Ethan R. Longhenry's Blog, page 22

1 John 2:1-2: Jesus Our Advocate

My little children, these things write I unto you that ye may not sin. And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world (1 John 2:1-2).

In 1 John 1, John identifies the source of his message and the message which he brings– God is light, and in Him there is no darkness. He then establishes the need for all of us to walk in the light if we would follow Jesus. He demonstrates that we all have sin, both past and present, and if we deny such, we deceive ourselves. Nevertheless, if we confess our sins before God, He is faithful to forgive us.

John begins chapter 2 by addressing his “little children.” We ought not take this statement too literally here; he uses this same term of endearment another eight times in his short letter. John has great love for his fellow believers, like the love of a father for his children, and therefore we have his tender term of address for them.

John continues by making clear that he writes to the Christians so that they would not sin. Yet, in 1 John 1:8, John says that if Christians say presently that they do not sin, they deceive themselves. Is John contradicting himself?

By no means! We must remember that chapter divisions came much later than the original writing; there is no fixed division between 1 John 1:10 and 1 John 2:1. John is making clear that although the reality is that we all stumble, we are not justified in our stumbling. We have no right to infer from 1 John 1:8 that we have license or excuse to go and sin, and that somehow we cannot “help ourselves.” John here is providing the same type of clarification that Paul does in Romans 6:1-10: just because God’s grace abounds does not give us license to sin.

Christians must strive to avoid sin and to do that which is good (Romans 12:9). We never “have” to sin; there is always a way of escaping temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13). Christians should never be satisfied with removing only a few sins from their lives– they must keep striving to reflect Jesus in their lives, since they were crucified in Him (Galatians 2:20).

Yet, even though John writes so that Christians will not sin, he knows that Christians do stumble. Lest the believers lose hope, John reminds them that if Christians do sin, they have an Advocate– Jesus Christ the righteous (1 John 2:1). The word “advocate” here is the Greek parakletos, which refers to a legal advocate, a helper, assistant, or comforter (cf. Thayer’s). If we were to imagine a heavenly courtroom, with the Father as Judge, Satan as the prosecutor, and the believer as a defendant, Jesus would be the advocate on behalf of the defendant, interceding on the defendant’s behalf before the judge. Paul indicates that Jesus is the Mediator between God and man, since He is both (1 Timothy 2:5), and the Hebrew author demonstrates that Jesus can sympathize with us on account of His sufferings (Hebrews 4:14-16). These are very comforting thoughts indeed!
Yet how is it that Jesus can be our Advocate? It is because He is the Righteous One, the propitiation for our sins (1 John 2:1-2). As Peter indicated, Jesus committed no sin, and thus was entirely righteous (1 Peter 2:21-24). His death was not for Himself, but for us, that we could be cleansed from sin (Romans 5:6-11, Hebrews 9:11-15).

Jesus, as the Lamb of God, brought cleansing from sin for not just “us,” but for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2, cf. John 1:29). While many throughout time have taught that Jesus’ blood only cleanses the sins of believers, and are horrified at the thought that Jesus’ blood would be “wasted” on unbelievers, John is pretty clear about the universal efficacy of Jesus’ blood. John is not saying that everyone will have the cleansing through Jesus’ blood, but is teaching the same thing as the Hebrew author in Hebrews 9:12: Jesus made His sacrifice once, and it is able to atone for anyone. No one is hindered from receiving the redemption of their sin through the blood of Christ (cf. 1 Timothy 2:4).

Yet the blood of Jesus can only atone for those who will confess that Jesus is their Advocate (cf. 1 John 1:9). Those who reject Him or deny Him, either by word or deed, refuse their own atonement (cf. Matthew 10:32-33). Jesus’ blood is wasted on those who have heard the word of salvation and refuse it to continue in the darkness of sin (1 John 1:6, Hebrews 10:26-31, 2 Peter 2:20-22). It is indeed a horrifying thought that Jesus’ precious and righteous blood would be wasted. Claim Him as your Advocate today!

Ethan R. Longhenry

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Arabia

Few landscapes in the world prove as inhospitable as the desert lands to the south of Israel. Nevertheless, tribes of people have lived and even thrived in the land of Arabia throughout time.

“Arabia” generally refers to the Arabian Peninsula, the large strip of land extending south of Israel and Mesopotamia between the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. Throughout recorded history the majority of this territory has been desert, able only to sustain nomadic tribes of pastoralists which we often call the “Bedouin.” Only the areas in the southern Arabian Peninsula in modern day Yemen and Oman featured more rainfall and a more pleasant climate; Yemen was thus known to the Romans as Arabia Felix, and these regions were the main provider of frankincense used throughout the ancient world in religious rituals. In Solomon’s day Yemen was ruled by the Kingdom of Saba, from which the Queen of Sheba would come and visit him (cf. 1 Kings 10:1-10).

For our purposes we will focus upon the northwestern portion of the Arabian Peninsula: the lands directly south of Israel and Edom, which is in modern day northwestern Saudi Arabia, parts of southern Jordan, and the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. All of these lands receive very little precipitation; only on oases could anyone maintain permanent dwellings. Since the people were mostly nomadic, it is difficult to speak of the “land of Midian” or the “land of Amalek” like we would speak of Egypt or Israel or Assyria; their “lands” would be the areas in which they would roam to find places to feed their animals and survive.

People have dwelt in Arabia for a very long time. According to the Scriptures the tribes the Israelites encountered in Arabia descended from Abraham: Midian was Abraham’s son through Keturah; Ishmael would become known as the father of the Arabian tribes; Amalek was a grandson of Esau (Genesis 25:2, 12-18, 36:10). These Bedouin tribes in the Sinai and northwest Arabian Peninsulas feature prominently in pre-monarchic Israelite history.

The Amalekites proved a concern because of their proximity, dwelling in the Negev, the southern part of Judah which would not have maintained a firm boundary out in the desert (cf. Numbers 13:29). We know of them only through the Biblical witness; descended from Esau, yet deemed by Balaam as among the first of the nations (Numbers 24:20). The Amalekites attacked Israel while they were wandering in the Wilderness, yet Israel was able to defeat them through YHWH’s help (Exodus 17:8-16); because of this Moses will compel Israel to destroy Amalek (cf. Deuteronomy 25:17-19). YHWH charged Saul to complete this task, and he did kill many in Amalek (1 Samuel 15:1-9, 33), but not everyone. The Amalekites would continue to harass and attack the southern reaches of Judah and Philistia, including Ziklag when David was king over it; David attacked and killed that band of Amalekites (1 Samuel 30:1-31). We hear nothing more of Amalek after this, although it would seem Haman, enemy of Israel in the days of Xerxes of Persia, as an Agagite, might descend from Agag king of Amalek (1 Samuel 15:33, Esther 3:1, 10).

Midian and the Midianites are generally strongly associated with the areas to the east and southeast of the Gulf of Aqaba in modern day northwestern Saudi Arabia. It is not known whether we can speak of Midian as a tribe or a confederation of tribes. In Exodus 2:13-22 Moses fled from Egypt to Midian; Reuel (named Jethro in Exodus 18:1) was deemed a priest of Midian, and Moses married his daughter Zipporah. Since Moses is shepherding Reuel’s flock when he comes to Horeb/Sinai, it might well be that Sinai is not the traditionally accepted mountain in the Sinai Peninsula, but instead Jebel al-Lawz in northwestern Saudi Arabia; if that is the case, then Israel spent a lot of time in Midianite territory while wandering in the Wilderness. It would seem that Balak king of Moab was in a strong alliance with the Midianites, since he plotted with the Midianite elders against Israel and hired Balaam son of Beor to prophesy against them (Numbers 22:3-7). The idolatry of Baal of Peor was primarily about Israelites taking Moabite women, but Cozbi, killed by Phinehas, was a Midianite princess, and YHWH commanded them to destroy Midian for this offense (Numbers 25:1-18). Israel struck Midian violently and killed Balaam son of Beor who was among them in Numbers 31:1-24). Yet the Midianites endured. Zebah and Zalmunna, kings of Midian, oppressed Israel in the days of Gideon and maintained a mighty army; Gideon, his associates, and the Ephraimites struck the Midianites strongly and thoroughly defeated them (Judges 6:1-8:28). We do not hear of the Midianites in any significant capacity afterward.

The Kenites seem to be either a family within or a tribe among the Midianites. The Judges author identified the Kenites as the descendants of Reuel/Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, and spoke of them as living in the Negev of Judah (Judges 1:16). Heber the Kenite’s wife Jael would become famous for being the one to drive a tent peg through the head of Sisera, army commander of the Canaanites (Judges 4:11-22). Balaam prophesied that the Kenites would be consumed and taken away by the Assyrians (Numbers 24:22); nevertheless, Rechab the Kenite and the Rechabites also dwelled in tents in Judah throughout the monarchic period, receiving commendation from YHWH for their faithfulness to their father’s decrees in Jeremiah 35:1-19. Some Kenites, therefore, would assimilate into the population of Judah and likely remain thus to this day.

We can notice that the Scriptures speak less of these Arabian tribes once the Israelite monarchy is well established; from this we can conclude that they took advantage of political instability and caused distress and grief to the Levantine peoples until a strong centralized government held sway and kept them at bay. Whoever might remain among them would have continued to dwell as the Bedouin of the area.

A great power would arise in these parts of Arabia in the wake of the collapse of the Kingdom of Judah: the Nabataeans. The Nabataeans might descend from Nebaioth, son of Ishmael (Genesis 25:13); they seem to be an Arabic tribe which came out of an Aramaic cultural milieu. As the Edomites encroached upon Judahite territory during the days of the exile, it would seem the Nabataeans encroached on Edomite territory. With the local powers decimated, the Nabataeans took over the trade routes leading deeper into Arabia and its frankincense and myrrh. The Persians left them alone since they let Cambyses travel to Egypt in peace, but the Seleucid Macedonians constantly, and unsuccessfully, attempted to overcome the Nabataeans in order to secure those trading routes. The heyday of Nabataean power came in the first centuries BCE and CE: they conquered parts of Syria and ruled over Damascus and most of the Transjordan, as was prophesied by Ezekiel (Ezekiel 25:1-10). The “Arabia” to which Paul fled would have been this Nabataean Kingdom, perhaps even to Petra its capital (Galatians 1:17); the King Aretas of 2 Corinthians 11:32 is Aretas king of Nabataea, whose daughter had been married to Herod Antipas until the latter divorced her to marry his sister (cf. Matthew 14:3-5). In anger Aretas fought against Herod and destroyed his army. Over the next century the Nabataeans ceased their warlike spirit and took to the life of trading and agriculture, developing extremely complex engineering to allow them to maintain continual sources of water at Petra, a city which remains one of the great architectural masterpieces of antiquity. The Nabataeans would be conquered by the Roman emperor Trajan in 106, converting their land into the Roman province Arabia Petraea.

The desert lands to the south of Judah and Edom proved harsh and difficult but not entirely inhospitable. The Israelites met their God in those lands; YHWH might well have been served by some of those desert nomads. May we all seek to honor and glorify God in Christ!

Ethan R. Longhenry

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Striving After Wind

I, the Teacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. I decided to carefully and thoroughly examine all that has been accomplished on earth. I concluded: God has given people a burdensome task that keeps them occupied. I reflected on everything that is accomplished by man on earth, and I concluded: Everything he has accomplished is futile – like chasing the wind! What is bent cannot be straightened, and what is missing cannot be supplied.
I thought to myself, “I have become much wiser than any of my predecessors who ruled over Jerusalem; I have acquired much wisdom and knowledge.”
So I decided to discern the benefit of wisdom and knowledge over foolish behavior and ideas; however, I concluded that even this endeavor is like trying to chase the wind! For with great wisdom comes great frustration; whoever increases his knowledge merely increases his heartache (Ecclesiastes 1:12-18).

The Preacher knew of what he spoke. We do not have to like it, but we do well to seek to understand and respect his witness.

The Preacher has testified that all things are hevel: a vapor, futile, even absurd (Ecclesiastes 1:1-2). He understood time as a cycle; nothing is really new under the sun, all things have already been done beforehand, and later generations have forgotten (Ecclesiastes 1:3-11).

The Preacher now sets forth his purpose. He spoke of himself as Qohelet, the Preacher or Teacher, even though he was king over Israel in Jerusalem; thus we understand him to be Solomon (Ecclesiastes 1:12; cf. Ecclesiastes 1:1, 12:9). He wanted to understand human effort and striving on the earth. He understood it to be the burdensome tasks God has given to mankind to keep them occupied, and yet they are all futile (Ecclesiastes 1:13-14).

The Preacher introduced us to one of his favorite images which exemplify the futility of life and deeds under the sun: a striving after wind (Ecclesiastes 1:14). To strive or chase after the wind represents sheer folly: how could you catch the wind? It continues to blow across the earth; you cannot expect to grab ahold of it; and even if one could theoretically capture wind, it would immediately cease being the wind!

Humans bristle at the thought that all their work ultimately does not mean much and that we strive after wind. We tell ourselves motivational and uplifting platitudes about how what we do will influence and shape the world. We seek to satisfy desires and enjoy the good life. We recognize we have various challenges and difficulties but want to imagine that if we just had a little more money, a little more time, or worked on ourselves just a little bit more, we would be able to overcome them and get what we want.

Can we all think of people who have profoundly influenced our lives and our patterns of behavior? Absolutely. Is the Preacher thus wrong? Not in the grand scheme of things. What has become of all the “influencers” of four or more generations ago? They have been forgotten, just as the Preacher expected (Ecclesiastes 1:11). To seek after meaning and renown in the works of this world is to strive after wind: fame and meaning are ephemeral vapors which will not last.

Likewise, to live for the future and expect things to get better with just a little more this or that is also a striving after wind. If you do come into a little more money, there will always be more reasons to spend. If we work on ourselves a little bit, we will find other problems. We can never fully overcome our limitations, challenges, and difficulties; the “ideal” or “good life” is futile, absurd, and a striving after wind. One can pursue it all day long; whatever one captures will cease being what is desired after being obtained. Thus, indeed, all that is crooked cannot be made straight; what is lacked will never be fully satisfied (Ecclesiastes 1:15).

The Preacher continued with an extraordinary claim: he had become wiser and more knowledgeable than those who had ruled over Jerusalem before him (Ecclesiastes 1:16). We might be skeptical of such a “flex” and boastfulness, yet God indeed had given Solomon great wisdom (1 Kings 3:12-13, 4:30). Furthermore, his goal is not to vaunt himself as much as it is to establish credibility for what he was saying. Humans understandably resist what the Preacher has to say; they would be tempted to wonder who the Preacher was to make such claims and why we should accept them. The Preacher spoke thus of himself to establish his bona fides: he has explored wisdom and knowledge. He has greater depth of experience, knowledge, and wisdom. Will we thus consider what he has to say?

Surely a man as wise and knowledgeable as the Preacher would thus affirm the great power and importance of wisdom and knowledge. Yet when he compared wisdom and knowledge with folly, or attempted to know both wisdom and folly, he considered them also a striving after wind (Ecclesiastes 1:17)!

How could the same man who so exalted wisdom over folly in the Proverbs here consider all of it a striving after wind? The question, as always, is to what end? Paul rightly warned Christians that knowledge can make arrogant (1 Corinthians 8:1); we must remember that it also ultimately is a striving after wind, since what we learn dies with us, and of the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom there is no end. Furthermore, was Socrates wrong when he considered that all he knew was that he knew nothing, for the more he learned, the more he recognized he had to learn?

The Preacher recognized frustration and grief attended to knowledge and those with wisdom consign themselves to heartbreak (Ecclesiastes 1:18). Consider Cassandra of Greek legend: she was able to see the future, but whenever she would speak of it, she would not be believed. A similar curse comes to all who have reliable wisdom and knowledge. One would like to think wisdom and knowledge would be heeded, yet many people’s livelihoods depend on them not accepting such wisdom and knowledge. Folly parades in the streets seemingly unmolested and those with insight are left to mourn and weep. Such is how it feels today; yet in truth, such is the way it has always been. Perhaps this is part of the reason the old adage declared ignorance to be bliss! From the beginning knowledge has come with a curse, and we must not delude ourselves into thinking that wisdom and knowledge will save the day. To this end the author of Proverbs thus reminds us of the limitations of the wisdom and knowledge he so thoroughly exalted in its pages. It can only go so far, and it causes great grief when one perceives how well wisdom is considered and honored.

Thus the Preacher has established his central premise: human life under the sun is futile and a striving after wind. We look for meaning where none will endure; we want permanence where there is nothing but vapor and wind; we want to hang our hat on some certainty, some form of advantage that will endure, and find them all flawed, limited, and ultimately hopeless. It will all be forgotten in the end. It is a bitter pill to swallow, but the Preacher is not wrong about this life. Such is why it is so important for us to invest in what God is accomplishing in the Lord Jesus Christ so we may obtain eternal life in Him!

Ethan R. Longhenry

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1 John 1:8-10: Our Sin

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us (1 John 1:8-10).

After John confirms the authenticity of his message, he puts forward His message that in God is light, and there is no darkness in Him (1 John 1:5). If we walk in that light, we have association with God and the blood of His Son cleanses us from sin (1 John 1:7).

Yet we, as humans, are not perfect creatures. As Paul indicates in Romans 3:23, we have all sinned, and we all fall short of God’s glory. John recognizes this, and thus after he establishes that we are to walk in the light, he addresses the difficulty of our sins in 1 John 1:8-10.

Verses 8 and 10 speak directly regarding our sin. Unfortunately, these verses are often misunderstood or intentionally under-emphasized. In these verses, John confesses our previous and current sin; some would rather believe that John is just speaking of our past sin. Verse 10 is rendered in the perfect tense in Greek, indicating that we have sinned in the past; to deny this is to make God a liar, and proves that His Word is not in us. Verse 8 is rendered in the present tense, and therefore indicates that we still do continually and/or repeatedly sin. If we deny this, we are deceived, and God’s truth is not in us!

The issue of our present sin is a very thorny problem; after all, Jesus died so that we would be set free from sin, and Paul indicates that we should no longer be bound to sin (Romans 6). Yet even Paul recognizes our constant struggle: he uses the present tense when saying that we all “fall short of the glory of God” in Romans 3:23. We continually do not live up to our ideal. We still struggle against the will of the flesh, and we still fail at times (cf. Galatians 5:17-24). Some try to deny this, and attempt to emphasize passages that speak of becoming “perfect” (cf. Matthew 5:48; the word may be better translated as “mature”). They then think that we can somehow get to the point of not sinning. Yet John says that this is not the case, not even of himself. We must remember that the sum of God’s Word is truth (Psalm 119:160). When John says that we deceive ourselves if we say that we have no sin, we must accept it. We must continue to strive to be like Christ, yet recognize that we will never live up to the ideal.

Why, then, does John feel compelled to include these verses in his discussion? After all, if one fact is clear from the Scriptures, it is that mankind is sinful. In all likelihood, some of the Gnostic groups of the day denied the idea of sin and the idea that we have sinned. This is completely false, as John asserts, and to believe it is to be deceived, to fall into a lie, and a demonstration that God’s Word is not in us. John affirms that there is such a thing as sin, and we have been guilty of it and are still guilty of it.

Yet what is to be done regarding our sin? Sin represents darkness, and we are told that there is no darkness in God (1 John 1:5)! As John established in verse 7, the blood of Jesus, the Son of God, is able to cleanse us from all sin. John does not mention how our past sins are cleansed; Peter and Paul make it clear that baptism accomplishes this (Acts 2:38, Romans 6:3-7, 1 Peter 3:21).

While baptism cleanses us from our past sins, what can cleanse us from our sins since baptism? John answers this question in verse 9: if we confess our sins, God will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This verse is also rendered in the present tense: as we continually sin, we must continually confess our sin, and God is continually faithful to cleanse us continually. Confession is the Greek word homologeo, “to speak the same thing.” Confession is not some generic statement declaring that we have sinned, but represents a sinner declaring his sinful deeds before God and requesting forgiveness from them. This can only be accomplished when there is repentance for those sins (cf. Luke 13:3), the attempt to overcome those sins.

As Christians, we strive to walk in the light. Unfortunately, there are times when we stumble into the darkness. As opposed to denying this, or trying to justify it, we must instead freely admit it to God, and strive to do better at walking in that light. When we do so, we are cleansed of our sins, and maintain our association with God. Let us not be lost to the darkness, but instead walk in the light!

Ethan R. Longhenry

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Power

The world is all about power.

Power very much drives modern society. We often talk about power in terms of electrical and/or mechanical energy: electric power, horsepower, and the like. Our entire society is built and utterly dependent on such power to function! And so it is also with the power found in and among humans: our ability to influence the thoughts, feelings, and actions of others, and how our thoughts, feelings, and actions are influenced by others.

When we think of power in human terms, we naturally gravitate toward governments and their representatives, and for good reason. Governments exist and maintain control on account of their ability to project power. A government might try to use encouragement, praise, and exhortation so that its citizens, or fellow governments, might comply with requests. Nevertheless, governments have power on account of their ability to exercise coercive force through violence and/or imprisonment: if people do not listen to the dictates of the government, the government might use its police or military forces to imprison, injure, or kill them; if another government refuses to respect them, a government might declare war against it and use violence to accomplish its desires and purposes. All such power exercised with the threat of force and violence is known as “hard” power, and it has a God-given purpose: governments are entrusted with such authority by God and should exercise it to reward the good and punish the evil (Romans 13:1-7).

Yet power goes well beyond electrical and mechanical energy and the “hard” power of governments. The “soft” power of influence generally proves far more important to our lives. Most of the beliefs we maintain, feelings we feel, and actions we take have been significantly shaped by the various influences manifest in “soft” power. We would like to think that we are all unique individuals and have come to the conclusions we believe and compose and conduct ourselves in the ways we do based upon the exercise of conscious choice based on objective deliberations. And yet those who truly would do so are quickly deemed as “weird.” Deep down, none of us want to be that “weird.” In truth, we all are very much shaped by influences all around us which we have internalized throughout our lives. Our parents and our families began thus shaping us according not only to what was said but particularly what was accepted and done. As we got older we would dress and compose ourselves to fit into the friend group in which we associated. Throughout this whole time culture and society also shaped and molded us through the emphases manifest in our education, the media we consumed, and the products which were heavily marketed to us. If we grew up in a Christian environment, hopefully we were profoundly shaped by that influence so that we might grow up to become conformed to the image of Jesus (Romans 8:29). As we reached early adulthood, we likely went through a period of rebelling against certain ideas, feelings, and behaviors with which we had been acculturated, and might well have changed many of our views. As adults we recognize, however, how powerfully shaped we were by these past influences, and they will always inform how we think, feel, and act, for better and for worse.

Such forms of influence do not exist only for children. We are continually influenced by the perspectives and behaviors of those around us: the people with whom we interact, the customs of the place in which we live, the continual bombardment of information and ideology propagated through various forms of media, the relentless marketing and selling of products in our consumerist capitalist society, etc. Likewise, we in turn influence others through what we express toward them.

We do not normally think of such engagement and interaction in terms of power; in the modern world, it seems that only the Marxists want to talk about power and class and ideological struggle. But we need not be Marxist to come to see the role power plays in every aspect of our lives: in ourselves and the thoughts, feelings, and decisions we manifest; in our families and the family dynamic; among our friends; in our churches; in our local communities; in the country and the world; and even in the spiritual realm. The only people who have the luxury to not think about power are those who have power and privilege, who receive respect, deference, and honor by what seems to them like “default,” so as to be “normal,” and yet would never allow themselves to be treated in the way that they treat others.

Whenever people engage and interact with one another, power dynamics will be at work in some way or another. People engage with one another based upon whether they believe they are among those who are “superior” in age, status, or influence; peers in age, status, or influence; or “inferior” in age, status, or influence. In our modern pluralist democracy many might want to presume a more “egalitarian” society of equals, but humans are not egalitarian by nature. Humans are constantly ranking each other based on all kinds of standards. By virtue of birth, education, charisma, etc., some people maintain greater influence than others. Any organization involving human beings will have “politics” to navigate: who should be consulted about what, who are the people who get things done, who really has the power or influence in an organization, whose support you have to secure in order to succeed, etc. Sometimes these politics have written out rules; most of the time they are unwritten. But you will come to know them when you try to go around them or do things differently!

The Apostle Paul understood this world as remaining in the hands of the Evil One and the powers and principalities over this present darkness (cf. Ephesians 2:1-4, 6:12); John vividly envisioned the same in terms of the dragon and the beast in Revelation 12:1-13:18. Christians therefore should expect that power in the world is used to enhance the quality of life for those who have the power without any necessary regard to the quality of life of those who do not enjoy that power. Christians should expect power to thus be abused for selfish and personal gain to the deprivation, or even active harm, of others. We should not be surprised that power in the world is abused, and that many lust for power not to truly do good but to be able to finally receive its benefits and to harm others. Not a few have naively imagined they could become a force for good but ultimately get caught up in the power dynamics and structure of the world and either passively allow or actively participate in the advancement of evil.

Jesus also understood the nature of power dynamics in the world; He saw it becoming manifest among His own disciples who were jockeying for positions of power. He reminded them how the Gentiles exercised political and economic power over them and others, and made His will quite clear: it should not be so among His people (Matthew 20:25-26).

Jesus then gave a paradox for Christians when it came to power: those who would seek to be great or first in the Kingdom of God should serve and be a slave to others (Matthew 20:26-27). Those who are servants and slaves, by definition, have no power; there is no room for “advancement” for them in those conditions. Such is how Jesus warned His disciples, and therefore all who would profess faith in Him, to reject the entire construct of power in the world.

He instead offered up Himself as the alternative model: He came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28). Jesus’ alternative model does not deny the existence of power, nor does it intrinsically mean a divestment of power: throughout His life Jesus remained the Messiah, the King of the Jews, and at no point ceased to be God the Son. The alternative model involves how power ought to be leveraged: He used His authority and power to serve others. He healed the sick, cast out demons, and taught the truth about His Father. He, the Lord and Master, would wash the feet of His disciples, the most humiliating form of service, and encouraged them to do the same (John 13:1-15).

All people, including all of God’s people, have power to some degree or another. We will all be held accountable for how we leveraged the power we were given (cf. Romans 14:10-12). Did we seek to influence people to become more like Christ through how we thought, felt, spoke, and acted like Jesus? Did we use the power we were given to advocate for those who had less power, to seek their best interests, or did we use the power we were given to try to maintain our power and privilege and that of those like us against other people? Are we exposing the base and evil ways power is leveraged in the world by loving, serving, and emptying ourselves for others, or have we been caught up in fear and tribalism so as to express such base and evil uses of power unwittingly? May we leverage the power and influence we have been given in ways that glorify and manifest God in Christ, and obtain the resurrection of life in Him!

Ethan R. Longhenry

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Nothing New Under the Sun

What exists now is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing truly new on earth.
Is there anything about which someone can say, “Look at this! It is new!”?
It was already done long ago, before our time. No one remembers the former events, nor will anyone remember the events that are yet to happen; they will not be remembered by the future generations (Ecclesiastes 1:9-11).

“New and improved!” “Grand opening!” “Grand Re-opening!”

Marketing and branding focus on what works, and for modern Westerners few appeals work quite like novelty. We love new things. The experience of a new car, an updated piece of technology, or even a new relationship is exhilarating. We spend time on social media and television in order to find out what is new in the lives of other people; the gossip mill has churned for millennia on the basis of the newest scoop. Fortunes can be made or lost in the attempt to ascertain the newest trends in beauty, fashion, politics, technology, and the like. “New” comes with great status: our culture worships youth and the vitality it expresses, and is enraptured with new and dazzling scientific and technological discoveries. Wealth and standing is now displayed by newness and freshness. In our progressive optimism we are convinced not only of the greatness of all the new things with which we are surrounded, but presume a continual stream of these new things which will make life ever better and grander in future generations.

Meanwhile, the Preacher spoke as if a curmudgeonly contrarian. Everything is futile and absurd: vanity of vanities (Ecclesiastes 1:2). Life and time are cyclical, neither progressive nor regressive (Ecclesiastes 1:3-5). The Preacher anticipated the kind of dazzling pretenses as we see in our society: eyes are not satisfied with seeing, and ears are not content with hearing (Ecclesiastes 1:6). We are always looking for new and ever greater forms of entertainment and stimulation.

But, the Preacher noted, nothing is truly new. It was done before. Everyone forgot. And everyone will forget again (Ecclesiastes 1:9-11).

Many would seem to think it very easy to contradict the Preacher. You are reading this article on the Internet on a technological device unimaginable to Solomon or anyone in the ancient world; thus, it is a “new” thing, and so there are “new” things on the earth!

If we took the Preacher absolutely, such criticism would be valid and the proposition nullified. But the Preacher was not really concerned about things but people and the things they do. And despite all protestations to the contrary, people have not changed.

For all of our scientific and technological advances, we remain very much human. Humans before us took stones or spears and used them to hunt animals or kill fellow human beings. Later humans developed different tools with different metals, but always to the same end. Perhaps the Preacher could never conceive of nuclear power; but he would not at all be surprised to learn how nuclear power was used both to provide energy to improve the quality of life for thousands and to make bombs with which to slaughter thousands. We now carry small machines in our pockets and purses which have more computing power than existed in previous generations, but what do we do with them? We talk with other people. We look for love and lust. We try to present the best possible picture of ourselves, and often do not hesitate to portray others as their worst. We line up in tribes and justify ourselves and condemn the others. We use it as a profitable medium of exchange as well as a means to deceive, extort, and steal from others. Our technology is really a mirror that reflects us and our nature in its beauty and in its corruption. It is the same old story with fancier gadgets.

A long, long time ago there was a man who was raised with lesser means but learned of his nobility. He then had to fight against long odds to discover his true strength, to overcome his opponents, and to take his rightful place as a leader of his people. This is the plot of Star Wars; it is also the story of Sargon of Akkad, Moses, and many others. Or perhaps you have heard about the king who was unjustly murdered by his brother but was then avenged by his son? Children might think you speak of The Lion King, but it is also the story of Hamlet and Osiris and Horus. Have you heard the song about a lover who has scorned the singer’s advances, or who has broken the singer’s heart? Those songs exist on the Top 40 chart today, have existed on the Top 40 chart as long as it has existed, and are also the songs of the medieval troubadours and ancient Egyptian love poets. Today many analyze these archetypes for what they tell us about themselves; for the Preacher it would be seen as further confirmation that nothing is really new. All good stories derive from certain narrative tropes and types. They are not new.

Yet we do well to sit in the Preacher’s lament regarding the “tyranny of the present.” How many times have we seen an atrocity take place and then hear, “never again”? How many have confidently asserted how “history will remember” a given person or event in a certain way, or have maintained confidence in being “on the right side of history”? We have often heard George Santayana’s quote that “those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.”

The Preacher has argued that no one really remembers the past. We might want to protest: did we not all have to sit through history class? And again, if we take the Preacher absolutely, the criticisms would be valid and the proposition refuted. But should we imagine that the Preacher had no knowledge of people who came before him? Absurd! Instead, he speaks in a general way, and one we can see playing out until today. A generation learns the lesson of their recent ancestors but might well in the process forget other lessons from previous ones. Another generation arises which never experienced the traumas of their great-grandfathers and replicates their folly. Markets learn from bad behavior, promote other forms of bad behavior, and when sufficient time has passed since the last major correction, fall back into previous bad behaviors. Atrocities happen again. How we understand what happened in the past constantly changes and adapts based upon changes in perspective. We can understand the history of the twentieth and the twenty-first century so far according to this pattern. It has all happened before. And it’ll happen again.

Thus the Preacher continued to strip his hearers of all the pretenses they have erected to try to find ultimate value in what is truly futile and fleeting. Everything under the sun is futile, vain, and absurd: time is cyclical, and nothing is really new. Each generation in succession makes mistakes and learns from them, only for the next generation to come and make their own mistakes. Perhaps we have a well documented family and can trace our ancestry back a few generations: yet how many of them are simply names, perhaps a notation of birth, date of marriage, and death, and for those of the past two hundred years perhaps a picture at best? And how many remain mostly unknown? We have forgotten our ancestors; within a few generations, we also will be forgotten. It is all absurd.

We cannot be invested in this life under the sun to provide ultimate meaning. We cannot sustain the delusion that everything is getting better, and remain entranced by what we deem new and shiny things. Under the sun we will live, die, and likely become, at best, just another branch in our descendants’ family trees, noting birth, marriage, children, and death. It is only in Christ that we can have hope for eternal life and ultimate meaning; may we find life in Him and be saved!

Ethan R. Longhenry

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Jargon

Jargon: it is something that you hear all of the time. When you understand it, everything is well and good. When you are not “in the know,” however, it can be quite frustrating!

Jargon is language specific to a particular group of people, generally understood in terms of specialties. There is medical jargon: CPT codes, the many long terms from Latin and Greek for various conditions and illnesses that always sound scary, pharmaceutical names, and so on. There is also legal jargon: that legalese in contracts that is very difficult to understand. There is also plenty of jargon in the tech community: apps, HTML, CSS, PHP, Java, and all other kinds of terms that you either understand or you do not! Jargon can be found among almost every group of people, and in many cases, it serves necessary functions for those who understand it. It would be much more difficult for a lot of groups to function if they could not use terminology specific to their groups!

There is also a lot of jargon in religion, especially in the Church. Think about it for a moment: how many terms do you use among Christians that you would probably not use in any other circumstance? Baptism, gospel meetings, faith, repentance, justification, sanctification, hermeneutics: all these are examples of jargon. Even whole phrases like “guide, guard, and direct us,” “separate and apart,” “watery grave of baptism,” and so forth are examples of jargon.

Is it wrong or sinful to use jargon? No, not at all! Nevertheless, jargon can become a barrier hindering understanding for those who are not in Christ or who are not familiar with the terms. This can become a particularly acute problem when we assume that everyone else understands what we mean when we use this jargon and, in reality, they do not!

For a long time it was believed that the whole New Testament was its own form of jargon; some suggested that “Holy Spirit Greek” was its own dialect of the language. Yet papyri discoveries over the past two hundred years have painted a very different picture for us. The New Testament was not written in some special form of language that was not understood; it was written using the common language of the people. God’s message was communicated to the world in a form that was designed to be understood!

We see this push toward understanding throughout the book of Acts. When preaching to Jews, the Apostles used language and stories familiar to the Jews (cf. Acts 2:14-36, 3:12-26, 13:16-41). When preaching to Gentiles, they used language and even quotations familiar to the Gentiles (cf. Acts 17:22-31)! Paul provides the general principle in 1 Corinthians 9:22-23:

To the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak: I am become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some. And I do all things for the gospel’s sake, that I may be a joint partaker thereof.

If we are to become all things to all men so that some may be saved, should that also not mean that we should communicate to our fellow man in ways that he understands?

The New Testament is clear: the message is to be taken to all men so that all men may understand and come to the knowledge of the truth (Matthew 28:18-20, 1 Timothy 2:4). For them to understand, the message must be presented in a way that is understandable. Yet how can the message of the Gospel be understandable if the people with whom we speak do not understand the terms that we use to describe the message of Jesus? We should give some thought to the version of the Bible we use in order to teach others. How effective will our teaching be if those whom we teach must first decipher the English in order to get to God’s message?

Our main concern must be with the language we use in presenting God’s message. We must come to grips with the fact that we live among a generation of people to whom Biblical terms and concepts might as well be a foreign language. On the whole, people do not know the Bible or the terms used in its pages. For example, what do people think of when they hear “gospel”? They might think of it in terms of a genre of music as much or more as “the good news of Jesus Christ.” What is “baptism” to them beyond a religious ritual that many experienced as a baby (or not at all)? For too many, “faith” is nothing more than the opposite of “science.” People might know what “sin” is, but what actions are defined as sin and the consequences of sin are not as well understood. Terms like repentance, sanctification, justification, Trinity, and the like are almost entirely unknown to many of those in the world.

But how can we present the message of God without using some of these terms? We really cannot, just like people in technical fields cannot describe their work without using some of their jargon. The issue is not the use of jargon in and of itself; the issue is making sure that people understand the message that is being communicated!

In terms of evangelism, therefore, we should give some thought as to how to explain the terms that we use, and, whenever possible, get away from jargon and use terms people understand. For example, if one of the main evangelistic events is a “gospel meeting,” let us ask ourselves: do people know what a “gospel meeting” is? Would they know what to expect at a “gospel meeting”? How can we expect anyone to attend a “gospel meeting” if they do not know what it is?

Another example of this is the phrase, “the watery grave of baptism.” For believers “in the know,” it is a way of speaking of baptism in terms of Romans 6:3-7, making clear that it indicates immersion and what its purpose is. But if someone is entirely ignorant of Scripture and Christianity, what does “the watery grave of baptism” sound like? Does it sound like anything in which they would want to participate, or does it sound more like an event in a horror movie and therefore something to avoid?

We could go on and on, but the point ought to be clear. We are supposed to take the message of Jesus Christ to all people and help them to understand who Jesus is, what He has done, and why it should be of the greatest importance to them (Matthew 28:18-20, Romans 10:13-17, 1 Timothy 2:4). Would we ever dream of going out and trying to teach the message of Jesus in Greek to Americans who speak English? Of course not! Therefore, why would we try to teach the message of Jesus to people today in terms that people do not know or understand without any sort of explanation?

Jargon is a part of life. It is not wrong, but we must be careful to make sure that we “make the message plain” and make sure that people understand the ideas and concepts behind the message of the good news of Jesus Christ. We cannot assume that people automatically understand the words we use, and therefore we should give consideration how to best present the Gospel of Christ to all men. Let us do so, becoming the servant of all, so that some might be saved!

Ethan R. Longhenry

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1 John 1:5-7: Walking in the Light

And this is the message which we have heard from him and announce unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin (1 John 1:5-7).

Having established the authenticity and origin of his message, John moves on to provide the message itself. That message is that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness (1 John 1:5).

The imagery of light and darkness represents one of John’s favorites, and he uses it often. The Word is described as the “light of men” in John 1:4, and John makes strong parallels between light and life; after all, life on earth exists because of the heat given off by the light of the sun. Yet John is not concerned about the sun, trees, or plants. God is the light because God represents all that is life-giving, good, and holy. Sin and the world are darkness because they represent all that is life-draining, wrong, and perverted (John 1:5; 10, 1 John 2:15-17). Life and holiness come from being in the light; sin and death come from reveling in the darkness.

John’s message, therefore, is an exhortation to righteousness and a rebuke of sin. This is made evident in the discussion present in verses 6-10, all of which comment on verse 5. John then sets up an appropriate contrast in verses 6 and 7. If we profess to walk in the light (be Christians) and yet walk in the darkness (live sinful lives), we are liars, and “do not” the truth (1 John 1:6). James makes a similar point in James 1:22-25, contrasting those who hear and do the Word and those who merely hear it; how many end up being liars to themselves and others by professing religion without really being obedient to Jesus Christ! Truth is not merely some self-evident axiom, or some mental concept worthy of assent. When Jesus asserts that He “is” the Truth (John 14:6), He indicates that truth is not just a set of beliefs, but the actions that correspond to those beliefs. The truth is something to be believed and lived out. Both John and James make it clear that being a Christian is much more than what one says; in the end, what one believes is only demonstrated through what one does.

In contrast, if we walk in the light (be Christians) as God is in the light, we have fellowship with each other, and we have cleansing from sin in Jesus’ blood (1 John 1:7). John makes heavy use of the present tense in this discussion, indicating the continuous nature of our faith. We must continually walk in the light to have continual cleansing from sin. Furthermore, John identifies the nature of the association that exists among Christians: it is based in a joint walk in the light. Christians do not have association with one another merely because they like each other or just so happened to walk into the same church building; their association is based on each person’s realization that Christ is the way to salvation and by finding each other on that road (cf. John 14:6). This is why Christians cannot have association with a wayward brother or sister (cf. 1 Corinthians 5:1-13): they are no longer on the same road. The basis of their association is removed!

God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. We would do well to heed the words of John, and walk in the light!

Ethan R. Longhenry

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Time as Cycle

What benefit do people get from all the effort which they expend on earth? A generation comes and a generation goes, but the earth remains the same through the ages. The sun rises and the sun sets; it hurries away to a place from which it rises again. The wind goes to the south and circles around to the north; round and round the wind goes and on its rounds it returns. All the streams flow into the sea, but the sea is not full, and to the place where the streams flow, there they will flow again. All this monotony is tiresome; no one can bear to describe it: The eye is never satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear ever content with hearing (Ecclesiastes 1:3-8).

How should we consider and portray those who came before us? How should we consider ourselves? What should we imagine about those who will come after us if the Lord wills for mankind to carry on as it has in the past?

People in the Western world today have been conditioned to consider and portray the story of humanity as one of progress. Most Westerners consider those who came before us as more primitive, less enlightened, and often with a patronizing air: perhaps they did the best they could, but they did not know better. We understand things better today, so it is believed. Such is why many look to the future with great optimism, assuming our children and their descendants will carry on with progress and will be able to look at us one day as primitive and less enlightened.

Yet for much of human history, and even to today in some places, the opposite perspective held firm: they imagined the human story as one of regression. In some stories, the gods themselves used to live as humans, built many great works, and now rule from heaven; in others, those of the past lived during a “golden age,” and successive generations experienced a “silver” down to an “iron” age in comparison. According to such a perspective the present and future generations could never expect to live up to the exploits of the ancestors; if anything, today would be seen as better than tomorrow, and humanity will just get more miserable. Many had justification for their story: they could see the ruins of what Bronze and Iron Age civilizations before them had built, and the traumatic experience and memory of collapse and the comparably “dark” age that followed; in many traditions the ancestors are venerated, even worshipped. To consider one as having surpassed them in understanding and wisdom would seem presumptuous and foolish indeed; thus, even when many such people had reached a time of greater material comfort and sophistication than their venerated ancestors had enjoyed, most would still think the ancestors had it better.

For modern Westerners, a regressive view of the future and an idealist perspective on the past seems quaint and ridiculous; for many others, a progressive view of the future and a primitivist perspective on the past seems arrogant and delusional. But according to the Preacher, neither captures the true essence of how humans should consider the passage of time.

The Preacher set forth his general thesis: everything is hevel, a vapor: vanity, futility, perhaps even absurdity (Ecclesiastes 1:2). His first meditation centered on the ultimate futility of human effort: what do people get for all of their efforts they expend on the earth (Ecclesiastes 1:3)? Human effort proved futile because generations come and go, but the earth continues on (Ecclesiastes 1:4). The Preacher has observed the cyclical nature of reality: the earth spins on its axis and orbits around the sun; the winds blow and come around again; water cycles from the ocean to rain to the ground to streams and back into the ocean to start again (Ecclesiastes 1:5-7).

The Preacher understood how difficult it is for people to look at things in such a cyclical way: it is a tedious thing, and strikes at the heart of our pretensions (Ecclesiastes 1:8). Today we believe in progress, in part, because we want to believe in progress: we want to think that humanity is moving toward some end or telos, that things will keep getting better, and for us to find meaning and value in helping to advance the cause of humanity. No doubt many in the past believed in their regress, at least in part, because they wanted to believe that life and humanity could be better than what they were experiencing: perhaps in the moment things were not great, but they were better in the past, and in its own way there is the hope that maybe it can be that good again sometime.

There is an exceedingly difficult truth which the Preacher makes known to us if we are willing to accept it: we are not getting better, and we are not getting worse. We can certainly point to some aspects of humanity which might show some improvement; yet there always remains other ways in which humanity is worse off. There are reasons why the triumphalist pretensions of having reached “the end of history,” or that “history will remember/judge” in a certain way seem laughable in retrospect. We like to think we have progressed in some way or another and yet find people or circumstances which have not manifest that progress. At the same time, those who remember the past with gauzy nostalgia are no less deceived. It is easy to remember the good and forget the evil and ugly in the past, and all the more so when one or one’s ancestors did not suffer the evil and ugly to the degree or extent that others did. Times prove different, and in those different times some things get better, and other things get worse. There are times of prosperity and times of poverty. There are happy times and there are sad times. There are times of great technological advances and times of great technological decline.

Why, after all, do we say that “those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it?” History may not repeat itself, but it certainly rhymes. People say “never again,” but generations arise which never experienced the horror, and a similar horror takes place. This proves true about war, atrocities, economic conditions, fashion trends, and all sorts of other things. We may not like it, but human activity and history is as cyclical as everything else on the earth. In the grand scheme of things, it does all seem to be tiresome monotony.

Indeed, the eye is not satisfied in what it sees; the ear is not satisfied in what it hears (Ecclesiastes 1:8). We do not want to believe this is the way things are; we condition our eyes to see things according to the patters in which we are inculcated and which make the most sense to us. We condition our ears to hear the messages which align with what we already believe. We always want more; we want to be affirmed in what we think and who we are and to prosper in it. That which does not align with our presuppositions we want to suppress or neglect, yet we do so to our own peril; for what will we do when the uncomfortable facts for which we made no place in our understanding overwhelm us?

It is all futile and absurd. Unless the Lord Jesus returns, we will go in the way of our ancestors; another generation will rise and will have to re-learn the effects of our follies by hard earned experience, and all for other generations to have to re-learn the same things. We will always be able to point to certain metrics and things that seem to be doing better and progressing; we will always be able to point to certain metrics and things that seem to be doing worse and regressing. All that we do in society can, and most likely will, be undone in the future, just like we are undoing what was done in the past. Thus has it been; thus it will be until the Lord comes. Such is difficult to hear, but the wise man considers them well and entrusts himself or herself not in the pretenses of their time but in God in Christ. May we glorify God in Christ and obtain the resurrection of life in Him!

Ethan R. Longhenry

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1 John 1:1-4: The Word of Life

That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handled, concerning the Word of life (and the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare unto you the life, the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us); that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you also, that ye also may have fellowship with us: yea, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ: and these things we write, that our joy may be made full (1 John 1:1-4).

John begins his first letter with no welcoming message per se; instead, he begins the letter like he began his Gospel: speaking concerning the Word of life.

John speaks regarding “that which [is] concerning the Word of life.” Much is made of the Word of God as revealed in the Bible, and this is natural and understandable. But John here speaks of the incarnate Word, that which was from the beginning, with God and being God, and active in the creation (John 1:1-3). This Word becomes flesh (John 1:14). We recognize that John is speaking about Jesus, but he does so in a very powerful way.

Christianity is unique among religions because, at its heart, it is centered on a Person. Jesus is the Word. He Himself, in the flesh, is God’s message to mankind. God has taken on flesh, has walked among mankind, and has provided the true light from Heaven (John 1:4-5, 14). Judaism is about the Torah; Islam is about the Qu’ran; eastern religions are often about meditation or ritual. Christianity, while having the Bible, is still about Jesus, the incarnate Word of life. This emphasis is seen constantly in John’s Gospel and later in his letter (cf. John 6, 1 John 2:3-6, 4:11). Eternal life is in the Son, the Word of life (1 John 5:10-12). Everything is centered on Jesus.

And this Jesus is no mere phantasm, no “seeming” person. He was truly God in the flesh. John heard, saw, looked upon, and touched the Word of life (1 John 1:1). He did this not by touching a book or by man’s work on stone or wood, but by being present with and experiencing the manifestation of “the life,” Jesus in the flesh (1 John 1:2; cf. John 1:14). He testifies to Jesus as a witness of His glory and power: testimony is a central piece to John’s themes, both in his Gospel and letter. His message to Christians comes with authority: the authority of one who saw Jesus and heard the message of God from His lips (1 John 1:1-2).

And this is why he writes: he proclaims the message to Christians that he heard from Jesus so that Christians can have fellowship with him, as he has fellowship with the Father and the Son (1 John 1:3). Fellowship is the Greek word koinonia, and it indicates joint participation, association, a sharing. The message of Jesus is something in which we believe and then participate together in our common goal. One cannot be a believer in Jesus Christ while having no association with others who believe, as John will continue to make clear (1 John 1:7).

By writing the message and having Christians hear it and have fellowship with him and with God, John’s joy is “made complete” (1 John 1:4). Let us join together in a common faith in the message of Jesus so that God’s and our joy may be made complete!

Ethan R. Longhenry

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