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Romans 2:8
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8 But [de] unto them that are
contentious [ek] [eritheia], and [kai] do not obey [apeitheo] [men] the truth [aletheia], but [de] obey [peitho] unrighteousness [adikia],
indignation [thumos] and [kai] wrath [orge], KJV-Interlinear
8 but for
those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness,
there will be wrath and fury. ESV
Have you been following the unfolding ebola story from Texas? What began with one person who flew in from Nigeria, and has since died, now has infected not one person but two hospital workers, and they are monitoring 48 more people. But do they have everyone identified who has been in contact with the disease? Only takes one person to slip through the net and start a huge problem.
Who refuses to submit to Gods requirements? Who proposes their own methods for life?
And the answer is here. It is they who are contentious, ‘ek eritheia.’ ‘Ek, points to the origin, namely the person who is contentious. And ‘eritheia,’ means one who is quarrelsome, argumentative, one who debates, one who challenges in order to create controversy. And when this is directed toward God, then it is of a rebellious nature, or one who resists truth while promoting untruth, or the refusal to recognize truth.
Truth is very simply, the perfect matching up of facts with reality.
Truth by example is if you jump off of a tall building, then you will fall and the end of that fall will not be pleasant. A contentious person will begin to argue, or debate things that do not exist. For example what if I have a zero gravity suit on, or what if I could fly, or something else that has nothing to do with the example of truth.
The only reasonable response is, well jump and let us see you fly or how your magic suit works.
End of argument.
But then there is the ebola problem. Is it a storm on the horizon that makes itself known as a warning, so people can get prepared, or is it a storm that people will ignore because it is far away and not really a storm?
That is how most people look at God and doctrine and their spiritual lives. They ignore even the most dangerous of warning signs.
A contentious person argues for the sake of argument, for the sake of controversy, for the sake of attempting to prove that they are somehow wise and able to confuse or disprove whatever it is that you are saying. In short, they have to be really arrogant and stupid, in order to challenge truth or ignore warnings.
Then of course you have the not so clear controversies like abortion, whether there is a God, why does a loving God do this or that, sort of things, that most unenlightened people simply do not have a solid answer for, and that makes the argument of the contentious person even more convincing.
In order to be good, the contentious person has to argue with those who lack the knowledge to be able to respond to their argument. In other words, a contentious argument only works on naïve people.
Contentious arguments cannot stand against truth.
By definition they oppose truth, and therefore do not obey truth, but commend themselves to the opposite of truth, which is untruth or lies or the false of life or as stated here, unrighteousness.
Unrighteousness, ‘adikia,’ means the action of sin. Sin is any and all things that are in opposition to truth.
Indignation, ‘thumos,’ refers to the short duration of resentfulness.
Wrath, ‘orge,’ is the longer duration of resentfulness, or as one clings to their indignation without relenting.
A person can be indignant, turn up their nose and walk away. A person can be filled with wrath and they cling to their anger or hatred and do not want to release themselves from it. They hang on and on and on until their anger or resentfulness is satisfied. But then anger really never gets satisfaction.
And so, when a person rejects truth, they do so in arrogance. They presume they know better. They justify their own beliefs by trying to make others waver in their beliefs. They cannot get satisfaction, because untruths are endless pits that will never fill up. This causes frustration and then anger and hate.
In other words, you have but two choices in life. First to follow and pursue truth, or second to reject truth. And to reject truth means that you follow everything else, and you do so knowingly.
To reject the obvious, like jumping off of a building, takes a complete disregard of truth driven by a huge ego in arrogance. Or, to ignore truths, such as that disease, and continue going about your business as though it has nothing to do with you.
And since our subject here is rewards for eternity or blessings in time, then those who reject truth, which again, means to reject Gods mandates, will receive nothing in the form of blessings or reward.
Which of course they would argue that the rewards do not exist, just like debating the gravity example or ignoring the disease issue. Their argument is empty, having nothing to do with anything.
And then what can the contentious person expect in life? That is in the next verse.
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End Of Lesson
Study to show thyself approved (mature) unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (studying/discerning), the Word of truth.
