{"id":1113,"date":"2009-08-05T16:26:24","date_gmt":"2009-08-05T22:26:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=1113"},"modified":"2009-08-05T16:26:24","modified_gmt":"2009-08-05T22:26:24","slug":"romans-118-truth-bullies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/romans-118-truth-bullies\/","title":{"rendered":"Romans 1:18 – Truth Bullies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Romans 1:18<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sinfulness suppresses and hides God\u2019s truth. Our job is to reveal that truth to the sinful world around us.<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The word translated \u201cwrath<\/span>\u201d is the Greek word org\u0113<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201canger.\u201d However, there is another Greek word often translated as anger. This word is thumos<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cindignation\u201d or \u201cwrath.\u201d According to Aristotle, \u201cogr\u0113,<\/span><\/em> anger, is desire with grief\u201d, so we can say, it is anger directed at those with whom God does not desire to be angry, namely mankind.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cUngodliness<\/span>\u201d is from asebia<\/span><\/em>, which is made up of the privative a<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cnot\u201d and a form of sebomai<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto hold in reverence\u201d or \u201cto worship.\u201d Therefore, we could easily translate this word as \u201cirreverence.\u201d It does not imply non-religious, rather the practice of actions which are different than what God demands.<\/p>\n

The word \u201cunrighteous<\/span>\u201d is translated from adikia<\/span><\/em>, made up of the privative a<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cnot\u201d and a form of dik\u0113<\/span><\/em> which refers to \u201cthat which is right.\u201d In other words, this word refers to those actions which are not right in God\u2019s sight.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuppress<\/span>\u201d is from the Greek word katech\u014d<\/span><\/em>, made up of kata<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cdown\u201d and ech\u014d<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto have or to hold.\u201d Hence, it literally means \u201cto hold down.\u201d It is the picture of a bully holding down a weaker child just because he wants to.<\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Paul just talked about how the righteousness of God is revealed to man through the gospel message. He now looks at the other side of the equation, the wrath, or anger, of God. We Christians are often quick to grasp hold of God\u2019s love and claim it as the reason that God has revealed his Son to us. But, we are just as quick to shun the notion that God gets angry.<\/p>\n

This grievous anger of God is revealed against \u201call ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.<\/span>\u201d This is the very opposite of the godliness and righteousness of God Himself. These are people who don\u2019t give God the reverence He deserves, though they may claim to be Christians. And, Paul says, they aren\u2019t doing the things which God wants them to be doing. Instead, they are holding down, or suppressing, the truth about God by their irreverent and unrighteous ways, and that makes God angry!<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, before we get too condemning of others, let\u2019s remember that before we were saved we were just like them. We didn\u2019t give God the reverence He deserves, nor did we act in a way that was right in His eyes. And, even now that we have been saved, it\u2019s not our own righteousness that God sees (for we are all unrighteous), but the righteousness of Christ, which He has credited to our account.<\/span><\/p>\n

Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Our job as unrighteous sinners, who have been granted the righteousness of Christ, is to shine like beacons to the world around us, displaying the truth about God, not hiding it. But the light we are to project has nothing to do with our own actions or obedience. It has everything to do with the work that God has done through His Son on the cross. And that beacon has nothing to do with what we are doing for Him. It has everything to do with what He is doing through us.<\/span><\/p>\n

In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"signature\"<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2009 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

<\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone \"\"(618) 614-3070<\/span><\/span><\/span> and leave a message telling us your name and e-mail address or you can send an e-mail to:\"e-mail<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, Truth to Learn Sinfulness suppresses and hides God\u2019s truth. Our job is to reveal that truth to the sinful world around us. Behind the Words The word translated \u201cwrath\u201d is the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[432,433,434,435,436,373],"class_list":["post-1113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-angel","tag-beacon","tag-truth-bullies","tag-ungodliness","tag-unrighteousness","tag-wrath"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-hX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1113\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}