Profanity Proficient with Practice
From 1 Timothy 1 – 1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope,
2 Timothy, a true son in the faith: grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia – remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, 4 nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is faith.
5 now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, 6 from which some have strayed and turned aside to idle talk, 7 desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.
8 But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, 9 knowing this: that the law is not made for the righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the unholy and the profane…
Socrates directs, "The misuse of language induces evil in the soul."
So does the apostle Paul under the influence of the Holy Spirit. The two are linked in inexorable tandem as 1 Timothy 1:9's description of the degradation of the fallen human predicament continues. Apart from the righteousness of Christ applied specifically, those who don't know about the Bible's detailed picture of what that righteousness looks like are in the same sad predicament as those who specifically rebel against it. Unholiness in category plays out in an unholy perspective on the particular situations we face. Words, to self or to others, flow from that outlook and reinforce it.
The question of what Jesus would do in my roles in life, or even better what He DID do on my behalf is twisted profanely, Paul says. We resent the standard we can't reach, but of which we are still vaguely aware. When we refuse the righteousness offered in Christ which would reconcile us with the Father, we refute the peace we so desperately need. Then, we spout that self-inflicted disappointment.
Martin Luther did this to his confessor according to Michael Massing's Fatal Discord. We, along with Luther, use the words God grants us to complain He is not fulfilled His promises. When Luther said he didn't feel peace after confessing, his confessor was direct. "You fool, God is not angry with you. You are angry with him."
Our profanity in this sense flows from our desire to shrink the Gospel down to something we can manage, and then to a scorecard we can use to excel over and control others. This distortion was insipid in Ephesus, Paul warns, and it is all I have and well today. Where we can control our wholehearted mastery of the whole alphabet, we will focus on A and condemn those who don't. By habit, the speech of our discontent with others who don't measure righteousness the way we do becomes the one we take with God.
Subverted is the soft heart that by God's grace might look at righteousness and plead, "Change me according to Your grace and Your timing!" Instead, we were placed such sweet sublimity with a never-ending catalog of complaints about the world, OUR world, as God has allowed it to degrade. Such contention as might have shocked us when we were in the throes of our first love for Jesus no longer does as yesterday's complaint, seemingly tolerated, grants indulgence to today's latest critique of the Almighty.
Since God's mercies are new every morning, since in Psalm 90:14 He allows even a stalwart saint like Moses to demand satisfaction in Him at the day's beginning, there is still hope. Since our speech and our unholy action are bound together in a race to prove our depravity, resolution by the grace of God speak to and of Him in ways befitting His glory is a beginning. Speaking His Word back to him as we recognize the incessant error and arrogance in our own is a beachhead for reclaiming the fullness of His righteous work in us.
2 Timothy, a true son in the faith: grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia – remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, 4 nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is faith.
5 now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, 6 from which some have strayed and turned aside to idle talk, 7 desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.
8 But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, 9 knowing this: that the law is not made for the righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the unholy and the profane…
Socrates directs, "The misuse of language induces evil in the soul."
So does the apostle Paul under the influence of the Holy Spirit. The two are linked in inexorable tandem as 1 Timothy 1:9's description of the degradation of the fallen human predicament continues. Apart from the righteousness of Christ applied specifically, those who don't know about the Bible's detailed picture of what that righteousness looks like are in the same sad predicament as those who specifically rebel against it. Unholiness in category plays out in an unholy perspective on the particular situations we face. Words, to self or to others, flow from that outlook and reinforce it.
The question of what Jesus would do in my roles in life, or even better what He DID do on my behalf is twisted profanely, Paul says. We resent the standard we can't reach, but of which we are still vaguely aware. When we refuse the righteousness offered in Christ which would reconcile us with the Father, we refute the peace we so desperately need. Then, we spout that self-inflicted disappointment.
Martin Luther did this to his confessor according to Michael Massing's Fatal Discord. We, along with Luther, use the words God grants us to complain He is not fulfilled His promises. When Luther said he didn't feel peace after confessing, his confessor was direct. "You fool, God is not angry with you. You are angry with him."
Our profanity in this sense flows from our desire to shrink the Gospel down to something we can manage, and then to a scorecard we can use to excel over and control others. This distortion was insipid in Ephesus, Paul warns, and it is all I have and well today. Where we can control our wholehearted mastery of the whole alphabet, we will focus on A and condemn those who don't. By habit, the speech of our discontent with others who don't measure righteousness the way we do becomes the one we take with God.
Subverted is the soft heart that by God's grace might look at righteousness and plead, "Change me according to Your grace and Your timing!" Instead, we were placed such sweet sublimity with a never-ending catalog of complaints about the world, OUR world, as God has allowed it to degrade. Such contention as might have shocked us when we were in the throes of our first love for Jesus no longer does as yesterday's complaint, seemingly tolerated, grants indulgence to today's latest critique of the Almighty.
Since God's mercies are new every morning, since in Psalm 90:14 He allows even a stalwart saint like Moses to demand satisfaction in Him at the day's beginning, there is still hope. Since our speech and our unholy action are bound together in a race to prove our depravity, resolution by the grace of God speak to and of Him in ways befitting His glory is a beginning. Speaking His Word back to him as we recognize the incessant error and arrogance in our own is a beachhead for reclaiming the fullness of His righteous work in us.
Comments
Post a Comment