Chapter # 13 Paragraph # 2 Study # 3
December 20, 2020
Humble, Texas
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Thesis: "Ponder this"... .
Introduction: In our last study we saw that, for all of Paul's teaching regarding our freedom from "Law", he never did intend that we should view such "freedom" as a basis for living in contradiction to it. He actually wrote (in
Galatians 5:13), "For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another", and he had already written to the believers in Rome that they were
not to view "grace" as a basis to "sin without compunction" in
Romans 6:1 and
15. If we realize that our "freedom from Law" is actually limited to "freedom from Law's imposition of condemnation", we will be better able to follow his thought.
Therefore, Paul fully intended for his readers to accept "an eternal obligation": to "Love" all men at all times and in all circumstances. We have seen this as his great "exception" in respect to "obligation/debt".
Now, we come to the second half of this paragraph in which he gives his reasoning for his insistence that we live with this inescapable obligation.
- I. Our First Observation: There Is an Absence of a 'Primary Verb' in His Next Sentence.
- A. The translation in the NASB acknowledges this with the insertion of the word "Do".
- B. The fact is, though, acknowledged or not, Paul's original sentence assumes a verbal idea that Paul obviously thought his readers would be able to grasp without it being directly stated.
- C. The question is, however, whether his assumption of that ability would be fulfilled.
- 1. Did he mean "Do this"?
- a. The word "this" is a pronoun in the "Accusative" case; meaning, it is seen as a direct object of some active verbal idea.
- b. The translators tumbled to the idea that Paul was focused upon getting his readers to "do" the "this".
- 1) So, what is the "this" to which a pronoun can be used to note?
- a) Is it a pronoun that points backwards to his words about our eternal obligation?
- b) Or is it a pronoun that points to the next words -- those which tell us that we are "aware of the season" and, thus, should pursue their implications?
- 2) For the "doers" among us (who are always looking for something to "do"), the answer is that "this" points backwards to our eternal obligation.
- 3) However, there are some among us whose questions about "doing" are always going to look for the answer to the "HOW" question in respect to demands that we "do".
- 4) Since all of the words following the "This" are "foundational truths" that point us to an answer to the "HOW", it is my assumption that Paul expected his readers to track him in the light of the very great impossibility of the thing he has declared: Love is an inescapable obligation that is impossible to "pay".
- a) This has to mean, then, that Paul expected his readers to "track" with him to a way for the "impossible debt" to be actually "paid".
- b) And, given Paul's constant fixation upon the Christian life to be a life wherein what is commanded it to be met with "faith" in something God has said that will move it out of the realm of "impossibility", it makes sense to me that the greater probability is that Paul was not pointing backwards with a "Do this" mentality.
- 2. So, if not "Do", then what?
- a. For myself, I think that 2 Timothy 2:7 comes into play at this point: "Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything".
- b. A critical reality exists in the overall context of the Gospel of which we need to be aware.
- 1) Over my life time I have noted that there are two basic types of people.
- a) There are those who are continually frustrated with the failures of others to live up to the implications of the Gospel Promise.
- b) And there are those who are pretty much continually frustrated with their own personal failures to live up to those implications.
- c) There is, admittedly, some blending that goes on in some of us wherein we pursue one kind of frustration (with others) part of the time, and, in the other parts of the time, we pursue the other kind (with ourselves).
- 2) The reality seems to be this: that there is one foundation for both kinds of people.
- a) That one foundation is the inescapable fact that while the Gospel appears to promise "godliness" to those who believe it, the unvarnished truth is that no one lives out a consistent "godliness".
- i. Everywhere in the teachings of the New Testament is the reality of the declaration of Paul "... not that I have already obtained, or have already become perfect..." (Philippians 2:12) and that of James "...we all stumble in many ways..." (James 3:2).
- ii. The "problem" is that the Gospel's Promise is only finally fulfilled in the day when we see Christ face to face, and until then that "Promise" is only partially fulfilled in us who believe, and the nature of the problem is profound and inescapable.
- b) When we express frustration with those who do not "Do" well, we are expressing our frustration with the fact that the Gospel is not producing what we expect from it, and when we express our frustration with ourselves, we are doing the same thing: expecting more than was promised.
- c. Thus, if "Do" is not the proper assumed verb, then, perhaps, "Consider/Ponder" is.
- 1) Paul wants us to "ponder" the path we are to take since we live under an omnipresent and inescapable "debt" to "Love".
- 2) There are "ponderables".
- a) They begin with the inescapable and continuous reality that only "Love" fulfills the "Law" without pretense.
- b) They proceed with the other issues Paul raises after his "Ponder This..." beginning.
- i. That we "know the time".
- ii. That we need to "live in the hour" of wakefulness.
- iii. That we grasp the actual reality of the nearness of the day of our salvation.
- iv. That we face the fact that the night is far gone so that the works of darkness have no place in us.
- v. That we utilize our persistent "fall-back" provision: Jesus Christ is the Enabler and the Vine to the branches.
