Ah, the simple pleasures of life. Today I worked on stretching.
Then I ran.
And as I exercised I listened to this very talented organist.
I kept thinking:
Man is she good.
Man was Bach a great composer.
Man is that an awesome organ.
Man that's a beautiful cathedral.
Man is God good.
As you read yesterday, lasting pleasure often comes in the form of great music. Tune in today. Allow the One who is the Creator of music show you the way to artistic pleasure.
Hey everyone. Hope your day has been wonderful so far. Mine has been spectacular. After some very wet weather, the day dawned bright and sunny. Whenever I see a brilliant blue sky I think of Becky's bright blue eyes. And whenever I see the sun shining, I think of her warm smile. It seems that since Becky's passing I've learned to love more deeply. My children mean more to me than ever before. God's creation has taken on a whole new significance. The arts and music capture me as never before. I feel I am more alive than ever. So it was a no-brainer to decide to get in a run today at Farmville and enjoy the day that the Lord made.
All of creation declares his glory and goodness, and even though the Appomattox had overflown its banks, no property was damaged.
Earlier, I lifted. For those who are curious, this is the specific workout I did today at the Y. First, some lat pulldowns to work my back.
Then several sets of standing dumbbell curls to work my arms.
Finally, I got in a few sets of seated dumbbell presses to work my shoulders.
I know it's the oldest cliché in the world, and I cringe every time I hear it, but I just don't know where the time has gone. This year seems to be flying by. We're almost halfway through January, which means I have less than 3 months to decide (in consultation with my mountain guide) if I will attempt the Allalinhorn in July. It's such a strange thing, knowing you're in God's will but wanting so badly to do something unusual, crazy even, with your life. I'm not sure I have it all figured out, but I think it's called obedience, and I am sure that whatever happens it's going to be so much better than I could have hoped.
Before signing off I thought I'd share with you an observation about Spanish. As you know, I've been teaching myself to speak Spanish from a series of Youtube videos recorded in German. Today I happened to stumbled on this one.
This video was hard but funny. My brain got fried watching it. It's something I noticed even today when I had lunch in a Mexican restaurant in Farmville. Native Spanish speakers speak about 25 percent faster compared to native English speakers. To my ears their Spanish sounds like a machine gun. Of course, any language you don't understand very well sounds like it's being spoken at the speed of sound. I'm sure my spoken English sounds just as fast to a native speaker of Spanish. I notice they seem to drop the "s" out a lot. Gracias becomes gracia, and adiós becomes adió. This is like leaving the "g" off "-ing" words in English I suppose. What's even more fun is trying to learn Spanish from a German speaker. Actually, German has many similarities with Spanish. In German you see "hab ich" for "habe ich" and "ich geh" for "ich gehe." "Wir gehen" becomes "Wir gehn," while "Was is das" is used for "Was ist das?" The key is thinking in the language, and not having to translate in your mind. One way I practice this is by using English words but with German grammar. In fact, I have this video with a friend shared. His face looked totally funny out, because I everything understood have. What for a fun video! Okay, I'm getting carried away. This is one time I really do wish I had the gift of tongues.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to clean the kitchen. Hope you have a beautiful afternoon.
Which marathon(s) shall I attempt in 2024? This question remains unanswered. Right now I'm leaning toward the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincy the first weekend of May. If so, this will be my fourth time running this event. As I ponder what brings me to the starting line of a marathon (I've started 20 of them and, by the grace of God, finished 20 of them), I think it boils down to one thing: the harder you work for something, the more it means to you. The fact that you've made it 26.2 miles makes the finish line that much sweeter.
Don't be afraid to challenge yourself. It will make you stronger.
To "make disciples" (Greek mathēteuō) consists not so much in knowing something but even more in being something. The training we give is training in living. This is the duty of every teacher in the church.
Hey guys. Back again, here to talk to you about cardio. Without doubt the very best way to do cardio if you're a lifter is on your days off from the gym. You can also do it on the same day but you will want it spaced at least a couple of hours later. To get the very best results, the one thing you will want to avoid is doing cardio before weights. You definitely do not want to begin your weight training session without your energy level intact. Today I did an hour and a half of easy cardio, including the EZ bar ...
... as well as some light dumbbells.
Normally I would be running but the weather is too windy for that. Just keep in mind that if your goal is getting lean, a 30 minute cardio session burns the same number of calories as 3 slices of bread. So don't train cardio for looks. Train cardio for your overall health. Your heart and lungs deserve as much attention as your biceps do.
Here at DBO we rigorously follow the rules of English writing, including:
I fear I'm breaking this last rule in today's post because, yes, I wanted to tell you -- again! -- what a great time I had at the gym today even though I know you are sick and tired of hearing about it.
Hmm. Maybe I'm becoming senile in my old age. That said, there are hundreds of reasons people like to hang out at the gym:
Accountability. Your gym rat friends are waiting for you to show up. Don't let them down.See? You're totally bored. I knew it. So on to some comments about my Bible time this morning.
Having arrived at Bo's I opened my Bible again to Mark's Gospel. As I was reading the Greek of Mark 2:15, I noticed an interesting construction.
Here Mark uses two words for "reclining":
Each word has a "keimai" part (sit, or recline), but with different prefixes attached to it. Remember the rule about redundancy I listed above? To me it sounds redundant to say that as Jesus was reclining at table, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining at table with Jesus and his disciples." But maybe the first verb does not mean simply "recline" here. The verb can also refer to being idle or enjoying a time of relaxation. I think Mark might want us to see Jesus as "chillaxing" in Levi's house when a dinner party broke out.
Synonyms for "chillax" might be:
According to Dave's Standard Version, the verse would read:
"And so it was, as Jesus was chillaxing in Levi's house, many tax collectors and sinners began reclining at the dinner table with Jesus and his disciples."
Just a thought ....
Oh, I almost forgot. While driving to Bo's this morning I listened to a message by Alistair Begg on the Great Commission of Matt. 28:18-20.
He mentioned in passing that his church's purpose statement is based on this passage and reads as follows:
"Our purpose is to see unbelieving people become committed followers of Jesus Christ."
Wow. That just about says it all. I said to myself, "Dave, why is it you've never come up with a purpose statement for your teaching ministry?" So I jotted this one down. See if you like it:
"My purpose is to see Greek students become faithful expositors of God's word."
You see, it's not only a privilege to receive the Christian faith. It is a duty to transmit it faithfully. Frankly, I look at myself as a link between two generations. 62 years ago I received the faith. Now I must also pass it on. The torch of truth must be transmitted "to faithful men who will be competent to teach others too." The glory of teaching Greek is that it is a link in the living chain that stretches unbroken back to Jesus Christ himself. What a privilege! What a responsibility! So, I will go to work on Mondays with this purpose in mind. For a church that has no Bible is a church that has no Christ.
Ok. I'm done for now. I think I'll chillax a little before preparing something to eat.
Here are four suggestions for keeping your exercise program alive and fresh:
1. Do it for a reason.
2. Aim for progress (whatever that looks like to you), not perfection.
3. Have variety.
4. Don't take yourself too seriously.
Just because something is "overrated" (example: you only need cardio for weight loss) doesn't mean it's ineffective or that you shouldn't do it. But if your goal is getting leaner, you need to focus on diet and weight training.
It is beyond doubt and beyond argument that the Scriptures are profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for equipping believers for every good work. We study the Scriptures not only because God uses them to make us wise unto salvation, but because he uses them to make us useful to him and to others.
Just back from campus. Teachers have three loves. They love teaching. They love students. And they love bringing the two together.
I like to ask my students, "Do you remember that time in your life when you absolutely, positively fell in love with the Bible, I mean to the point where you literally could not put it down?" I'll never, ever forget when that happened to me. The Bible I'm referring to is the Good News for Modern Man translation. At that time you could only get the New Testament.
The year was 1968. I had just turned 16. (Yes, once upon a time I had dark hair.)
Being a figure artist myself, I was drawn to the illustrations of Swiss artist Annie Vallotton. Imagine being commissioned to illustrate the entire New Testament! The images sneak up on you when you least expect them. I've never gotten over those magnificent doodles.
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| Stick figure theology. |
Suddenly, something could match my passion for surfing. Some days, the Bible even surpassed it. It was the "new" I had been waiting for.
This is the mission we are all called to as believers. It is the nobel task of the church. It is a slow process, often maddening. Growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ requires the patience of Job and the wisdom of Paul. Temptations to get sidetracked will abound -- count on it. The King and his kingdom will reign supreme. The only question is: Do I know what that kingdom looks like?
Today I am participating in the blessings of the Bible more than I ever have in my entire life. My daily time in the word has become the most fun, fulfilling venture of my Christian experience. Nothing is better than Jesus. And meeting him daily in his word is truly better than life.
The publication of the Good News Bible interrupted my entire life. Not in the form of spending time on a church campus listening to others. Transformation came in the form of a paperback that made the Bible fresh and relevant, even to a 60s Jesus Freak. It pulled me back into the canonical text, pulling off a volumetric change that I am still undergoing to this day.
Because of that singular event in my 16th year, I have never been the same.
Scholars often talk about Mark's "cruder" language and style when compared to either Matthew or Luke. Hence, they argue, Mark must have preceded both of those Gospels. As someone who has taught the Gospel of Mark in Greek many times, I can assure you that Mark's Greek is neither simple nor crude. Here's an example from Mark 5, which I was reading in my morning Bible study.
It's a string of participles found in Mark's account about the woman with the issue of blood (5:25-27):
This reads, literally (participles in italics):
"And a woman, being with a flow of blood for twelve years, and having suffered many things under many physicians, and having spent all that she had, and having profited nothing, but rather having come to the worse, having heard about Jesus, having come in the multitude behind, TOUCHED his garment."
Matthew and Luke have greatly simplified the syntax at this point.
The upshot? Be very careful about drawing conclusions about the Synoptic Problem from supposed differences between Mark's style and that of Matthew and Luke.
(Go here if you're a glutton for punishment and want more.)
For the past 47 years I've been training pastor-teachers. Not alone, of course. Dozens of evangelical seminaries have been doing the same thing. Our goal is to train the next generation of expository teachers.
Frankly, we have not done well. I'm not alone in this assessment.
I'm not referring here to the liberal preacher who will stand behind the pulpit this morning. That's obvious enough. I'm talking about the evangelical pastor who believes in "Thus Sayeth the Lord" preaching and then says anything that pops into his mind. Furthermore, I'm not saying that congregations aren't being fed. The question is what are they being fed? In Jeremiah 23, a very disturbing passage, the Lord says, "I have not sent these prophets, yet they claim to speak for me. I gave them no message, yet they say their words are mine." He adds, "If they are 'prophets,' they are prophets of deceit, inventing everything they say."
As a farmer, the phrase in this chapter that jumps out to me is when the Lord asks, "What good is straw compared to grain?" (Jer. 23:28). Straw may fill a stomach but it will not nourish. Grain nourishes. Show me a farmer who feeds his livestock straw and I will show you a farmer who cares not a whit about his animals. When we preach straw, people may think they're filled but they are empty. But grain? It can make a great deal of difference in their lives.
Preacher friend, please stop giving us straw. And yes, we know the difference. We know when you are preaching from the canteen of Saturday night or from a reservoir of Bible knowledge. So please avoid the straw at all costs. Even if it means benching yourself for a while. Only the pure grain, cleansed and winnowed, is God's word. It alone has solid, abiding substance. Everything else is chaff.
During today's workout I began noticing a trend. If I look tired, I am.
While I am performing my exercises I am working harder than I have in the past. We've all heard the Henry Ford quote: "Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right." Before starting any workout it's vital to get this right. Basically, you have to believe you're strong enough to do this. The only thing you have to be wary of is overdoing it. I'm not sure why, but I have very little fatigue or muscle soreness after a workout, even though I think I am giving it 100 percent. If you're new to training, let me just say that you definitely don't need to be sore to have a successful fitness program. Conversely, you can work out intensely and feel sore while making no progress. When I do feel some soreness is the day after a workout. Soreness is indicative of stress to the muscle tissue, so soreness is a nice indicator that you are stressing the muscle you want to grow or strengthen. I've noticed that I get DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) primarily when I perform an exercise my body isn't used to yet. Maybe I've activated muscles that were dormant before. Maybe I improved my technique. The more you exercise a muscle, the more that muscle will become accustomed to the stimulation. So don't be too worried about soreness and just keep working!
My devotions this morning were in Augustine's Confessions. Book 6 to be exact. How rich are the church fathers in theology and piety! Did you know that Augustine of Hippo is quoted by Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologiae 3,156 times! Remember, the fathers were mostly pastors, not academics. If you can, try to read them on your own. It won't be easy, but I can promise you it will be rewarding like you can't believe. These writers are no less worthy of our attention than Count Zinzendorf or Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Please, please, please, don't get too attracted to your online translator. The same can be said for over-relying on this book I used this morning.
Often the English leaves much to be desired. An accurate translation is one that conveys the same meaning as the original, though finding exact equivalents across different languages can be demanding. Consider these examples from Book 6, section 19 of the Confessions.
1. The English translator has Augustine swearing not once but twice:
But here's the Latin:
2. The translator loves to render plural verbs as singulars. "I must reject these futile follies" is not the same as "dimittamus haec vana et inania"!
3. Whenever possible, translators should (in my opinion) use English cognates or derivatives so that readers can more easily the connection between the Latin and the English. "Vita misera est, mors incerta est" is simply "Life is miserable, death is uncertain." Yet the translator prefers "Life is pitiable. Death is unaccountable." "Pitiable" works. But "unaccountable"? I think these are all very good reasons for learning how to read Latin on your own, don't you?
Oh, the weather here is rainy. The rivers and creeks are about to overflow their banks. Well, farmers need rain, right? I think the Lord is telling me to light a fire and get down to some serious loafing.
C-ya.
I was "lazy" until I figured out I liked running and lifting. Turns out I'm not lazy after all. Just selective lol.
Hey folks. Here I am after my morning gym session.
I've observed that people are more prone to believe they can do something if they know someone who's already done it. The improbable (or at least the unlikely) suddenly seems possible, within reach even. I suspect that's why I started running in the first place. I watched my daughter run the Marine Corps Half Marathon and figured, if she can do, I can too. Regardless, if you are reading this and you don't know anybody who has ever begun weight lifting at "that" age, well, now you do.
Before I went to the gym I reviewed all the places in the New Testament where Jesus is called theos -- God. There are actually very few of them, and a couple of them are hotly debated.
That includes this one in 1 John 5:20.
When we go through 1 John in baby Greek, I usually tell my students to always look for a noun or pronoun's nearest antecedence. So, as you can see, I'd include this verse in the list as pretty much a certainty, even though a couple of really fine commentators disagree with me.
How was your Bible study this morning? As you dive into the word for yourself, relax and enjoy the experience. Some really wonderful truths are in there, and you'll find them if you just give yourself time.
The theological problem raised by the book of 1 John (that the Christian is at the same time capable and incapable of sinning) is probably best solved by (a) recognizing that John is addressing two different groups within the church -- one espousing a heretical (Gnostic) type of perfectionism, and another espousing an orthodox type -- and (b) recognizing that he is presenting sinlessness as a Christian ideal but not a realized fact. Bede's affirmation is helpful here:
"In quantum in eo manet, in tantum non peccat."
I might translate this as:
"To the degree that he abides in him (i.e., Christ), to that extent he does not sin."
But the whole tenor of John's first letter cries out: "Do not sin!" When I was in seminary, I had a professor who explained it like this:
Ante casum = posse non peccare.
Post casum = non posse non peccare.
Post Christum = non posse peccare.
Today I might tweak the third line to read:
In Christo non posse peccare.
Don't you love Latin?
P. S. Bede the Venerable (d. May 25, 735) was an Anglo-Saxon historian who is best known for his Ecclesiastical History of the English People. He is also well known for his many epigrams like the one I cited above.
Care to join me?
I started with several sets of pull ups.
Then I targeted my delts.
Finally, I performed some really challenging stretching exercises.
By far one of the most difficult areas of the body to stretch are the hamstrings. My massage therapist has me doing these 3 times a week. The key is not bending your knees too much or else you will end up performing more of a knee exercise than a hamstring exercise. Hold this stretch for 30 seconds and then repeat two more times.
If you want to build bigger, stronger legs, you have to be sure you have both adequate mobility and hip flexibility. Stretching will not only help to loosen up that tight hip flexor of yours but also mobilize your hips in general. There's no exercise I like to do less than stretching. But there's no way of getting out of this.
Stiff upper lip, old boy.
Here's my morning passage. It's Matthew 4 -- the temptation narrative.
The very first word out of Jesus' mouth during his temptation was gegraptai, "It is written."
Satan too can use gegraptai. See v. 6. However, he was using Scripture only to distort Scripture. The fact is, one can be saturated with Scripture without being submissive to it. The tactic of the devil is to persuade us to debate with him and to dilly dally in doubt until we begin to adopt the "reasonableness" of secular "Christian" scholarship. This tactic becomes his foothold, which becomes his stronghold, which becomes his stranglehold. Little wonder so many "scholars" of the Bible have fallen ignominiously to his temptation.
For Jesus, "it is written" was enough. He believed that what Scripture said, God said, and that what God said, Scripture said. He identified the two. It is inconceivable that we should claim to love God and disregard Scripture. If the Son of God could willingingly adopt a position of subordination with regard to Scripture, how much more must we.
The cavalier attitude toward the Bible by many leaders in the visible church today is completely incompatible with true Christian discipleship.
In Psalm 150:1 -- my passage for my morning Bible study -- the Psalmist says we meet God in two places -- in his sanctuary, and in his highest heavens. For me, this looks something like this.
My "sanctuary" is Bojangles. This is where my spirit reaches out to my Creator on a daily basis. This is where I feed on the word of God, a place where Jesus Christ brings God to me without dwarfing him. It is where the Master of the universe says, "I will meet you there. I will join you."
But the Psalmist amplifies his explanation by widening the sanctuary to include the mighty heavens. And this is the second place where I meet God. The creation itself -- all of it, be it nature, the arts, music, a hike -- reveals the power and glory of God. You look at it all and say, "Praise the Lord!" Music is especially a place where I find God. Nothing keeps me centered on him more than the beauty of a musical composition performed with grace and beauty. For behind it all is the mind of the Creator.
After Becky died I was blessed to attend a concert of Mussorgsky's magnificent Pictures at an Exhibition. During the final movement -- the "Great Gate of Kiev" -- it was as though I could see Becky exultantly entering heaven through gates of splendor. When the performance concluded, we stood to our feet in loud applause. Tears flowed freely on the faces of more than one. You see, applause is simply joy turned backwards toward God, the source of all joy. Did we praise the conductor and the orchestra? Enthusiastically. Did we feel gratitude toward the composer Mussorgsky? We did. He absolutely deserved it. But we also gave praise and glory to the God who gave us Mussorgsky and musical instruments and concert halls and brains that can process and enjoy great music. He is the ultimate source of it all. He fills us with himself, and then he fills us with light and warmth and love and happiness. We praise him, says the Psalmist, by turning to him at every moment of every day, and acknowledging his love for us with our words, actions, thoughts, and prayers.
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Here is the piece that brought me to tears. The "Great Gate of Kiev" begins at 29:26.
There are four Gospel accounts: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they are the only accounts to give us the authoritative and infallible record of the life of Jesus Christ. Two of them were written by apostles who were eyewitnesses to the earthly ministry of Jesus. The other two writers were not apostles but men who consulted eyewitnesses when they wrote their accounts.
All four Gospels were written to provide a foundation for the faith of those who would believe in Jesus the Messiah. And each Gospel was written in response to a need.
The earliest need for a Gospel arose among the Jews because the Good News first went to Jerusalem and Judea. Matthew was written to explain to the Jews that Jesus was the promised Messiah, the King of Israel.
The second group to be reached with the gospel was the Greeks. Luke wrote his Gospel for the Greek world, which had been reached through the ministry of the apostle Paul. Converted Gentiles too needed a foundation for their faith, and Luke presents the life of Christ in a way that portrays him as the perfect man.
Mark, the companion of Peter, wrote his Gospel to the Roman world, the third segment of society that was reached with the Good News. He wrote to present Jesus as the Suffering Servant.
These three Gospels are referred to as the "Synoptic Gospels" because they present a common viewpoint of the life of Christ.
John wrote a universal Gospel to present Jesus Christ as the Savior so that men and women might come to believe in him and have eternal life. No Gospel has a higher Christology than his. Jesus, the Word, has made God known. He can reveal the Father because he is Deity.
And so we have four Gospels. Please don't let anybody make it more complicated to you than this.
It was great to see new faces at the gym today. I hope they become regulars. New lifters are always welcome. But most of the faces I see week in and week out I've seen many dozens of times before. The reality is that becoming a "bodybuilder" isn't all that hard. The only truly challenging part is that beginning phase where you are just developing the habits of proper training. Once you can learn to enjoy the muscle building process, you'll start settling into a routine with it. This month I will begin my third year of regular, consistent weight training. It's not perfect, but it's fairly smooth sailing. I genuinely look forward to each session at the gym. Learning the ropes is where you'll struggle the most.
So the main point here is: once you've put in the initial effort to become a regular at the gym, you will find that bodybuilding is really not that big of deal after all.
"The man who will not come apart will come apart" (Vance Havner). Whether you realize it or not, there is a strong connection between sleep and muscle growth. Getting a restful sleep each night will maximize your mood, energy, and concentration during your workouts. It also reduces stress and improves your body's fat-burning capacity. If you can, get to bed and wake up at the same time every single day.
1979: "As a college professor, I can say exactly what I think and believe."
2024: "The professor hurt my feelings." (Professor fired.)
Here are some of the goals I've set for 2024. First is ...
Propose to my girlfriend.
Kidding. Here are my actual goals for the new year. Incidentally, nothing I do really matters. What matters to you is what's important. Most things worth accomplishing don't come easy. That's what makes the victory so amazing. Something in the human spirit sings when you go further than you thought was possible. That said, here are a few of my goals when it comes to weight training this year.
1. Never hit the gym without first having spent time with God. My goal is to do my daily Bible reading and prayer time before engaging in any form of physical exercise. I'm already doing this but I want to continue to do it consistently in the new year. This morning I was reading Mark 1.
As I read, I take notes. Occasionally a note will end up as a blog post. Today, for example, I noticed how Zebedee, the father of James and John, had "hired hands" or "employees" (1:20). This suggests that "Zebedee & Sons, Fishers, Inc." was not simply a local business operated on a shoestring. Mark seems keen to point out that the followers of Jesus included a number of well-to-do people, including the wealthy women of 15:41 who regularly accompanied Jesus and ministered to him. Apparently neither status nor wealth were unknown among Jesus' disciples even at this early stage of his ministry. Furthermore, if Richard Batey is correct, Joseph and his 5 sons may well have operated a fairly lucrative construction company in nearby Sepphoris, the capital of Herod Antipas. Herod, as we all know, loved to build, and what better place for builders to work?
2. Here's goal #2. Focus on getting stronger over time. If my numbers in the gym are consistently going up, then I am going to consistently build muscle as well. This doesn't mean that you add weight to your lifts every time you go to the gym. But because progressive overload is the primary driver of hypertrophy, you will want to increase the weight every now and then. Today I added 20 pounds to my bench press, which I know doesn't sound like much, but it was the first time I had added any weight to a chest exercise in quite some time.
3. Goal #3 is to use proper technique whenever I am lifting weights. We should always try to practice exercise movements that use full range of motion without swinging of the body and with slight pauses at the top and bottom of the rep. It's only natural to develop some bad habits through the years, which is one reason recording your workouts periodically is a great way for you to see how you're actually working out. Of course, no one is talking about perfection here.
For example, slightly leaning back on the last rep of a biceps curl is fine. Twisting your back at a 45 degree angle is another story altogether. A perfect form is where you are slightly unstable because you're lifting heavy enough.
4. My fourth goal in the gym is to pay careful attention to gym etiquette. There's nothing complicated about it. You just apply the Golden Rule and treat other people in the gym the way you'd like to be treated. The Y that I attend is absolutely fantastic in this regard. Apart from a very few people who don't rerack their weights, thoughtfulness is par for the course. I rarely hear "Have many sets do you have left?", but even when I do it's more like, "I'm not trying to rush you, just trying to gauge my workout plan."
5. Fifthly and finally, my lifting goals for 2024 include consuming enough protein each day to support muscle recovery and growth. For most people, all you need is 0.8 grams of protein per pound of body weight daily. Optimally, you should spread this out into two or three protein meals as part of your daily muscle building plan. I work out three times a week and usually eat right afterwards, as I did today.
What's my favorite passage in the New Testament? It's just 4 verses, making up a single sentence in the Greek, yet in it the author has packed a lifetime's worth of theology we should never forget. I'm not exaggerating when I say that we could spend weeks meditating on and living out this passage. Like the steps on a staircase, the passage moves along methodically and logically through distinct themes toward a clear and magnificent conclusion.
Yes, I'm talking about Heb. 1:1-4. Here's why I love it so much.
Don't trust any "expert" who says you can do it quickly. Staying consistent is where most people fail.
Your body has 206 bones. Over half of them are in your hands and feet. Almost as if the Creator wanted us to use them.
I once heard about a pastor who gave a sermon series on 1 Thessalonians. He called the series "Faith That Works." He said that we Christians are to believe certain things and behave in certain ways, and that doctrine and duty are equally important. I have long felt the same way about this epistle. (See my study here.) Here in 1 Thessalonians, Paul moves masterfully from commendation in chapters 1-3 to correction in chapters 4-5. Older commentators used to say that he moves from indicative to imperative. This was brought home to me clearly when I made a list of all of Paul's imperatives in the letter.
In fact, one of the distinctives in Paul's way of writing is to move from doctrinal instruction to plain, practical, ethical teaching. The Gospel is not only a new way of thinking but a new way of behaving. It is a holy life, a life bent on pleasing God by obeying his commandments. The terrible alternative is to disobey God (see 2:15) or to "grieve the Holy Spirit" (Eph. 4:30).
Here, then, is a very practical guideline for the way even we Greek teachers should go about our business of teaching. I liken this to mastering grammar in first year Greek and then applying all this knowledge of grammar to the exegesis of a New Testament letter in second year Greek. Likewise, in our sermons, it behooves us to direct believers not just in terms of what they should know but how they are to walk that they may please God even in such mundane areas of sexual self-control (4:3-8) and daily work (4:9-12). Above all, let's help our students and our congregations to know that the Christian life is not primarily rules and regulations but a relationship. We want to ask, "Will it please God? Or will it cause him to be grieved?" And we are to do this "more and more" (4:1, 10).
I hope I'm not stretching the application too far when I say that an implication of this is that all Greek students should, if able, take a class in Greek exegesis. In many of our seminaries, a third semester of Greek exegesis has become optional. To our current neglect of exegesis, the curriculum at, say, Dallas Seminary, presents a striking contrast. Their standard, stock-in-trade Th.M. curriculum requires not 3, not 4, but 5 courses in Greek, including the exegesis of Romans. You see, it is not only important that we give instruction in grammar. We must also give instruction in application. There must be a "double commitment," if you like, both to the word of God -- to study it -- and to its exposition -- to apply it and obey it.
I am not surprised that Paul moves from "narration" in 1 Thessalonians 1-3 to "exhortation" in 1 Thessalonians 4-5. Nor should you be surprised when your Greek instructor encourages you to take a course in Greek exegesis.
