Paul begins with a brief introduction,
then moves on to a theme he will revisit with other churches. Paul
is pointing out that society (earthly, flesh driven, whatever term
you prefer) has fallen because individuals decided to worship cheap
man made trinkets instead of the one true God. This resulted in God
allowing people to live their lives without divine intervention, but
also to feel the pain of such a godless life, resulting in a type of
hell on earth.
Chapter two begins by admonishing
Christians that the wanton sins of the non-believer is not an excuse
for Christian judgment. Each time we judge, we call judgment on
ourselves. The Message Bible translation brings it down to the third
grade for us.. “It takes one to know one.” (Sidebar: why have I
not ever read this … unique translation of the Bible before?).
This next section of chapter two has
helped me with an issue I have had has a maturing Christian. Why are
most non-believers generally good people. Paul points out that God's
law is written on the hearts of all (it is innate for my fellow
science geeks). Paul wants us to look at the good of non-believers
as further evidence of the existence of God and the perfectness of
His Law.
To conclude chapter two Paul
chastises Jews for being a hindrance to the conversion of
non-believers, by being marked as Jews, but failing to live lives in
accordance to God's Law. Turn off Paul... and my opinion on for a
moment. In the spirit of starting a conversation, I will attempt to
end these blogs with a bit of controversy. I believe that Paul is
saying that it may be better to hide our faith if the alternative is
wearing our faith on our sleeve and living sinful lives that drive
the unbeliever further from God's truth. Comments?
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