Tag-Archive for » eleutheros «

Tiempos Difíciles

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009 | Author: Bessy Bendaña

18 de agosto Yo, pues, prisionero del Señor, os ruego que viváis de una manera digna de la vocación con que habéis sido llamados, Efesios 4:1

Prisionero – ¿Cómo  habrá sido ser prisionero en el Imperio Romano del primer siglo? Uno de los famosos calabozos romanos yacía 12 pies bajo tierra. No requiere mucho imaginarse las condiciones. Sin salubridad. Ni comodidades para los prisioneros. De hecho. Si las personas libres no proveían alimentos consistentemente, los prisioneros podían morir de hambre. En realidad no importaban mucho a los oficiales. La única razón por la que alguien llegaba a esos hoyos infernales era porque la persona no podía (a la satisfacción del Estado) garantizar que llegaría a corte o si estaba destinado a ser ejecutado. La crucifixión era tormentosa pero al menos era relativamente rápida. Literalmente podrirse en prisión extendía la agonía de la muerte por varias semanas.

La declaración de Pablo de ser prisionero del Señor probablemente desató olas de asombro en sus lectores. La prisión es el último lugar en el mundo donde alguien puede esperar encontrar gracia, misericordia y consuelo. Era la esfera de las pesadillas, historias de horror y temores inauditos. ¡Pero no para Pablo! Veras, Pablo voltea la metáfora de cabeza. En vez de ser prisionero para castigo, se ve a sí mismo como prisionero por protección. Recordarás la declaración de Jesús en Juan 17:2: “Mientras estuve con ellos, los guarde en Tu Nombre.” Aquí la palabra griega es eteroun (guardar) y describe custodia protectora. Los seguidores del Señor son prisioneros, claro, pero están en protección custodiada para mantenerlos seguros, no para penalizarlos. La opción paulina de desmois (prisionero) dibuja una imagen de alguien atado, amarrado y cautivo. Para Pablo, ser prisionero de Yeshua es señal de libertad. En el Nuevo Testamento, desmois es igual a eleutheros. La palabra en verdad está al revés.

¿Te ves como prisionero? Francamente la mayoría de nosotros no lo vemos así. Pensar así significa que debemos ver a través de la preponderancia de la evidencia falsa. Nuestra cultura, nuestro entrenamiento, nuestra mentalidad griega, “¡somos libres!” Pero Yeshua ve más profundamente. Podemos ser prisioneros del Señor o podemos ser prisioneros de nosotros mismos. No hay espacio en este mundo para “libre.”  Un poco de reflexión sobre las vicisitudes de la vida nos demuestra la verdad sobre la observación del Señor. No importa cuánto declare, no puedo escapar la esclavitud a las legislaciones gubernamentales, a las obligaciones financieras, las responsabilidades de relación y otra serie de cosas que infringen mi vida. Para la persona sin Cristo, la libertad real solo llega con la muerte. Por lo menos cuando muera mis obligaciones en esta tierra cesarán.

Pero para los prisioneros del Señor, la muerta ya ha sucedido. Mi vida ya no está llena de mis obligaciones. Ahora está en las manos de mi Amo y lo único que debo hacer es cumplir Sus obligaciones. Soy libre al fin para ser yo mismo. ¡Aleluya, soy prisionero!

Prisionero, libre, custodia protectora, eleutheros, desmois Efesios 4:1

Category: La Palabra de Hoy  | Tags: , , , ,  | 2 Comments

Hard Time

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009 | Author: Skip Moen

Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, exhort you to walk worthily of the calling in which you were called, Ephesians 4:1

Prisoner – What was it like to be a prisoner in the first century Roman Empire? One rather famous dungeon in Rome was twelve feet underground. It doesn’t take much to imagine the conditions. No sanitation. No light. No accommodations to prisoners. In fact, if outsiders didn’t routinely provide food, prisoners often starved to death. It really didn’t matter much to the officials. The only reason one ended up in the hell holes was because the person could not (to the satisfaction of the State) guarantee he would show up at court or he was scheduled for execution anyway. Crucifixion was tortuous but at least it was fairly quick. Literally rotting in prison extended the agony of death for weeks.

Paul’s claim to be a prisoner of the Lord probably sent shock waves through his readers. Prison was the last place on earth that anyone expected to find grace, mercy or comfort. It was the realm of nightmares, horror stories and numbing fear. But not for Paul! You see, Paul turns the whole metaphor upside-down. Instead of being a prisoner for punishment, he sees himself as a prisoner for protection. You will recall Jesus’ remark in John 17:12. “While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name.” Here the Greek word eteroun (keeping) describes protective custody. The followers of the Lord are prisoners, alright, but they are in the guardhouse in order to keep them safe, not in order to penalize them. Paul’s choice of desmois (prisoner) paints the picture of someone who is bound, tied up and captive. For Paul, being a prisoner of Yeshua is the sign of freedom. In the New Testament, desmois equals eleutheros. The world is truly upside-down.

Do you think of yourself as a prisoner? Frankly, most of us don’t. To think like that means we have to see through the preponderance of false evidence. Our culture, our training, our mentality all shouts, “We are free!” But Yeshua looks deeper. We can be prisoners of the Lord or we can be prisoners of our selves. There is no room for “free” in this world. A little reflection on the vicissitudes of life demonstrates the truth of our Lord’s observation. No matter what I claim, I cannot escape the slavery to government legislation, financial obligations, relationship responsibilities and a host of other things that impinge on my life. For the person without Christ, real freedom happens only in death. At least when I die my obligations in this world end.

But for a prisoner of the Lord, death has already occurred. My life is no longer filled with my obligations. Now it is in the hands of my Master and all I am asked to do is fulfill His obligations. I am free of myself at last. Hallelujah, I am a prisoner!

Topical Index: prisoner, free, protective custody, eleutheros, eteroun, desmois, Ephesians 4:1

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More Than I Am

Thursday, July 30th, 2009 | Author: Skip Moen

“Then if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.” John 8:36

Free – Freedom is an important word in a man’s vocabulary. We have talked about it a lot. We recognized that the Greek idea of freedom is centered in the relationship between the individual and the State. For the Greeks, freedom is the capacity to choose my own actions with the minimum restraint necessary to maintain civil order. While I can’t do anything I want to since that would lead to anarchy, I should be constrained only by what is absolutely essential and nothing more. Freedom in Greek thought is self-will. To be free is to have liberty to determine my own destiny.

Of course, Yeshua isn’t thinking (or speaking) Greek. The Hebrew concept of freedom is centered in a relationship with God. As such, it is focused on God’s design, intention and will – not my desires or expectations. To experience freedom is to experience the safety of belonging to the Lord as the object of His concern. In other words, freedom means to be owned by Him. To be free is to be submitted to His purposes for me. In this sense, the only free man is the slave for he is the only person who can take no care for his own life. Care is the master’s responsibility. The slave’s only obligation is to do the will of the master. Therefore, the Hebrew idea of freedom is exactly the opposite of the Greek view since the Greek view is built around the idea that I take charge of myself.  In the Hebrew view, I am the object of God’s concern.  In the Greek view, I am the object of my own concern.

Heschel offers another insight into the Hebrew view of freedom which is especially important for those who are surrounded by the Greek idea of self-willed liberty. Heschel notices that freedom in the Bible is set in relation to sin. Yeshua reflects this insight in His statement about serving either God or mammon. No man can have two masters, but every man has one. No man is “free” of all masters for the biblical view is that I am already held captive by my own self-serving willfulness even if I am “free” of external restraints. The noble savage is still a slave to himself. Since this is the case for all men, the only way Yeshua can truly set us free is if He has the capacity to allow us to surpass ourselves. In other words, we must be able to transcend the “tyranny of the self-centered ego.” No man is free until he is no longer held captive by his own desires.

But here’s the rub. No man is able to free himself from his own desires because his desire to free himself simply tightens the chains that hold him. He is self-defeated. To be free, a man must be released from himself by another. Thus, Yeshua says, “If the Son sets you free,” not “if you find freedom in the Son.” There is a crucial difference here. Yeshua does not give you the means by which you free yourself. That is not possible. You cannot free yourself for you are a prisoner of your own desires. Yeshua must act to free you from yourself. And in this sense, true freedom comes when, through His grace, you surpass yourself. To be free, you must be more than you are.

Sounds great, right? Sounds a little theoretical too. So, what does this mean for me today? It implies that freedom is not a state of being. It is an event in life. I experience freedom when I discover that Yeshua enables me to be more than myself. In other words, I am free in the action of putting aside myself and expressing righteousness toward another. Freedom is not about me! It is about loving my neighbor. It is about going beyond the tyranny of myself and acting benevolently toward another at cost to myself. In other words, from the biblical perspective, freedom is what I experience when I express agape love. I am free in the event, the action, of surpassing myself for another. Freedom is ultimately relational. It can only be found in giving myself up for the sake of someone else.

That’s why God is free! And that’s why, when the Son sets you free, you can really be free.

Topical Index: freedom, tyranny, Greek view, eleutheros, self, John 8:36

Category: Today's Word  | Tags: , , , , ,  | 5 Comments

Care-Less Freedom

Sunday, July 05th, 2009 | Author: Skip Moen

Then stand firm in the freedom with which Christ made us free, and do not again be held with a yoke of slavery.  Galatians 5:1

Freedom – Heinrich Schlier wrote an incredibly insightful article on the Greek word eleutheros. His comments are so good that they are worth contemplating:

The NT . . . realizes . . . that even in the retreat into inwardness man is not free.  For in the NT it is evident that freedom is not absent because there is inadequate control of existence but because there is no control at all, and therefore no self-dominion. 

Self-preservation by retreat into inwardness is merely a way of losing one’s true self.  In the face of lost existence there is only one possibility of coming to oneself, and this is by surrender of one’s own will to the will and power of an external force.  Man attains to self-control by letting himself be controlled.

Freedom from the Law thus means specifically freedom from the moralism which awakens hidden self-seeking.  It means freedom from the secret claim which man makes on himself in the form of legal demand.  It means freedom from the meeting of this claim in the form of legal achievement.  It means freedom from self-lordship before God in the guise of serious and obedient responsibility toward Him.

Our freedom, then, is not an existential return to the basis of individual existence, the soul.  It is the event of a historical life radically sacrificed for others. 

Christian freedom is realized in service which renounces personal claims and is concerned only for the salvation of others.  [It] voluntarily seeks the edification of others.

Schlier’s insights are profound.  If you want to know freedom from the biblical perspective, you must realize that freedom is not inward release and individual liberty.  Freedom is the outward event of denying yourself for the benefit of others.  It is exactly the opposite of what the Greeks and the contemporary culture believes.  To turn inward is to turn toward the myth, the dangerous deception, that freedom comes from self-control.  No!  Freedom comes from giving up control, from submitting my will to the will of the external God.  Freedom comes from giving myself away.

In relation to the Law, I can never gain freedom if I use the Law as a means of control.  When I do that, I intend to obligate God to reward me because I am keeping the Law, and that is another form of self-lordship.  The Law was never intended to give me freedom.  It was intended to point me in the direction of submission.  Yeshua’s act releases me from the obligation (the debt) imposed on me by the Law.  I am free from the debt in order that I may now legitimately sacrifice my will to His will.  Since I have nothing to gain in terms of salvation, I enter into submission without a hidden agenda.  I submit only to please Him, not for the possibility of reward but for the purposes of love.  Freedom comes when I care less about myself and give myself to others.  Freedom is the direct result of care-less living.

If we are going to talk about freedom – the freedom that comes through and in the anointed one, Yeshua HaMashiach, then we will have to first unhook all that Greek mythology as well as the misconstrued Christian Greek-based idea that the Law is opposed to grace.  We will have to see that freedom is the by-product of submission and service to others.  It is discovered in the actions of benevolence toward the community, not in the preservation of myself.  When we see freedom in this light, we will understand why Jesus said, “If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.”

Now, do you really want to be free?

Topical Index:  Schlier, eleutheros, freedom, self-control, Galatians 5:1

We will look at this topic several more times over the next few weeks.  Understanding what freedom really means is a very important part of understanding what Yeshua accomplishes on our behalf.

Heinrich Schlier, “eleutheros”, The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Vol. 2, pp. 487-502.

Category: Today's Word  | Tags: , , , ,  | 5 Comments

The Delusion of Freedom

Saturday, July 04th, 2009 | Author: Skip Moen

Then stand firm in the freedom with which Christ made us free, and do not again be held with a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1

Freedom – Are you free? Don’t be too quick to answer. It depends on your concept of freedom. In order to understand what Paul says about freedom in Christ, we first have to realize that Paul is not talking about our usual idea of freedom.

The Greek and Hebrew ideas of freedom are radically different. Our society and world culture have adopted the Greek view. Therefore, when we think about the meaning of Paul’s words, we often import this Greek concept of freedom into Paul’s thought. That leads to some very serious theological and practical mistakes. So, let’s start by examining the contrast.

For the Greeks, freedom is ultimately a matter of politics. Plato defines freedom as the ability to be at one’s own disposal. In contrast to the bondage of slavery, freedom is independence from the will of others. Of course, the limiting factor in any discussion of freedom must be the state because the political reality is that I live in community and am not able to do whatever I please whenever I wish. If freedom is defined as my choice to do anything I want, it is really anarchy. My “freedom” is always limited and determined by the needs of the society. In other words, the scope of my freedom is determined by the state. In Greek thought, it is the role of the state to operate in such a way that every individual is granted as much freedom as possible without jeopardizing the freedom of others. This requires a rule of law for where there is no rule of law, there is only individual power and the ensuing chaos that comes with the rule of the most powerful. If you want to see what happens when freedom is unrestrained, take a good look at Somalia. For the Greeks, freedom is always freedom under the law, never freedom from the law.

Of course, this immediately raises the question, “Whose law?” The Greek answer is once again a political one. The law is determined by the will of the people (actually, the citizenry). Therefore, the control of individual freedom is handed over to the will of the majority. Our concept of democracy is based on this Greek idea. Nearly all of the political furor today is heated discussion about who will determine the rule of the majority. It’s pretty clear that the simple addition of the will of the people is no longer considered the rule of the majority. Multi-culturalism and tolerance are attempts to give more weight to some factions of the society than to others. So, majority rule is deliberately skewed to fit what is politically correct. Under the guise of “empathy,” the summation of the choices of individuals is altered so that the rule of the majority is now the rule of those who speak for what they consider the majority.

Now notice what Paul says. Does Paul suggest that if we are free under Christ we are no longer subject to the rules of the state? Of course not! That would be a declaration that Christians are anarchists. Do you see that Paul is not using the term eleutheros (freedom) in the same way that the Greeks use it? He is not talking about a political reality at all – at least not in the way the Greeks understood freedom within a political reality. Yeshua did not set you free from consideration of the political reality of community. Far from it! Yeshua endorsed community (“love one another”). So, if freedom under Christ is not freedom from the law, then what is it? It is freedom to be a slave to the King. You and I are no longer restrained in our relationship to the Holy One of Israel. We are no longer withheld from His presence. Why? Because we have been set free from the required punishment that inevitably follows from our sins. Now we are free to obey!

For the Greeks, freedom is individual self-will governed by rationality (therefore, it is not law of the jungle). But in the New Testament, the lack of freedom is not result of inadequate controls or laws but rather no control within the heart of man. Therefore, we cannot fix the problems associated with freedom in a society by enacting better laws. What is required is a change of heart, and that cannot be accomplished on our own since we are the very ones who oppose any restraints on personal liberty. In this sense, existence threatens itself. The real issue of freedom is not my ability to take whatever actions I wish. That is an external problem, constrained by the state. The real issue of freedom is internal. To be free I must be set free from myself. This can never be an act of self-determination since self-determination is the problem.

From a biblical perspective, the problem is sin, not politics. The Greek concept of freedom is set in the framework of the polis, but the Hebrew idea is set in the framework of righteousness (tsedik). In the Hebrew view, the law does not restrict. It enables. It enables me to know what it means to act with righteousness. It provides the definitive guideline for what it means to love others. It points away from me toward community.

What is freedom from the Law? It is freedom from the required punishment that the law brings. It is deliverance from what I deserve. The Bible recognizes that self-rule is blindness. Self-rule denies the sovereignty of God. Self-seeking existence leads to death. So, submission to God’s rule leads to life. To surrender to God is freedom – freedom from the tyranny of self, from the futility of self-seeking and from the penalty associated with a life bent on its own control. There is no idea of self-determination in Hebrew thinking. There is only submission or rebellion.

Now, ask yourself, do you really want to be free?

Topical Index: freedom, eleutheros, politics, law, self, sin, Galatians 5:1

Category: Today's Word  | Tags: , , , , , ,  | 10 Comments