How to/How to not

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Bootstrap
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Re: How to/How to not

Post by Bootstrap »

silentreader wrote:Sometimes I find Paul hard to understand, period, possibly because he is dealing with a local issue.
Sure. Me too. But also because are so used to reading certain meanings into Paul's writings that may not be there. For instance, my understanding of the relationship between faith and works changed significantly after I spent some time carefully reading John several times, then turned to Galatians and Romans.

I think it's important to acknowledge that there are some things we do not know for sure. Your post on 1 Corinthians 6:4 is a good example of that. I think I know how to apply the passage to my life, but I am not sure what that one sentence means, and looking at the Greek doesn't answer that question for me. I threw your question at a bunch of Greek scholars and it started off a discussion that has not resolved. But I do think we know to avoid fighting with our brethren over material things, and it's hard to miss the the conclusion he draws here:
I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers!
I think it's really helpful to ask what the main thrust of the passage is, in context, and for Paul it's often helpful to look at where he arrives at the end of a passage.
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silentreader
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Re: How to/How to not

Post by silentreader »

Bootstrap wrote:
silentreader wrote:Sometimes I find Paul hard to understand, period, possibly because he is dealing with a local issue.
Sure. Me too. But also because are so used to reading certain meanings into Paul's writings that may not be there. For instance, my understanding of the relationship between faith and works changed significantly after I spent some time carefully reading John several times, then turned to Galatians and Romans.

I think it's important to acknowledge that there are some things we do not know for sure. Your post on 1 Corinthians 6:4 is a good example of that. I think I know how to apply the passage to my life, but I am not sure what that one sentence means, and looking at the Greek doesn't answer that question for me. I threw your question at a bunch of Greek scholars and it started off a discussion that has not resolved. But I do think we know to avoid fighting with our brethren over material things, and it's hard to miss the the conclusion he draws here:
I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers!
I think it's really helpful to ask what the main thrust of the passage is, in context, and for Paul it's often helpful to look at where he arrives at the end of a passage.
Wasn't me, maybe?
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Bootstrap
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Re: How to/How to not

Post by Bootstrap »

silentreader wrote:Wasn't me, maybe?
Ooops, that was RZehr. Sorry!

I guess I need to pay more attention to what the text actually says ...
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silentreader
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Re: How to/How to not

Post by silentreader »

Bootstrap wrote:
silentreader wrote:Wasn't me, maybe?
Ooops, that was RZehr. Sorry!

I guess I need to pay more attention to what the text actually says ...
Either that or stop reading it as if it was about "me" ;)
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silentreader
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Re: How to/How to not

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Hats Off
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Re: How to/How to not

Post by Hats Off »

On the other hand, if our worship and practice are not grounded in deep theology,
from the article in the previous post. Do we need to be deep theologians to understand and practise? Gordon Kauffman was a "deep theologian", teaching on Christocentric topics all his life yet as an old man, he "still struggled with Christological issues", his own words or very similar.
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JimFoxvog
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Re: How to/How to not

Post by JimFoxvog »

Look like sound principles to me.
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silentreader
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Re: How to/How to not

Post by silentreader »

Hats Off wrote:
On the other hand, if our worship and practice are not grounded in deep theology,
from the article in the previous post. Do we need to be deep theologians to understand and practise? Gordon Kauffman was a "deep theologian", teaching on Christocentric topics all his life yet as an old man, he "still struggled with Christological issues", his own words or very similar.
As I mentioned some time ago, it depends what we think of as theology. I think we have a tendency to mix dogmatism with Biblical theology, and that definitely becomes confusing.

I don't know what the writer had in mind when he spoke of "deep theology".
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