Jul 29, 2018
JEREMIAH 17-18:
One
catches so clearly how trapped Jeremiah was in the time of God’s
judgment, and how hot God’s anger was against Judah. Jeremiah’s
audience would not have appreciated him telling them where the Lord
said they could ‘go’! No wonder he so often weeps and cries out in
despair. God’s verdict in 15:2, which shows his sovereign choices,
is repeated in Revelation:
Jer. 15:1 Then the Lord said to me, “Even if
Moses and Samuel were standing here pleading with me, I would not
show these people any mercy. Make them go away; make them get out
of my sight. 2 When they ask you where they should go, tell them
that I have said:
Some
are doomed to die by disease—
that's where they will go!
Others are doomed to die in
war—
that's where they will go!
Some
are doomed to die of starvation—
that's where they will go!
Others are doomed to be taken away as
prisoners—
that's where they will go!
PSALM 146:
This is the first of five Hallelujah psalms. In
the GNT, ‘hallelujah’ is translated, “Praise the Lord.”
1CORINTHIANS
3:
The
topic of this chapter is still related to that verse from Jeremiah
that Paul quoted about boasting, but only boasting about knowing
the Lord. And this chapter builds on what Paul has just said about
wisdom, as he moves into discussing how to think about different
Christian leaders.
GNT Translation
note:
Jer. 17:6 [They are like bushes//He is like a
bush] in the desert, which [grow//grows] in the dry wasteland, on
salty ground where nothing else grows. Nothing good ever happens to
[them//him].
====
1Cor. 3:1 As a matter of fact, my friends, I
could not talk to you as I talk to people who have the Spirit; I
had to talk to you as though you belonged to this world, as
children in the Christian _faith_.
[I
just want to point out that here I don’t feel the need to translate
‘faith’ as ‘way of believing’. Since there is a modifying word,
‘faith’ is no longer fuzzy. The literal is “infants in
Christ.”]
16
Surely you know that you are [included as a part of] God's temple
and that God's Spirit lives in you!
17
God will destroy anyone who destroys God's temple. For God's temple
is holy, and [we— all of God’s people//you yourselves] are his
temple.
[Translations in English often fail to make
clear that ‘you’ in Greek is plural here. The Corinthians as a
group are being built into the temple of God— as Paul says in
Ephesians 2. It seems a bit more natural or complete in English for
Paul to include himself in the body of Christ, so it is possible to
use ‘we’ and a modifying phrase, as I have suggested above. There
is another verse we will soon read in 2Corinthians where Paul says
that we each individually are a sanctuary/temple of the Holy
Spirit.]
21
No one, then, should boast about what human beings can do.
[(Implicit
info:) Because of being joined as one with Christ,]
Actually everything belongs to
you:
22 [So that
includes] Paul
[and] Apollos, and
Peter; this world, life and death, the present and the future—all
these are yours,
NLT Translation
notes:
1Cor.
3:17 God will destroy anyone who destroys [his/this] temple. For
God’s temple is holy, and you [(as a group)]
are that temple.
22 [(Implicit info) because of
your unity with Christ, that includes/whether] Paul
[and/or] Apollos or
Peter, or the world, or life
and death, or the present and the future. [Yes, in
unity with Christ,] Everything belongs to you,