Saturday, January 13, 2007

Some thoughts on this week's passage

Every year I'm tempted to read through the entire Bible (and Apocrypha). I usually don't, but am always happy I did. Making your way from Genesis to Revelation clarifies quite a bit, especially the centrality of themes consistent throughout the entire Bible. You can begin to see the old Western Christian guideline: Creation, Fall, Redemption. (Those first two things happen quite quickly.) More importantly, you can see the truth of Jesus' statements in John 5:39: "You pore over the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, yet they testify about Me."

Although I want to finish the Bible this year, I know I won't, which is one of the reasons I'm posting the Calvinist Gadfly's scripture passages. I hope to have at least embedded 52 NT passages by the end of the year. Rather than get a quick overview, I can spend a bit more time mulling over each passage.

So here are some thoughts on this week's post (Phil 4:6-7):
1. "Don't worry" is an present active imperative. In other words, "Stop worrying."
2. "About" is an extension of the word for "worry," but it is arguably possible to read this passage as, "Stop worrying. But in everything - by prayer...."
3. "Your" is plural. This is a letter to the church.
4. "thought" is probably just as good a translation as "understanding" in the old KJV. The word is "mind".
5. "In Christ Jesus" is not an accident. Our confidence and hope - the reason we are told to stop worrying - goes back to that phrase. There's a Seinfeld episode where the gang dirties every fortune cookie by adding the phrase, "... in bed." ("You will have great success... in bed.") For the Christian, every promise goes back to Paul's phrase, "in Christ." God loves us in Christ. We are more than conquerors in Christ. So he says here, the peace of God will guard you (all) in Christ.

1 comment:

Alan E. Kurschner said...

Joe, thanks for taking the challenge!

Alan