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Sunday, June 25, 2023

Romans 6:12-23

This passage occurs in the Revised Common Lectionary, Year A.  It appeared most recently in June 2023.

Summary:  Paul reminds everyone that the freedom we have in Christ is not to pursue our own pleasure, but to serve him.  A preaching thought in 2023.  Paul gets "preachy" here about how the wages of sin are death.  My sense is that when we preach this prescriptively, it fails on deaf ears.  Worse, we likely know people who have been beaten up, if not abused, for their perceived sinfulness.  Yet, when we speak to someone who has wallowed in their sin, it becomes a very different matter.  They know their actions led to death.  

To summarize:  I have met people abused by others because they demanded to repent; I have also met others who came to the conclusion that their current path was death.  In short, I think this passage will never lose its descriptive truth, but I struggle with how might one work this passage prescriptively.

Words worth exploring:

ζωντας (participle form of ζαω, meaning "living", 6.13)  The Greek packs a bit more punch than the English here.  Paul says that we are "from death-living."  The English translations typically make the living seem like a past activity.  Paul commends us that the living continues.  The death is what is in the past!

οπλα ("instrument", 6.13)  The word can mean a variety of weapons and instruments.  For all the other Civilization computer game fans -- this is where the word "hoplite" comes from.  Interestingly, a hoplite military unit was based on using your shield to protect others in the formation.  Paul here commends us to present ourselves as instruments...used in battle for the protection of others.

παραδοθητε (from "παραδιδημι", meaning betray or handover, 6.17)  This word can mean handover, as in betray, or handover, as in tradition.  In this case it means that the Roman Christians were handed over something from other Christians.  A reminder that we did not discover Christianity on our own, but received it from others!

τυπον διδαχης (τυπος and διδαχη, meaning "figure" and "teaching", 6:17)  This word literally means "form of teaching."  First, Paul does not really use the word "teaching" a great deal; although other Christians would pick up on the word διδαχη and call teacher a διδασκαλος.   So what is Paul referring to with teaching?  It is meaningful, I believe, to consider the combination of "form" (τυπος) and "teaching."  τυπος means a mold or a form.  The teaching of Paul was not simply of the head, but included a way of living, of conforming our lives to Christ.  This is clearly presented in Philippians 3:17.

Philippians 3:17-21   Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example (τυπος) you have in us.  For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears.  Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things.  But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.  He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.

ελευθερωθεντες (passive participle of ελευθεροω, meaning "free", 6:18)  This word means to free.  For Americans, we hear freedom as the right to do what we want.  For Paul, freedom means the ability to do what God wants.

αγιασμον ("sanctification", 6:22)  Sanctification often is seen as an individual journey toward holiness.  But Paul's whole argument here is about a movement away from the self, toward Christ and others.  Sanctification, it would seem, is about becoming useful to God, not becoming 'holy' in the abstract.   

I realize there are two big strands of holiness thinking:  personal morality and corporate usefulness.  I do not wish to say the two are unrelated or opposed.  I just think most American Christians emphasize the former at the expense of the later.  In fact, for many, these two may seem like entirely different concepts.  A short example connecting the two.  Paul writes later in Romans (14:17)
"For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit"
This might seem like righteousness is about personal choices around food and drink.  Yet, in this case, Paul is writing about the need of some members of the community to abstain from certain food and drink for the sake of the neighbors.  Personal morality and communal usefulness are always related.

υμων/ημων - (yours/ours)  Just a reminder that throughout this section, Paul uses plural pronouns.  This is about "all y'all's" sanctification.

Also...
χαρις ("grace", 6.17)  Little play on words here; typically translated as thanks, but it is literally "Grace to God!"

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