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Original airdate: Thursday, November 14, 2019
(unedited/draft show notes here, not a transcript)
Lead:
“Good Christian, bad Christian” is a problem. Today, a story of bowels. And my utter failure in the “good Christian, bad Christian” department.
Intro:
Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, "Don't do it!" He said, "Nobody loves me."
I said, "God loves you. Do you believe in God?" He said, "Yes."
I said, "Are you a Christian or a Jew?" He said, "A Christian."
I said, "Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?" He said, "Protestant."
I said, "Me, too! What franchise?" He said, "Baptist."
I said, "Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?" He said, "Northern Baptist."
I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist."
I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region."
I said, "Me, too!" Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912."
I said, "Die, heretic!" And I pushed him over.(1)
~Emo Phillips
I know you’ve probably heard that before, but what an awesome reminder of how broken humans get into “good Christian, bad Christian” ways of thinking. As we heard in Ephesians, and what we’ll hear again in Philippians, is that maturity is marked by unity and humility.
The big theme of Philippians, though, is joy. It’s one of my favorite books because it’s not a sometimes joy or party-person joy or fake-it-til-you-make-it joy, but a joy that blows people’s minds because you’re joyful despite your circumstances, not because of them.
Hey, as always when we kick off a new book you’ll find the corresponding video from The Bible Project at the bottom of today’s show notes — just go to forthehope.org and search for number 945.
Too, welcome new listeners and thanks for being with us.
Finally, remember that our middle segment, what I call the All Our Minds segment, is about what Paul exhorts us in Romans 12 — to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.
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Bible:
Passage: Philippians 1-2
Translation: LEB (Lexham English Bible)
Verses: 57
Words: ~1107
All Our Minds:
Today for our All Our Minds segment I want to offer up a reflection by way of my own junk, something I’ve had to repent of. It relates both to that opening joke, to what we were talking about yesterday, and again read today. There’s an educational nugget, and hopefully a moment of seeing God’s grace as well.
A frequent question in Christianity is, “What’s the best Bible translation?” And that’s not our topic today except to say that we now have more ancient manuscripts than ever, have more corroboration than ever that we can have confidence that we know what the missing originals said, and therefore can trust the vast majority of our contemporary English translations.
You may have heard, though, of Christians who are KJOs, King James Only. They have their reasons for why they believe that’s the only valid version, and because of what I’m about to tell you, I’ve been motivated to study this quite a lot. Their arguments, and this will probably be way oversimplified, is that contemporary English Bibles came from one of the two major ancient centers that collected manuscripts, one of which introduced corruption, and therefore what we now have is corrupted.
I have family members who are King James Only, one of which is my mom. And to my own shame there was a time I would back her into a corner with questions she couldn’t answer. I bring this up now, because Philippians chapter two is one of those that I used. But by way of making this not just a confession or reflection and turning it into a teachable moment, here’s the passage in the King James.
If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Philippians 2:1-2, KJV
Even as a kid I remember thinking, “any bowels?” Huh?
The actual Greek word there is spleen or intestines. Now I’m no Greek scholar, but you have to ask, when the Bible was translated from Greek into English for the King James Version, what were they doing? And this is going to make my point.
First, they translated it. At some level they decided that “bowels” would communicate more effectively to their 16th century readers than “spleen” or “intestines.”
Second, they probably did so knowing one or two things. First, is Paul talking about literal body parts? No, likely he’s talking about viscera, as in visceral, as in “in you know and feel it deep down in your gut.” So did Victorian Europeans know that from the word “bowels?” I’m sure someone has a guess, but I don’t have any idea whatsoever.
Third, and I’m going to repeat myself, they translated from one language to another. The question is, did this convey the correct meaning of the Pauline, Holy Spirit-inspired original? Let’s say it did.
So the KJO argument, again over-simplified, is that other translations are corrupt and that this is the right one.
Except that it was translated to get their version, too. So we can’t call translation the problem, because we know we can change languages and communicate the same meaning. The question now becomes one of the reliability of manuscripts, and we now have more, and older, manuscripts that give us more resources and therefore more confidence than ever before.
So that’s what I argued to my mom. And she had no answer. Roger for the win.
Except I didn’t. It was a complete failure. It was sin for which I had to ask forgiveness and from which I had to repent.
The bottom line
In a complete irony that was lost on me all those years ago, I had failed to actually live in a manner that that passage calls us to. So I’m going to close with this. You can trust your English Bible. More importantly, as we are called to be ministers of reconciliation, we can win a battle and lose the war. We can easily fall into “good Christian, bad Christian” thinking, puffed up with knowledge instead of loving sacrificially. I’m going to close this segment by reading that passage again from the CSB, but not before saying once again, “I’m sorry mom. It was me who was wrong. Please forgive me.”
2 If then there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 make my joy complete by thinking the same way, having the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. ~ Philippians 2:1-2, CSB
Love you!
-R
ForTheHope is a daily audio Bible + apologetics podcast and blog. We’ve got a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.
Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.
Sources and resources:
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(1) Emo Phillips, “The best God joke ever - and it's mine!,” The Guardian, September 29, 2005, https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2005/sep/29/comedy.religion.
Not used today, but stuff I like:
D. A. Carson, For the Love of God: A Daily Companion for Discovering the Riches of God’s Word., vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1998).
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993). <—this, and it’s OT companion, are great commentaries if you like something more than a study Bible and less than a set of 66 books — they add a lot of interesting details. Keener’s a killer apologist, too.
The Story of Reality, Greg Koukl — Love this book. A killer intro to the Christian worldview that is philosophically and theologically sound while being accessible to all readers.