At a recent men’s conference a question was raised: “Does an elder have to be married?” I answered live, but I wanted to record my thoughts here.
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Category: study
This is a quote from a chapter of Systematic Theology (2004) by Wayne Grudem. The chapter primarily focuses on the atonement but it has this really good section (pp. 583-594) about hell that ties the entire week together.
On my iPhone (it’s really an iPod Touch but it’s annoying calling it an iPod Touch and it sounds slightly perverse calling it an iTouch and with the right applications and microphone it is essentially the same device sans camera so I’ll continue calling it an iPhone for any future posts though I don’t technically own one) I have a document that I reference when I’m out and about reading Scripture. It contains some themes that shoot right through Scripture, from beginning to end, and which all are tied up to the Gospel and eventually are the very things that God is culminating. Of course, the ideas aren’t original. My thinking was influenced by DA Carson, Dwight Pentacost, even John Piper and NT Wright (if you believe it).
In the list you might notice I’m missing some things like “Shepherd” or “Davidic King” but that’s because I think those tie into Man and his position under God. I didn’t mention Israel, though it is surely a major theme but I’ve subsumed it under People of God—but I don’t feel quite right about that. I might still put them under their own number—not sure.
I’ve noticed that some make a mistake of taking one of the themes of Scripture and making it the central focus of the Gospel (the good news). For example, NT Wright loves to make the Gospel all about the Kingdom. Piper loves to make the Gospel all about God (even has a book called God is the Gospel). So on. I think that to say the main theme of the Gospel is any one of these things is seriously mistaken and ignores the breadth of what God is accomplishing. Also, I think some would like to remove some of these things as being tied to the Gospel. So, one might argue that Creation is central to the Gospel and Sin is merely a side issue: that is mistaken. The Gospel necessarily deals with both of those (and other) things but I won’t argue the point beyond listing the themes from my iPhone here sans scripture:
After giving an overview of 1 Cor 8-10, we can draw some conclusions about what’s going on in the Church of Corinth and what’s ultimately wrong with the practice of some.
There is a group of people, known as The Strong With Knowledge, who are visiting the local temples and eating food which has been offered to idols. The Strong With Knowledge have no problem buying meat from the market when it is specifically noted as being offered by idols. The Strong With Knowledge have been doing this activity (of shopping and eating) in front of their Christian Brethren and in front of the common man.
The Strong With Knowledge, therefore, are being addressed. Their practice needs correction on several levels.
I’ve been talking about how our world is really close to the world of 1 Corinthians but we don’t realize it—but I haven’t managed to show why I think that. To do that, I wanted to spend time thinking about interaction with idolatry by examining 1 Corinthians 8-10, a passage which is often misread by looking at it through a Romans 14-15 filter. In the last post we noted, in passing, some similarities and differences between the two sections; but in this post I want to do a bird’s eye view of Paul’s argument in 1 Corinthians 8-10.