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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Having a "Peace" about It | Col 3:15 | kalos | 165707 | ||
'Having a "Peace" about It' 'Colossians 3:15 is a text that is constantly misunderstood by well-meaning Christians. Paul writes, "And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts." Some have accurately pointed out that the Greek word for "rule" means to act as arbiter or judge. They see this verse as a tool for knowing God's will for our lives. 'The conventional thinking goes something like this. When confronted with a decision, pray. If you feel a "peace" in your heart, go ahead. If you don't feel peace, don't proceed. This internal sense of peace acts like a judge, helping you make decisions according to the will of God. A paraphrase might be: "And let feelings of peacefulness in your heart be the judge about God's individual will for your life." Is this what Paul means? 'This is a classic example of how knowledge of the Greek can be dangerous if context is not taken into consideration. The word "peace" actually has two different meanings. It could mean a sense of inner harmony and emotional equanimity. Paul seems to have this definition in mind in Philippians 4:7: "And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." This is the subjective sense of peace. 'The word also has an objective sense. It sometimes means lack of conflict between two parties formerly at war with each other. This definition of peace is what Paul intends in Romans 5:1: "Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Note the distinction between the peace of God and peace with God in these two verses.) 'What sense of peace did Paul have in mind when writing to the Colossians? The Greek gives us no indication because the same word is used in all three cases. Once again, context is king. The specific meaning can only be known from the surrounding material. 'In verse 11, Paul says that in the Body of Christ there are no divisions between Greek and Jew, slave and free, etc. He appeals for unity in the body characterized by forgiveness, humility, and gentleness. He then adds that harmony ("peace") should be the rule that guides our relationships. 'Paul has the objective sense of peace in mind here -- lack of conflict between Christians -- not a subjective feeling of peace in an individual Christian's heart. 'This becomes obvious when we join the suggested paraphrases with the context: 'Put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. And beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. And let feelings of peacefulness in your heart be the judge about God's individual will for your life, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. 'vs. 'Put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. And beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. And let harmony, not conflict, be the rule that guides you, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. 'The first is completely foreign to the context; the second fits right in with everything that comes before and after. In the context of Colossians 3, there is no hint of using internal feelings as a divine stamp of approval on our decisions. Personal decision-making is not the point of the paragraph. Harmony and unity in the Body is.' (Never Read a Bible Verse By Gregory Koukl) ____________________ To read more go to: www.str.org At this website, under "Search Stand to Reason", enter the words: never read a Bible verse |
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2 | Having a "Peace" about It | Col 3:15 | mark d seyler | 165711 | ||
Hi Kalos, That was a very interesting post, and makes a lot of sense. As I have always understood this verse to mean what you say it does not, I immediately looked to see if these things bore themselves out in th text, since more than anything, I just want to know the truth. When I looked up these verses to check this out, the first thing I noticed was that the phrase in question, "and the peace of God", is the same in both Col 3:15 and Phip 4:7, "kai eirene tou theou", which is in the Genetive/Ablative case, or "the peace which is from God". (just a note, the Byzantine, Majority, and Received Text have "tou theou", from God, while the Alexandrian has "tou christou", from Christ. Grammatically, they are the same case.) Grammatically, this would mean the peace that God puts in you, just as you have indicated as the meaning of Phillipians 4:7. But this is what you say it does NOT mean. In Koukl's second paraphrase, which you say correctly shows the meaning of this passage, he says, "and let harmony, not conflict, be the rule that guides you", but does not seem to me to be in keeping with what Paul wrote. He wrote "let the peace which is from God decide for you in your hearts", not "let peace with others decide for you between you and them". Romans 5:1 actually says "peace towards God", and so, when we include "peace with others, we can see three usages of peace. Feelings of peace inside, reconciliation towards God, and harmony with others. Had he wanted to say "peace with others", this would be a different statement. I'm not far enough in my Greek studies to be able to write this phrase in original Koine Greek with certainty, but I do know it would not be a genetive/ablative case, which denotes either possesion or separation, and here we would be talking about either direction or joining together. The other thing I noticed what that instead of writing "Let the peace of God arbitrate between you and others", he wrote "let the peace of God arbitrate in you hearts". This makes it a subjective experience. Paul is not, in this phrase, telling us to base our decisions on whether we have external harmony, but rather if we have internal peacefulness. I'm sorry, Kalos, I hate to disagree with you twice in one week! :-) Well, we could apply this one to Gregory Koukl. I will agree with you that this passage of Scripture has a lot to say about interpersonal relationships, but the main flow seems to me to be about how we are to be and to act in regards to others, and also to ourselves. I don't see how the context would require that we would ignore the clear meaning of the statements Paul made. Anyway, these are my thoughts. I will be very interested if anyone else has any comments on this. Love in Christ, Mark |
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Questions and/or Subjects for Col 3:15 | Author | ||
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Morant61 | ||
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mark d seyler | ||
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kalos | ||
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mark d seyler | ||
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dolly beard |