That was a beautiful arrangement yet again bruva! It accompanies your devotional quite nicely. Thank you again for your discipline and devotion to sharing your studies of the Word with us. It’s encouraging and convicting
I admit I’m struggling a bit with Paul’s language. It’s the word choice. Here’s what I mean-
I wonder if Paul were writing today, with all that we now know about neurology, and what drives desire and impulse, if he would have still used the word “selfish.” Because the desires and impulses in and of themselves are not selfish. I don’t know the original Greek or whatever, so maybe something has been lost in translation, but I’m not sure that it has. Paul’s understanding of humanity when he wrote to the Galatians 2000 years ago was more limited than what ours is now.
I think of the addict (take your pick of addiction). When faced with the impulse to partake in whatever it is they are addicted to, there is a battle between how they want to act and how they know they probably will act. They are about to do something, that deep down they don’t want to do. The shame they feel drives the action further. They don’t want to do what Paul would call the selfish act, but it happens anyways. Then the shame for doing what they (we) did drives the addiction deeper.
I just think there’s more to it than selfishness. I also think there’s more to it than spending more time in devotions or prayer. For sure, abiding includes quiet time, but it’s also about living all the other parts of life in the way Jesus did. The prayer and stuff drives the latter, or I’d like to think it does. And I’m feeling more convinced that the latter is not going to church, serving on the church board, singing a special song on Sunday, or any of the other things that are…churchy. They might be the buds of the fruit, but I don’t think that’s the fruit.
So I wonder if Paul might not have said “‘selfish,” but taken more time to explain how abiding can keep our natural desires from producing its own fruit (which he lists).
Thanks, all for letting me ramble.
Also, the piano is terrific. Y’all might appreciate its beauty and Christmas-y nostalgia, but it brings me back to the days where I’d hear Jeremy mess around on the piano when we were teens. There were a lot of beautiful things coming off the piano strings back then, and this takes me back.
Maybe “selfish” is too limited a description. Paul wrestles with the truth that the good that he wants to do, he doesn’t do. He states he doesn’t understand what he does. What he wants to do — the good — he doesn’t do. This is his writing in Romans 7. In my NIV translation, the word isn’t “selfish.” It’s sin. That bondage we all experience. The prison and oppression from which Jesus, as recorded in Luke 4, came to rescue us.
My NIV rendering of Galatians 5 also doesn’t use “selfish.” It refers to the flesh in opposition to the Spirit.
Jeff, I think you’re correct that there’s more to it than selfishness. This conflict is the essence of life, and Jesus in John 15 says that the only way we thrive is with abiding in him. But you’re right: there’s no simple to-do list. And I believe it requires all the time that God provides us.
Thank you for the inspiring words and the peaceful, sacred music. It’s truly beautiful.
That was a beautiful arrangement yet again bruva! It accompanies your devotional quite nicely. Thank you again for your discipline and devotion to sharing your studies of the Word with us. It’s encouraging and convicting
Brilliant ✨
I admit I’m struggling a bit with Paul’s language. It’s the word choice. Here’s what I mean-
I wonder if Paul were writing today, with all that we now know about neurology, and what drives desire and impulse, if he would have still used the word “selfish.” Because the desires and impulses in and of themselves are not selfish. I don’t know the original Greek or whatever, so maybe something has been lost in translation, but I’m not sure that it has. Paul’s understanding of humanity when he wrote to the Galatians 2000 years ago was more limited than what ours is now.
I think of the addict (take your pick of addiction). When faced with the impulse to partake in whatever it is they are addicted to, there is a battle between how they want to act and how they know they probably will act. They are about to do something, that deep down they don’t want to do. The shame they feel drives the action further. They don’t want to do what Paul would call the selfish act, but it happens anyways. Then the shame for doing what they (we) did drives the addiction deeper.
I just think there’s more to it than selfishness. I also think there’s more to it than spending more time in devotions or prayer. For sure, abiding includes quiet time, but it’s also about living all the other parts of life in the way Jesus did. The prayer and stuff drives the latter, or I’d like to think it does. And I’m feeling more convinced that the latter is not going to church, serving on the church board, singing a special song on Sunday, or any of the other things that are…churchy. They might be the buds of the fruit, but I don’t think that’s the fruit.
So I wonder if Paul might not have said “‘selfish,” but taken more time to explain how abiding can keep our natural desires from producing its own fruit (which he lists).
Thanks, all for letting me ramble.
Also, the piano is terrific. Y’all might appreciate its beauty and Christmas-y nostalgia, but it brings me back to the days where I’d hear Jeremy mess around on the piano when we were teens. There were a lot of beautiful things coming off the piano strings back then, and this takes me back.
Maybe “selfish” is too limited a description. Paul wrestles with the truth that the good that he wants to do, he doesn’t do. He states he doesn’t understand what he does. What he wants to do — the good — he doesn’t do. This is his writing in Romans 7. In my NIV translation, the word isn’t “selfish.” It’s sin. That bondage we all experience. The prison and oppression from which Jesus, as recorded in Luke 4, came to rescue us.
My NIV rendering of Galatians 5 also doesn’t use “selfish.” It refers to the flesh in opposition to the Spirit.
Jeff, I think you’re correct that there’s more to it than selfishness. This conflict is the essence of life, and Jesus in John 15 says that the only way we thrive is with abiding in him. But you’re right: there’s no simple to-do list. And I believe it requires all the time that God provides us.