{"id":1196,"date":"2009-09-14T20:02:33","date_gmt":"2009-09-15T02:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=1196"},"modified":"2009-09-14T20:02:33","modified_gmt":"2009-09-15T02:02:33","slug":"romans-28-self-serving-fools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/romans-28-self-serving-fools\/","title":{"rendered":"Romans 2:8 – Self-serving Fools"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Romans 2:8<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness\u2014indignation and wrath,<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Those who selfishly reject God will experience His wrath.<\/p>\n

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

The word translated \u201cself-seeking<\/span>\u201d is eritheia<\/span><\/em>. It is based on a noun that means \u201cto work for hire\u201d or \u201cto work for a wage.\u201d The verb form is usually in the middle voice meaning that it is something that is done to (and by) oneself. When used as a noun in a negative sense, as it is in today\u2019s verse, it refers to \u201csomeone who is seeking his own good.\u201d It is sometimes translated as \u201ccontentious.\u201d Clearly, it is used here in reference to someone who is only looking out for himself or herself.<\/span><\/p>\n

The word translated \u201cdo not obey<\/span>\u201d is the Greek word apeithe\u014d<\/span><\/em>, which is made up of the privative a<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cnot\u201d or \u201cwithout\u201d and a form of peith\u014d<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto convince or persuade.\u201d Hence, apeithe\u014d<\/span><\/em> refers to \u201cone who is not allowing himself or herself to be persuaded or to believe.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The word \u201cobey\u201d is also translated from the root peith\u014d<\/span><\/em>. It is expressed here as a participle in the middle voice, so it could be translated here as \u201cconvincing themselves.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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

We talked in the previous verse about the judgment of the righteous ones who will receive everlasting life because of their belief in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the cross. Today\u2019s verse gives a contrasting picture of the unrighteous unbelievers (all unbelievers are unrighteous in God\u2019s eyes).<\/span><\/p>\n

We could translate the opening part of this verse as, \u201cbut to those who are self-seeking and not being persuaded by the truth but persuading themselves by unrighteousness \u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Whereas we, through our patient endurance, will receive eternal life, those who are self-seeking and not persuaded by the truth will receive the anger and wrath of God. We see here another example of Paul\u2019s frequent play on words. They are not persuaded (apeithe\u014d<\/span><\/em>) by the truth, so they persuade themselves (peith\u014d<\/span><\/em>) by unrighteousness.<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you see the attitude of the unbeliever in this verse? Those who reject the good news of Christ\u2019s death on the cross in payment for their sins, refuse to believe. They refuse to be persuaded that they are sinners and need salvation. Why? Because they are self seeking and unwilling to submit themselves to the truth and to the God of truth. Remember what Paul said in the previous chapter of this letter?<\/span><\/p>\n

because, although they knew God, they did not glorify<\/span> Him<\/span><\/em> as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools<\/span> (Romans 1:21, 22<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n

And what will these self-serving fools receive when they stand before the God of creation? The wrath and anger of the Almighty, Holy, Righteous GOD whom they deny!<\/span><\/p>\n

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

We have the antidote for this wrath; it\u2019s called the gospel message, and we need to proclaim it to everyone who will listen. It\u2019s not up to us to force anyone to believe, but it is up to us to proclaim the truth, whether they believe it or not.<\/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<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 2:8 but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness\u2014indignation and wrath, Truth to Learn Those who selfishly reject God will experience His wrath. Behind the Words The word translated \u201cself-seeking\u201d is eritheia. It is based on a noun that means \u201cto work for hire\u201d or \u201cto work […]<\/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":[496,497,373],"class_list":["post-1196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-persuade","tag-self-seeking","tag-wrath"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-ji","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1196","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=1196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1196\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}