Fallen Into Knowledge

All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness

That scripture is authoritative for the church is tautological, and has been commented on many a time. The second half of this verse, it seems, receives less comment: Scripture has an appropriate function in the church. That is, when we use scripture in the church toward these ends, it is appropriate. It may be inappropriate (bad) to use scripture toward other ends. These two things: Scripture’s authority and appropriate use sets limits on the place of the Bible within the church. We cannot deem it less than authoritative on the one hand, and on the other we cannot deem it to be more than a tool by which we are shaped into Christ’s likeness.

Whoever teaches otherwise and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that is in accordance with godliness, is conceited, understanding nothing, and has a morbid craving for controversy and for disputes about words. From these come envy, dissension, slander, base suspicions, and wrangling …

While reading through Paul’s letters I have been struck again at how holiness - or righteous living - has mostly to do with treating people well. More specifically, I have noticed two trends: 1) The lists of virtues and vices that are scattered through the Pauline corpus are nearly always social in nature, and 2) language use is a key battleground in the struggle toward righteousness.
For Paul, the harmony and the unity of the Church is of utmost importance, and we threaten those things primarily though the ways we speak (or fail to).

The “man of lawlessness” is a strange figure, in many ways. I don’t have any grand theories about this figure, in fact the idea is a bit daunting to me because to think about this figure I have to enter into that most confusing of Biblical genres, Apocalyptic. Which I won’t now. But, I find ” the man of lawlessness” interesting because he seems to show up late in the New Testament. When the prophets described the desolation of Israel, it was by the Hand of God because of their sins. The Day of the Lord, as a future event, had two parts; His judgement and the restoration of Israel. A figure that embodies evil never shows up in the prophets (unless you count Moab and/or Babylon - but those were specific, known entities).
Is Paul using the term “man of lawlessness” in a metaphoric sense: a person that represents and idea? Or is this a specific person? The tradition that I grew up in would have shouted, “a specific person” here, and perhaps for that reason alone I hesitate; I have been trained to read this as a person (whom I should attempt to identify - its Karl Marx!), and that training alone makes reading it any differently more difficult.
I’ll hold off on a conclusion for now: there is still plenty of Apocalyptic ahead of me.

1 Thessalonians is the first NT letter that actually feel like … a letter. Compare it to Romans, or to Ephesians - they are empassioned theological arguments. 1 Thessalonians feels like it rambles in places, it feels like a letter.

I want their hearts to be encouraged and united in love, so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

I am struck that 1) The mystery of God (Jesus) has been revealed, and that 2) in Him are the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
I have found that the most exciting theology to read is that which unpacks mechanics of Jesus’ salvific act and spells out the implications of that act for the formation of his people, the church.

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form, he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death - even death on a cross.
Therefore God exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father

And,

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.

The connection between these two passages, the first from chapter two, the second from the end of chapter three, was first pointed out to me by Andy Teeter and started a revolution for me, theologically. As these things often go, Andy’s comments were very brief - all of 30 seconds worth - but they stuck with me. Basically he pointed out the use of “morphe” in both passages (italicized above) and the word “politeuma” (citizenship). That was all it took.
Well, actually it steeped in my brainpan for a good while, but by the time those comments had infused properly, I had given up on Constantinian-ism.

the Church is a political entity, whose political agenda is shaped by Jesus’ self emptying - a community which is shaped “summorphe” by into the imago dei as we enact the logic of the cross, communally.

How Jesus’s Death on the Cross is Paradigmatic for Christians’ life of love: Love of Christ in Ephesians 3:14-21

The NRSV reads, for verses 18-19a:

I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge

This Love of Christ in verse 19 apparently informs the “as you are being rooted and grounded in love” in verse 17: Christ’s love ought to shape our manner of loving.

The “love of Christ” in verse 19 could be read in several different ways:

1. The love that Christ feels: we should know how much Christ feels love for us. The implication is, that we should experience love in a way what approaches the love that Christ experiences
2. Christ’s act of Love: Namely, the cross. Christ’s act of love on the cross defines for Christians “love”

I am arguing here for the second: that the second reading accords more than the first (which is not a un-biblical reading) with the stream of argument that Paul here is making.
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Paul comes down pretty hard on those who would distort the theology of the church:

But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed!

Good doctrine is of utmost importance. I find myself torn between two poles: i sometimes talk with people who are so certain of what they believe that any disagreement with them constitutes heresy. Are all of these people hard-core calvinists? Probably not, but sometimes it feels that way to me. The other group of people with which I talk seems to make the opposite mistake: Theology doesn’t really matter. In an effort to “maintain unity,” some people avoid theological issues to the extent that theology becomes a non-issue. Admittedly, because of the circles I travel in, I see this more often.
Both groups make be very uncomfortable. I want to affirm that theology really does matter, that any amount of time invested in searching out the scriptures and evaluating the conclusions drawn from them is worthwhile. On the other hand, to call someone a “heretic” requires me to first presume that I have the “right answer.” I am uncomfortable making that claim also.
And yet, the force of Paul’s denouncement echoes in my ears.

So, how do I reconcile these two tendencies?
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For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday, when remember Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem. If we back up a couple of steps in his story from that entrance, we remember that Jesus “set his face toward Jerusalem” knowing full well what awaited him there. Even as people set palm branches in his path, he walked toward the cross. This radical obedience of Christ is paradigmatic for our own service for him: we lay down our lives for the sake of others. Giving up our “rights,” we lift others’ up.

(incidentally, Paul uses the above argument to preface a discussion about how the corinthian church should deal with their finances.)

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subject to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

The center point of a Christian Ecology is the recognition that (1) the creation itself experienced fracturing effects of the Fall and (2) that the reconciliatory sacrifice of Jesus also extends - through the church - to creation. As a result of this the Church, which acts as God’s agent in the world (ministers of the message of reconciliation) for reconciliation, takes up the prelapsarian role of caring for Creation and thus demonstrating God’s own care and creativity.
Thus, a Christian Ecology must move beyond contemporary concerns for humankind’s impact on the earth (while not ignoring those concerns); such concerns, while valid, fall short of imagining a restored relationship to the earth. Rather, a Christian Ecology must imagine and enact - for its own sake and for others’ - living on the land as if it were God’s own cherished possession - as indeed, it is.