Bible Study Romans Part 48-Contentious

Welcome to the program Study in the Chapel.

God's Word is supreme at Chapel Ministries.

We consider it absolutely essential to a proper relationship with God.

We study it, we love it, we rely on it every minute of every day.

The following program is an edited recording of the regular Bible studies we hold, and we decided to share these with you in the hope that you too will be able to find inspiration, encouragement, and ultimately salvation through discovering Christ in Scripture.

Our intention is to travel all the way through the Bible.

It will be a challenging journey, but one that will undoubtedly bring you to a decision.

Through this study, you will be faced with either believing or rejecting what God has said to us.

It is our intention to provide you with enough knowledge to make an informed decision about God and his word.

We strongly encourage you to listen intently and diligently, because though at the moment you may not realize it, these things are truly a matter of life and death.

In fact, these are matters of eternal life and eternal death.

Never treat what God has said lightly.

There's truly nothing more important to you.

Now join us as we seek God's will through his inspired word.

When we ended last time, I was trying to make a point about the King James translation of Romans 2.8.

I got a bit off track, so let me start this week by returning to what I was trying to say.

The King James translation of verse 8 is, well, it's not a good one, but you'd only discover that through a little more thorough than usual investigation.

This Bible study, by the way, was never meant to be simply about the facts and figures of Scripture.

Those are wonderful, and we do cover all of those.

But the other purpose, the other theme of my teaching, the mission of this Bible study is to get all of you to treat this book as if it matters to you.

Now, I don't want you to just read God's word.

I want you to pursue God's word.

If I came along and gave you some other book and told you that it contained a special code that will lead to buried treasure, something that would make you rich beyond your wildest dreams, I'm pretty sure you would give that book your fullest attention.

You would scour every page, every sentence, every word to try and unlock the precious truth found therein.

Well, I won't do that because you already have a book like that.

God Himself says so.

Proverbs 2, 1.

My son, if thou wilt receive my words and hide my commandments with thee, so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom and apply thine heart to understanding.

Yea, if thou criest after knowledge and liftest up thy voice for understanding, if thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

If we limit our efforts in mining the treasure found in the King James Version of verse eight to just a surface examination, if we just give it a cursory glance, all we're going to find is fool's gold.

It looks like one thing, but it's actually something else.

Enough with the analogies, let me get to it.

Incomplete might be a better word to use.

And we discover that if we look at the original.

John, are you suggesting that I stop at every word I read in the English language Bible just to find out if the translation is correct?

Of course I'm not.

But what I do suggest you do is read scripture in a focused manner.

For example, when you read this statement about what God does to contentious people, it should strike you as a little over the top.

At least that's what it seems like to me.

I got a little curious about this word being here, so I stopped to take a little look at it.

I thought contentious people are unpleasant, but they but do they deserve indignation and wrath, as Paul puts it here?

I mean, if God says they do, fine.

I'm not going to argue with him, but I would like to know why God would react this way to people who are a bit argumentative about things, right?

Isn't that what contentious means?

In fact, let's go to the dictionary.

According to the bosses of the English language, the Oxford Dictionary, a contentious person is someone who is, quote, given to provoking argument.

When I came across the word contentious in the King James, my brain sensed a curious imbalance.

So I checked and I'm glad I did.

Listen, this isn't some life-changing discovery.

This isn't going to alter the course of chapel ministries.

No one's going to hear a choir of angels holding that one note we hear in the movies when someone has an unexpected revelation.

I'm just, I'm just sharing this in the hope that I can encourage you to think critically about the Bible.

I didn't say be a critic of the Bible.

I'm saying study the Bible with an inquisitive mind.

Thoroughly analyze the information that's presented to you.

There's no reason to always take someone else's interpretation of Scripture as the last word on the matter, especially if it doesn't sit right with you.

Open some study materials, some scriptural reference materials and check the thing out.

It's not like you're checking up on God.

You're just verifying the human assessment of God's word.

And if you discover through that research that the interpretation slash translation is correct, fine, accept it and move on.

Sometimes that's difficult to do, but in the interest of discovering truth, you have to do that.

Anyhow, that's all I was doing when I discovered what I'm about to share with you.

The original Greek word that the King James translators said means contentious is Erethia, according to the academic level resources that I have in my library, according to the sources that I consult on a regular basis, written by experts, at the heart, at the root of the word Erethia is the verb Erethuyo.

The theological dictionary of the New Testament and its entry on Eretha states that Erathuio means to work as a day laborer.

Another resource I use, the word study dictionary, says it means to work for hire.

Now, those are very similar definitions, and they both seem rather inapplicable until you start to pull back the layers a bit.

Now hang on because we're getting somewhere with this.

Erithuio, the root of Erithia, involved into a word that at one time was used to describe those who were self-employed, I guess you could say, those who worked independently toward their own good for their own purposes.

Eventually, Erithuio started getting used to mean those who actually demean themselves for personal gain.

Now let me read this next part.

This is from the theological dictionary of the New Testament, that first resource we quoted.

Quote, aristocratic contempt for daily wage earners seems to have brought about the devaluation of the meaning.

I didn't put this up there on the screen because just let me read through it.

The result is that later translators and expositors of the New Testament often failed to understand the term.

It goes on to say, quote, as a complex term in everyday usage, it can be given different senses according to the context.

Now, I want you to know this is why this is valuable.

When you take the time and study these words, you get to see why they put things where they did and why they did it.

What is the purpose behind using these sorts of words?

Now, here's the part that implies to our current study from the theological dictionary of the New Testament.

Quote, contentious, this is the word that I have a problem with.

Contentious is perhaps too specialized in Romans 2.8.

That's our verse at the moment.

Contentius is perhaps too specialized in Romans 2.8, where it refers to the quote, despicable nature of those who do not obey the truth but seek immediate gain.

So given all of that, we can see that the original thought, the original thought that Paul had, the original thought that he was trying to communicate, is that of a person who will only advocate for that which is advantageous to his own position.

He will oppose, yes, in a contentious way, anything that is contrary to that spirit.

This is a more complete understanding of Romans 2.8, and it's applicable.

This is worth the effort.

Paul is not referring just to people who like to argue a lot, but rather those whose only aim is to reject anything that does not serve them personally in some way or another.

If something hinders their satisfaction, whether it's true or not, then they will come against it and favor only directly beneficial positions.

And that's why most of your Bibles will use the phrase self-serving or something similar instead of contentious.

But there are experts who take this one step further.

Some scholars will use the term factious in their definition.

And I think this is really the key to understanding Paul's mindset.

In case factio is not a word you're familiar with, let me once again go to the Oxford Dictionary.

Factious is defined as meaning, listen, of actions, speech, etc., relating to or proceeding from conflict or dispute between factions.

Factions are basically rival groups very often organized around ideological boundaries, of actions, speech, et cetera, relating to or proceeding from conflict or dispute between factions characterized by dissent or partisanship.

So when someone is being factious, one is advocating and or defending the position, beliefs, values, even possessions of the group he or she is associated with.

Some scholars, and I think I agree with them, some biblical scholars feel that Paul is directly calling out the Jewish potsters at that time who did all they could to dissuade their fellow Jews from converting to Christianity, whether they agreed with the position or not, while at the same time discouraging, even intimidating those that had already converted.

When Paul was talking about contentious, he was particularly looking at those groups of Jews who were fighting against everything he was trying to do to bring Christ into the Jewish religion.

That's exactly what he was trying to do.

He was trying to show that Jesus was the Messiah.

And there were groups of people that were fighting against him.

They were being factious.

And Paul is saying they're going to be judged by God for doing so.

The Bible tells us that in the days of the early church, when Paul was a key apostle, there was a very active, very determined group of Jewish leaders, you know, rabbis and scribes, who were aggressively trying to undermine the gospel.

They made it their mission to discredit the Christian movement.

And in addition to those aggressive, contentious Jews, throughout Paul's correspondence, as well as what is reported of him in Acts, he is constantly taking on, battling with those who are referred to as Judaizers.

And the reason they were given that word is they were trying to make into Jews those who had been converted, whether they were Jews or not.

Judaizers were Jewish believers who, in the early days of the church, insisted that all newly converted Christians had to follow the Jewish law, regardless of whether they were ethnically Jewish or not.

And they were very insistent.

In the church at Jerusalem, in the church at Jerusalem, where most of the leadership of the early church were, they were starting to insist that all of the Gentile converts start to follow the Jewish law.

And Paul had to fight against them constantly because their biggest contention, that which they contended with most, was the basic Christian idea that salvation was by grace and not by works.

And by the way, we deal with that in our day too.

We have contentious, factious people who want us to follow a set of rules if we're Christians in order to gain our salvation.

That isn't grace.

This has gone back all the way through the entire history of church, of the church.

Paul was aiming directly at those factious Jews who he saw as purposely ignoring truth, in fact, fighting against truth, simply to protect their group, their faction.

I think this theory is entirely possible.

Paul was constantly waging war on those who were doing all they could to suppress the truth of the gospel.

Now, one final note on this word, contentious.

I know we've been talking about this one thing for a really long time, but I like to make sure we are taking a balanced approach to our Bible study.

Not everyone agrees with our above analysis.

There are many experts who will tell you that what we just went over is actually not a straightforward definition of the original Greek.

Some will say you can trace the origin of Erethia to the word erethizo, which means to provoke.

And because of that, they will argue that the word contentious is a valid translation.

They said Paul is painting with a far broader brush, and that he's actually saying God will harshly judge those who are argumentative simply for the sake of being argumentative.

Now, admittedly, I can see their point.

Some of the most unpleasant folks are those who find it necessary to argue about everything.

But unpleasant isn't necessarily sinful nor wrath incurring, not God's wrath, anyhow.

Although, as I said, there's some merit to this dissenting opinion regarding the word contentious.

I do think the research we conducted and the conclusion we came to was accurate.

And the reason why I say that is because Paul in this chapter is aiming his discourse to the Jews, and there were those Jews who were contending vigorously against the Christian thought.

Many of the scholars, by the way, responsible for your more modern English language Bibles, seem to agree, since the word contentious is not found in most of them anymore.

And that includes the New King James Version.

The majority of the contemporary English language Bibles, as I said, use the phrase self-seeking or something similar.

In fact, the revised version, which is meaning revised of the King James, as well as the revised standard, actually used the word factious, which I believe is the true and proper translation.

You see, this is much more than someone who just likes to argue.

This is a destructive attitude.

This is someone who will have their own way at all costs.

Their intention is to destroy all dissenting opinions.

Factious, contentious, okay, but for a purpose that's all self-serving.

Let's keep moving.

Romans 2.8.

Unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation, and wrath.

They will receive indignation and wrath.

Now, this word obey that appears twice in this verse is also rather interesting.

In the original, it's meant to convey a sense of active acceptance more than just some kind of mindless ascension.

Our will is involved.

Our minds are acting as a sort of dynamic gatekeeper, letting in what we agree to or keeping out what we don't.

What's spoken of here when this word obey appears is persuasion.

We assess and assign value to a particular viewpoint, and then either we go along with it because we're persuaded it's right, or we resist it because we're not buying into whatever is being asked of us.

Seeing it that way puts a force of intention behind our behavior.

We are intending to obey or disobey something.

That's what God sees.

Are you following rules because you're convinced they are right and true?

Or are you going along with something because you merely seek the potential benefits?

That, in my opinion, is the difference between morality and righteousness.

People who are moral are simply following a set of rules.

Those who are righteous act in ways that are inherently good and proper in and of themselves.

I mean, in Nazi Germany, it was considered a moral obligation to oppress the Jews.

So many went along because of the advantages of doing so.

Those advantages mainly avoiding a jail cell.

Those who went against that accepted moral code and instead aided the Jews were doing so at great personal risks because they were doing so, they wanted to do the right thing.

By doing that, they wanted to do the right thing.

Morality versus righteousness.

Romans 2.8 again.

But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth, there are some who actively reject the truth.

This is one of the most ancient and persistent sins among humankind.

Listen, we've been designed in a most extraordinary way, and we seem to use every one of our higher abilities to resist God's claim upon us.

We've been given this remarkable brain, capable of something incredibly unique, something that only we and God have.

And that is the ability for abstract thought.

And by abstract thought, I mean the ability to think about things, quite often very elaborate concepts that have no connection whatsoever to anything concrete or material or physical.

In other words, we have imaginations, wonderful imaginations.

And like everything else we've been given, we often use our imaginations to offend God.

You see, this is how we disobey truth.

It's the only way to disobey truth.

My black lab doesn't disobey truth.

She can't disobey truth because she has no imagination.

She doesn't think abstractly.

Only we do.

And we use our imaginations to replace truth with concepts that have no connection whatsoever.

I'm using my definition of abstract thought.

We use our imaginations to invent, sometimes again, very elaborate concepts that have no relevance whatsoever to anything concrete, material, or physical.

Now, you may want to throw this back at me and point out that God, since he's spirit, has no connection whatsoever to anything concrete, material, or physical.

And I'd say you're wrong, because although God is spiritual, he created a universe with material and physical properties.

And this is partially what Paul is referring to.

When Paul accuses some of disobeying truth, he isn't limiting their crime to just disobeying scripture.

Certainly they're doing that.

But the expression, listen to me, the expression of God's truth isn't limited to scripture.

I mean, that's where we find the truth of Christ, but so much more of God's truth exists all around us.

I think you know where I'm going with this.

All of creation is an expression of truth, God's truth.

Truth can be found all around us, as I just said.

And the most basic truth of them all is that God is the maker of everything.

And you know what?

You don't need the Bible to tell you that.

That's basically what Paul covered in the last chapter.

You remember?

Romans 1.20, for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.

Now let me read that from the amplified version of the Bible because this is an important point.

We're trying to establish what Paul means by those who disobey the truth.

We're saying that those who disobey the truth are denying what is obvious.

We're again not talking about the truth from Scripture.

Yes, that's obvious too, but you won't ever come to obey that truth until you understand how basic God's truth is to our very existence, how prevalent his truth is all around us at every single moment of our existence.

Romans 120, again from the amplified version to help me make my point.

This is the amplified version of Romans 120.

For ever since the creation of the world, his invisible nature and attributes, that is, his eternal power and divinity, have been made intelligible and clearly discernible in and through the things that have been made, his handiworks.

So men are without excuse, altogether without any defense or justification.

To observe creation, and I mean any aspect of creation, any little bit of our reality or all of creation, to see the world around us and in us as anything other than coming from the eternal power and divinity is flat out disobeying truth.

Professing ourselves wise, I can't help but to keep going back one chapter because this, what we're covering right now, is but an extension of all Paul said there.

Professing ourselves to be wise, we foolishly imagine, we create an abstract lie that says it isn't in any way an expression of eternal power and divinity, and God is going to judge that with indignation and wrath.

When we purposely deny what we know to be true, we are risking judgment of indignation and wrath.

First, we flat out deny it, and then we put replace truth with imagination.

We say, no, no, none of this is God.

It couldn't be.

Why not?

Well, it it's just ridiculous.

That's that's all it is.

It's ridiculous.

No one could be powerful enough to do this.

Okay, how do you imagine it all came about?

Well, it's either always been here or it just happened by accident.

And that's your solution.

It's too big to be done by a person, so it must have happened on its own.

And with ever greater force, the world is trying to get you to join it in disobeying the truth.

In fact, it's no longer cajoling or trying to convince or persuading.

Now it's bullying you into being disobedient to truth.

The world, prompted prompted by the devil, of course, just like he did with Eve.

The world has used its own judgment and decided God's truth is unacceptable, and thor therefore went about inventing its own truth and continues to this day to bend over backward to preserve its position contentiously.

Oh, they'll admit they're wrong when their truth falls flat, but instead of bringing God's truth back, they'll just invent another one, which then we again eventually get bullied into believing.

And if you dare resist, they'll be contentious with you.

It's a vicious circle, isn't it?

Sort of makes it easy to see why God judges it so severely.

While we're still working through this second chapter, Paul is highlighting the frailty of the human position in God's judgment.

This is something we must understand.

Once we come to fully realize what Paul is saying, our only desire will be to seek salvation.

Once we're convinced that there's no path out of judgment on our own, we'll turn our lives to the Redeemer.

That's the purpose of this entire section, is not to make anyone feel bad.

It's to make people see that they need a Redeemer.

We'll continue with this next time.

See you then.

We hope this study has blessed you.

God's word is a great treasure, and it's our belief that a thorough, purposeful study of it will bring all of God's children to an understanding of his eternal plan of redemption.

It is our prayer that this will be so for all of our listeners.

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