-like powerfully-able teleioo to make mature/complete/perfect them-who are-routinely/habitually proserchomai ‘coming from one place to close beside’ [God]” (a), for “The Law absolutely-in-fact-NO thing teleioo was made mature/complete/perfect” (b). <Notes> a) Hebrews 10:1 regarding prayerful worship in approaching God, b) Hebrews 7:19.

Therefore, Paul declares: “The Law (nomos: principle rule) of/belonging-to the Spirit of zoe genuine-life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the [Mosaic] Law of/belonging-to sin and/coupled of/belonging-to death.  For-the-reason-that the powerlessness of/belonging-to the Law in that it was asthenes ‘weak, infirm, without vigor or strength, depleted, lacking in necessary resources, insufficient, frail, and sick’ dia ‘thru the realizing channel of’ the flesh, God sent His Son to condemn sin in the flesh (a).  The gospel logos message of the Spirit’s dynamite-like enabling-power is NOT the logos message of the Law – the first is God acting FOR the sake of man and the second is man acting FOR the sake of God!  The first is Christ’s obedient work on the cross giving us Christ’s righteousness by unearned and undeserved unconditional-loving-favor-of-grace dia ‘thru the realizing channel of’ our trusting-relying-faith, and the second is our works of righteousness to earn or deserve God’s favor. <Notes> a) Romans 8:3-4.

Hebrews 5:11-14 really blasts Jewish-Christian thinking about going back to obeying the OT scriptures:  “You have become dull of hearing.  For though by this time you ought to be [Christian] teachers (a), you need someone to teach you again the stoicheion elementary or rudimentary ‘abc’ fundamental principles of/belonging-to the arche ‘FIRST in time or importance‘ (b) of/belonging-to-the logion prophetic-oracles/utterances of God (b).  You need ‘milk’ [c], not ‘solid food’ [d], for everyone who lives on ‘milk’ is un-skilled in the [gospel] logos message of righteousness [e], since he is an infant-child.  But ‘solid food’ is for the teleios ‘mature, complete, perfect,’ for those who have their enabling-powers of discernment gymnastically-trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”  Paul says that discernment is a progressive grace-gift of the renewing, light-giving Holy Spirit received during genuine, full, experiential, relational epignosis knowledge of Christ (f) that Hebrews 4:12 says comes from hearing the directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words of God, these “being sharper than any two-edged sword, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”  This is NOW the WAY little children of God are to learn directly from Him – see Least Among You – BT8 and New Covenant Ways – BT16.

<Notes> a) in context, this is certainly not of the Law but instead the ‘solid food’ of Christ’s gospel logos message of The Truth of saving trusting-relying-faith, b) context:  concerning the Messianic and New Covenant promises, used in early Church writings to convert Jews to Christ, used to encourage struggling Jewish-Christians to resist the Law-teachers, used by evangelist-preachers to elegcho/s rebuke-convict Law-teachers per 2 Timothy 3:16, 4:2; 1 Timothy 5:20; Titus 1:13, 2:15; Ephesians 5:11; cf. Jude 1:15, that only make up 2.6% of the OT – see Logos Word of God – BT6.  Hebrews 5:12 “arche ‘first in time or importance’ of-the logion oracles/utterances” make up the “arche ‘first in time or importance’ logos message of the Christ (Anointed One, Messiah) in Hebrews 6:1, and the things mentioned in vv. 6:1-2 ALL have to do with OT Jewish doctrines or practices that are preparatory to the NT gospel logos message to Jews, though many Christians and churches mistake these for Church doctrines and practice because they don’t know Greek and read verses out of context and the intended audience, c) as new-born Jewish-Christians, that’s what the OT prophetic-oracles/utterances about Christ as Messiah were, d) context:  of the gospel logos message and the Holy Spirit’s means of revelation NOW through discernment, not through rote-learning of the Law as with ‘abc’ writings and rules to strictly control the Jews as little-children, e) context: our source of righteousness is Christ, no longer from obedience to the OT Law, f) 1 Corinthians 2:14, Romans 12:2, Ephesians 5:8-10, Philippians 1:9-10.

Part 3

Reflections:

The OT scripture served its purpose to “bear-witness or testify about Christ” per John 5:39 and lead-by-the-hand ‘the immature, infant-like, little children‘ Jews to Christ.  However, NOW that we have Christ, His gospel logos message of The Truth WHO is Jesus and the enabling-power of the “One Teacher” of Christ’s Holy Spirit WHO is the actual “Promise” of the New Covenant.   Therefore we have NO LONGER any need for the OT scripture, especially 97.4% that is conditional, Law-based favor God – see Logos Word of God – BT5a!  Especially if you are a Gentile!  The remaining 2.6% that consists of the Messianic prophecies can still convert Jews to Christ and encourage new Jewish-Christians to resist the Law-teachers!

NOW let us put our trusting-relying-faith in The Promised Holy Spirit to “guide us into ALL The Truth” (a), and that “His anointing teaches us about EVERY single thing so we have absolutely NO need of any other teacher” (b), and that the ‘solid food’ of the Holy Spirit’s prophecy and revelation to us TODAY is enough with His enabling-power for a life of righteous holiness and godliness.  Let’s grow up and get off bottle feeding from the “milk” of biblical gramma writings.  <Notes> a) John 16:13, b) 1 John 2:27.

And for sure let us NOT ever embrace the Jew’s or any other world philosophy or religious slavery to the “asthenes ‘weak, infirm, without vigor or strength, depleted, lacking in necessary resources, insufficient, frail, and sick’ and/coupled ptochos ‘crouching/cowering like a beggar, deeply destitute/helpless, insufficient in resources, poor like a pauper’ stoicheion elementary or rudimentary ‘abc’ fundamental principles of/belonging-to the world” of gramma writings of self-determined religious disciplines of obeying dogma as ‘authoritative, universally-binding commandments of doctrines, precepts, decrees, laws, and ordinances” and self-humbling bodily-severity of dietary laws & fasting.  You see this in every world religion and cult, even in Christianity!  Borrowing from the OT and the world creates The Great Wall quenching the Holy Spirit in the Church.

Prayer:

Lord, praise Your name for freeing us from the “guardian-manager imprisonment” of the OT scriptures that were only meant to get the “little children” Jews ready to come to Christ so they could be mature sons of God to receive their inheritance, of which the Holy Spirit was the first-fruits “deposit, guaranteeing what was to come.”  Thank You for getting us past the weak & destitute “rote ‘abc’ learning” of biblical writings and their slavery, but NOW teaching us through the discernment of the Holy Spirit, the actual promise of the New Covenant, so we have absolutely-in-fact-NO need of any other form of teaching – no more indirect learning through biblical writings or their teachers, but NOW directly by You.

Thank You for helping us see what the NT writers said about this and why they fought so hard to set us free from writings ABOUT God.  We will grab a hold of “the clear bodily reality and substance of Christ” NOW as His Holy Spirit, instead of the “fuzzy-shadows and copies” projected backward into biblical writings.  Thank You for showing us that “disciplines of the body,” especially Jewish rabbinical practices like fasting, don’t make us righteously holy or godly, but ONLY intimate koinonia fellowship with the Spirit of holiness can!  Dogma expressed in gramma ‘abc’ writings is the ‘bad news’ of every religion, even the OT one, and that which “enslaves and imprisons” so many legalistic Christians.

Every religion has a book of dogma, but even the ritual “form/appearance of godliness” of institutional Christianity does NOT have the bodily-reality of genuine, full, experiential, relational epignosis knowledge of Christ thru the Spirit of discernment.  This is the “Great News” of the gospel:  that we shall “all be taught by God” and “All my men and women servants shall prophecy!”  Show us more about this Lord!

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Spiritual Education, Scripture was the elementary abc’s to prepare Jews for Christ, Scripture treated the Jews as little children & slaves & prisoners, Scripture imprisoned Jews under sin, Law of sin and death, Scripture purpose was to testify about Christ so Jews would come to Him when He arrived, Scripture no longer needed ONCE Christ came, Writings about God and rules to live by are for kids, Holy Spirit discernment is for mature sons of God, Old Testament has been replaced with New Covenant, Jesus replaced Moses Prophets and all Jewish Writings

Part 1

Logos Word of God – BT11:  Paul’s writings were NOT called “scripture” in 2 Peter 3:15-16

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Some say that Peter referred to Paul’s writings as “scripture” in 2 Peter 3:15-16.  However once again, upon close scholarly examination, it turns out to be a terrible translation or interpretation, but it actually argues for the use of ONLY the Messianic ‘portion of’ of graphe scripture and reliance on New Testament (NT) prophecy all the more!  Remember “A text without a context is a pretext for a proof-text,” as the great professor & author D. A. Carson once stated!

We’ve already seen from the previous BLOGS Logos Word of God – BT6, – BT7, – BT8, and – BT9, that the NT writers most often quote from the ‘kind/class/category/portion of’ the graphe scriptures that were Messianic prophecies to convert Jews to Christ and to encourage immature Jewish-Christians being tempted by Law-teachers to return to Moses.  The ‘portion of’ of the OT they used in either case ONLY had to do with prophecies about the kreisson/kreitton ‘so much better’ “NEW covenant, possession of things, speaking of things, logos message, sacrifice, resurrection, life, promises, heavenly country, and hope” (a), particularly of Jesus Christ for salvation dia ‘thru the realizing channel of’ trusting-relying-faith in Him alone. <Notes> a) Hebrews 1:4, 6:9, 7:19, 22, 8:6, 9:23, 10:34, 11:16, 35, 40, 12:24.

Likewise, Peter has previously taken this same approach in 1 Peter 2:6 concerning Jesus being the “Cornerstone in Zion/Jerusalem” citing the OT Prophet Isaiah 28:16, using graphe scripture in the singular WITHOUT the definite article. From Logos Word of God – BT5, we saw that there are only 4 places in the NT that [singular] graphe scripture is used WITHOUT the definite article and in all 4 cases (a), and 2 cases of the [plural] graphe scripture WITHOUT the definite article (b) , the context makes it clear that the writer is thinking about a specific ‘kind/class/category/portion of’ OT graphe scripture, specifically the prophetic, and NOT ‘the whole/entirety of’ graphe scripture.

<Notes> a) John 19:37 prophecy of Christ’s piercing at the cross; 1 Peter 2:6 prophecy of Christ’s coming; 2 Peter 1:20-21 of all prophecy of graphe scripture produced by the Holy Spirit, the breath of God ; 2 Timothy 3:16 of the specific prophetic Messianic OT verses about Christ and His New Covenant salvation by trusting-relying-faith – see Logos Word of God – BT7, b) Romans 1:2 of Christ’s coming promised by The OT Prophets; Romans 16:26 of the gospel revelation of Christ promised by prophetic scriptures.

Now in this 2^nd letter Peter takes this same approach to OT scripture in 2 Peter 1:20-21 “this-specific-one-of pas ‘each/every of a kind/class/category/portion of’ prophecy of/belonging-to-graphe-scripture (a) idios ‘of/belonging-to-it’s-own [person’s efforts of]’ epilusis ‘unloosing, unpacking, untying of interpretation knots to discern the true meaning’ absolutely-in-fact-NOT ginomai ‘comes into existence.’ For [the reason is that] absolutely-in-fact-NOT thelemati ‘by-the-means-of the strong desire or preferred will’ of man phero ‘was carried along to bring forth’ prophecy at-any-time, but-instead by-the-means-of [singular] Holy Spirit routinely/habitually was-being phero ‘carried along to bring forth – men spoke from God.”  Again, the Messianic prophetic ‘portion of’ singular graphe scripture WITHOUT the definite article is in mind (see note “a” above).

Even though 2 Peter 3:16 uses plural graphe scriptures WITH the definite article, and there are cases of this remotely referring to ‘the whole/entirety of’ OT scripture (a), the context earlier of 2 Peter 2:1-2, 12 indicates that is NOT the case.  There Peter warns about the “false prophets” in those OT days, “just as there will be among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master [and Christ’s teaching about His return] who bought them,” who also “blaspheme about matters of which they are ignorant.” <Notes> a) John 5:39 that is the study habits of scribes & Pharisees; Matthew 22:29 though resurrection from the dead is mostly spoken of by the OT Prophets; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 though this likely refers only to Messianic prophecies like Isaiah 53, Daniel 9:26, Zechariah 13:7, Hosea 6:2, Psalms 16:10.

The more immediate context of 2 Peter 3:2-3, 9 reinforces this:  “You should remember the directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words hupo ‘subordinately under the authority of’ the [OT] holy Prophets and/coupled of-the [singular] entole ‘officially-decreed, universally-binding commandment’ (a) of-the Lord-Master-Owner and/coupled Savior-Messiah of/belonging-to-your the-apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.’ . . . The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” <Notes> a) God’s only singular entole commandment in the New Covenant in 1 John 3:23 actually consists of only 2 entole commandments of trusting-relying-faith in Christ and unconditionally-loving one another – see Logos Word of God – BT14.

Clearly the authoritative Messianic prophecies of the OT are being coupled to the authority given to the apostles in the Great Commission to be the Messiah’s witnesses to preach/proclaim the gospel and particularly to make disciples/followers of Christ in all nations by them definitively/wholly having trusting-relying-faith in Christ and being water-baptized for salvation eis ‘toward and reaching the goal/purpose of’ the forgiveness of sins in order to receive the promised grace-gift of the Holy Spirit and/also teaching them to tereo ‘guard/watch, attend carefully, to keep or maintain, hold firmly, observe or keep’ pas ‘the whole/entirety of’ what I have entole ‘officially-decreed as a universally-binding commandment to’ you . . . to the ends of the world/ages,” that is until Christ returns for them (a). <Notes> a) Matthew 28:16-20; Mark 16:14-20; Luke 24:46-48; John 20:21-23; Acts 1:8, 2:38-39.

This context leads up to 2 Peter 3:15 from the Greek: “And [I strongly urge you to] presently/ongoingly hegeomai ‘lead the way by your thinking, or make as your leading thought’ the makrothymia ‘long-waiting patient-restraint’ (a) of our Lord [not having already returned] as-salvation, kathos ‘just as in the manner in which’ (adverb) kai also our beloved brother Paul, kata down-from/according-to the wisdom, having-already been given to him, [he] already-wrote to you (b) . . .”

<Notes> a) makrothymia:  long-tempered waiting to express anger to avoid short-tempered premature, reactive use of force, b) since 2 Peter was written about 65-68 AD, this could be referring to Paul’s writings about Christ’s coming and His ‘patient’ delay in 1 Thessalonians 1:10, 2:19, 4:13-5:11; 2 Thessalonians 1:5-2:14 written between 51 and 53 AD.

Peter continues in 2 Peter 3:16  “hos ‘in the same manner as’ (adverb) kai also in pas ‘entirety/whole of’ the epistles ‘letters’ [of his], routinely/habitually speaking in them peri ‘all around about or concerning’ these-things (the return of Christ for judgment), en hais ‘within which is demonstrative of this, that’ (pronoun) presently/ongoingly are dusnoetos ‘difficult to understand/grasp by the mind’ some-things (a), ha which (pronoun) the amathes ‘ignorant, not informed of the essentials’ and/coupled asteriktos ‘not confirmed/established, thus unstable, unsteady’ [people, likely men] strebloo ‘twist/turn to torture, put to the rack, or pervert the truth’ hos ‘in the same manner as (adverb)’ kai also tas the-specific-ones loipos (b) ‘remaining or left-over or left-behind kind-of-ones’ (adjective) [plural] graphe scriptures (accusative: direct object), pros ‘toward and reaching’ their [these people/men] own destruction.”

<Notes> a) actually many, because Paul’s Greek is poor and has very long sentences that can get you easily lost, b) loipos: the rest, residue, remnant, or remaining of whatever has been previously spoken of, in this case is the prophetic ‘portion of’ graphe scripture, NOT the ‘entirety/whole of’ OT graphe scriptures.  We have to remember the context and other uses of graphe scripture by Peter in 1 Peter 2:6, 2 Peter 1:20, which all have to do with the prophetic!

Peter did NOT write that these “twisters/torturers of The Truth” do this to Paul’s writings as if doing this “hos kai ‘in the same manner as also’ [the] loipos (d) ‘remaining or left-over or left-behind ones of’ tas the-specific-ones [plural] graphe scriptures,” which could then be interpreted that Paul’s writings are other ‘kinds/classes/categories/portions of’ The graphe Scriptures, something that NO NT writer nor Jew nor Christian would dare think until the Catholic theologian Tertullian dared to introduce this idea in 208 AD to try to win some arguments against Jews and 2 so-called heretics – see Logos Word of God – BT5.  Furthermore, that’s not the correct way to apply the adjective loipos NOR where the definite article tas is!  This is actually “twisting” of difficult writings!  We’ll unpack this below!

First, in 51 occurrences of graphe scripture, most of which have the definite article, NONE have the definite article any place other than immediately in front of graphe scripture.  Clearly the emphasis of the definite-article is NOT being applied to graphe scripture but to loipos “the remaining others.”  That would leave [plural] graphe scriptures without the definite-article, only seen elsewhere in Romans 1:2 regarding the Son of God promised dia ‘thru the realizing channel of’ God’s prophets in [plural] graphe scriptures, [the kind that is] holy.”  Again, the Messianic prophecies are in mind!

By using the definite-article in front of loipos, Peter is referring back to something he had spoken of in previous verses concerning graphe scriptures, but NOW specifically of “those other than” the ‘kind/class/category/portion of’ the Messianic prophecies from the OT general category of the Prophets he also always had been referring to, in other words, the general categories of the OT like the Law & Writings – see Logos Word of God – BT5.  The TLB version got this right with “the other parts of the Scripture.”  The WE version also was close with “other things in the holy writings.”  It’s a big leap to suppose that Peter is calling Paul’s writings “other scriptures” as we will see.

Peter really isn’t saying that Paul’s writings are equal to “scripture,” as some would have you believe, who admit that this is their only “proof text!”  Instead Peter is simply saying these false-teaching scoffers don’t just stop with trying to twist/torture the prophetic ‘portions of’ OT Prophets ‘portion of’ scripture about the “Great and Terrible Day of the Lord’s” coming judgment by Christ, but they scoff and twist/torture for their own greedy gain (a) even the loipos ‘remaining kind/classes/categories/portions-of’ OT graphe scriptures,” which again in context are the other kinds/classes/categories/portions-of OT graphe scriptures, particularly the torah/nomos Law and Writings. <Notes> a) 2 Peter 2:3.

Another clue is the Greek word order:  “hos ‘in the same manner as (adverb)’ kai ALSO tas the-specific-ones loipos (d) ‘remaining or left-over or left-behind kind-of-ones’ (adjective)” is an adverbial explanation of the EXTENT at which “the amathes ‘ignorant, not informed of the essentials’ and/coupled asteriktos ‘not confirmed/established, thus unstable, unsteady’ [persons, likely men will] strebloo ‘twist/turn to torture, put to the rack, or pervert the truth’.”  We know WHY they twist OT scriptures – “for their own greedy gain,” but now Peter tells HOW far they will go to ‘twist/torture’ ‘difficult-to-understand’ writings.

The target of “twisters to turn people from The Truth, who is Jesus Christ“ is the “dusnoetos ‘difficult to understand/grasp by the mind’ ‘portions of’ ALL writings, not just the OT Prophets, but the Law and Writings, and even Paul’s letters, which Peter uses as an illustration/demonstration of the extent which these scoffers will go!  Even the scribes & Pharisees were false-teachers in the mind of God because they routinely used the OT graphe scriptures, particularly The Law ‘category/portion’ to try to trick and trap Jesus, and there are so many verses by the NT writers about them trying to deceitfully drag Christians away from The Truth of Jesus Christ and His gospel logos message – see Logos Word of God – BT8.

Part 2

Peter’s point is simply that “twisters/torturers” are using the same method on Paul’s prophetic “difficult-to-understand” writings concerning the return of Christ as Judge.  After generally introducing “the wisdom of Paul’s letters,” Peter then focuses on the Messianic ‘portion of’ these, that Peter’s entire context is arguing for by next saying,”[Paul] routinely/habitually speaking in them [letters of wisdom] peri ‘all around about or concerning’ THESE-things (context:  the return of Christ for God’s judgment).”

Then Peter uses the words en hais to say that “within which is demonstrative/illustrative of” “THESE things” concerning the scoffers of the Messianic judgment coming that Peter has been speaking about.  And WHAT is ‘demonstrative/illustrative’ of this is:  THAT “some-things [within Paul’s wise writings] “presently/ongoingly are dusnoetos ‘difficult to understand/grasp by the mind.’  That’s the target of the scoffers!

It is exactly THIS MAIN POINT that Peter uses Paul as an ‘demonstrative/illustrative’ example of:  “which the amathes ‘ignorant, not informed of the essentials’ and/coupled asteriktos ‘not confirmed/established, thus unstable, unsteady’ [persons, likely men]” are going to target particularly the things that “presently/ongoingly are dusnoetos ‘difficult to understand/grasp by the mind,” and in Peter’s context “THESE things” concerning the return of Christ for God’s judgment.

THAT WAS Peter’s MAIN POINT, but Peter NOW adds a further adverbial phrase to expound on the word strebloo ‘twist/turn to torture, put to the rack, or pervert the truth’ that is the EXTENT of their targeting:  hos ‘in the same manner as (adverb)’ kai ALSO tas the-specific-ones loipos (b) ‘remaining or left-over or left-behind kind-of-ones’ (adjective) [plural] graphe scriptures (accusative: direct object).”

The emphasis is on the manner or EXTENT of “the twisting/turning” – NOT just what Peter has been primarily talking about, that is Messianic prophecies about coming judgment from the general ‘portion of’ graphe scriptures called The Prophets, but “kai ALSO tas the-specific-ones loipos (b) ‘remaining or left-over or left-behind kind-of-ones’,” that is from The Law and The Writings – see Logos Word of God – BT5 on the general ‘portions of’ graphe scripture.  The ‘difficult to understand/grasp by the mind’ ‘portions of’ these are ALSO the target of the “twisters/torturers,” just as they ALSO have done with the “difficult to understand/grasp by the mind’ ‘portions of’ Paul’s writings!

In context, Peter has been speaking exclusively of the Messianic prophetic ‘portion of’ graphe scriptures of the general ‘portion’ called The Prophets, particularly of eternal judgment, already speaking of the “swift destruction” of those “false teachers bringing in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them” in 2 Peter 2:1.  Again “in their greed they will exploit you with false words.  Their condemnation from long ago is NOT idle, and their destruction is NOT asleep” in 2 Peter 2:3.  Again, “blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, they will also be destroyed by their destruction” in 2 Peter 2:12, “being kept until the Day of Judgment and destruction of the ungodly” in 2 Peter 3:7.

NOW, finally Peter speaks of “the destruction” of these “twisters/torturers” who have scoffed at the Lord’s coming who follow their own sinful desires in 2 Peter 3:3, but NO longer for just “twisting/torturing” the “difficult to understand kinds of’ Messianic prophetic ‘portion of’ graphe scriptures in The Prophets, but ALSO of the “other kinds/classes/categories/portions of’ the OT graphe scriptures like the Law and Writings, just as they “twist/torture” the “difficult to understand kinds of’ Paul’s “wise letters,” but particularly in mind, the ‘portions of’ pertaining to Christ’s coming judgment!  I already said this above, but it bears repeating to see the logical flow of Peter’s argument.

Peter’s only real point concerning Paul’s writings is that “SOME things in them are ‘difficult to understand/grasp by the mind,'” which is a very diplomatic way of saying this.  Note how Peter introduces Paul as the “BELOVED brother Paul, kata down-from/according-to the wisdom, having-already been given to him.”  This is very diplomatic, considering how Paul publicly condemned Peter in Galatians 2:11-14 (Acts 15:1).  Maybe Peter was attempting to mend the rift between them and set a good example of Christian unity.

However, every Greek scholar will tell you that ALL of Paul’s writings are complicated and ‘difficult to understand/grasp by the mind,’ especially because of his very long run-on sentences without punctuation in the original manuscripts, difficulty in sorting out his grammatical structure, complex vocabulary, unique revelations, deep theology, and his learned legal-ease style as a Pharisaical lawyer where his arguments can get so long that you can ‘lose the forest through the trees.’ His Greek wasn’t as good as other writers, and nothing like the polished Greek of the book of Hebrews, likely written by his travelling companion Barnabas.  Peter likely was being soft on Paul to keep the focus on these scoffers!

The real issue Peter is addressing concerning Paul is the controversy that was created by Paul’s teaching on the Lord’s return and how these ‘twisting/torturing scoffers’ have had a hay-day with it, for their own personal gain, leading to their own destruction. Paul’s teaching in 1 Thessalonians 1:10, 2:19, 4:13-5:11 created such confusion and misunderstanding that Christians were doing absolutely crazy things, like selling their houses and waiting on mountain tops, which the false prophets and teachers, maybe even Jewish Law-teachers, certainly took advantage of.  It was so bad that Paul had to write another letter to try and correct this in 2 Thessalonians 1:5-2:14.  And the confusion and controversy continues to this day!

Many commentators/translators (including the NET Bible) correctly note that this “twisting/torturing of truth” is what all cults and scoffers do, focusing on the difficult, obscure passages of the bible – not on its plain teachings.

However, the emphasis in 2 Peter 3:15-16 is clearly on these scoffers and their twisting/torturing of OT scripture, particularly the ‘difficult to understand/grasp by the mind” ‘portions of’ it, whether the Prophets, Law, or Writings.  Peter’s argument isn’t that Paul’s writings are ALSO scripture, for he sure doesn’t give you any reasons to support that argument.  If anything Peter is criticizing Paul’s writings to ALSO be ‘difficult to understand/grasp by the mind” and thus easy prey for the “twisters/torturers of The Truth.”

Peter’s point is that these “twisters/torturers of The Truth” don’t just do this to ‘the difficult, hard-to-understand ‘portions of’ the Messianic prophetic ‘portions of’ OT scripture found in the general ‘portion’ call The Prophets, specifically about Christ’s coming judgment at His return, but also to ‘the difficult, hard-to-understand ‘portions of’ the ‘remaining, left-over’ kinds/classes/categories/portions of’ graphe scriptures that Peter had NOT previously referenced, that is, the Law and Writings – again see Logos Word of God – BT5 for the broad subdivisions of the OT.

But the “twisters/torturers of The Truth” don’t stop with the OT, but ALSO do the same with other ‘the difficult, hard-to-understand ‘portions of’ Paul’s prophetic writings, but the context makes it clear that Peter is talking about the Messianic prophetic ‘portions of’ about Christ’s coming judgment at His return.  Modern-day scoffers that are still in it for fame and fortune use the same methods!

Reflections:

Hopefully after clearing up the “muddy waters” in the last few BLOGS that some “twisters/torturers” have created over the years with their “proof-texts” for the unrestricted use of the OT scripture and even treating the NT as “holy scripture,” this will help you take one more step to understanding how completely-different-in-kind the New (a) Covenant and New (a) Way are of pistis trusting-relying-faith in Christ and His Holy Spirit. <Notes> a) chadash, kainos: fresh, completely-different-in-kind, unprecedented, sharing nothing with its predecessors, unique, and superior.

Did you know that the term “Holy Books” was created by the Catholic Church sometime between 465 – 1500 AD, and the term “Holy Bible” was created in 1611 by the authors of the King James Bible.  Can you see how the “traditions of men” get started?  They don’t have any early Church precedence!

Prayer:

Lord, I thank You that we don’t have to be “wise and understanding” Greek scholars to genuinely, experientially, relationally epiginosko You or Your will – see Bible Info – BT2, because You have given us ALL impartial access to You by the means of the Holy Spirit, the “One Teacher” for us to be “guided into ALL The Truth, so that “by Your anointing we ALL have eido mental ‘seeing’ to perceive knowledge, and so we have absolutely-in-fact-NO need that any man teach us” per 1 John 2:20, 27 including the “difficult-to-understand writings” of Paul or his differences of doctrinal opinion from that of Peter or James.  We don’t have to follow any of these “so-called pillars of the Church” per Galatians 2:9, because we can learn directly from You under the completely-different-in-kind New Covenant.

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Spiritual Education, Paul’s writings were NOT called “scripture” in 2 Peter 3:15-16, Peter called Paul’s writings hard to understand, Scoffers of Christ target difficult writings to twist for their own gain, Twisters target the Prophets but ALSO other scriptures categories like Law & Writings, Twisters targeted Paul’s prophecies about Christ’s coming also because difficult to understand

Logos Word of God – BT10:  “The Reading” in 1 Timothy 4:13 was NOT The Law ‘portion of’ scripture

Please follow the BLOG Etiquette to stay on topic and pass the moderator’s check.  Bold, underlined text below = future links to the BLOG pages.

For another detailed breakdown of this, see Body-of-Christ-Ministry – BT13.  In 1 Timothy 4:13 Paul says: “Until I erchomai ‘come from one place to this place,’ [I strongly urge you to] presently/ongoingly prosecho ‘hold attention toward and reaching/accomplishing’ (a) the reading (b), the paraklesis exhortation (c), the didaskalia doctrine/teaching (d).”  The 3 “the” definite articles imply these are specific congregational practices that Timothy would be familiar with, which Paul would take back control of when he arrived.  They are integrally related as you can see in:

Body of Christ – BT14:  “THE EXHORTATION” of 1 Timothy 4:13 is Summoning of the “One-Teacher” Spirit to encourage & instruct us close-beside

Body of Christ – BT15:  “THE TEACHING” of 1 Timothy 4:13 is the Sound Doctrine of the gospel Truth about Christ’s love and salvation by grace thru faith but also godly loving of each other

<Notes> a) prosecho: ‘hold toward and reaching/accomplishing,’ set and keep a course toward to accomplish, b) ana + gnosis = again knowing gnosis information, c) paraklesis:  ‘alongside-calling, urging, exhortation, encouraging, comforting, consolation, counseling, instructing, teaching,’ or from early Church history it can mean: invocation of the Holy Spirit to be “the One Teacher” of Matthew 23:8 – see Romans 15:4 that regards the Messianic ‘portion of’ OT scripture and NOT the whole/entirety of it, d) didaskalia – see also Romans 15:4 that also talks about the specific kind of instruction/teaching for Jewish-Christian paraklesis encouragement.

Just as with 2 Timothy 3:16 and Romans 15:4, there are too many people that try to also make 1 Timothy 4:13 be a “proof-text” that ALL Christians are to use ALL of the OT graphe scripture in their lives. However once again, upon close scholarly examination, it turns out to be FAR from a “proof text,” a terrible translation to do so, and it actually argues for the use of ONLY the Messianic ‘portion of’ of graphe scripture!  Remember “A text without a context is a pretext for a proof-text,” as the great professor & author D. A. Carson once stated!

“THE READING” in the immediate context and that of everything else Paul has written to his evangelist-preacher-in-training Timothy, has absolutely nothing to do with “the reading” of the books of Moses.  In context, it’s very possible Paul was simply referring to in 2 Timothy 1:13 the “sound doctrine/teaching . . . in/by/with [singular] trusting-relying-faith and/coupled [singular] unconditional-love” that are combined into one idea, just as 1 John 3:23 combines these same 2 commandments into 1 compound commandment from God, because the next definite article in 2 Timothy 1:13 is in the singular “the-ONE in Christ Jesus.”  This the same “sound logos words/messages of the Lord of us, Jesus Christ” to be entrusted to other men like Timothy (a). <Notes> a) 2 Timothy 1:13, cf. Titus 2:2.  See also 1 Timothy 6:3; 2 Timothy 4:3; Titus 1:9, 2:1.

Acts 15:31 is a case where a letter was READ by Gentile-Christians that was written from Jewish-Christians in consensus with each other and the Holy Spirit, and when it was read this resulted in the SAME paraklesis ‘alongside-calling, urging, exhortation, encouraging, comforting, consolation, counseling, instructing, teaching’ and consequently rejoicing, joy being a ‘flavor’ of the singular fruit of the Spirit that is singularly unconditional-love per Galatians 5:22.  This should give us a clue about what Timothy was to READ and the nature of his “the paraklesis exhortation, the didaskalia doctrine/teaching.”

Therefore, Timothy’s temporary “reading UNTIL Paul’s arrival” could indeed simply be of the things Paul wrote to him previously or left with him, whether we have a record of them or not, because we know other letters of Paul’s have been lost.  But look what that was!  Body of Christ – BT15:  “THE TEACHING” of 1 Timothy 4:13 is the Sound Doctrine of the gospel Truth about Christ’s love and salvation by grace thru faith but also godly loving of each other.

However it’s much more likely that Paul was referring specifically with the definite-article to a collection of Messianic prophetic passages from the OT graphe scriptures that Paul and Barnabas often quoted from to convert Jews to Christ, just as Timothy was converted by!  That’s because we know from 2 Timothy 3:14-16, that these were the “hois ‘the specific things’ you-have-already manthano ‘learned the essentials from’ and/coupled you-have-already-become pistoo ‘persuaded/assured-of as faithful/trustworthy, because of where you have placed your trusting-relying-faith‘,  . . . that from childhood ta ‘the-specific-ones’ sacred gramma writings you-have-already [with ongoing effects] eido ‘mentally seen to perceived/known, ta ‘specifically-the-ones’ routinely/habitually [NOW also] are-being-powerfully-able to-make-you-wise eis ‘toward and reaching the goal/purpose of’ salvation dia ‘thru the realizing channel of’ [singular] trusting-relying-faith, tes ‘specifically the one that is’ IN Christ (The Anointed One) Jesus.”  Look at the 4 definite-articles (bolded) used!  Paul is very specific, as with his teaching that he has left Timothy as we have seen above in Body of Christ – BT15.

We saw from Logos Word of God – BT7 that THIS IS the ‘kind/class/category/portion of’ pas graphe scripture that is also for Timothy as Paul’s “the man of God” evangelist-preacher per 1 Timothy 6:11 NOW “profitable/useful for teaching/instruction, for rebuking and correcting [Jewish Law-teachers], etc.”  This interpretation would also be consistent with everything Paul previously wrote or spoke to Timothy about above in Body of Christ – BT15, and was exactly the way Paul preached/taught to Jews, and rebuked or corrected Jewish Law-teachers.  Paul did often say to imitate his/his-team’s example (a), especially to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:10.  We also saw that to translate “pas graphe scripture” in 2 Timothy 3:16 as “the whole/entirety of OT writings” is a violation of Greek rules, Pauls’ use of Greek, and the context.  It’s just plain bad translation and interpretation!  <Notes> a) 1 Corinthians 4:16, 11:1; Philippians 3:17, 4:9; 1 Thessalonians 1:6; 2 Thessalonians 3:9.

We also know from early Church writings that this list of prophetic logion ‘oracles/utterances of God’ (d) existed in the predominantly Jewish Church to continue to paraklesis ‘close-beside encourage, instruct, counsel’ converts to stick with Christ and not be tempted by “the teachers of the Law,” which is a theme throughout Paul and Barnabas’ teaching since they travelled as an evangelistic team and would sound very much like each other.  This 2.6% of the OT were the verses used to convert early Jews – see also New Covenant Ways – BT13a. There are at least 365 Messianic prophecies – see also Salvation – BT4 .<Notes> d) Acts 7:38; Hebrews 5:12; 1 Peter 4:11.

It’s absolutely shameful that 30 bible translators (a) have actually inserted the words “of scripture” and one bible inserted the “Word of God” (b) at the end of the “Until I ‘come from one place to this place,’ [I strongly urge you to] presently/ongoingly ‘hold attention toward and reaching/accomplishing’ THE-specific-kind-of READING” phrase in 1 Timothy 4:13.  They based this on pure conjecture, and often with no footnoting to justify their decision!  This is abhorrent, especially when nothing in the immediate context would lead you to do this as we’ve clearly seen above and will see below!  Can you see how “winds of doctrine” get started in the Church!  Thank God 30 translations did NOT commit such a crime (c)!

<Notes> a) including: AMP, CJB, CEV, ERV, EHV, ESV, ESVUK, EXB, GW, GNT, ICB, ISV, TLB, MSG, MOUNCE, NOG, NASB1995, NCV, NET, NIRV, NIV, NIVUK, NLT, NRSVA, NRSVACE, NRSVCE, NRSVUE, RSV, TLV, VOICE, b) NLV, c) KJ21, ASV, AMPC, BRG, CSB, CEB, DARBY, DLNT, DRA, GNV, HCSB, PHILLIPS, JUB, KJV, AKJV, LEB, MEV, NABRE, NASB, NCB, NKJV, NLV, NMB, NTE, OJB, RGT, WEB, WE, WYC, YLT.

The context of 1 Timothy 4:13 actually proves that “THE READING of ‘the entirety/whole of’ scripture” is absolutely NOT what’s in mind!  From 1 Timothy 4:3, the “logos message (a) of God” and the “prayer of thanksgiving” that makes “everything God has created, which is good” now “ongoingly holy (b)” has absolutely nothing to do with the OT Law!  It was Jewish “teachers of the Law” that were “requiring abstinence from foods that God has created” (c)!  But Paul is telling Jewish-Christians otherwise: They should be “received with thanksgiving by-the pistos ‘faithful/trustworthy one – those who have trusting-relying-faith in The Faithful/Trustworthy One’ and/coupled have already [with ongoing results] genuinely, fully, experientially, relationally epiginosko known The Truth” (c), who is Jesus Christ per John 14:6.  But “we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior (Jesus) of all (d) people – particularly those belonging to trusting-relying-faith. Paraggello ‘inform/notify close-beside, authoritatively charge, solemnly entreat’ and/coupled teach THESE things” (e)!  Can you see what Paul is telling Timothy to ‘READ to gnosis informationally-know again’ only “UNTIL Paul arrives?”  This is certainly not the food Laws of the OT, which are many!

<Notes> a) We saw in the Intro page that logos in the NT in all but 4 cases refers to Jesus Christ or His gospel message, b) hagios: sanctified, consecrated, separated, dedicated, made ceremonially ‘clean’ or pure, c) 1 Timothy 4:3, d) pas: often means ‘each/every of a kind/class, category/portion of’ as is clear here by the qualifying adverbial phrase following – see pas graphe scripture in 2 Timothy 3:16, e) 1 Timothy 4:10-11.

We also know from the context that “THE READING” indeed has something to do with Timothy’s grace-gift of evangelism-preaching of the gospel (a) that he should “practice, be immersed in” (b), and that he is to “carefully watch for himself and his teaching, persist in/by/with” (c). This absolutely cannot be ‘the whole/entirety of’ OT scripture because Paul says “by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers” (c).  The OT Scripture won’t save anybody, certainly not the Torah Law of conditional-favor that makes up 97.4% of it – see Logos Word of God – BT5a, no matter how much you read it!  <Notes> a) 1 Timothy 4:14, b) v. 15, c) v. 16.

We can’t forget:  “For if that first [OT] covenant had been NOT memphomai faulted-blameworthy-rejectable-condemnable, there would have been no occasion to look for a second [NT covenant]” (a) and “For on the one hand, a former [OT] commandment is set aside because of its asthenes ‘weak, infirm, without vigor or strength, depleted, lacking in necessary resources, insufficient, frail, and sick nature’ and/coupled anopheles ‘unprofitable uselessness’ – for the Law made absolutely-in-fact-NO-thing perfect – but on the other hand, a kreitton ‘so-much-better’ [NT] hope is introduced, through which we presently/ongoingly draw near to God” (b).  Why would Paul have Timothy read the Law after says that? <Notes> a) Hebrews 8:7, b) Hebrews 7:18-19.

We also know from Paul’s writings that “The Truth” (a) that these Christians “have already [with ongoing results] genuinely, fully, experientially, relationally epiginosko known” sure is NOT gnosis informational-knowledge ABOUT anything, not even OT scripture, so why would Paul have Timothy just “READ to gnosis informational-know again.”

Instead, “The Truth” actually is Jesus Christ (b) and the “logos gospel message of/belonging-to The Truth of God of/belonging-to the Lord [Jesus] (c). “The logos gospel message of The Truth” that Timothy was to “preach as an evangelist, carefully watch for himself and his teaching, practice or be immersed in, and persist in/by/with” of 1 Timothy 4:14-16 is that which can ALONE “save him and his hearers.”  Again, THIS certainly is NOT the ‘whole/entirety of’ the OT scriptures and certainly not the Torah Law of conditional-favor that makes up 97.4% of it that condemns men to death (d).

<Notes> a) 1 Timothy 4:3, b) Ephesians 4:21; Titus 1:1; 2 Corinthians 11:10, cf. John 14:6, c) Acts 8:25, 15:7; 1 Corinthians 1:17; Galatians 2:14; Ephesians 1:13; Colossians 1:5, d) John 7:51; Romans 5:16, 18; 2 Corinthians 3:9; cf. Romans 8:1 NOW for Christians.

Then why would Paul tell Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:13 to then “prosecho ‘hold attention toward and reaching/accomplishing’ himself to THE READING” of “the ‘whole/entirety of’ scripture” as so many translations have erroneously inserted?

As we’ve seen, Paul already had told Timothy what NOT to thus be devoted to:  NOT Jewish-teacher things, but faith things: 1 Timothy 1:4, and NOT teaching of deceitful spirits/demons that cause some to depart from The-Christian-Faith, even concerning abstinence from foods:  1 Timothy 4:1-3!  How could “READING the Law ‘portion of’ the scriptures,” the very ones the Jewish-teachers were using to enforce food laws, be “The Truth” that will “save both yourself and your hearers?” <Notes> a) 1 Timothy 4:3, b) Ephesians 4:21; Titus 1:1; 2 Corinthians 11:10, cf. John 14:6, c) Acts 8:25, 15:7; 1 Corinthians 1:17; Galatians 2:14; Ephesians 1:13; Colossians 1:5, e) 1 Timothy 4:13.

The “THE READING of [every/whole of] scripture” translations also ignore the context of Paul’s other writings concerning “pas ‘each/every of a kind/class/category/portion of’ graphe scripture,” particularly 2 Timothy 3:16.  There they believe that pas always means “the whole/entirety of” and thus here that “the whole/entirety of graphe scripture . . . is profitable/useful for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, etc.” but Paul uses pas often as ‘each/every of a kind/class/category/portion of’ and particularly regarding scripture!  It also violates the context and everything Paul says about the Law and teachers of the Law in the Church!  They believe Paul is including the Torah Law of conditional-favor based on obedience to 613 commandments, which are strewn throughout most of OT scriptures, making for 97.4% of the verses, though they were certainly concentrated in the 5 books of Moses.  See Logos Word of God – BT7 for many other violations necessary to prove “the whole/entirety of scripture . . . is profitable/useful for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting . . .”

However, THE READING of the Law seriously violates many things Paul wrote about NOT using the Law – see Logos Word of God – BT8, but especially 2 Corinthians 3:14-18 where Paul criticizes Jewish-Christians for listening to the Jewish teachers of the Law who continue to press Jewish-Christians to “read Moses” or the old covenant.  Paul says “to this very day,” it causes the hearer’s hearts and minds to be hardened and blocked from seeing God’s glory that is alone in the face of Jesus Christ.  Do you want this to happen to you?

The way to metamorphic transformation is to turn your face, heart, and mind away from Moses to the Lord.  As we fix/gaze our wide-open eyes on Jesus, then this “cocoon to butterfly” change can happen but ONLY by the Spirit, who is the Lord!  Paul’s argument is that this will never come from THE READING of the Torah Law of conditional-favor.  In fact, the exact opposite will happen, because “the enabling-power of sin is the Law” (a) for the “Law came in [time] to increase the trespass” (b).  It’s called “Law of sin and/coupled death” (c) for that very reason! <Notes> a) 1 Corinthians 15:56, b) Romans 5:20, c) Romans 8:2.

Reflections:

As Christian musicians, do we really want to keep taking verses out of context and ignoring their specific vocabulary from the original languages to prove our “pet doctrine” that churches should be READING from the entire OT scripture?  Biblical exegesis is getting the meaning from the Greek text, NOT 1 of 900 English translations, and then insuring the context supports our translation and interpretation.  This how you build your doctrine, NOT by reading into the text our English definitions, cultural understanding, and Church traditions to then create an interpretation of the text that now supports our pretext for our “proof-text.”

1 Timothy 4:13 “public READINGS” in predominantly Jewish-Christian church gatherings were once again specifically the ‘portions of’ the OT scripture that are prophetic discussing the Messiah and His preached gospel logos message for salvation through trusting-relying-faith in Christ within the completely-different-in-kind New Covenant.  This is the same 365 or so verses that the early Church used to convert Jews, about 2.6% of the OT, which the NT writers use liberally but especially Paul and Barnabas.  This “public READING” would never include the 5 books of Moses or old covenant, for much is written to prohibit this – see Logos Word of God – BT8.  It’s possible that Paul is asking Timothy to read portions of his “sound-doctrine/teaching” that he has already communicated to Timothy, but again much of this is based on Paul building arguments from these select OT Messianic prophetic verses to rebuke Jewish Law-teachers and to close-beside-encourage young Jewish-Christians still feeding off this ‘milk’ of the OT logion prophetic oracles-utterances concerning the stoicheion elementary ‘abc’ fundamentals about Jesus as their promised Messiah per Romans 3:2, Hebrews 5:12, 6:1.

Prayer:

Lord, thank You for keeping the Law out of our lives, because we died to the Law when we were water-baptized into Your death.  I pray that You will free other deceived Christians who still read “scriptures that imprisoned ALL under sin” with so many “regulations and commandments and rituals” for Jews to “guard them like prisoners, no different than slaves” when their entire purpose was to bring the “child-like” Jewish people to mature sonship through trusting-relying-faith in You as their Messiah.

Even the Messianic prophecies used to convert Jews to Christ in the early Church are still “milk” and the “ABC fundamentals” compared to the “solid food of discerning good and evil by the Holy Spirit” – see New Covenant Ways – BT16, which is the actual grace-gift “promise” You have for Christians.  None of the OT was meant for Gentiles!

Lord, free confused Christians from looking to palaios “old, antiquated, worn for wear, worn-out” scripture with it rules & regulations and “skia shadows/outline-sketches that are not the body/reality of Christ” per Colossians 2:17.  Free confused Christians about the ‘new scripture,’ as Catholic traditions erroneously named the NT writings 208 years after the apostles.  Free us from the traditions of men, so that You alone become our One Teacher by Your Holy Spirit.

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Spiritual Education, “The Reading” in 1 Timothy 4:13 was NOT The Law ‘portion of’ scripture, The Reading was select Messianic portions of OT scripture used to convert Jews & encourage Jewish-Christians, Paul used this prophetic milk ABC’s often to encourage Jewish-Christians NOT to listen to Law-teachers, Paul used these Messianic portions to argue against Jews, These are the same being referred to in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, THE READING is about The gospel Truth of Christ as savior that gives the Holy Spirit to encourage & instruct us into all The Truth

Part 1

Logos Word of God – BT9:  Roman 15:4 does NOT teach Christians to use ALL scripture

Please follow the BLOG Etiquette to stay on topic and pass the moderator’s check.  Bold, underlined text below = future links to the BLOG pages.

Some Christians will say, “Well what about Romans 15:4 as a supposed “proof-text” like 2 Timothy 3:16 that ALL Christians should use ALL of the Old Testament (OT) graphe scripture.  Again, upon close scholarly examination, it turns out to be FAR from a “proof text,” a terrible translation, but it actually argues for the use of ONLY the Messianic ‘portion of’ of graphe scripture!

The Greek text from Bible Hub says: “Gar for hosos whatever-things were-already prographo ‘written before [in time] or depicted/portrayed openly before the public’s eyes’ [these] pas ‘every/each of a kind/class/category/portion of things’ were-already prographo ‘written . . . public’s eyes’ eis ‘toward and reaching the goal/purpose of’ ten ‘the specific’ didaskalia instruction/teaching [emphatic:] that-is-OUR’s, in-order-than dia ‘thru the realizing channel of’ THE-specific-kind-of hupomone ‘patient, steadfast endurance’ and/coupled THE-specific-kind-of paraklesis ‘alongside-calling, urging, exhortation, encouraging, comforting, consolation, counseling, instructing, teaching’ of/belonging-to-the graphe scriptures [plural with the definite article], THE-specific-kind-of elpis [Christian] Hope we’all MIGHT presently/ongoingly hold-to-have.”

Doesn’t that mean ‘the whole/entirety of’ scripture is meant for ALL Christians to read & study?   Only if you take it completely out of context!  Only if don’t understand the normal use of pas for ‘every/each of a kind/class/category/portion of things’ in the “distributed or portion of” sense instead of “the whole/entirety sense” – which is also the case for “pas graphe scripture” [here in the singular but without the definite article] as in 2 Timothy 3:16 in Logos Word of God – BT7, and that [plural] graphe scriptures often refers generally ONLY of the OT Prophets but more specifically of the Messianic prophecies as in Matthew 26:56 where it also uses the definite article to narrow it down even further to the persecution & suffering of the Christ – see definition B2 of Logos Word of God – BT5.

Only if you don’t understand that [plural] graphe scriptures are often even more narrowed down to be the prophetic “oracles/utterances of God” that are Messianic, used by the early Church to convert Jews that consists ONLY of 2.6% of the OT – see definition B3 of Logos Word of God – BT5, and also with the definite article to narrow it down even further to the Messianic ‘portion of’ OT Prophets that Christ fulfilled as in Matthew 26:54, Mark 14:49, Luke 24:25-27.  So in Roman 15:4 we have the same use of graphe scriptures in the plural with the definite article, so the meaning is the same!  Remember  “A text without a context is a pretext for a proof-text,” as the great professor & author D. A. Carson once stated!

However, it was THIS Messianic ‘portion of’ the definite-articled plural graphe scriptures that Paul reasoned with the Jews per Acts 17:2, that the Berean Jews checked Paul out on in Acts 17:11, that Apollos likely preached Jesus to be the Christ from in Acts 18:24 to even publicly refute-down-from in Acts 18:28, which is the same root elegcho meaning of rebuttal that Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that ‘portion of’ scripture that “is profitable/useful for. . . rebuttal.”  Jesus also refuted the Jews who persecuted Him appealing to the same ‘portion of’ the graphe scriptures that spoke about His rejection and exaltation to become “the chief cornerstone” in Matthew 21:42.

It was also  THIS ‘portion of’ the definite-articled plural graphe scriptures about Christ dying & His resurrection for our sins that Paul delivered as foremost per 1 Corinthians 15:3.  The resurrection ‘portion of’ the graphe scriptures is also what Jesus had in mind in Matthew 22:29 and Mark 12:24.  Clearly the gospel is referencing specific ‘portions of’ gramma writings collected in specific ‘portions of’ graphe scripture as in Romans 1:2 and 16:26 – see Logos Word of God – BT4.

There are also key words in Romans 15:4 that refer back to the context that help to define what is in mind in: “Gar for hosos whatever-things were-already prographo ‘written . . . for OUR’s.”  The Greek conjunction gar is “used to express cause, explanatory reason, or inference/continuation of the previous statement,” which is Romans 15:3 “Gar for Christ did not please Himself, but as it is grapho written, ‘The reproaches (a) of those who reproached You (Christ) fell on Me (God).’”  The context of Psalms 69:9 make it clear king David was speaking prophetically of the Messiah and His Father God, again this ‘portion of’ being what the NT cites from the OT graphe scripture (b). <Notes> a) insolent, abusive, insulting language and treatment, b) Matthew 3:17, 12:18, 17:5; Mark 1:11; John 5:19; Luke 3:22; Romans 5:19.

Paul used a specific prophetic ‘portion of’ the OT graphe scriptures, specifically about the persecution of Christ being actually against God, especially since we know that Jesus lived ONLY to please God in perfect obedience, thus whatever was being brought against Christ was actually being brought against God the Father.  Therefore, the specific gar ‘explanatory reason’ for Paul writing Romans 15:4 points back to Romans 15:3, but this is clearly indicating the ‘portion of’ “the graphe scriptures” in mind in v. 15:4 is the Messianic ‘portion of’ introduced in v. 15:3 and thus v. 15:4 is a gar “continuation of this previous statement” in v. 15:3.  It is THIS Messianic ‘portion of’ the graphe scriptures” that has to do with the Christian “OUR specific-kind-of teaching/instruction” that has to do with “THE-specific-kind-of patient-endurance and/coupled THE-specific-kind-of encouragement, for hopefully having THE-specific-kind-of [Christian] Hope” that we see later in v. 15:4.  This is Paul’s argument style of flowing from one idea to another to prove his point.