{"id":1250,"date":"2009-09-30T19:19:19","date_gmt":"2009-10-01T01:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=1250"},"modified":"2009-09-30T19:19:19","modified_gmt":"2009-10-01T01:19:19","slug":"romans-220-giving-truth-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/romans-220-giving-truth-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Romans 2:20 – Giving Truth Away"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Romans 2:20<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law.<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

We have the truth and we are to freely give it away.<\/p>\n

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

The word translated \u201cinstructor<\/span>\u201d is the Greek word paideut\u0113s<\/span><\/em>, which is the verb form of paidagogos<\/span><\/em>, from which we get our English word \u201cpedagogue\u201d meaning \u201can instructor.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFoolish<\/span>\u201d is translated from the Greek word aphronos<\/span><\/em>, which is made up of the privative a<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cwithout\u201d and a form of phr\u0113n<\/span><\/em>, which metaphorically refers to \u201cthe mind\u201d or \u201cintellect.\u201d Hence, aphronos<\/span><\/em> means \u201csomeone without intelligence.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The word translated \u201cbabes<\/span>\u201d is the Greek word n\u0113pios<\/span><\/em>, which literally means, \u201csomeone without words\u201d or \u201csomeone who can\u2019t speak.\u201d In Biblical Greek it refers to \u201ca baby.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cForm<\/span>\u201d is a translation of morph\u014dsis<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201can appearance or an impression.\u201d Today, when we see a computer simulation of an image changing gradually into another we say that one image has been \u201cmorphed\u201d into the other. The appearance <\/strong>of the first has been changed into the appearance<\/strong> of the other.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Paul has been describing the arrogance of the Jewish Christians who believed themselves to be justified in that arrogance since they were Jews, descendents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; since they had the Law, the Holy Scriptures; and since they could know the will of God and could distinguish the good from the bad through the instruction they had from the Law. Because of all these things, they believed themselves to be spiritual guides to the blind Gentiles, and they believed themselves to have the light of the truth for the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

In today\u2019s verse Paul is saying that the Jewish Christians in Rome also believed themselves to be instructors and teachers of the unintelligent and the immature. Several verses back Paul said that the Jewish Christians in Rome were arrogant, and he implied that he was going to deal with that pride. Paul is now setting them up for a rude awakening. You see, any devout Jew or Jewish Christian would be nodding in agreement with Paul in these verses because they knew what Paul has been saying is the truth.<\/span><\/p>\n

Paul now starts to turn the tables on them. In the last part of today\u2019s verse he says that they \u201chave the form of knowledge and of the truth in the Law.<\/span>\u201d It would be clear to Paul\u2019s readers that he was not saying that they possessed knowledge and truth from the Law but that they simply appeared to have them, while in reality they didn\u2019t have them at all.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the next verse Paul will begin to do a little toe stompin\u2019 as he points out the problem with this Jewish arrogance.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

As we have said before, there is no place for arrogance among Christians. We are servants of His Majesty, the King of Kings. Our responsibility is to humbly proclaim His truth to the world. He has entrusted His truth to us, and we are not to hoard it but to freely give it away.<\/span><\/p>\n

How much of His truth have you given away lately?<\/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 2:20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law. Truth to Learn We have the truth and we are to freely give it away. Behind the Words The word translated \u201cinstructor\u201d is the Greek word paideut\u0113s, which is the verb form of paidagogos, […]<\/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":[529,530,531,532,209,504,533,236],"class_list":["post-1250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-babes","tag-foolish","tag-form","tag-instructor","tag-knowledge","tag-law","tag-teacher","tag-truth"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-ka","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1250","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=1250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1250\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}