People who read the Bible need more than good eyesight. They need great insight. They must have more than just clear vision. They must be perceptive. They need to be able to see what's on the lines as well as what's between the lines -- what's there, and what's even absent.
August is almost upon us, which means the start of the fall semester. My course, Greek 2, covers the second half of my beginning grammar. But I also use this semester to introduce my students to what is called exegesis -- the steps we use to go from text to sermon or Bible teaching outline.
I love Greek 2. For the first time my students begin to see clearly the relevance of everything they've been learning. I use Paul's letter to the Philippians as a model of how they should do exegesis. Its four fairly simple chapters lend themselves well to this task. An example is Paul's salutation in the very first verse of the letter.
The word "saints" refers simply to the New Testament people of God. "Overseers" and "deacons" are not titles but descriptions. These are people who "oversee and serve." The most striking feature of this salutation is the absence of any reference to the term "pastor." This is what linguists call "zero significance" -- the significant absence of something. Today, a typical letter to a church family would first address the pastor, then perhaps other leaders, and then the congregation as a whole. In fact, in Phil. 1:1 the Living Bible actually has, "To the pastor and deacons and all the Christians in the city of Philippi." This, of course, completely misses Paul's emphasis. In a profound sense, Paul's greeting here summarizes his larger theological perspective on church leadership, namely that each local church is led by a "fellowship of leadership" (Michael Green) in which you'd be very hard pressed to single out one man as "the" pastor. In the theology of the New Testament, it is clear that the risen Christ never entrusted leadership of a local church to one man, unless that man was an apostle. As I have said many times, Paul's language here implies that these leaders are extensions of the church and not over it. Having made this point, they are hereafter neither mentioned nor spoken to. The injunctions and exhortations in Philippians are directed to "all the saints" -- that is, to those who constitute God's people, set apart for God's purposes and subject to him and his service.
Isn't it amazing how much "incidental" theology we can find in even the opening salutation of a letter? And isn't it interesting that when we observe not only what's there in the text but also what's not there, this can lead to insights that we might otherwise miss?