Coveting

Calvin’s closing chapter 5 in his Little Book is about living here and now, surround by and to at least to some extent needing, the temporary world to which we have been assigned. As we developed in Week #20, such living here and now is a balance, with slippery slopes on both side, between extreme asceticism on the one hand and licentiousness on the other. And, further to the errors of such opposite behaviors is an overlaying error, that of self-justification / self-exaltation, and underlaying both errors is yet another kind of error…pride. In the first case it is the pride of ascetic living which characteristically devolves into self-righteousness deriving from self-denial beyond what God has marked out either directly or by reasoned judgment from the Scriptures. In the second case it is the pride of “liberty” to do what “feels good” and to be proud of so doing it because “God is Love” and “Love is Love,” and whatever other mantra appears on the scene.

So, in this special topic, we have copied over some of the commentary from Week #20 on coveting to create a separate place where this matter can be considered more fully (as time permits).

Key Points from Week #20 on Coveting

In our previous weeks of study we saw Calvin make clear that we are privileged to enjoy the blessings of God in this life, bounded by several principles: the flesh cannot be the ruling authority of the scope of such enjoyment-seeking, what is rightfully enjoyed does not impede our journey to maturity and our heavenly home, and each enjoyment leads us to greater gratitude to God as the source of such delights.

Calvin began Ch 5.5 with the situation in which we may be in a condition of want. The danger here is coveting that which we do not have, and perhaps cannot have. This may include both those things and experiences which could be proper delights on our journey (Pilgrimage) and those which are not (the lusts of the flesh, and the eye).

The underlying issue here is “covetousness.” So let’s think about this word.

The Ten Commandments

An interesting exercise is to make a list of 10 universal principles of rightful behavior for a people living together, under God. What would you chose? What would you leave off?

The three obvious choices would include “no stealing,” “no murder,” “no violations of the sexual boundaries of marriage.” Clearly doing otherwise would dishonor God and our neighbor, even a visitor / stranger to one’s community. These would likely be choices made even by what we know to be criminal organizations. How is that? Well, such the members of such organizations are arrayed to commit “crimes” against “the other” (whatever group is such) but never within its own membership. And violations of such internal rules may be dealt with very harshly including killing the offender (which would not be deemed “murder” but justice, namely a lawful killing within the rules of the organization).

That leads seven more to go universal rules to make the 10. And now it is harder to pick out the obvious ones. Let’s see what God decreed:

Exodus 20:1  And God spoke all these words, saying,

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

 1 “You shall have no other gods before me.

  2 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

  3 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

  4 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work,10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

12   5 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

13   6 “You shall not murder.

14   7 “You shall not commit adultery.

15   8 “You shall not steal.

16   9 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

17  10 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

18 Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off19 and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” 20 Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” 21 The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.

Exodus 20, ESV (enumeration mine)

So the obvious three are #6, 7, and 8 on God’s List of 10. Bracketing these three, at #5 and #9, are honoring one’s parents, which certainly includes positive affirmations of them, and which comes with a promised blessing for doing so, and #9 honoring our neighbors by never speaking falsehoods regarding them, which would of course dishonor them and do so wrongly. Now we have five governing principles.

Then we have the first four, #1, 2, 3, and 4, all of which honor God, including #4, a day set aside from the pursuit of one’s work (and agenda) to recognize the gifts and calling of God. In a humanist worldview, driven by the “science” of the “enlightenment,” it is very unlikely that any of these four would be recognized as life principles. Actually the contrary is more likely to be the case.

Now we have nine of the 10. What’s left?

You Shall Not Covet

Note the final Commandment above: “you shall not covet” given as to a comprehensive list of things you do not have at all or not in the form you desire:

  • House
  • Wife
  • Servant(s) (human servants)
  • Ox
  • Donkey
  • Anything (else) of your neighbor’s

Each of these distinctions have to be understood in the context of the time and place of the Law’s giving. Few of us live near, or are even aware of someone else’s “ox” or “donkey.” So not coveting such seems like a pretty easy command to obey. If “house” means only literal dwelling, and if we live as many do in ‘cookie-cutter’ housing of apartments or standard developments where each living unit is about the same as the other, this would also seem to be an easy matter. Likewise we do not have human servants in common practice, though people can be very possessive of their baby sitters, so that would also seem to be an easy issue. As to “wife” the fundamental issue is already given as #7 in the 10. 

But then there’s the “anything.”

Further, we need to understand that “house” represents more than dwelling, but includes the means of income, i.e. production / business enterprise, that is part of a neighbor’s possession. And the “ox” represents the major tool of farming production, and “donkey” of transportation, and “servants” any of the machinery of daily life that aids the work of life such as would have associated with cooking, cleaning, obtaining water, dealing with garbage, shopping in the marketplace. And the reference to “anything” is to make clear that what is at issue is not the specifics of the enumeration of objects but the underlying attitude of one’s own heart. And that goes to the matter of coveting.

What Does it mean “To Covet?”

The word “covet” comes most directly from the a classic French word, coveitier, which semantic range extends from “desire” (a certain intensity of “want”) to “lust” (a burning craving). The challenge we have with languages like Latin and French (and most other languages) is that the word choice is limited in quantity so that each word tends to have a wide range of possible meanings. English has a hugely rich vocabulary, with literally hundreds of thousands of words. The Oxford English Dictionary, the gold standard of dictionaries, lists 273,000 “headwords” (essentially lemmas), some 170,000 of which are in current use. That’s an astonishing number. For comparison the vocabulary of the wonderful Koine Greek that God used to write the NT is only about 5,500. (The NT has about 155,000 words, but with a vocabulary of 5,500 different words). 

What this means is that a single word in any of these non-English languages has, and has to have, a fairly wide semantic range. This makes determining the specific ‘point’ (level, intensity, aspect) at which any given word should be understood is a significant step of interpretation.

For instance, the Koine word often translated “lust” is epithumía (G1939) which semantic range includes: to desire greatly, having a strong desire, longing, lust. There’s a huge difference between “longing” and “lust.” It is the word translated as “deceits lusts” (Eph. 4:22), which in many circumstances is an oxymoron (meaning that “lusts” by their nature are “deceitful”). It is translated “lusts” in the famous passage of 1 John 2:16 as to “lusts” (or in the ESV “desires”) of the eye and of the flesh. Yet, epithumía is used by the Lord in Luke 22:15 expressing His longing for celebrating the “last supper” (the Passover supper on the night He was betrayed) with His disciples. So we have not only the question of intensity of meaning, from a little to overly much, but also to the worthiness of the object of such desire (bad vs. good, and everything in between).

It is exactly the verb form of epithumía that is used in the 10th Commandment forbidding coveting:

epithuméō (G1937) contracted epithumṓ, from epí (1909), in, and thumós(2372), the mind. To have the affections directed toward something, to lust, desire, long after. Generally (Luke 17:22; Gal. 5:17; Rev. 9:6). To desire in a good sense (Matt. 13:17; Luke 22:15; 1 Tim. 3:1; Heb. 6:11; 1 Pet. 1:12); as a result of physical needs (Luke 15:16; 16:21); in a bad sense of coveting and lusting after (Matt. 5:28; Rom. 7:7; 13:9; 1 Cor. 10:6 [cf. James 4:2; Sept.: Ex. 20:17; Deut. 5:21; 14:26; 2 Sam. 3:21; Prov. 21:26]).

Zodhiates, S. (2000)

In the Hebrew text of the OT, the word translated “covet” in the 10th Commandment is:

châmad, khaw-mad’ (H2530); a primitive root; to delight in:—beauty, greatly beloved, covet, delectable thing, (× great) delight, desire, goodly, lust, (be) pleasant (thing), precious (thing).

Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon

What is particularly noteworthy about such Hebrew word are the third three occurrences in the OT:

1. Gen 2:9 And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
2. Gen 3:6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
3. Exodus 20:17
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

ESV, highlights mine of H2530, châmad.

So if we take “covet” as the root meaning of châmad, then as the ESV has translated it in its first use in Gen. 2:9 we can see that every tree in Eden had an appearance of attractiveness, that would draw the observer (Adam and Eve) toward it, much as our experience before a beautifully spread out fresh vegetable display in a grocery store or farmers market. God made it that way, as part of His creating delight in Creation.

Then when we see châmad characterizing Eve’s response to examining the Serpent’s temptation to partake of the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it tells us that Eve saw something to be desired, and which desire drew her to not only take and eat crossing the boundary as to what God had forbade, and ultimately also to induce Adam to do likewise, a double evil.

Then the very next use of  châmad is the 10th Commandment in Exodus 20:17 as we discussed above, and which is repeated in Deuteronomy 5:21.

There are many nuances of “covet”in English, including: pine, hanker, desire, want, crave, lust, ache (for), wish (for), aspire, envy, thirst, yearn, begrudge. We might even develop a five-star or 10-level intensity ranking that goes from, say, “slight interest” at the mildest extreme, to, at the other end, an all out overpowering craving which makes one ready to abandon all moral bounds out of an overwhelming demand to have that one particular thing we do not have. (The latter is the famed “Green Light” that drew Jay Gatsby into an entirely disordered life in pursuit of fame, and Daisy, even to his ruin and death, in the famous story by F Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby).

The Great Gatsby Story

These nuances and their respective effects upon the one having them has been the tool of many many story tellers. In recent U.S. literature a famous novel, widely read even in high schools, is The Great Gatsby. This story, written by F Scott Fitzgerald in the 1920s, a particularly interesting decade in U.S. history. The book is regarded by many to be on the short list of the greatest American novels, by some accounts the second best after James Joyce’s Ulysses.

The book has been analyzed exhaustively for nearly 100 years by scholars of literature and history, and countless student term papers, theses, and dissertations. What appears to me is that the entire context, and all the principal characters (except “Nick Carraway,” the narrator) are all given by coveting toward covetousness. A primary iconic image in the story is “the green light.” It is literally a nautical channel marker that is located at the end of the female of Jay’s primary craving, Daisy, now married but formerly in a relationship with the subject character of the novel, Jay Gatsby. Gatsby has a consuming desire (coveting) for Daisy. His house with its dock is directly across a large bay that opens into the Atlantic Ocean. So Gatsby stands at the end of his dock, at night, staring across the bay, seeing only the green light. Of course the green light is a metaphor for coveting (green is even the color associated with such feeling, as “a person green with envy”). And, so, that leads to the common question asked in discussions of the book with students: “What is your green light?” Basically, the ask is what would you be drawing to coveting such that you would commit your entire life and energy to getting even if it was unobtainable, even forbidden to you, even leading to your death? (Gatsby dies in the end–never having re-established his sought for relationship with Daisy).

It is a crazy question. But, it was what the Serpent himself presented to Eve when he propositioned Eve in Eden: the ‘hook’ that could cause Eve to not only covet the fruit of the forbidden tree, but to do so in such an urgent, consuming, secret way that she would act of such desire without consulting with Adam, let alone God Himself, but unilaterally making the biggest possible boundary-crossing available to her. The Serpent’s conclusion was that such temptation would carry over from “pleasant” to “desired” to “burning craving demanding satisfaction” because (1) it was attractive (as were the other trees), but, distinctively, (2) eating it would give Eve superior knowledge-powers even to being like the ‘gods.’ Whatever Eve understood about God, and His Creation, and the boundary against eating of such forbidden tree, she knew that she herself was not “God” nor part of ‘the gods,’ and so was missing out on something greatly to be desired, by the exaltation from being human only and not of ‘the gods.’ That desire is “coveting,” of the most-extreme character.

(What did she think being like ‘the gods’ was to become? It is conceptual madness to think that there is “The God” and to believe there can be another “God.” Was she that deeply confused, or ignorant? An alternative, which I am inclined toward, is that she believed there was a category of being where she would be ‘above’ Adam, from which she had been Created, and thus above human beings as a God-created category of being, into a super- / supra- / above human category, joining other ‘gods’ (beings of such exalted category), knowing that which “The God” had not wanted her to know. So, in such sense, she would be “like” “The God” knowing that which the category of mere humans would be excluded from knowing. And, further, that it was an inappropriate limitation “The God” had put in place perhaps in the sense of God’s selfishness (which seems to be the gist of the Serpentine’s temptation), or just an unnecessary boundary because God did not realize that His human creation category could not ‘handle’ such knowledge.)

Returning to the Serpent’s question of Eve, it was by no means a harmless question. The context of it, certainly in the Gatsby novel, is what would you so crave after that you would do anything expending any amount of time required to get something even (perhaps, especially) that which is forbidden to you? Basically, the question posed is this: What is the biggest thing you can think of that would cause to launch within you an unstoppable, irresistible craving that will in effect possess your mind, your body, your talents and interests? In short, what could be so seemingly great that you would be willing to ruin anything and everything, and people too?

We see in the OT numerous examples of coveting. Think of Cain who coveted the honor that his brother Abel received from God, and led him to kill. Then the entire line of Cain is described briefly but clearly as those seeking prideful accomplishment, including creating a city whose tower reaches to the heavens. Then we have King Saul who sought to usurp the role of the priest and later opposed even to attempt murder God’s selection for his successor, David. Then David himself with respect to Bathsheba and latter prideful numbering of Israel. Even the entire nations of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms of Israel became covetous of their respective honor. And we can point to the Apostle Paul who self-identified “covetousness” as being the source of his ultimate recognition of his being sinner. We see the Assyrian and Babylonian nations craving the imperial expansion of their domains, by conquering and enslaving other people.

And what of our pilgrimage journey home? We can be reasonably sure that we will, in our own particular context, be presented with various versions of the question “Why don’t you act upon your green light?”

Deep Dive on Coveting in Romans 7:7-9 (ESV)

Romans 7:7-9 ESV base text, Lemma Koine & Transliterated, Root Transliterated, CODE, Strong’s G (highlighting mine)

Note in the image above the following words:

  • Boundary words: nomos (5x) and entole (2x)
  • Passion / Lust: epithymeo (3x)
  • Sin: harmatia (5x)
  • The recreation of The Fall evidenced in the two primary verb/participle tenses (aka “aspect”), contrasting the “IMPERFECT,” continuing action in the past to the present, and “AORIST,” a one-moment in time event with its enduring consequences (can also reference a whole action).
  • The distinction between articulated nouns (with a “the“) and anarthrous nouns (no “the”) is the latter tends to represent a condition of, a category of, whereas the former a specific instantiation.

The Sermon on the Mount and Coveting

The extended oration by Jesus recorded for us in Matt Ch 5-7 is known colloquially as “The Sermon on the Mount.” It is a widely known and beloved passage, that is frequently mis-taught. For our purposes here, we will consider the undergirding them of “coveting” as being one key of opening up the passage.

The Mosaic Law as it had been understood and taught in the days of the NT (and largely also in the OT), even as part of the more than 600 recognized OT commands within the Torah (the first five books of the Bible, known also as the Books of Moses) that it was deed based. There is a dictum in U.S. law known as ‘you can’t go to jail for what you’re thinking,’ meaning unless one actually does something–physical action or speech–then “The Law” has no means to reach within your head to deem you a lawbreaker. 

In a similar fashion the OT Law(s) could be understood to pertain to ‘crossing some line’ from a harbored thought / passion into a physical act (including speech). So the heart, under such reasoning, with its passions, was not a lawbreaker so long as “the mind” or whatever we might attribute that which inhibits the passions within from being expressed in spacetime, is securely buttoned down, concealing the real inner condition.

This never should have made sense in this way, but such is how The Religion Industry (TRI) tends to orient itself, and those seeking self-justification and self-redemption are inclined.

But the Sermon on the Mount exposes the previous error of such outer vs. inner distinction. Hence, the Lord begins the Sermon: “blessed are the poor…those who mourn…the meek…those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…” He is addressing those who at a fundamental level of their innermost being know, know deeply, that the externals and externalities of what had devolved into TRI (supposed followers of the Mosaic Law) at the time of the NT had not and could not cure the fallen heart, and consequent alienation from God. The underlying passion? It was “coveting,” longing for that which one did not have, was beyond a boundary of God, and toward which one’s passions where aligned and thoughts focused.

Anti-Coveting

One way to understand a thing is to grasp its opposite. What could be the opposite passion of coveting?

  • Contentment
  • Gratitude
  • Faith in God as my Caregiver, Protector, Father
  • Belief that “discipline” (including unmet desires) exists for my good
  • Thankfulness
  • Praise of God
  • Peace (being at peace), Shalom, state of tranquility
  • Un-anxiousness

Calvin’s Little Book, Week #20

This week we will conclude Calvin’s Ch of his Little Book, and this particular study of this “Great Book.”

Calvin’s Heading for Ch 6, Sec.s 5-6

5. Second, Impatience and immoderate desire.
Remedy of these evils.
The creatures assigned to our use.
Man still accountable for the use he makes of them.

6. God requires us in all our actions to look to his calling.
Use of this doctrine. It is full of comfort.

Calvin, J., & Beveridge, H. (1845)

Bible Texts Cited by Calvin in Ch 6, Sec.s 5-6

(Note: Calvin did not cite Luke 16:2, but it was included in the D&P translation and so it is given above with Phil 4:12).

Calvin’s Key Points

In Sec 4, Calvin gave a broad summary of this final chapter by two opposites:

There is no more certain or reliable path for us than contempt of this present life
and meditation on heavenly immortality.

Calvin, Ch 5.4, D&P p. 119

In Sec. 2, Calvin made clear that we are free to delight / enjoy God’s provisions for us in this present life as it is clear that He intended such by the beauty and fullness of His provisions. But the danger is that we can become so focused on such delights as to lose track of God’s calling, and the balance required of us.

This metaphor may be helpful to make clear this distinction. Consider a person called to be on a journey, often arduous, but sometimes not. During the day’s travels, and particularly at evening time, such traveler needs refreshment to enable and restore the body, and to some extent the soul as well. The next day, in response to the call of duty for his journey, the traveler must again begin the journey. To cease the journey to live in the experience of delight would be to abandon the traveler’s calling, a most-serious mis-alignment of priorities. On the other hand, to deny any kind of refreshment, restoration from some sense of life as duty only, requiring extreme self-severity, is to be out of balance in the other direction.

If one reads the Gospel narratives looking at such balance points, where both delight and journey-pursuit occur, we can see the Lord Himself did both. He was a continual traveler. Yet there were repeated times of rest and refreshment. His public ministry began by being at, and engaged with, a large wedding celebration (necessitating 180 gallons of wine!), likely a multi-day festival, and ended with the intimate experience of what we know as “The Last Supper,” a special time with His closest disciples.

Consider this verse from the Psalms:

It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.

Psalm 127:2 ESV (highlights mine)

Calvin’s Key Point #1: Moderation

In Sec. 4, Calvin brought forward several dimensions of his first point, moderation in all things, based on the text we considered in Week #19, 1 Cor 7:29-31. He used phrases such as

  • “learn to bear scarcity,”
  • “all with moderation,”
  • “hold the things of this world lightly,”
  • “put to death …immoderate appetite for food and drink,”
  • “put to death …ambition, pride, haughtiness, and dissatisfaction,”
  • “eliminate …stockpiles of superfluous wealth,”
  • “curb extravagance,” and
  • avoid turning gifts given into “obstacles” on one’s journey.

In the deep dive study of the 1 Cor 7 we highlighted a small but important word that recurs in this passage: “as” where it is used to portray one’s attitude to things and experiences of this present world that are not in any way wrong, but should be viewed, and used, without seeing such as the meaning of life.

Calvin Key Point #2: Abstain from Excessive Longing

In Sec. 5, Calvin draws attention to the emotion and orientation driven by “longing,” (a word D&P translates twice on p. 121).

Such feeling of “longing” can most-readily be seen in those of us who are in some particular need because of a lack or want of some kind.

But, let us use discernment as to one’s longing. Calvin makes the point that if longing is a governing emotion during situations of genuine want, it will remain such an emotion even after (if it should happen to be the case) when the original want has been satisfied.

The coveting impulse cannot be escaped by prosperity.

He, or she, that gets much, especially in a brief period, will discover shortly that a new dimension and subject matter of coveting has been aroused. Even the extremely wealthy can be, and often are, covetous, even extremely so, be it for ever more luscious living circumstances, or greater experiences, or more numerous accoutrements, or newer / more-glamorous spouses and friends, or greater honors, or all of the above.

Calvin Key Point #3: Hold to the Rules of Love

Here Calvin calls on the Bible’s parable of the steward who is called to “turn in the account of your management” (Luke 16:4) We, likewise, have been given the management of certain possessions, and we are and will be called to give an account of what we have with them, specifically as to:

  • Self-control, soberness, frugality, and modesty on the one hand,
  • Luxury, pride, showiness, and vanity on the other hand. (D&P, p. 123)

Calvin notes that motive which is joined with love will do the former and not the latter That is the inordinate pursuit of pleasures that “drag man’s heart away from [1] integrity and purity, or [2] muddle his thinking. (D&P, p. 123)

Calvin Key Point #4: Consider all of One’s Actions with Regard to One’s Calling

In the closing Sec 6 of his closing Ch 5, Calvin returns to a key idea that began Ch 1, namely that of each of us having a calling, unique to each of us in certain particulars.

Calvin uses the terms “particular duties” in one’s “station in life,” one’s “callings” “rank in life” “post assigned…by the Lord.” (D&P, p. 124, where Calvin references “calling(s)” three times and “post” twice).

Further, Calvin writes: “It is sufficient that we recognize the calling from the Lord to be the principle and foundation of good works in all our affairs.” And he follows with further reference to “frame one’s actions,” “calling” “keep to the right course,” “duties,” within one’s “various spheres of life,” directed toward a “goal,” being “well-composed,” not overstepping one’s “boundaries.” (D&P, p. 125).

Calvin’s Conclusion

The final sentences of Ch 5, and this five chapter interlude of his Book 3 of his four book Institutes, Calvin writes:

Each person in whatever his station in life will endure and overcome [whatever obstacles] convinced that his burden has been place upon him by God. Great consolation will follow from all of this. For every work performed in obedience to one’s calling, no matter how ordinary and common, is radiant–most valuable in the eyes of our Lord.”

D&P, p. 126 (emphasis mine)

His last phrases of his final sentence are worthy of a deep dive into Calvin’s original Latin expression.

1. quod (modo tuae vocationi pareas) 
2. [non] coram Deo resplendeat 
3. et pretiosissimum habeatur

Calvin, Latin original

Phrase 1: Our Vocation and Duty

Considering Phrase 1 above, we have “that whatever your” (quod modo tuae), introducing two vitally important words: “vocation” (vocationi) and “be subject to / duty” (pareas).

“Vocation” derives from the word “vocal” which literally means “call,” that is “to be called.” This is such a deep idea that threads through all the Scripture. We find in Gen. 1 that God speaks, one could say “calls,” all of Creation to come into existence. Upon the Fall of Adam and Eve, God seeks out and calls: “Adam, where are you?” (Of course God knew where Adam was physically, but what was the far deeper matter was where Adam was in terms of life and death, holiness and condemnation). Then God calls Noah out of the antediluvian world. Next he calls Abram (Abraham) out of the utterly pagan River Valley Civilization of ancient Mesopotamia. God calls the various OT prophets who are given God’s Word for them to call the people to repentance and faith. God Sovereignly used Caesar Augustus’s call for everyone to go their home city for Joseph and Mary to journey to Bethlehem, the City of David, being of that line, to give birth to Jesus. And Jesus then called his disciples. Then those who come to faith are the (literally in Koine) “the out called ones” and such is the term of their community of faith (i.e., the church). In Revelation we see the Apostle John being “called” up into heaven (“Come up here!” Rev. 4:1) to see and so record a vision of the latter days. And ultimately God will call us (Rev. 17:14) even, ultimately, out of tombs into everlasting life. (In the ESV, the word “call” occurs more than 800 times in the Bible, which number does not include all the various words for “say” or “speak”).

Connected directly with such “calling” is a “duty,” that is being subject to, prioritizing life and energy, to such “calling.” This is exactly the nature of what we as a parent would say to our child entering high school or college, or military service, or a given career. There needs to be an alignment, particular to the particularity of the calling. Another way of expressing “duty,” which can sound only obligatory, is “to pay attention to,” to “to attend” (focus, give energy toward).

Phrase 2: Resplendent in the Sight / before the Face of God

The next phrase in Calvin’s closing words is: [non] coram Deo resplendeat, “Deo” is where we get “Deity,” and means “God” Himself. “Coram” is related to our word for “cornea,” namely the eye, metaphorically meaning “under the gaze of,” or even “directly face to face.” (Hence, Ligonier Ministries uses the phrase “Coram Deo” as its practical heading for how we should translate a doctrine into life itself).

The word “resplendeat” means to shine brightly, specifically as reflected light. The prefix “re” in Latin can mean “again” (redo, repeat, etc.), or “back”/”backward,” here signifying the idea of reflection from God. The Latin root word “splendeat,” from which we get “splendor,” means to gleam, be bright, radiant, even glitter. As D&P translates the whole phrase, that which we do rightly with respect to our calling, is a great brightness directly apprehended by God, reflecting the virtue of such work, as we have been created in the image of God, back to God, and perhaps even the Glory of God reflected back to us.

(The [non], i.e. “not” reference in this phrase is to the apparent insignificance of our calling, such faithful execution of it leads to such resplendence).

Phrase 3: Our Faithful Response to our Calling is a Possession of Great Value

The final phrase in Ch 5 is: et pretiosissimum habeatur. “Et” is simply “and.” “Habeatur” comes from Lat. “habeo” which is where we get “have.” It’s broader meaning that mere possession, includes think, reason, manage.

Finally, let us consider pretiosissimum. This comes from “pretiosa” from which we like get our English word “precious,” and means “that which is costly,” particularly that “of great value.”

A useful, very humble, reminder of what we bring to God in our fallenness is this and this only: we contribute nothing to our salvation but the sin requiring it. However, on the ‘other side’ of redemption, is regeneration by Grace though Faith alone. And it is on such side that we have our individual calling, with its attendant duties and responsibilities, which when performed brings forth a radiant image before the Face of God.

Anti-Covetousness

(Most of the below text has been gathered into a Special Topic on “Coveting” here).

Previously Calvin made clear that we are privileged to enjoy the blessings of God in this life, bounded by several principles: the flesh cannot be the ruling authority of the scope of such enjoyment-seeking, what is rightfully enjoyed does not impede our journey to maturity and our heavenly home, and each enjoyment leads us to greater gratitude to God as the source of such delights.

Now, Calvin begins Ch 5.5 with the situation in which we may be in a condition of want. The danger here is coveting that which we do not have, and perhaps cannot have. This may include both those things and experiences which could be proper delights on our journey (Pilgrimage) and those which are not (the lusts of the flesh, and the eye).

The underlying issue here is “covetousness.” So let’s think about this word.

The Ten Commandments

An interesting exercise is to make a list of 10 universal principles of rightful behavior for a people living together, under God. What would you chose? What would you leave off?

The three obvious choices would include “no stealing,” “no murder,” “no violations of the sexual boundaries of marriage.” Clearly doing otherwise would dishonor God and our neighbor, even a visitor / stranger to one’s community. These would likely be choices made even by what we know to be criminal organizations. How is that? Well, such the members of such organizations are arrayed to commit “crimes” against “the other” (whatever group is such) but never within its own membership. And violations of such internal rules may be dealt with very harshly including killing the offender (which would not be deemed “murder” but justice, namely a lawful killing within the rules of the organization).

That leads seven more to go universal rules to make the 10. And now it is harder to pick out the obvious ones. Let’s see what God decreed:

20:1  And God spoke all these words, saying,

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

1 “You shall have no other gods before me.

2 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

3 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

4 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work,10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

12  5 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

13  6 “You shall not murder.

14  7 “You shall not commit adultery.

15  8 “You shall not steal.

16  9 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

17  10 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

18 Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off19 and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” 20 Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” 21 The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.

Exodus 20, ESV (enumeration mine)

So the obvious three are #6, 7, and 8 on God’s List of 10. Bracketing these three, at #5 and #9, are honoring one’s parents, which certainly includes positive affirmations of them, and which comes with a promised blessing for doing so) and (#9) honoring our neighbors by never speaking falsehoods regarding them, which of course dishonors them and does so wrongly. Now we have five governing principles.

Then we have the first four, #1, 2, 3, and 4, all of which honor God, including #4, a day set aside from the pursuit of one’s work (and agenda) to recognize the gifts and calling of God. In a humanist worldview, driven by the “science” of the “enlightenment,” it is very unlikely that any of these four would be recognized as life principles. Actually the contrary is more likely to be the case.

Now we have nine of the 10. What’s left?

You Shall Not Covet

Note the final Commandment above: “you shall not covet” as to a comprehensive list of things you do not have:

  • House
  • Wife
  • Servant(s) (human servants)
  • Ox
  • Donkey
  • Anything (else) of your neighbor’s

Each of these distinctions have to be understood in the context of the time and place of the Law’s giving. Few of us live near, or are even aware of someone else’s “ox” or “donkey.” So not coveting such seems like a pretty easy command to obey. If “house” means only literal dwelling, and if we live as many do in ‘cookie-cutter’ housing of apartments or standard developments where each living unit is about the same as the other, this would also seem to be an easy matter. Likewise we do not have human servants in common practice, though people can be very possessive of their baby sitters, so that would also seem to be an easy issue. As to “wife” the fundamental issue is already given as #7 in the 10.

But then there’s the “anything.”

Further, we need to understand that “house” represents more than dwelling, but includes the means of income, i.e. production / business enterprise, that is part of a neighbor’s possession. And the “ok” represents the major tool of farming production, and “donkey” of transportation, and “servants” any of the machinery of daily life that aids the work of life such as would have associated with cooking, cleaning, obtaining water, dealing with garbage, shopping in the marketplace. And the reference to “anything” is to make clear that what is at issue is not the specifics of the enumeration of objects but the underlying attitude of one’s own heart. And that goes to the matter of coveting.

What Does it mean “To Covet?”

The word “covet” comes most directly from the a classic French word, coveitier, which semantic range extends from “desire” (a certain intensity of “want”) to “lust” (a burning craving). The challenge we have with languages like Latin and French (and most other languages) is that the word choice is limited. English has a hugely rich vocabulary, literally hundreds of thousands of words. The Oxford English Dictionary, the gold standard of dictionaries, lists 273,000 “headwords” (essentially lemmas), some 170,000 in current use. That’s an astonishing number. For comparison the vocabulary of the wonderful Koine Greek that God used to write the NT is only about 5,500. (The NT has about 155,000 words, but with a vocabulary of 5,500 different words).

What this means is that a single word in any of these non-English languages has, and has to have, a fairly wide semantic range. This makes determining the specific ‘point’ (level, intensity, aspect) at which any given word should be understood as a significant step of interpretation.

For instance, the Koine word often translated “lust” is epithumía (G1939) which semantic range includes: to desire greatly, having a strong desire, longing, lust. Well there’s a big difference between “longing” and “lust.” It is the word translated as “deceits lusts” (Eph. 4:22), which in many circumstances is an oxymoron (meaning that “lusts” by their nature are “deceitful.” It is translated “lusts” in the famous passage of 1 John 2:16 as to “lusts” (or in the ESV “desires”) of the eye and of the flesh. Yet, epithumía is used by the Lord in Luke 22:15 expressing His longing for celebrating the “last supper” (the Passover supper on the night He was betrayed) with His disciples.

And the verb form of epithumía is what is used in the 10th Commandment forbidding coveting:

epithuméō (G1937) contracted epithumṓ, from epí (1909), in, and thumós (2372), the mind. To have the affections directed toward something, to lust, desire, long after. Generally (Luke 17:22; Gal. 5:17; Rev. 9:6). To desire in a good sense (Matt. 13:17; Luke 22:15; 1 Tim. 3:1; Heb. 6:11; 1 Pet. 1:12); as a result of physical needs (Luke 15:16; 16:21); in a bad sense of coveting and lusting after (Matt. 5:28; Rom. 7:7; 13:9; 1 Cor. 10:6 [cf. James 4:2; Sept.: Ex. 20:17; Deut. 5:21; 14:26; 2 Sam. 3:21; Prov. 21:26]).

Zodhiates, S. (2000)

In the Hebrew text of the OT, the word translated “covet” in the 10th Commandment is:

châmad, khaw-mad’ (H2530); a primitive root; to delight in:—beauty, greatly beloved, covet, delectable thing, (× great) delight, desire, goodly, lust, (be) pleasant (thing), precious (thing).

Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon

What is particularly noteworthy about such Hebrew word are the third three occurrences in the OT:

Gen 2:9 And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Gen 3:6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
Exodus 20:17
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

ESV, highlights mine of H2530, châmad.

So if we take “covet” as the root meaning of châmad, then as the ESV has translated it in its first use in Gen. 2:9 we can see that every tree in Eden had an appearance of attractiveness, that would draw the observer (Adam and Eve) toward it, much as we experience in a beautifully spread out fresh vegetable display in a grocery store or farmers market. God made it that way, as part of His creating delight in Creation.

Then when we see châmad characterizing Eve’s response to examining the Serpent’s temptation to partake of the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Eve saw something to be desired, and which desire drew her to not only take and eat what God had forbade, but also to induce Adam to do likewise, a double evil.

Then the very next use is the 10th Commandment in Exodus 20:17 as we discussed above, and repeated in Deuteronomy 5:21.

There are many nuances of “covet” that are in English: pine, hanker, desire, want, crave, lust, ache (for), wish (for), aspire, envy, thirst, yearn, begrudge. We might even develop a five-star or 10-level intensity ranking that goes from, say, “particular interest” at the mildest extreme, to all out overpowering craving which makes one ready to abandon all moral bounds out of an overwhelming demand to have that one particular thing we do not have.

These nuances and their respective effects upon the one having them has been the tool of many many story tellers. In recent U.S. literature a famous novel, widely read even in high schools, is The Great Gatsby. This story, written by F Scott Fitzgerald in the 1920s, a particularly interesting decade in U.S. history. The book is regarded by many to be on the short list of the greatest American novels, by some accounts the second best after James Joyce’s Ulysses.

The book has been analyzed exhaustively for nearly 100 years by scholars of literature and history, and countless student term papers, theses, and dissertations. What appears to me is that the entire context, and all the principal characters (except “Nick Carraway,” the narrator) are all given by coveting toward covetousness. A primary iconic image in the story is “the green light.” It is literally a nautical channel marker that is located at the end of the female of primary desires, Daisy, now married but formerly in a relationship with the subject character of the novel, Jay Gatsby. Gatsby has a consuming desire (coveting) for Daisy. His house with its dock is directly across a large bay that opens into the Atlantic Ocean. So Gatsby stands at the end of his dock, at night, staring across the bay, seeing only the green light. Of course the green light is a metaphor for coveting (green is even the color associated with such feeling, as “a person green with envy”). And, so, that leads to the common question asked in discussions of the book with students: “What is your green light?” Basically, the ask is what would you be drawing to coveting such that you would commit your entire life and energy to getting even if it was unobtainable, even forbidden to you, even leading to your death? (Gatsby dies in the end–never having re-established his sought for relationship with Daisy).

It is a crazy question. But, it was what the Serpent himself considered when he propositioned Eve in Eden: what could be the ‘hook’ that could cause Eve to not only covet the fruit of the forbidden tree, but to do so in such an urgent, consuming, secret way that she would act of such desire without consulting with Adam, let alone God Himself, but unilaterally making the biggest possible boundary-crossing available to her? The Serpent’s conclusion that the temptation that would carry over from “pleasant” to “desired” to “burning craving demanding satisfaction” was (1) that it was attractive (as were the other trees), but (2) eating it would give Eve superior knowledge powers even to being like ‘gods.’ That is “coveting.”

This is not a harmless question. The context of it, certainly in the novel, is what would you so crave after that you would do anything expending any amount of time required to get something even (perhaps, especially) that which is forbidden to you? Basically, the question posed is this: What is the biggest thing you can think of that would launch an unstoppable, irresistible craving within you that will in effect possess your mind, your body, your talents and interests? In short, what could be so seemingly great that you would be willing to ruin anything and everything, people too?

We see in the OT numerous examples of coveting. Think of Cain who coveted the honor that his brother Abel received from God, and led him to kill. Then the entire line of Cain is described briefly but clearly as those seeking prideful accomplishment, including creating a city whose tower reaches to the heavens. Then we have King Saul who sought to usurp the role of the priest and later opposed even to attempt murder God’s selection for his successor, David. Then David himself with respect to Bathsheba and latter prideful numbering of Israel. Even the entire nations of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms of Israel became covetous of their respective honor. And we can point to the Apostle Paul who self-identified “covetousness” as being the source of his ultimate recognition of his being sinner.

And what of our pilgrimage journey home? We can be reasonably sure that we will, in our own particular context, be presented with various versions of the question “Why don’t you act upon your green light?”

Deep Dive on Coveting in Romans 7:7-9 (ESV)

Romans 7:7-9 ESV base text, Lemma Koine & Transliterated, Root Transliterated, CODE, Strong’s G (highlighting mine)
  • Boundary words: nomos (5x) and entole (2x)
  • Passion / Lust: epithymeo (3x)
  • Sin: harmatia (5x)
  • The recreation of The Fall evidenced in the two primary verb/participle tenses (aka “aspect”), contrasting the “IMPERFECT,” continuing action in the past to the present, and “AORIST,” a one-moment in time event with its enduring consequences (can also reference a whole action).
  • The distinction between articulated nouns (with a “the) and anarthrous nouns (no “the”) is the latter tends to represent a condition of, a category of, whereas the former a specific instantiation.

The Sermon on the Mount and Coveting

The extended oration by Jesus recorded for us in Matt Ch 5-7 is known colloquially as “The Sermon on the Mount.” It is a widely known and beloved passage, that is frequently mis-taught. For our purposes here, we will consider the undergirding them of “coveting” as being one key of opening up the passage.

The Mosaic Law as it had been understood and taught in the days of the NT (and largely also in the OT), even as part of the more than 600 recognized OT commands within the Torah (the first five books of the Bible, known also as the Books of Moses) that it was deed based. There is a dictum in U.S. law known as ‘you can’t go to jail for what you’re thinking,’ meaning unless one actually does something–physical action or speech–then “The Law” has no means to reach within your head to deem you a lawbreaker.

In a similar fashion the OT Law(s) could be understood to pertain to ‘crossing some line’ from a harbored thought / passion into a physical act (including speech). So the heart, under such reasoning, with its passions, was not a lawbreaker so long as “the mind” or whatever we might attribute that which inhibits the passions within from being expressed in spacetime without, is securely buttoned down, and concealing the real inner condition.

This never should have made sense, but such is how The Religion Industry (TRI) tends to orient itself, and those seeking self-justification and self-redemption are inclined.

But the Sermon on the Mount exposes the previous error of such outer vs. inner distinction. Hence, the Lord begins the Sermon: “blessed are the poor…those who mourn…the meek…those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…” He is addressing those who at a fundamental level of their innermost being know, know deeply, that the externals and externalities of what had devolved into TRI at the time of the NT had not and could not cure the fallen heart, and consequent alienation from God. The underlying passion? It was “coveting,” longing for that which one did not have, was beyond a boundary of God, and toward which one’s passions where aligned and thoughts focused.

Journey Boundaries

Calvin began the Little Book in the very opening paragraph of Ch 1 with the overarching idea of a “rule” for the Christian Life based upon certain principles. In Ch 5 he returns and completes the idea with a discussion of how we should live and journey in the present world, given all that he covered in Ch 1-4.

In Ch 5 he suggests several principles for establishing one’s boundaries on one’s life-journey: determining that which is useful / purposeful for God’s Calling on our life, and that we causes us to recognize and be grateful for, God’s multiple provisions for such journey (and used only within such bounds).

Now, how should be make specific the idea of such boundaries?

A New Testament Law?

One answer that recurs during this church age is the development of a legal code, closely aligned with the OT, including all the many rabbinic extensions such as were in place in the NT period.

This is, or quickly becomes, what is known as “legalism.” The term has a range of meaning. At one extreme it becomes a work based life that earns (as if such a thing were possible) justification in the sight of God. Basically such perspective is that all that failed in the OT did so only because it not have the example of Christ and the teaching of the NT. So, in such ‘new’ standing, man can now do what he did not, and (according to this view) perhaps could not, do under the OT ‘economy.’

Such a view is not taught in the NT as evidence by many places, including the entire Epistles to Romans, Galatians, and Hebrew, but also such passages as Col. 2 below:

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

Colossians 2, ESV

The NT as Defining a Period Where “God is Love”

A phrase popularized especially in current times is the singular emphasis on “God is Love.” Well, indeed, God is love, which is the foundation of Grace, Redemption, Election, Propitiation, Regeneration, Forgiveness, and so forth.

But “God is Love” has become a code for license to feel, do, say, or go whatever one is inclined to be or act. Such “whatever” is then deemed to be unrestricted in any way, except as society / culture may establish (“consenting adults,” etc.) because, well, “God is Love” and so He will always support what makes us happy, or what we think will make us happy, by whatever course of life we may be inclined to follow.

Such alternate perspective to legalism, the opposite of legalism, is likewise not consistent with either the Character of God nor the teaching of the NT. God is more at a fundament level than just love: He is “Holy, Holy, Holy,” the so-called “Try-Hagion.” God cannot even look upon sin (and does not, but for the blood of the Lamb which covers such sin–but does not become the universal ointment that means sin may abound).

Consider this passage from Romans:

6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans Ch 6, ESV

Establishing Boundaries

Jonathan Edwards’s Example

Jonathan Edwards is noted for many things, among which are the 70 “Resolutions” he recorded for himself, beginning as a young man, to acts as recurring reminders of boundaries on his actions. After his untimely death (as we think of it) these were found among his many writings and published. They are not available in many forms, and as part of whole books expounding on Edwards’s ideas. A pdf of these resolutions organized into useful categories is below:

Key Boundary Words

Let us consider four ordinary English words relating to “boundaries” in the context of establishing such in practical matters of Christian life.

1-Barrier

The word, and idea, of “barrier” comes from the root “bar” which means something that obstructs or hinders / impedes movement, and came to mean any that has the physical shape / geometry of what might be used as a “bar.” (So we have “candy bar,” “bar codes,” and “bar graphs”).

Like the other examples below, a “barrier” (“bar”) can be a good thing–because it prevents one from wandering into harms way–or it can be a harmful thing as something that is being used to prevent me on a rightful journey.

In our context of Calvin Ch 5, we are considering the “good” barriers, just the kind one would construct as a parent of children in some area where beyond such boundary harm could occur. So such a barrier could be, for say a teenager, home by 10 p.m., because, as all parent know, nothing good happens after 10 p.m.. It could be a level of performance, say, the grade letter “C” is such a barrier, meaning that C+ is the lowest, right on the edge, acceptable level of performance and the student needs to orient their level of preparation, help-seeking accordingly.

2-Fence

The word “fence” actually comes from “defense,” which in turn comes from Latin de + fensum (fendere is the verb form), where “de” means “from, away” and “fendere” to “strike, hit, push.” So we, being lazy, dropped the “de” and made “fence” which means, then, an instrument that can push or hold back someone or something attempt to cross over.

Fences come in myriad forms. One of the most interesting is the “barbed wire” fence, invented in the form we know it today, as a double wire trend, by Joseph Glidden of DeKalb IL in a patent application October 27, 1873. This invention revolutionized the American West, as it made a very cheap, quite effective fence against range animals, particularly cattle, and the associated annual cattle drives. As someone has aptly said, barbed wire converted space to place. In our context, metaphorical strung barbed wire transform our limitless, endless wanderings to a road ahead (dromos, as discussed in the Pilgrim, Pilgrimage special topic).

3-Rail(s)

The word “rails,” as would be used of “handrails,” comes from the Latin word “regula” which means “rule, or a straight section of wood;” the verb form, regere, means to straighten and comes from the PIE root *reg- meaning “to move in a straight line.” So, one would presume that “regular troops” would be those adequately trained that they march in straight lines.

When we think of railings, such as on the side of stairs or encompass balconies, they have the special purpose of keeping one from falling over the side. What is perhaps not fully appreciated is how uncomfortable a person will be walking up or down stairs, or standing even on a large balcony, with railing. Railings provide a visual security that changes a fearful context to a comforting one.

And if one you speak to an anthropomorphic train locomotive to ask its view of the constriction provided by the twin rails confining its wheels, we would hear the relief of joy for such rails and the enduring wish that they be forever well-maintained. Rails to trains provide the essence of its being to be expressed: no rails, no train, no journey, no value.

4-Routine, Route, Rupta

Routine is made up of two parts, with the “-ine” suffix designating the idea of “according to” or “derived from.” So dropping it, “routine” becomes “rout” (and “route”).

The secret behind any “route” is the “rout” that made it possible.

Obstacles

The word “obstacle” comes from the Latin and Koine, where the prefix “ob” means “in front of” and “stacle” in Latin is from “stare” meaning “to stand.” So a principle of our legal system is “stare decisis,” which means that it stands on prior decisions, that is case law.

In the Koine the word translated “stand” comes from “histemi.”

What, then, are “obstacles?” Well in one sense they are those boundary key words considered above, as such are obstacles to departing from our road, our journey. But obstacles, and those boundary words, can also arise on and across our road to travel. In Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress we see multiple occasions where Christian is confronted by such obstacles and seeks, or hopes, for some alternative way, beginning at the beginning of his journey out of the City of Destruction where he conform the “slough of despond.”

As in many other examples, we can see two different situations with obstacles. One the one hand, they are not of our doing, and not able to be removed by our doing (Paul’s thorn in the flesh), and so we must go forward under those conditions, praying for relief, and perhaps not experiencing relief.

In other situations it is ourselves who have placed those obstacles or even commonly are carrying them with us. Consider this passage from Hebrews Ch 12, coming immediately after the recounting of various heroes of the faith in Ch 11:

12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
    nor be weary when reproved by him.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
    and chastises every son whom he receives.”

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. 14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

Hebrews Ch 12, ESV

What Form Might Obstacles Take?

We can almost use Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress as a checklist for the kinds of obstacles a Pilgrim might face. Consider just these examples:

  • The slough (or bog, quicksand) of despond (depression, discouragement)
  • A false-teacher directing one off the journey’s road to some dead end (such as legalism)
  • Sloth (stopping one’s journey out of sheer laziness, seeking ease in rest)
  • A false ideal of some easier bypass (“Bypass Meadow,” crossing the boundary by a “style”)
  • Forgetfulness, or having lost one’s way, so as to require back-tracking
  • Vanity Fair (the lure of the world’s ‘treasures’ including honors as well as ‘stuff’)
  • The direct combat with an / the enemy (Christian had to face the dreaded Apollyon)
  • Fright is sights and sounds emanating messages of terrors both present and ahead
  • Perseverance failure, even for one who has coming a long way at the very end of physical life

What can be especially tricky, and such can be the delight of the devil, is that a pilgrim’s journey has many moments of delight, joy. These are of course refreshing, restoring. But they have a consequence that the next obstacle then feels more incongruous and more painful. This seems to be the way of torture strategies are used in the world today to break people down: show compassion then extreme cruelty, back and forth, causing even more anguish, as well as being greatly disorienting.

Although our enemies within and without have their workings, we cannot forget that it is God Whose Providence controls the entire journey. So we can fully appreciate those periods of refreshment as being gifts from God, even if the enemy has some evil hope in them or by the wrongful use of them. And God uses even the adversities of obstacles purposefully, however incomprehensible them may seem to us.

Below is a list of places that Pilgrim encountered on his journey. It reflects this variation between smooth, delight travel and severe or sneaky obstacles.

Places in The Pilgrim’s Progress[edit]

A map of the places Pilgrim travels through on his progress; a fold-out map from an edition printed in England in 1778

City of Destruction, Christian’s home, representative of the world (cf. Isaiah 19:18)

Slough of Despond, the miry swamp on the way to the Wicket Gate; one of the hazards of the journey to the Celestial City. In the First Part, Christian falling into it, sank further under the weight of his sins (his burden) and his sense of their guilt.

Mount Sinai, a frightening mountain near the Village of Morality that threatens all who would go there.

Wicket Gate, the entry point of the straight and narrow way to the Celestial City. Pilgrims are required to enter by way of the Wicket Gate. Beelzebub’s castle was built not very far from the Gate.

House of the Interpreter, a type of spiritual museum to guide the pilgrims to the Celestial City, emblematic of Calvary and the tomb of Christ.

Hill Difficulty, both the hill and the road up is called “Difficulty”; it is flanked by two treacherous byways “Danger” and “Destruction.” There are three choices: Christian takes “Difficulty” (the right way), and Formalist and Hypocrisy take the two other ways, which prove to be fatal dead ends.

House Beautiful, a palace that serves as a rest stop for pilgrims to the Celestial City. It apparently sits atop the Hill Difficulty. From the House Beautiful one can see forward to the Delectable Mountains. It represents the Christian congregation, and Bunyan takes its name from a gate of the Jerusalem temple (Acts 3:2, 10).

Valley of Humiliation, the Valley on the other side of the Hill Difficulty, going down into which is said to be extremely slippery by the House Beautiful’s damsel Prudence. It is where Christian, protected by God’s Armor, meets Apollyon and they had that dreadful, long fight where Christian was victorious over his enemy by impaling Apollyon on his Sword of the Spirit (Word of God) which caused the Foul Fiend to fly away. Apollyon met Christian in the place known as “Forgetful Green.” This Valley had been a delight to the “Lord of the Hill”, Jesus Christ, in his “state of humiliation.”

Valley of the Shadow of Death, a treacherous, devilish Valley filled with demons, dragons, fiends, satyrs, goblins, hobgoblins, monsters, creatures from the bottomless pit, beasts from the mouth of Hell, darkness, terror, and horror with a quicksand bog on one side and a deep chasm/ditch on the other side of the King’s Highway going through it (cf. Psalm 23:4).

Gaius’ Inn, a rest stop in the Second Part of the Pilgrim’s Progress.

Vanity Fair, a city through which the King’s Highway passes and the yearlong Fair that is held there.

Plain Ease, a pleasant area traversed by the pilgrims.

Hill Lucre, location of a reputed silver mine that proves to be the place where By-Ends and his companions are lost.

The Pillar of Salt, which was Lot’s wife, who was turned into a pillar of salt when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. The pilgrim’s note that its location near the Hill Lucre is a fitting warning to those who are tempted by Demas to go into the Lucre silver mine.

River of God or River of the Water of Life, a place of solace for the pilgrims. It flows through a meadow, green all year long and filled with lush fruit trees. In the Second Part the Good Shepherd is found there to whom Christiana’s grandchildren are entrusted.

By-Path Meadow, the place leading to the grounds of Doubting Castle.

Doubting Castle, the home of Giant Despair and his Giantess wife, Diffidence; only one key could open its doors and gates, the key Promise.

The Delectable Mountains, known as “Immanuel’s Land.” Lush country from whose heights one can see many delights and curiosities. It is inhabited by sheep and their shepherds, and from Mount Clear one can see the Celestial City.

The Enchanted Ground, an area through which the King’s Highway passes that has air that makes pilgrims want to stop to sleep. If one goes to sleep in this place, one never wakes up. The shepherds of the Delectable Mountains warn pilgrims about this.

 The Land of Beulah, a lush garden area just this side of the River of Death.

The River of Death, the dreadful river that surrounds Mount Zion, deeper or shallower depending on the faith of the one traversing it.

The Celestial City, the “Desired Country” of pilgrims, heaven, the dwelling place of the “Lord of the Hill”, God. It is situated on Mount Zion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pilgrim%27s_Progress

The Obstacles of Our Own Nature

Finally, let us return to the text of Hebrews 12 quoted above to consider the obstacle(s) we bring with and upon ourselves. Here is Heb. 12:1 and the first part of vs. 2 arranged to highlight four actions (bold font) as to four objects (underlined):

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also
(a) lay aside every weight, and
(b) [lay aside also every] sin which clings so closely, and 
(c) let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 
(d) looking to Jesus,

Heb. 12:1, 2a (ESV, highlights mine)

We could memorialize the above by “3 E’s and 1 L:” Every, Every, Endurance, and Looking. Below is a ‘deep dive’ form of this text, following the similar format as given previously in such charts:

Calvin’s Little Book, Week #19

This week we will continue in Calvin’s Ch 5 of his Little Book (corresponding to his Institutes, Book 3, Ch 10), Sec.s 3 and 4. The theme of this important chapter is how to use / live in this present world, while we anticipate heaven (Ch 4), and while we struggle with self-denial (Ch 2), and in particular self-denial in the context of God’s use of a cross that we each bear (Ch 3).

Ch 5: How the Present Life and Its Comforts Should Be Used

Calvin re-introduces in Ch 5 the idea of “rule” for guiding one’s life, an idea that began the Little Book in the very first pages of Ch 1, and regarding which I created a series of charts, here:

The word “rule” can be troublesome as it could suggest some form of restatement of the OT Law. But that is not Calvin’s idea, nor is it the teaching of the NT. So, perhaps, a better term would “map,” in the metaphorical sense of the word, or even a “compass,” or better yet, both.

An important related idea that we covered in detail in Week #18 here is the idea of our being as a Pilgrim and, accordingly, journeying on a Pilgrimage. I created a special topic on this idea, here.

Calvin’s Heading for Ch 5, Sec.s 3-4

3. Excessive austerity, therefore, to be avoided.
So also must the wantonness of the flesh.
1. The creatures invite us to know, love, and honour the Creator.
2. This not done by the wicked, who only abuse these temporal mercies.

4. All earthly blessings to be despised in comparison of the heavenly life.
Aspiration after this life destroyed by an excessive love of created objects.
First, Intemperance.

Calvin, J., & Beveridge, H. (1845). Institutes of the Christian Religion (Vol. 2, p. 293). Edinburgh: The Calvin Translation Society.

Verses Cited by Calvin in Ch 5, Sec.s 3-4

In the pdf below are the two Bible texts Calvin cites:

Deep Dive of Verses Cited

Below are highlighted interlinear forms of the above two important texts. The first one, from Romans 13, played an important role in Luther’s conversion (and, no doubt, many others before and since).

Romans 13:14

Reserve ESV Interlinear (Reverse: meaning it follows the word order of the ESV), showing the Lemma in Koine and Latin scripts, the Root in Koine, the CODE used by Logos s/w to parse / decline the mss word, and the Strong’s G number that can be used to find other uses in the Bible, both the NT and the LXX.

The superscript letters shown above, “k” and “l” are citations of parallel verses, namely:

  • k: Gal. 3:27; Job 29:14; Ps. 132:9; Luke 24:49; Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10
  • l: Gal. 5:16; 1 Pet. 2:11

As highlighted above, there are two imperative verbs, both in the middle “voice” (meaning one is active in doing such to oneself), the first in the Aorist tense (generally designating whole / entire action, even to being a one-time framing event, such as entering a marriage covenant) and the second in the present tense. The Koine word kai is commonly translated “and,” as in the ESV, but is better in most cases and here (my judgment) conveying the idea of “unto.” This distinction between “and” and “unto” is the first suggests a two-step idea of independent actions, the latter, which is the case here, the second action derives from the first, and only so, especially so because the important tense shift (from aorist in the first verb to present in the second).

The word “provision” is made up of two parts: pro and nous, where nous can be understood as the mind, or ‘thought box,’ and the prefix pro as toward, or before. It conveys an important, beautiful concept: the “make no” is not asserting that there should, in a rightfully aligned Christian (having “put on”) thought that arise from and of the flesh. Rather it is the command to not orient one’s life, environment, thinking, plans, values whereby the fulfillment of the flesh’s lusts, including lusts of the eye (pride) is one’s frame / ‘map’ / ‘compass heading.’ So this text says, in the context of the world’s ‘compass heading’ of “if it feels good…it is good” and “if it feels good…do it”….God’s word says exactly the opposite. The flesh has value, in certain specific ways and contexts actually as given by our Creation, but only as a ‘passenger;’ the flesh makes the worst imaginable pilot.

1 Cor 7:29-31

1 Cor 7:29-31 Reverse ESV

This is a remarkable passage both to its message and Koine. There are four verbs, two of “being” (eimi), highlighted by a red underline, and two present active indicative (statements of present fact), highlighted by red boxes. However, in addition there are 11 (!) participles, all also in the present tense except the first one which is a “perfect” (meaning that it began in some time in the past and continues to the present). Participles are verbs that are used to bring ‘life’ (describe in the sense of movement, action) other words in a sentence. If verbs are bight lights highlighting where and what is happening, participles are like little or not so little blinking lights suggesting that other words have an action element to them. So we might say in English “The running boy went home.” “Running” is the participle form of “to run” and of course describes the “boy,” conveying the idea that there is something more going on than just a boy going home, or even if the sentence replaced “went” with “ran,” as given with the participle it gives us a different, motion oriented picture of the scene.

Further in the above text are some other unusual aspects. As highlighted there are five matched ‘pairs’ of the words “kai” and “hos,” meaning “unto” (as described above in the Romans 13:14 text) and “as though” as translated in the above ESV. These five pairs, together with their accompanying participles, unveil five life-scenes: our unions of marriage (wives), the sorrowful experiences we all have (mourn, though not necessarily related to “wives,” LOL), the joyful experiences of life (rejoicing), the stuff of life (goods), all the many intertwined relationships of life (dealings). Each of these five can be thought of restraining force fields (a deeper subject than I can deal with here). And each of which because (1) time is short, and (2) this world (kosmos) is passing away, should not have a ‘hold’ on our innermost being (eimi, the twice used Koine verb of being).

Two other important words should be noted. The word translated “time” is not the Koine word “chronos,” which means clock time (as in chronometer), but the word “chairos,” which can be better expressed as “era” or “time period” or even “age.” Chairos is the idea that historians use when they characterize periods of historical time, as “medieval” or “the renaissance.” The text above does not give us a context for how long such chairos is, or was to be in the mind of the Corinthians receiving the letter from Paul. Rather it can be grasped as meaning that this period of time, which we know now as at least 2000 years of what is termed “the church age,” is that which connects the end of the OT Mosaic Law and fixed Temple in Jerusalem and all its attendant ceremonials and observances to the end times of the Tribulation, Rapture, Millennium, Great White Throne Judgment, and the New Heavens and New Earth, which will occur in an order and time yet to be known for certain. So, the teaching of this passage is that we are to live, as were the Corinthians, unfettered by our hearts being bound tight to the circumstances of spacetime. The passage does not teach against marriage, as is clear by other texts in this very same Epistle. Nor does it teach ascetic isolation from the world around us, again as made clear by other NT texts and contexts. Rather, our life is not “here”…we are passing through physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

The final word of note is the that which is translated “world,” namely “kosmos.” Kosmos has as its root meaning the idea of an ordered system, and in so ordered with a beauty even harmony and melody, like an orchestrated musical performance. The kosmos that surrounds seeks more than our good behavior as citizens and visitors; it also wants our obeisance. Such lure within the kosmos is the subject of other writing I am doing on The Religious Industry (TRI) and The Political Industry (TPI), two overlapping, even warring and cooperating at the same time, force fields. Such fields only ‘work’ on objects tuned to them, as a magnet to a magnetic field. This above passage is about being ‘unmagnetized’ such that such field has no restraining effect upon us.

What about marriage and wives? Both are clearly taught as a good thing in both the OT and NT, and held in high regard and to a high standard (as in God saying “I hate divorce”). Well, there is marriage, and there is marriage. Certain idealizations of marriage are as though it is the sole meaning of life. Such typically begin with extravagant arrangements for the marriage ceremony itself, compounded by glorious talk like “soulmates” and “forever love” and other terms conveying the belief that the marriage itself is the centralizing feature of life in spacetime. Then there are other, also genuine marriages, that are, me might say, are “down to earth,” just as the those first ones become in a few weeks or days after all that glorious talk fades like applause after a performance. Marriage, like work careers, like buying some very cool object (a motorbike!), are never to be a meaning of life event or experience. Like other features of life, joy of work / accomplishment, the experience of multiple sensations of beauty, so is marriage as it can be, should be. But it is not “life” nor should it be, as the great grip on our spacetime being. This is especially important in the context of death. God’s ideal for marriage is until death creates the separation. Unless by some unique circumstance, such death will not be simultaneous for both the husband and wife, so one will be taken and the other one left (as the song goes). The sorrow of loss is understandably real and deep, but ought not to be an exterminating factor as to the life of the one that remains. The one left behind may be disoriented, even lost for time; but life is not “over” because marriage was not the sole reality of life itself. There is work yet to do, and even joys to experience, for the one that awaits his, or her, ultimate regeneration to God’s heart. And in the meanwhile, the one who has gone ahead is not riding his motorbike through the heavens, or playing some banjo, as though our next life is merely a longer version of our present one with better stuff. Think of the contrast between a womb baby, just an inch or so separated from his or her soon-to-be physical life, and happy to stay were it is. But at a time not of its choosing, mom’s body says ‘out you go’ and the parents say ‘here you come’ to a continuation of your “womb life,” but in a very different form than you, being that very baby back at your own birth, could have ever imagined while in your mother’s womb. And, so, it will be in our ‘ejection’ from spacetime into God’s eternal Presence. (And, yes, I do hope there is sometime motorbike-like, but it won’t be the ‘meaning’ of eternity, just as it was not in spacetime; as to banjos…it’d be ok if they stayed here).

Key of Recognition that We are Pilgrims on Pilgrimage

As Calvin develops the key themes of Ch 5, he stresses the root concept of disengagement from the present world, but in a particular way. Our disengagement is not to be of extreme asceticism, which actually becomes a source of pride much as anorexia can become. Rather, we see ourselves as God does, belonging to a true home that is not of this world, but that ultimate, eternal world, is a “not yet” for us in the here and now. And, so, we journey on.

We need certain things, but only those, from and of the world on such journey. And the world needs something from us, even if only the testimony / proclamation of the Truth of God, the Source of His Word for it to be mocked and rejected. Such is not our delight or hope, but God has long shown us, from the time of Noah’s testimony, that it was and is His Intention to proclaim His Word even to those who will not believe.

And, then, there is that delight of encountering fellow travelers, as did Christian in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, some moving a little faster and in greater peace and faith than us, some a little less so. We take comfort and learn from the first, and give it, as we can, to the latter. And along the way we make known as we have opportunity the Call to that Celestial City up ahead (using Bunyan’s terms for Christian’s ultimate destination).

I have collected in a Special Topic the basic points of Pilgrim, Pilgrimage, here:

Key of Gratitude

Calvin’s Sec. 5.3 begins, as his custom, with the theme (topic) sentence of the Section, and closes it as well. In both places he emphasizes the role of “Gratitude” in aid the balance of the mature Christian Life, keeping it from sliding off on the one hand to self-exalting asceticism as a pagan Stoic might well do or, on the other hand, to licentious (antinomian) living that gives full latitude to the impulses one’s flesh.

How to keep that middle ground. He earlier in Ch 5 made it clear, as does the NT, that there exists a middle ground. Knowing this, deeply, personally, is an important first step. (It should be noted that such middle ground is not the lukewarmness of the Laodicean error in Revelation 3:14ff; such lukewarmness was in regard to its attention to and claims of personal prosperity, being “rich” in material matters, and proud of it as though it were life’s primary accomplishment).

But then comes the details, the mechanics of so keeping on the purposeful middle ground. The key in Ch 5.3 is given as gratitude:

First one restraint is imposed when we hold that the object of creating all things was to teach us to know their author, and feel grateful for his indulgence. Where is the gratitude, if you so gorge or stupify yourself with feasting and wine as to be unfit for offices of piety, or the duties of your calling? Where the recognition of God, if the flesh, boiling forth [D&P “boiling over”] in lust through excessive indulgence, infects the mind with its impurity [D&P “corruption”], so as to lose the discernment of honour and rectitude[D&P “right”]?

Calvin, Beveridge translation. Ch 5.3, p. 117 D&P

Gratitude and the Recognition of the God the Giver

How does gratitude arise? It can be ‘invented’ by some mantra. But genuine gratitude stems from recognizing the Source of all Good, the Benevolent One. God has not only done the great thing, of redemption / propitiation / regeneration to eternal life. He has also overseen every detail of our ongoing life as the most loving Father imaginable. So every truly “good thing” we have, experience, or even know about, is given by God for our benefit, including our joy. However, there are bounds and context of our experiencing the specifics of each such “good thing” from God.

Fitness for Office, Piety, and Duties of One’s Calling

In the above quoted passage, Calvin notes one test for staying on that middle ground is examining how one’s experience of God’s “good thing” aligns with one’s “fitness” for one’s office (God-given responsibilities), for one’s calling (proper, excelling use of God’s gifts), and even one’s personal piety (devotion to God).

Discernment of the Honorable and Right

Another test given by Calvin above is that of discerning whether any particular course of action, or use or, or desire for, a “good thing” from God is intrinsically honorable or right. One of the sad consequences of a life of licentiousness is losing true discernment, whereby one loses even the ability to judge what is honorable as someone might experience the loss of the human senses, such as sound, or sight. Upon a further descent into such error, there can even be a total inversion such that what ‘seems good’ is, in God’s Sight, evil, and vice versa. But so it would appear in such a condition, life in an upside and backwards world. The alternative is to have something like a compass and map, that uses the compass to point to that which is “right” (correct in God’s Eye) and so map out one’s steps to a place that is “honorable”

The Danger of Devotion to Senses

We are each equipped to one degree or another with powerful tools of sensation. From modern biology we know that such sensations cause electro-chemical reactions in our brain along myriad dendrites each interconnected with on the order of thousand other dendrites across small gaps (synapses) that exchange signals by means of neurotransmitters, which in tern activate others neurotransmitters and so on. As we emerge into adulthood and continue until our death various synapses get strengthened–“what fires together, wires together”–creating powerful effects from the particular incoming stimuli (neurotransmitters).

Regardless of how little or much is known about all such biology, we all know this: repeated positive responses to thoughts, or actions, that give brain-pleasure ‘want’ to get repeated, and vice versa. This itself is not evil, again within the middle ground of God’s Call on us. But a life devoted to chasing sensations that boost by whatever means to whatever end the ‘feel good’ interconnections of our mind-body is a life on the way to dissipation and even utter ruin.

Calvin puts it this way: “For many people devote their senses to pleasures so much that their minds are buried in them.” (D&P, p. 118. Calvin’s Latin is:

nam totos suos [for whole his / one’s] sensus [perceive, experience, feel]

multi [all, every] sic [thus, so] deliciis [activity associated with luxuries, toys, ornaments, decorations, even erotica]

addicunt [doom, enslave, confiscate as one’s senses can become imprisoned by sensation],

ut mens [mind] obruta [cover up, bury, ruin, crush]

iaceat [in ruins, prostrate–driven down, even to be dead]:

Calvin’s Latin original text, D&P p. 118

That above sentence captures the ruin of many a young (and old) man (and woman), as the song goes (“The House of the Rising Sun,” but most definitely not “of the Risen Son”).

Devotion to Heavenly Immortality

Calvin begins Ch 5.4 (D&P p. 119) with this important observation:

5.4. There is no surer or quicker way of accomplishing this than by despising the present life and aspiring to celestial immortality. 

Calvin / Beveridge, Ibid.

However, as noted previously, and frequently, such “despising” it not with regard to God’s gifts and calling, including the enjoyments thereof. “Despising” in Calvin’s intention is more akin to the experiences of Pilgrims Christian and Faithful when on their Pilgrimage they necessarily had to pass through the town of Vanity Fair, a place with all day every day deals only in vanities.

Calvin ends this 5.4 section with the following:

Therefore, while the liberty of the Christian in external matters is not to be tied down to a strict rule, it is, however, subject to this law—he must indulge as little as possible; on the other hand, it must be his constant aim, not only to curb luxury, but to cut off all show of superfluous abundance, and carefully beware of converting a help into an hinderance.

Ibid.

The final phrase is particularly noteworthy, as to the always-caution of having a “help” be transformed into a “hinderance.” Missing this has also been the the ruin of many.

Jonathan Edwards and His 70 Resolutions

Jonathan Edwards (1709 – 1754) was one of the ‘giants’ of Christian leadership and theology in the early years of what later became the United States. As a young man he began writing to himself, for himself, “resolutions.” Each was to be reviewed weekly as a reminder to himself of his compass heading, and map, given God’s gifts to him and calling of him. In the course of a few years such resolutions expanded to 70 in number.

Although they were written to be personal, these were found and published and have been available now for more than 250 years. One useful version of these is a grouping by categories. (Edwards’s original was simply in sequential order as they occurred to him). A pdf of such organization of all 70 is given in the pdf below:

Boundaries and Obstacles

Calvin began Ch 5 using the term “rule” in the sense of a guideline for life in the here and now. I think the idea is not “rule” in the sense of “law” or “rules of men,” but more, in terms that I think better fit our language today, a “map” with a “compass” (alas, now GPS).

Just as safety barriers along interstate highways, and bannisters and other railings, serve our safe physical travels and movements, and fences and boundaries mark out for us the direction of the road ahead, we can benefit, and need, parallel versions of such in our spiritual journey / pilgrimage home. Again referencing Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, the Pilgrim Christian found himself in deep trouble when he saw, what appeared to be or was told it would be, an easier shortcut. Those departures did not turn out well.

Boundaries are particularly important when we encounter “obstacles” on God’s road of travel for us. These can lead to resentment (that they exist, “the thorns” of life emanating from Adam’s judgment extending down to us too), stoppages, diversions, and even retreats. In Calvin’s Chapters 2 and 3 on the subject of self-denial he led us through the virtues of these various forms of difficulties of life.

In another Special Topic, I have collected certain thoughts on boundaries and obstacles, here:

The Bible’s Caution Regarding Following the Rules of Men

In the Epistle to the Colossians, there is a wise reminder as to the danger, and error, of following the rules of men (including Edwards, as above).

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

Col. 2:6-15, ESV

Week #20 resources are here:

Pilgrim, Pilgrimage

This special topic derives from Calvin’s Little Book Chapter 5 on how the present life should be viewed. This is Chapter 10 of Book 3 of Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion.

In his Ch 5, Calvin notes the slippery slope as this question of how to live in the near and now where to the one side falls extreme asceticism and withdrawal and to the other side beastial license even antinomianism.

The issue then, seeks for some “rule” of living, that can keep one on the middle ground, consistent with the teaching specifically of the New Testament (NT). We have addressed this beginning in Week #18 Calvin’s study here. In this page, we will pull together from Calvin’s thoughts in his Ch 5 the common theme and propose such a “rule,” more of a perspective of this life.

We Are Pilgrims

Pilgrims are on a journey. It does include stops, visits, and stays, but never truly “belonging” anywhere but on the journey to which they have been called. In the NT there are many “journey words.”

Status as a Pilgrim

One cluster of such words describes the nature of the traveler as given directly below.

parepídēmos (G3927) adj. from pará (3844), near or close to, and epídēmos (n.f.), stranger, which is from epí (1909), in or among, and dḗmos (1218), a people. A stranger, sojourner; not simply one who is passing through, but a foreigner who has settled down, however briefly, next to or among the native people (Heb. 11:13; 1 Pet. 1:1; 2:11; Sept.: Gen. 23:4; Ps. 39:12). Also from epídēmos (n.f.): epidēméō (1927), to reside as a stranger.

pároikos (G3941), alien, sojourner

apódēmos (G590), sojourner, living in another country

xénos (G3581), a stranger, foreigner

allótrios (G245), stranger

allogenḗs (G241), one of a different race.

 Zodhiates, S. (2000). The complete word study dictionary: New Testament (electronic ed.). Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers.

Roads, Ways of a Pilgrimage

Another category of “journey words” relate to the road of travel itself, as given below (and note in particular the OT book “Exodus” means, literally, the ‘out’ (“Ex”) ‘road’ (“Hodos”)):

hodós (G3598) Way. (I) In respect to place, a way, highway, road, street. (II) In action, way, i.e., a being on the way, a going, journey, progress, course. (III) Metaphorically meaning way, manner, means.

éxodos (G1841), way out, exodus, an exit;

hodeúō (G3593), to travel, journey;

hodēgós (G3595), guide, leader;

párodos (G3938), a passing or passage;

sunodía (G4923), a caravan.

drómos (G1408), a race, running, career, course;

poreía (G4197), from verb poreúomai (4198), to go; A going away, a journey, venture (LXX Jonah 3:3). Course of manner of life (Jas 1:11; LXX 2:7)

poús (G4228), foot. Many occurrences, including combined with other words.

tríbos (G5147), a worn path;

trochiá (G5163), a track of a wheel;

tréchō (G5143), to run (intransitive), [many occurrences and uses, including the spread of the Word of God (2 Thes 3:1; LXX Ps 147:14)]

trópos (G5158), manner.

 prókeimai (G4295), prokeímenos, from pró (4253), before or forth, and keímai (2749), to lie. To lie before, to be laid or set before someone. Intrans. (Sept.: Lev. 24:7). In the NT used only figuratively: (I) To lie or be before the mind of someone, to be present before him (2 Cor. 8:12). (II) In Heb. 6:18 prokeiménēs, equivalent to the perf. pass. of protíthēmi (4388), to set forth, “the hope that is set forth” (a.t.). See Heb. 12:1, 2; Jude 1:7, prókeintai, they lie before.

patéō; (G3961) from pátos (n.f.), a path, a beaten way. .

katapatéō (G2662), to trample;

peripatéō (G4043), to walk around.

Zodhiates, S. (2000). The complete word study dictionary: New Testament (electronic ed.). Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers.

Pilgrim as an Outcast

 Yet another aspect of being a Pilgrim is that of being an outcast. In the Gospel of John in two adjoining chapters we have exactly this point illustrated. In John 3 we have the famous passage of a leader of TRI, a Pharisee by the name of Nicodemus, coming to Jesus by night with some questions. His name, Nicodemus, is the union of two Koine words, “nico” which comes from the word “victor” as in “winner,” and “demos” meaning the people. His very name goes with his TRI importance and, possibly TPI importance as well.

In John 4 we have another famous passage this time of a woman, in mid-day, not night, who is unnamed and an outcast from even the Samaritan people who in the eyes of TRI were outcast people as a whole. So the unnamed Samaritan women was truly at the bottom of any ordering of respectable people.

Unlike Nicodemus, was bound tightly with the established order, the Samaritan Woman was unbound, and unwanted, apparently even by the multiple men in her life. The Koine has of course words for “woman “and “man,” gunḗ (G1135) and  anḗr (G435), respectively, but not distinct word for “wife” and “husband.” So when Jesus asked her “Go call your husband, and come here” (John 4:16), the word in the Koine is  anḗr and the translators have interpreted this to mean “husband,” which is entirely plausible, but not necessarily so. Then when the woman replies that she has no  anḗr (which again is commonly translated “husband”) Jesus commends her honesty and says that she had had five  anḗr (plural) and the one  anḗr she present has is not her “husband.” This could be understand that in ever case the best understanding is “man” not husband, meaning that she married none of the five, as well as not the current “man” with whom she is living. Another possibility is that her first  anḗr was indeed her husband, but after divorce of separation or widowhood the rest were “men” not husbands. (I lean to the meaning of “man” / “men” in all six references, the five in the past, and the one then current). Whatever the case, one can conclude that this woman has been on the most-sad ‘journey’ through relationships, or more accurately, brief connections, of what God has designed to be the most-intimate, personal, and permanent relationships. One could say she was looking for true joy in all the wrong places or she was used for such by men, or some combination.

So she, dramatically unlike Nicodemus, though bound to a geographical and racial people, was a stranger and alien from them. This was why she was at the well at mid-day instead of when the woman of a village would customarily gather at the village well in the early morning, before the heat of the day. This woman was not welcome there and then. So her pilgrimage was a most painful one, and for all expectations one that could never be cured, or undone. She was a true outcast, but stuck in her own neighborhood where she was the recurring object of scorn especially by the women of the village, but unworthy of respect by the men. So it is likely that as her life went from “man” to “man,” it went downhill in some scale of measure of the quality of the men, as each succeeding one would have recognized her history and villages then, as know, are such that everyone pretty much knows everything, especially regarding the norm-breakers.

And, so, those who left the confines of the Jewish practice of the Mosaic Law were likewise outcasts in their own neighborhood because they reject TRI, and in particular TRI that had a recognized and privileged position within the Roman Government, TPI. Yet, the Roman TPI did not ‘welcome’ Christians any more than they did the Jews. In fact, such Christians became a particular object of persecution because they fell outside of the circle of tolerance that the Romans had carved out for the Jews who practiced monotheism, and rejected Roman paganism and polytheism.

Given below are outcast-related Koine words used in the NT:

The Epistle of 1st Peter begins with three identifying words of pilgrims as outcasts as shown in the below image:

Although the Epistle of 1 Peter had a specific audience of “elect exiles of the dispersion,” namely those (primarily) Jews located in various regions of Anatolia presently known as Turkey. This very extensive country connects Asia with Europe at its western boundary at the city of Constantinople (presently Istanbul). It’s Western area is where the seven cities of the Book of Revelation (Ch 1, 2) were located and the recipients of two important NT Epistles (Ephesians and Colossians). It was the territory of Paul’s Missionary Journeys which included the central region of Galatia, and the two years Paul was the teacher-in-residence ministering the Word (Ephesus). The Apostle was a native of Celicia a city in southwest Anatolia.

After the two defeats and exiles recorded for us in the Old Testament (OT), first by Assyria and then by Babylon, the Jewish people were subsequently scattered throughout the known world, with only a remnant returning to “Israel” as permitted by the Persian King Cyrus the Great. In time, Israel regrew as a populated area but remained under the political-military control of other nations, first Persia, later the Greeks, and ultimately the Romans.

Within the broad territory of Anatolia, as throughout the known world. Jewish gatherings known as synagogues arose, a term never used in the OT. These synagogues were outposts of Judaism, and holders to the customs and practices of the Mosaic Law. By the nature of tribal divisions, such centers of Jewish people were more than mere places of worship: they were the familiar, community, and economic nucleus of all Jews of that immediate region.

After Pentecost, in ca. 30 A.D., the time of the next generation to the destruction of the City of Jerusalem and its Temple and the Holy of Holies, all these areas became centers of turmoil as we see in the Book of Acts. There were Gentiles turning to God through Jesus Christ and, so, embracing also the Old Testament (which the Jews saw as simple their “bible,” books). Further there were racial Jews and proselytes (Gentiles who had converted to Judaism) in these communities who also became followers of Jesus Christ. As we can see through the Book of Acts and especially in the denouement of Acts, there was vehement opposition to such message of Grace in Christ driven largely by such message claiming to be the complete, genuine fulfillment of the OT and the requirements of the Mosaic Law. The traditional Jewish practice was to abhor the Gentile people on religious grounds, but also social and racial grounds. That was a given norm that was a permanent layer of hatred for 1500 years, going back to the time of the Exodus. What was new, and in a sense even more offensive, was direct challenge to such traditional view of the importance and work of the Mosaic Law, especially by peoples who had been born and were racially Jews themselves. This led to the intense conflict we can see in Acts, but also in the Epistles to the Galatians and Hebrews, and in the so called “General Epistles” including First and Second Peter, James, and Jude.

What is relevant here and to us is that such condition of being dispersed exiles as ascribed by the above image from 1 Peter 1:1 is that although there was a near-term context to Peter it exactly typifies how TRI has (ultimately) treated followers of Jesus Christ. From time to time there are forms of accommodation, and attempts at syncretism, these cannot endure. The claims of Grace in Christ are fundamentally incompatible with the practices of TRI (all this a much broader subject than can be addressed here). The result is that followers of Christ become exiles from north TRI and even TPI when it forms itself into religious structures as it does with historical regularity.

And, so, the addressees of the above clip from 1 Peter 1:1 is us, in some form. We might in certain circumstance become geographical outcasts to avoid torture and martyrdom as were many examples during the Reformation period including Tyndale who fled England for the Continent because his translating the Bible from its original languages into English was deemed a crime against both TRI and TPI of England; ultimately he was captured where he worked in hiding, taken back to England, garroted and burned at the stake. Luther similarly survived in hiding, protected by a German prince from the Roman Catholic embodiment of TRI. There were many others including the St Bartholomew Day Ejection of 1662, and its later Five Mile Act of 1665, a subject worth researching.

In other circumstances the explosion and exclusion manifests by more subtle forces of power, judgment, and disdain. Sometimes within individual families it can extend to a form of expulsion and even hatred, disowning.

The relevance here is that by external circumstances, be they relatively benign (though hateful and painful) or extremely murderous, we become Pilgrims in one way, or form, or another.

Koine NT words that relate to various aspects of being such exiles are given below:

parepídēmos (G3927) adj. from pará (3844), near or close to, and epídēmos (n.f.), stranger, which is from epí (1909), in or among, and dḗmos (1218), a people. A stranger, sojourner; not simply one who is passing through, but a foreigner who has settled down, however briefly, next to or among the native people (Heb. 11:13; 1 Pet. 1:1; 2:11; Sept.: Gen. 23:4; Ps. 39:12). Also from epídēmos (n.f.): epidēméō (1927), to reside as a stranger.

Zodhiates, S. (2000). The complete word study dictionary: New Testament (electronic ed.). Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers.

pároikos (G3941), alien, sojourner;

apódēmos (G590), sojourner, living in another country;

xénos (G3581), a stranger, foreigner;

allótrios (G245), stranger;

allogenḗs (G241), one of a different race.

διασπορά diasporá (G1290) noun from diaspeírō (1289), to scatter abroad. A scattering or dispersion, spoken of the state of dispersion in which many of the Jews lived after the captivity, in Chaldea, Persia, and chiefly in Egypt, Syria and Asia Minor (Sept.: Jer. 34:17). In the NT, it refers to the dispersion of the Jews (James 1:1; 1 Pet. 1:1). In John 7:35 “the dispersed among the Gentiles” means the Jews dwelling either among the Gentiles generally, or among nations that used the Greek language, e.g., in Egypt and Asia Minor, the Hellenists (Sept.: Ps. 147:2).

Ibid.

 Pilgrims as Ones “Called Out From…”

The TRI seeks our banishment, condemnation. And we are not welcome within TPI except as to our responsibilities for payment of taxes, and our honoring it.

But there is another side of such exclusion, namely that we have at the same time been “called out” of TRI and to the extent of its claim of intimate allegiance even TPI.

Even our very important words “Elect“– eklektós (G1588), eklogḗ (G1589)–and “Church“–ekklēsía (G1577), literally “called out ones–begin with the prefix “ek” (in English becoming “ex-“) which means “out from” (just as our common word “exit” is “ex-” + “it”).

eklektó (G1588) from eklégō (1586), to choose, select. Chosen, select. In the group of three important biblical words, eklektós, eklégō, and eklogḗ (1589), choice or election, selection involves thoughtful and deliberate consideration.
(I) Select, choice, elect. Used as an adj. in regard to stone as in 1 Pet. 2:4, 6 quoted from Is. 28:16; see Ezra 5:8. In both of these instances the stone is the Lord Jesus Christ as the one chosen of God the Father to accomplish the work of redemption for sinful man. Of persons, chosen or distinguished as in 1 Pet. 2:9, génos eklektón (génos [1085], generation), “a chosen generation,” referring to the believers in Christ. See Sept.: Is. 43:20. Of angels in 1 Tim. 5:21, referring to them as chosen by God to minister to the special needs of believers.(II) By implication meaning chosen, with the accessory idea of kindness, favor, love, equivalent to cherished, beloved. In Luke 23:35, the enemies of Christ around His cross said, “Let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God,” which means the one cherished and beloved of God and who was selected to accomplish the work of salvation for others. In Rom. 16:13, referring to Rufus, “the chosen one in the Lord” (a.t.), meaning the beloved one as in the previous verse referring to Persis…. The word is used to differentiate those who believe in Christ from those who do not. They are Christians because God chose them from among the lost world to become His followers.

eklogḗ (G1589) noun from eklégō (1586), to choose, select. Election, choice, selection.
(I) Generally as in Acts 9:15, a chosen vessel, an instrument of usefulness.
(II) Election, the benevolent purpose of God by which any are chosen unto salvation so that they are led to embrace and persevere in Christ’s bestowed grace and the enjoyment of its privileges and blessings here and hereafter…
There are two Gr. words that need to be examined in their interrelationship: klētoí (2822), the called ones, and the eklektoí (1588), the chosen ones. No one can be a chosen one unless he is a called one. The initiative always comes from God. In Matt. 20:16; 22:14 the words of Christ are “For many are called, but few are chosen.” These two terms seem to be coextensive, as two aspects of the same process, klētoí, the called, having special reference to the goal, and eklektoí, referring to the starting point. The same persons are “called” to Christ and “chosen out” from the world. All are called by Christ: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).

ekklēsía (G1577) noun from ékklētos (n.f.), called out, which is from ekkaléō (n.f.), to call out. It was a common term for a congregation of the ekklētoí (n.f.), the called people, or those called out or assembled in the public affairs of a free state, the body of free citizens called together by a herald (kḗrux [2783]) which constituted the ekklēsía. In the NT, the word is applied to the congregation of the people of Israel (Acts 7:38).

 Zodhiates, S. (2000). The complete word study dictionary: New Testament (electronic ed.). Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers.

The immediate above “ek” words each convey the meaning of “out from” something. What is that something?

  • Self, self-reliance, personal agenda / mission, self-justification / self-righteousness, “pride of life”
  • The Religion Industry (TRI) which provides means, and ends, for all of the above “self” inclinations, plus its own “self” inclinations, particularly of the persons claiming TRI authorities such as “priests,” people called “father,” people claiming to be “the bishop,” etc.
  • The Political Industry (TPI) which goes beyond the necessary utility of shared expense for shared essentials professionally managed to such ends, and which TPI likewise has emerge people who claim authorities and centralized “values” beyond which they are entitled.
  • Entertainment, broadly speaking, extending beyond the customary “lusts of the eye” and “lusts of the flesh” to becoming a black hole of ones time and attention, and ultimately becomes a the very end / objective of an all encompassing value system.

Markarios: The Blessedness of our Separation

There are two Koine words that are translated “blessed” and “blessedness.” One is the Koine word that transliterated is our English word “eulogy,” which means, literally, good (“eu”) words / speech / oratory (“logos”); it’s what we do at funerals when everyone attempts to frame the deceased’s totality-of-life-now-ended with positive, uplifting thoughts.

The other Koine word from which we get “blessed” does not have a direct English counterpart nor is it easily translated by any single word or even phrase. This Koine word is “makarios.” It is an extremely important word that headlines key passages in the Bible.

  • It is the very first word of Psalm 1, and so of the entire Book of Psalms: “Makarios” is the man who…”
  • It is the first word of each of the nine phrases that begin His ‘Sermon on the Mount:’ “Makarios” are the poor in spirit, …” (Matthew Ch 5)
  • It is the word the Lord uses of the understanding that His disciples had of His Being in contrast to that of TRI. (Matthew 11:6; 13:16)
  • It is the word that the Lord uses to characterize Peter’s ‘Great Confession,’ in answer to the Lord’s Question “Who do you say I am?” with the most crucial reply possible “Thou are THE CHRIST!” To which the Lord replies: “Makarios are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew Ch 16).
  • It is the shout of the crowds upon the Lord’s entrance into Jerusalem at the time of the final Passover (before they would later shout, at the insurrection and command of TRI to “crucify” Him!): “Makarios is He who comes in the the name of the Lord!” (Matthew 21:9).
  • It is the keyword that we, our Christian fellow-pilgrims, will say upon His Return (Matt 23:39).
  • It is what the Lord will say os us as faith servants (Matt 24:46) and upon our welcome into our inheritance of the Kingdom “prepared for you from the foundation (katabolḗ, G2602) of the world (kosmos, G2889)” (Matt 25:34).

A useful, summary definition of makarios is given below:

makários (G3107) adj. A prose form of the poetic mákar (n.f.), blessed one. Blessed, possessing the favor of God, that state of being marked by fullness from God. It indicates the state of the believer in Christ (Matt. 5:3–11, “Blessed . . . for my sake”; Luke 6:20–22, “Blessed . . . for the Son of man’s sake”), said of one who becomes a partaker of God’s nature through faith in Christ (2 Pet. 1:4). The believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit because of Christ and as a result should be fully satisfied no matter the circumstances. Makários differs from the word “happy” in that the person is happy who has good luck (from the root hap meaning luck as a favorable circumstance). To be makários, blessed, is equivalent to having God’s kingdom within one’s heart (Matt. 5:3, 10). Aristotle contrasts makários to endeḗs (1729), the needy one. Makários is the one who is in the world yet independent of the world. His satisfaction comes from God and not from favorable circumstances. Deriv.: makarízō (3106), to declare blessed.
Syn.: eulogētós (2128), blessed, well–spoken of; eulogēménos, blessed; eulogéō (2127), to eulogize, bless, thank.

 Zodhiates, S. (2000)

What must not be missed with respect to “makarios” and all the contexts of our being ‘called out,’ is that such is in the context of some form of suffering even if only the unpleasantness of disengagement from the world (kosmos) system that surrounds us (e.g., TRI and TPI), and even the economic realities of providing our necessary sustenance. Markarios is not about ‘our best life now’ in the earthly prosperity context in which the phrase is used. Makarios is indeed about a ‘prosperity,’ but it’s one that is outside of spacetime, and our normal human imagination or conception, and is the most ultimate, final, and even eternal prosperity of being forever in the presence of God. It is our being called back to that union that we, as the image of God’s Creation had at the beginning, but with a maturity of understanding certain realities of the true fallenness of the world system and the incredible reality of amazing Grace. We, thereby, have attained to the real knowledge of that tree of “knowledge of Good and Evil,” whereby “The Good” was inconceivable until the fullness of “The Evil” was fully expressed even, especially, unto the very rejection, killing, crucifixion by the combined passions of TRI and TPI, and which to their horror actually produced the very “Good” they were seeking to extinguish, as servants of the Serpent himself has been working to do, day and night, since that first question of Eve: “Yea [You, Eve], hath God said…?” (Gen. 3:1, KJV)

baínō  βαίνω

Another important “journey word” that deserves special mention is the simple-to-pronounce and spell: baínō. Baínō never occurs as a standalone word in the NT (hence it has no Strong’s number), though it does in the LXX (e.g. Deut. 28:56), but is used in many places as part of a more complex Koine word and expression.

Baínō means (roughly) “foot,” but in a special sense. It is closely related to basis from which we get the like English word meaning, logically enough, “foundation”, or “grounds of:”

básis; (G939) fem. noun from baínō, to go, tread. A basis, base or foundation from its steadiness (Sept.: Ex. 30:18). The sole of the foot, or in a more general meaning, the foot of a man, which is, as it were, the basis on which he stands or goes (Acts 3:7).

Zodhiates, S. (2000). Ibid.

 The NT testament book we know as “Acts,” or the “Book of Acts,” and sometimes as “The Acts of the Apostles,” would be better titled, in my view as “The Book of baínō.” (I actually do not know whether the extant title we have for “Acts” comes directly from the Koine mss, and so is inspired, or whether it was the consequence of an early copyist).

Here’s my evidence for such claim to retitling “Acts.” In the below pdf are the occurrences of baínō (and its direct relatives) which are embedded in numerous other Koine words in many passages in Acts alone.

Additional background on the meaning of these various occurrences of baínō is given below:

The takeaway point from the above many details is this: in exactly the same way the Lord Himself journeyed about Israel presenting Himself as Messiah, mirrors in a certain way His much more massive, and incomprehensible ‘journey’ from Infinite-Eternal into finite spacetime, and in another way how His Word spread throughout space and time, and peoples, in the NT period, and so it has continued to this very day. Once Adam (our federal representative), and Eve, were cast out of the Garden in Gen. 3, they were not longer ‘home,’ nor in the direct apprehension of God their Creator. They were not, on the other hand, completely plagued as wanderers, as was their first born son, and murderer, Cain who was condemned to the “Land of Nod” (which word means, literally, to no fixed place). Rather Adam (and Eve) were to spread out, fill the earth with their descendants, subduing it in the process (but as a responsible steward, not a looter / vandal). Such spreading out was, in effect, an endless journey, just as Abraham’s example being called out the major “river value civilization” (RVC) of the East, in the Mesopotamian Valley, to the Land (then) of Canaan, and unto Egypt, the major RVC of the West, and back again to Canaan. And we have the example repeated in the life of Jacob, and in David, and many of the OT prophets. And, so, we see it in the Book of Acts (or, of baínō), and so we see it now.

This movement also mirrors the even more difficult journey we each have had, and continue to have, in coming to faith, and pursuing our called course, neither of which would have been possible or our inclination but for the Grace and Calling of God.

Our Present Life as Pilgrimage

One of the most important books of the past 500 years is John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. It was written by Bunyan while a prisoner of the TPI and TRI in England in two parts, 1678 and 1684. He was in prison not as an ordinary criminal, but as one who sought to preach the Word of God from the Word of God, not by the circumspection of TRI. It is no accident that prisoner Bunyan understood something very deeply about being a pilgrim outcast from the world system. Since its original publication it has been re-published countless times more than three centuries since and translated into almost every language on earth. In the humble homes of people who only had two books, the first would have been the Bible, the second Pilgrim’s Progress, with the latter likely the earliest reader of the children.

Bunyan’s book is available in multiple printed forms in any bookstore, by electronic book form, and by free pdfs. Since the very earliest editions extending to the present they have been published with touching illustrations.

What is it about Pilgrim’s Progress that has made it so important? I think the answer begins with the two words of the title: it’s about a Pilgrim–in the first book a man named Christian, in the second book it is his wife Christiana and their sons–and its about a journey, a progression. Those twin ideas captures the essential feature of this life, is the central spirit of Calvin’s Ch 5, and is the theme of the New Testament in contrast to the Old Testament. In the OT, the central design element was the centrality of the place where the Holy of Holies stood, where the festivals, ceremonials, and sacrifices occurred, where the people waited for the true Messiah / Redeemer / Lamb of God. Once that happened, in fulfillment of all the OT’s prophecy and imagery, the theme changes from central location based to a journey home, made crystal clear by God’s use of the Roman Legions to utterly destroy Jerusalem, the Temple Mount, the Temple, the Holy of Holies itself (70 A.D.).

Three Books

The theme of a journey is contained throughout the entire NT, though in a sense hidden there. When the Lord appears in spacetime, one might think that He, like the greatest of all possible Caesar’s and Kings, would sit in utmost magnificence on the throne of the world in complete inaccessible splendor before Whom everyone would prorate themselves. But the opposite was the case.

The Lord was born ‘on the road,’ in a town (Bethlehem) a long journey away from His earthly ‘home’ (Nazareth), neither of which was the central location of Israel / TPI (Jerusalem), nor was it of the central authority of Rome / TRI (Caesarea on the Israel coast, or of course Rome itself in what we know to be Italy).

Further, the Lord’s entire public minister was a traveler, a picture of a Pilgrim, and an outcast of TRI, and ultimately at the very end, a condemned ‘man’ by TPI.

Then, what? We have the Book of Acts which is in its entirely a Pilgrim journey. Then we have all the Epistles which are in scattered locations, having been reached in one way or another by Pilgrim Apostles. It isn’t until the Book of Revelation that we begin to see the great ingathering, and central resolution of all of the dispersion of spacetime, ultimately into the creation of a New Heaven and Earth.

There is a deeper significance to such NT journey imagery and that is the inner journey, between one’s ears and the connect with the heart and mind, that we each must go through. So we see in Nicodemus that he undertook a physical journey to see Jesus, but we do not see that he underwent that inner journey to “see” who he was seeing physically. We then see the immediate contrast with the Samaritan woman at the well. She made no physical journey to see Jesus as she was on her normal daily route and there He was, sitting by the well. However, we see the beautiful imagery of her making an inward journey of grasping Who Jesus really was.

That twin portrayal of physical verse inner journeys is then narrated for us by example after example throughout the rest of the NT.

I have written and self-published a book entitled Three Books. The books are the Gospel of John, Acts, and Romans, the three books that flow in sequence in our Bibles, with highlighting of the texts by distinguishing the physical journeys with the inner, spiritual journeys are taking place.

Resources supporting Three Books are available here: The physical books are presently out of print (all of the originally printed copies have been given away, save my own).

Life by Pack

We all know the experience of the walk around the block, or in the park, or to class or work. But a difference occurs when it’s a “hike” somewhere. For a “day hike” we would take a small “pack” with the essentials, as we see them, for a few hours, perhaps just water and a snack. For an “overnight hike” it’s more complicated as “necessity” may require a tent, or hammock, sleeping bag and pad, a toiletry kit, and so forth. For a “backpacking trip” such as a week or more, the list gets longer, the pack gets bigger, and we begin thinking more carefully about (1) what is truly “necessities” and (2) what are taking, or not taking and should be taking, that contributes to the peculiar enjoyment / purpose of such hike.

Then there are backpacking trips known as a “thru-hike.” Such a thru-hike is backpacking trip that extends end-to-end of a significantly long trail, one for which the duration cannot be exactly known, because of the distance involved and matters of weather, personal exhaustion, equipment breakdowns, and so forth. In the United States well-known thru-hikes include the Appalachian Trail (the AT, as it’s known, 2189.1 miles, exactly), the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT, 4271 miles), the Continental Divide (3100 miles), the American Discovery Trail (6800 miles), and many others.

Then there is “bike packing,” as with pedal bikes. These are different than hike-packing as the loads that can be carried are greater, the distances that can be covered further, and by the repair / maintenance tools and parts wisdom and practice requires.

Then there is “motor biking” as travel by motorbikes. Here the load carrying ability is even greater, accompanied by mechanical complexity, tools, and the need for spare parts, and of course the speed and possibility of extremely long distances including “Round the World” (RTW rides).

Finally there is “overland travel” typically by all terrain vehicles, often to desolate far flung exotic locales, and as part of RTW experiences. Here, again, load carrying capabilities increases further but as does the mechanical and electronic complexities.

What is interesting to us about each of these ‘life by pack’ examples is that such travelers must think carefully about both the “necessities” and the experience “multipliers” of the travel being planned. Too much, or too little, of either “necessities” or “multipliers” becomes a bad thing, even a very bad thing.

The Great Discarding of ‘Necessities’

Continuing with the metaphor of travel by pack one of the universal experiences is the discarding what was originally taken, deemed as “necessities,” but were soon found neither to be such, being the very opposite of helpful they were only burdensome.

Have you not had this experience? You packed and packed for some journey, making choices, finding containers, stuffing them full, getting more containers, actually buying more stuff, and yet thinking of yet more stuff until finally the exhaustion of time before needing to leave saves you from an endless gathering.

If you were carrying such on a backpack, you found it heavier than you possibly imagined. But the enthusiasm of those first steps on the trail you begin with a naive optimism. Yes it’s a great burden, but at least you have everything you “need.” Usually by the end of that first or second day of travel–sometimes by midday of that first day–you conclude that this cannot be endured, survived. What then? For some, they literally turn back, vowing to never backpack again. Others may begin to make a little pile alongside the trail with a small lettering of “free,” or offers to other hikers that pass by. The most common outcome is that at the first little store encountered there is a discussion with the proprietor who knows already your request. “Yes” they say, “we can box and ship this to your home for you,” at a mind numbing cost of postage. That leads to another inspection your pile of discarded ‘necessities’ as to their intrinsic worth compared to the substantial cost even of the simple postage to return to where you first extracted it. And, in turn, that often leads to some version of the 80:20 split, whereby 80 percent is offered to a giveaway (or throwaway) pile, and only some 20 percent is found to be worthy of postage.

Alas, that is not the end of the discard of ‘necessities.’ That was only your learning from the first couple of days of travel. Usually there are two more discard episodes as the days wear on and the true value of ‘necessities’ as a principle emerges. (Along the way, you get leaner as well–another inner blessing of the travel).

There are many quite funny, and some very touching, stories of such paring down. And it does not only occur with backpacking. Bikepacking, motorbike-packing, and even RV travel camping have very similar experiences though of varying degrees of intensity and timing. If you are a traveler, a journey-person, a pilgrim, the idea of “necessity” gain an emergent meaning that only a fellow traveler understands, and which becomes a shared experience.

The Great Need for Sources / Occasions / Opportunities of Joy, Meaning

Travel by pack is not about optimal necessities. Life is more than necessities, though they are (some of them, some of the time) necessary. Calvin’s Ch 5 makes the important point that beyond and distinct from necessities are, from his Latin word–oblectamentum–which has a rich semantic range of meaning:

  • Delight
  • Pleasure
  • Enjoyment (note: “in” the state / condition of “joy”)
  • Recreation (note: “re” [again] “creation”)

The Latin word helps us think more deeply than a simple English word such as “pleasure,” which can, at first glance, lead to shallow thoughts. The idea here is something deeply satisfying, enriching.

The Pilgrim’s Pilgrimage is not a grimace of endless pounding the pavement, mindless head-down grinding ever forward. It can be that, especially in certain seasons of life. But God intends us to have a particular, and I would say peculiar (that is to us as individuals), experience of deep joy and satisfaction.

So what is in my pack that is beyond (real) necessities?

Real Physical World Pack-Travelers

in the below pdf, I have collected several images of keys to success in physical world pack-travelers, using primarily examples from motorbike adventure travelers, with additional points from the world of backpackers and even the famous long-distance plane and pilot, Charles Lindberg. I could easily add another important example category that of pedal bike-packing. Finally I would note another area in which I had direct experience, sending men to the moon of the Saturn Apollo missions of 1960-1973. In every one of these examples there was the central battle of determining the “necessities” and the “oblectamentum.”

Here’s that pdf:

Calvin’s Little Book, Week #18

This week we will cover the first two sections of Calvin’s Little Book, Ch 5. This final chapter is on the the important follow on topic to our call to heavenly focus on Ch 4, namely: how do we straddle this life, focused on the next but living in the present one.

Ch 5: How the Present Life and Its Comforts Should Be Used

As Calvin relates, and our own experience reflects, there are two opposite perspectives, both wrong. The one is the monastic, ascetic, utter withdrawal from earthly life to some even unto literal isolation, but to others a non-being beingness, and still to others extreme denial of as many physical comforts as possible, and proud of doing so.

The opposite extreme is closely related to antinomianism (no “law” in Christ means no boundary on whatever impulse / appetite one may have), namely everything and anything should be enjoyed to the full, which is sometimes expressed as “if it feels good do it,” or “if it feels good it is good.”

In Ch 5 of Calvin he lays out for us a middle course that is consistent with the Bible’s teaching. Jesus began His public miracles with the converting of water into wine at a wedding feast. In accordance with typical custom of that time, such celebration might last a week, and involve the entire village. That sounds physically joyful. Likewise on the last night, the night on which He was later betrayed, the Lord had a special meal with his disciples.

On the other hand, the Lord’s own life example began by His birth in a stable in a feed trough (“manger”) for sheep or goats, even in a humble small town, not the major city of Jerusalem with the palaces, and of course the Temple itself. During her growing up years He lived in another nondescript village, Nazareth, in the ‘outback’ of Israel, the Galilee region. Then in His three year public ministry He travelled about on foot, like an ordinary person of the time, experienced thirst and hunger, and the need for sleep and rest. His only earthy possession (that we know) was the garments He wore and even that was stripped from Him by His crucifiers.

Calvin’s Heading

From the Beveridge translation we have the below headings Calvin assigned to Ch 5 and Sec. 1 and 2.

How to Use the Present Life, and the Comforts of It

The divisions of this chapter are,—
I. The necessity and usefulness of this doctrine.
Extremes to be avoided, if we would rightly use the present life and its comforts,
Sec. 1, 2. II. One of these extremes, viz., the intemperance of the flesh, to be carefully avoided.
Four methods of doing so described in order, sec. 3–6.

Sections

1. Necessity of this doctrine.
Use of the goods of the present life.
Extremes to be avoided.
1. Excessive austerity.
2. Carnal intemperance and lasciviousness.

2. God, by creating so many mercies,
consulted not only for our necessities, but also for our comfort and delight.
Confirmation from a passage in the Psalms, and from experience.

 Calvin, J., & Beveridge, H. (1845).  Institutes of the Christian religion (Vol. 2, p. 293). Edinburgh: The Calvin Translation Society.

Scripture Cited by Calvin in Sec.s 1-2:

A pdf of the two verses cited by Calvin is directly below:

The Value and Use of a “Rule” or “Model”

Calvin returns to a theme idea he used in Ch 1, namely that of a “rule” or “model” for living to guide one’s day to day walk, choices, perspectives.

In the D&P translation we see:

  • “Composing a rule for life” (2nd sentence of the opening paragraph of Sec. 5.1, p. 111)
  • “We should hold to some rule so that we can use the things of this world…with a pure conscience.” (later in this same opening paragraph)
  • “The Lord prescribes this rule in His Word…life is a kind of pilgrimage…” (opening sentence of the 2nd paragraph, still on p. 111)
  • rule” also occurs in the context of misuse at the top of p. 113.
  • “…Scriptures gives us general rules for the proper use of external things…restrain ourselves according to those rules.” (occurring twice in the closing sentence of 5.1, p. 114)

In Sec. 5.2, Calvin refines such rule / model discussion by reference to us being “governed” by God’s purposes in “creating and designing” things of this world “for us.” (5.2, opening paragraph, p. 114). Such design of God includes things / matters / experiences intended for “our pleasure and enjoyment.” (same opening paragraph).

Digging Deeper on Calvin’s “Rule”

The Latin phrase from which the first occurrence of “rule” is as follows: utendum quoque necessariis vitae adminiculis [also use the necessary life aids]. The Latin word translated “rule” (or as Google has it, “aids”) comes from adminiculum, which can be parsed into three parts: “ad” + “manus” + “culum.” Ad means toward or at, manus means hand (so a manuscript is a hand-writing), and culum mean tool. So adminiculum is something that supports, helps, assists. This is a better understanding that “rule,” which is freighted more with “law” and something external and looming. Calvin appears to be teaching that we need a support / assist that can help us readily navigate the myriad choices, and temptations, we face each day.

The Two Errors on Either Side of Such Rule / Model

So, such rule / model cannot be the automatic “if it feels or looks good…it is bad” that have down through the centuries been the prescription of some (wayward) followers of Christ (if they were indeed such followers). Extreme self-denial is often a manifestation of pride, and self-achievement. It is also the ‘coin’ used by people who believe they in some way earn their way to heaven, achieve sufficient merit for their justification. For such a perspective, ‘less is more, or better’ in that it gives more evidence for God looking down upon such acts to be impressed by them (as though such were the case). What we contribute to our salvation is the sin that necessitated it. (A brilliant summary of true Redemption, that is not original to me, but I don’t know its attribution).

On the other hand, and there is another error on the other side of this question, Calvin makes clear that such realization that God’s gifts are to be enjoyed can be a “truly slippery slope” (p. 112). This is because “unbridled desire [can be, often is?] perpetually taken too far.” (p. 112). “Self-indulgence” is not the right response to enjoying God’s gift.

At the beginning of Ch 4, Calvin used a Latin word translated “mire” by D&P that is more accurately “beastial” (Lat. belluinum) namely the unrestrained reactive impulsive expression of those beasts of the wild. This would be a rightful term for someone who falls to the wrong side of this freedom we have been given to delight in God’s gifts. Three times in Ch 4 and 5 he uses the Latin words “bruta” and “brutas,” both conveying the idea of “brutish” that is beastial-like (Sec. 9.1, shortly after the above cite; 9.5 about 10 lines down; 10.3 about 8 lines from the end; and multiple additional times in his Institutes, beyond our five little chapters in his Little Book).

Biblically-Inspired Thoughts on the Errors of Such “Rule” “Adminiscullis”

Consider the following references as to how, or in what way, error as to the use of this world and its goods can occur.

  1. The Ten Commandments, especially #10
  2. Numbers #1-9 of the Ten Commandments
  3. “I Know, I’ll Just Build a Bigger Barn”
  4. Ananias and Sapphira
  5. The Lesson(s) of Ecclesiastes
  6. Eve’s Choice (Gen. 3)
  7. Luke 16:14 re the Pharisees
  8. 2 Timothy 3:2 re Latter Day Man
  9. Judas and the Anointing Oil
  10. The Pharisees Hypocrisy as to the Grounds by which they Criticized Both John the Baptist and Jesus
  11. The ‘Rule’ of Thinking of Job’s Wife and His Three Friends
  12. The Corinthians and their ‘Celebration’ of the Lord’s Supper
  13. The Corinthians ‘Tolerance’ of Certain Sexual Behavior
  14. The Lesson from 1 John 2:16
  15. The Sin of Achan, the Defeat at Ai (Josh 7)
  16. The ‘Gift’ Sought by Gehazi, and the One He Received (2 Kings 5)
  17. The First Miracle, the Wedding at Cana
  18. The Prayer of the Canaanite Woman of Matt 15
  19. The Prayer of the Two Blind Men of Matt 20, and the
  20. The Prayer of Bartimaeus (Mark 16; Luke 18)

What “rule” can you extract from these 20 examples?

A Proposed “Rule” / Guideline for Life Here and Now

Calvin makes use of a useful term in his discussion of living the present life in light our real life, the one yet-to-come in its full form, namely that our life here is a “Pilgrimage:”

The Lord prescribes this rule in His Word when He says that this present life is a kind of pilgrimage for His people, wherein they eagerly travel toward the heavenly kingdom.

Calvin’s Little Book, D&P Sec. 5.1, p. 111.

Pilgrim?

Words change their meaning over time, and by usage. Pilgrim is a rarely used word today and when it appears it calls back memory to the people (sometimes known as “the Separatists”) who came by ship from England early in the 17th Century to escape religious persecution and disfunction, to create a new world order. And, so, we think of black clothing, certain unusual to our eyes hats, and Thanksgiving.

The word “pilgrim” comes from the Latin pelegrinus (or peregrines; the French expression changes the “r” to an “l” the German the “n” to an “m” and thus “pilgrim”); the root meaning is to be a “traveler,” but in the sense of being an extended, even unending traveler. A derived sense of the word is then being that of a “stranger” as wherever such pilgrim encounters settled peoples he is such to them.

“Pilgrimage” describes the travel, and travel-purpose, of the “Pilgrim.” Calvin uses the term in Ch 10.1 (D&P 5.1) as follows:

Latin peregrinationem
[quum docet, vitam praesentem quandam peregrinationem suis esse, qua in coeleste regnum contendunt;
when He teaches that their present life is a pilgrimage by which they strive for the heavenly kingdom]

French. pelerinage
[que la vie presente est à ses serviteurs comme un pelerinage par lequel ils tendent au Royaume celeste;
that the present life is to His servants as a pilgrimage by which they tend to the heavenly Kingdom]

 Calvin, J. (1888). Institution de la Religion Chrétienne (p. 331). Genève: E. Beroud & C.
Calvin, J. (1834). Institutio Christianae religionis (Vol. 1, p. 464). Berolini: Gustavum Eichler.

“Pilgrim” has evolved to connote a religious or spiritual significance, particularly with respect to a “sacred” destination. The famous story by John Bunyan of Pilgrim’s Progress is exactly such an example, as it is of a man named Christian who receives a vision that his home village, The City of Destruction, will become its namesake, and is called to pass through a “Wicker Gate” on a long journey guided by a man name “Evangelist” to his destination, “The Celestial City. This book is frequently cited as the most published book in the English language after the Bible itself.

The point of being a pilgrim is a purposeful going somewhere, while most-definitely not as a tourist. There is meaning to be sought, and found, on the journey itself–the Pilgrimage–and the destination. It some cases, it is the journey that becomes the meaning; this was the claim of ‘The Wizard’ in the famous movie The Wizard of Oz. In other cases it is only upon reaching the destination and deriving its meaning that the journey comes to express its own true meaning. In such contexts the use of the terms–pilgrim, pilgrimage, the journey, the destination–are all freighted with religious tones.

We Being Pilgrims, on Pilgrimage, Means What (as a Rule(s) of Life)?

Calvin makes further use of the term “Pilgrimage” as below (here I’ve taken the text from the Allen translation which precedes even the Beveridge one):

It behoves us, therefore, to observe moderation, that we may use them with a pure conscience, whether for necessity or for pleasure. This the Lord prescribes in his word, when he teaches us, that to his servants the present life is like a pilgrimage, in which they are travelling towards the celestial kingdom.

 Calvin, J., & Allen, J. (1816).  Institutes of the Christian religion (Vol. 2, p. 196). New-Haven; Philadelphia: Hezekiah Howe; Philip H. Nicklin

Calvin’s Latin: Modum ergo tenere oportet, ut pura conscientia sive ad necessitatem, sive ad oblectamentum utamur: eum Dominus verbo suo praescribit, quum docet, vitam praesentem quandam peregrinationem suis esse, qua in coeleste regnum contendunt. 

Calvin’s French: Ceste mesure nous est monstrée de Dieu, quand il enseigne que la vie presente est à ses serviteurs comme un pelerinage par lequel ils tendent au Royaume celeste.

 Calvin, J. (1888).  Institution de la Religion Chrétienne (p. 331). Genève: E. Beroud & C.
Calvin, J. (1834).  Institutes of the Christian religion (Vol. 1, p. 464). Berolini: Gustavum Eichler.

The answer to the practical, down to earth and here and now “so what?” question of life, what does it practically mean for us to see ourselves as a Pilgrim on Pilgrimage? This issue warrants a separate special topic, which is given here.

What picture does such description of the Christian Life pending our final redemption, resurrection to new Life, bring to mind as a rule of Christian living, specially of a “Mature Christian” (or a seeking to be such), as the is the sometimes title of Calvin’s Little Book?

Week #19 resources are here:

Calvin’s Little Book, Week #17

This week we conclude Calvin’s Ch 4 of his Little Book (Beveridge translation of Calvin’s Institutes, Book 3, Chapter 9) beginning with Sec. 5 and concluding with Sec. 6.

Calvin’s Heading

The Beveridge translation gives us his translation of Calvin’s headings for 4.5 and 4.6 of Chapter 4 “Of Meditating on the Future Life:”

5. Christians should not tremble at the fear of death.
Two reasons. Objection. Answer. Other reasons.

6. Reasons continued. Conclusion.

 Calvin, J., & Beveridge, H. (1845). Institutes of the Christian religion (Vol. 2, p. 285). Edinburgh: The Calvin Translation Society.

Verses Cited by Calvin

Calvin’s Theme / Summary

Calvin is a very organized thinker and succinct writer. As a rule the opening sentence or brief collection of sentences, together with the closing sentence or two encapsulates his observations of each Section. So, an excellent way to see the big picture before reading is to examine these ‘bookend’ sentences before reading the Section and then after reading to go back and review the same.

For Calvin 4.5, The Theme and Conclusion is as Follows (Beveridge)

Theme:

5. But, most strange to say, many who boast of being Christians, instead of thus longing for death, are so afraid of it that they tremble at the very mention of it as a thing ominous and dreadful

Ibid., opening sentence of Calvin 4.5

 Conclusion:

Therefore, let us come to a sounder mind, and how repugnant so ever the blind and stupid longing of the flesh may be, let us doubt not to desire the advent of the Lord not in wish only, but with earnest sighs, as the most propitious of all events. He will come as a Redeemer to deliver us from an immense abyss of evil and misery, and lead us to the blessed inheritance of his life and glory.

ibid., ending two sentence of Calvin 4.5

For Calvin 4.6, the Theme and Conclusion are as below:

Theme

6. Thus, indeed, it is; the whole body of the faithful, so long as they live on the earth, must be like sheep for the slaughter, in order that they may be conformed to Christ their head, (Rom. 8:36.) Most deplorable, therefore, would their situation be did they not, by raising their mind to heaven, become superior to all that is in the world, and rise above the present aspect of affairs, (1 Cor. 15:19.)

Ibid., opening two sentences of Calvin 4.6

Conclusion

To conclude in one word, the cross of Christ then only triumphs in the breasts of believers over the devil and the flesh, sin and sinners, when their eyes are directed to the power of his resurrection.

Ibid., closing sentence of Calvin 4.6, and of Calvin’s Chapter 4, “Of Meditating on the Future Life”

Desire to Preserve Existence

Calvin begins 4.5 discussing our natural desire for continuing our existence in spacetime.  Except for extreme situations of physical or emotional pain whereby end-of-existence, or non-existence, may appear the better option, we all by nature cling to the life and circumstances of it that we now have.

But Scripture’s call is to another life, after this one.  But it is indeed difficult to give up the one life we have here for an unknown yet-to-come, especially if plagued by the uncertainty of God’s final judgment upon us.

Calvin reminds us, using the phrase of D&P, that as true believing Christian by our piety be one who “conquers and suppresses fear by a stronger feeling of consolation.”  This is one great test of true belief and proper understanding of Scripture.

Death is to be something different than the mere resignation of inevitability, though inevitable it is.  A Christian testimony to oneself and all others at that finality of physical life is a truly unique opportunity to reveal true faith.

The Consolation that Surpasses any Fear

Let us look at a key sentence fragment from Calvin’s original Latin (which I have highlight to match to the English translation):

lumen, quod maiori consolatione qualemcunque illum timorem superet ac supprimat.
light, which by greater consolation surpasses and suppresses that fear of any kind.

Calvin, J. (1834). Institutio Christianae religionis (Vol. 1, p. 462). Berolini: Gustavum Eichler.

Surpassing Consolation

As highlighted above in bold, Calvin uses the Latin word from which we directly get the English “consolation.” However, to our ear, and mind, “consolation” sounds like a poor, even losing substitute for something that could have been good, or even wonderful. When we speak of a “consolation prize” (a phrase first used in 1853, 300 years after Calvin) everyone understands that is what’s given to someone who did not ‘win’ the ‘real’ prize. Or when we are “consoling” someone we are helping them to process the disappointment of some actual result in contrast for a hoped for result to aid them in coming to acceptance, and only that.

The key here is the word “surpassing.” This word is in reference to something that is greater, or beyond, that which it is being used to make comparison.

Our issue, then, is what makes life to come, in heaven with God, “greater” (in comparison, and surpassingly so) and how do we know?

  1. Home at Last (2 Cor. 5:8 we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. ESV)
  2. The Beatific Vision: The Sight that makes truly happy. (1 Cor. 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. ESV)
    [Thomas Aquinas “Even as we hold by faith that the last end of man’s life is to see God, so the philosophers maintained that man’s ultimate happiness is to understand immaterial substances according to their being.” which even present desire drives our quests.]
    [The notion of vision stresses the intellectual component of salvation, though it encompasses the whole of human experience of joy, happiness coming from seeing God finally face to face and not imperfectly through faith. Wikipedia]
  3. The Satisfaction of Perfect “Rest” (contra endless restlessness) (Ps 17:15 I shall behold Your face in righteousness; I will be satisfied with Your likeness when I awake. ESV. The true “Rest In Peace,” R.I.P., not the carcass lying beneath a gravestone)
  4. Eternal Being / Existence (no ‘specter of death’ & its finality) (2 Tim. 1:10 but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Isaiah 25:8 He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces…” ESV)
  5. A body (instantiation of being) made specifically by God for heaven for eternity, the restoration (John 14:3 If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. 2 Cor. 5:2-4 For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. ESV)
  6. No longing, inclination, desire for sin: non posse peccare instead of
    posse non peccare while at the same time non posse non peccare
  7. Knowing, as in ever knowing, God face-to-face (Job 19:26 “Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall see God.” ESV)
  8. Joy of Glorifying God, the Highest Good, the Greatest Beauty (Ps 86:12 I will give thanks to You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, And will glorify Your name forever. ESV)
  9. Every deepest need met (Rev. 17:16-17 “They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat; for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.” ESV)
  10. Creative work to do: God is the Greatest Creative Being. The parable of the the 5 Talents (Matt. 25:14) and 10 Minas (Luke 19:13ff) has as the result, more Talents and more Minas for yet more investment.

Cyprian on Mortality

Calvin in Sec. 4.5, p. 103 (D&P) cites Cyprian’s book On Mortality for further reading on the matter of fearing death.

Cyprian lived in Carthage, a famous city and former city-empire, near present day Tunis in Tunisia on the Mediterranean coast of North Africa. Carthage was the leading city of the Mediterranean before the rise of Rome, It was ultimately destroyed by Rome in about 150 B.C. after a series of wars known as the Punic Wars. It was later rebuilt by the Romans as one of their leading trading ports. Cyprian (210 – 258 A.D.) was a Christian leader in Carthage during this second era of its history.

The book Calvin cited was written in A.D. 251/252 based on a series of messages Cyprian gave to the church (churches) in Carthage. The particular context was the prevalence, and horror, of death by some form of pestilence / virus that had swept over much of the Roman Empire. It has become known as the Cyprian Plague not because Cyprian was the cause of it but from Cyprian’s writing of its effects. This is timely for our time (2020 / 2021) as we are experiencing a worldwide plague from a virus named COVID.

Many people of Cyprian’s day suffered horrible physical deaths with of course very limited medical technologies and medicines. The not-yet-death suffered greatly as well both from the death of family and friends but also from the terror of knowing the fragility of their own mortality, and helplessness in the face of the invisible but real plague.

Cyprian’s book admonished and comforted Christians by reminding them of their true, eternal life, that whatever it is of this world is passing and not their true home. From the perspective of Calvin, who was writing his Institutes (and our Little Book) 1300 years later, and from ours nearly 1800 years later, we can see that an earlier-than-expected death from the plague is little different from however long a hoped-for physical existence might then have been. We all liver here for a very very short time, plague or not, “early” death or “late.” The important points of Cyprian is that our eyes belong outside this world regardless of how many or few days they will be physically present in time.

Cyprian’s life and the cited book are worthy of consideration for several reasons:

His perspectives on eternal / heavenly life contrasted with the present mortality.

His writing in the early years (251 /252) of what was to be a ca 15-year plague (250 – 265) anticipates the dramatic adverse effect it had on the Roman Empire itself both in terms of population devastation but also military and economic fortitude.

Cyprian’s life becomes a demonstration of the innate hatred of The Political Industry (TPI) of its time, the Roman Empire, toward any people or group who does not give in, TPI, its primary, even sole, even soul, obeisance. During the date of his writing On Mortality coincided with the beginning persecution of the then Roman Emperor Decius (the “Decian Persecution). A few years after writing On Mortality, in A.D. 258, Cyprian was confronted with the demand of TPI, and an Emperor who succeeded Decius, to offer sacrifices to the Roman Emperor (or “for” the Roman Emperor), to be attested and certified by a document, something like a ‘passport’ permitting him to live. He declined and was beheaded for doing so. Having then survived the plague of the biological virus, he (and others) were exterminated by the plague of the virus of TPI. But God has His Own Providence at work: Decius was Emperor for just two years, 251 -252, as he was killed in battle, along with his son, fighting the ‘barbarians’ infringing the Empire’s borders, enemies who were attacking Rome’s claims of sovereign territorial rule, and so becoming the first Emperor in Roman history to die in battle by the and of its enemies. Decius along with massive losses of Roman Legions perished trapped, surrounded in a swamp; his body was not found, nor gathered up for some glorious internment in the Forum of Rome.

The Cyprian Plague was a turning point in the history of the Roman Empire. The Second Century A.D. is known as Pax Romana, the Law of Rome. This designated a century-plus period that rule, law, and order existed through the vast Roman territories. This greatly facilitated the spread of the Gospel. Beginning in the Third Century a long slide from prominence began from which the Western half of the Empire was doomed to fall in the Fifty Century.

Finally, in Cyprian’s book we see numerous quotations of the Bible. This is a significant example of the prevalence of Scripture, and the faithful correspondence of the text to our translations today. Cyprian quotes from multiple books of the NT and even from the OT. He must have had access to number mss, some or all of which may have been first generation copies of the Autographs of the NT. In the 1920s an important manuscript known as the Beatty Manuscript, or P46, was found. It’s date is estimated as 150 to 250 A.D., with a working estimate of 200 A.D., predating Cyprian’s writing. Could Cyprian have known about P46? Seen it? Used it?

Below are two pdfs relating to Cyprian. The first is a general introduction of Cyprian and his time, and of Carthage itself. The second is Cyprian’s book On Mortality, which I have highlight two ways: the yellow highlights are of key points on the subject of the book, the blue or green highlights are of quotations Cyprian gives from the Bible.

Deep Dive of Calvin-Cited Verses

2 Cor 5:2-4

Titus 2:11-14

Week #18 resources are here:

The World as Evil and It’s Best as Vanity Fair

Calvin’s Little Book in Chapters 4 and 5 distinguishes our life and calling from that of the World’s. This message is particularly acute for our time when The Religion Industry (TRI) has taken over much of Christendom and proclaims the opposite of Calvin’s, and the Bible’s message, namely: that our calling is to make friends with the World, and derive, thereby, the many treasures / benefits that it has to offer. And, such, is the meaning of life itself, as far as it really matters.

Calvin’s Characterization of the World

In the citations below, the quoted word used by Calvin as to the World is from the D&P translation with its page number in brackets.

  • Mire {p. 89};
  • Empty (wealth, power, and honor) {89}
  • Wars, uprisings, robberies, injuries {90}
  • Frail, tottering riches {90}
  • Disease, danger, unstable, fleeting (even the “good things”) {91}
  • Troubled, turbulent, attended by many miseries and never entirely happy {91}
  • Uncertain, passing, vain, spoiled, mixed with many evils {91}
  • Chains (of extravagant love) {92}
  • Miserable condition (of our earthly life) {94}
  • (our depraved and stupid admiration of it) as if it contained within itself the sum of our greatest goods {94, 95}
  • Struggles (place of) {96}
  • Miserable condition {97}
  • (a place that draws our) Twisted ambition of this life {97}
  • Foul and unfortunate {98}
  • (place of) Grief and tears {98}
  • Mortal life…with noting in it but misery {98}
  • (a place) Submerged in death {99}
  • (our body) A Prison {99}
  • Captive in the bonds of our flesh, lamenting, sighing {100}
  • (a place of) Sin’s mastery {101}

Calvin’s Instruction as to Our Proper Response to the World?

Calvin gives us this counsel as to what should be our perspective of the World:

  • Scorn {p. 92}
  • Worthless {92}
  • Contempt {95}
  • Disentangled (ourselves from excessive desire for this life) {97}
  • Dragged away (from our twisted love of this life) {97}
  • Safely disregarded {98}
  • Thoroughly despised and scorned {99}
  • Place of exile {99}
  • Weariness and hatred (of it) desiring it’s end {99}
  • (a place that makes us) Liable to sin {99}
  • Lamenting, sighing, having a burning desire for deliverance {100}
  • Scorn this life {101}
  • (readiness) To give up this life as soon as it should please the Lord {101}

Calvin’s Instruction as to Our Proper Response to God (even in this World)?

Interwoven through the above litany of woe, Calvin reminds us that our present place is our “outpost” and that God gives us, even in this World as it is, certain joys and especially future hopes. See the below quoted excepts from p. 95-97 (D&P).

  • “However, the contempt for this present life [World] that believers should cultivate shouldn’t produce hatred of this life or ingratitude toward God.”
  • “[this life / the World] Should be considered one of God’s blessing”
  • “We’re guilty of ingratitude to God if we fail to recognize something of Diving blessing in this life.”
  • “Indeed, believers in particular should see evidence of divine kindness in this life, since everything in it has been designed to further their own salvation.”
  • “Before He openly presents to us our inheritance of eternal glory, God desires to declare Himself our Father through smaller proofs. Such proofs are the good gifts He daily bestows on us.”
  • “Therefore, it’s right that we clothe ourselves in this attitude of affection–that we place this life among those gifts of divine kindness that shouldn’t be disdained.”
  • “…concluded that this earthly life of ours is a gift of divine mercy–and grateful recollection of this is our obligation…”

Is Calvin’s Characterization Biblically Founded?

The Wisdom Literature of the OT

Book of Job

Psalms

Proverbs

Ecclesiastes

Song of Solomon

Bunyan’s Vanity Fair in Pilgrim’s Progress

Below is the chapter on one of the many trials and temptations of the Pilgrim, a man named “Christian,” on his journey from his home city, “Destruction,” to his heavenly home, “The Celestial City.” This part of the story is about an unavoidable city that Pilgrim must pass because the road to the Celestial City goes right through the heart of it.

The name of the city is “Vanity Fair.” A fair is of course a central square whereby merchants and buyers from all over the country can gather to sell and buy the best of the wares of the land. In many time and places, such as Calvin’s own day in Geneva Switzerland, there was a pedestrian version of this known as “Market Day,” every Saturday. Similar events take place in the United States on designated weekly mornings under various titles such as “Farmer’s Markets.” At Christmas season many cities, famously in Germany, have large festival gatherings that last for several weeks. Again in the United States many cities and states have “Fairs” of several weeks duration that feature farm products, competitions, games, and of course goods to be sold.

This particular city of Vanity Fair in Pilgrim’s Progress is a permanent affair. It is open all day, every day, much as one speaks, or used to, of New York City as “the City that never sleeps.”

Pilgrim with his travel companion are there accosted with by many sellers, quite pushy demanding sellers (something like Market Street was in the days of Old Chicago), who are more than insulted when he and his companion decline to purchase anything. For such ‘insolence,’ they are arrested, jailed, mocked, tried, and judged. It is a compelling series of scenes.

The text of “Vanity Fair” is given below; the highlighting is mine:

{215} Then I saw in my dream, that when they were got out of the wilderness, they presently saw a town before them, and the name of that town is Vanity; and at the town there is a fair kept, called Vanity Fair: it is kept all the year long. It beareth the name of Vanity Fair because the town where it is kept is lighter than vanity; and, also because all that is there sold, or that cometh thither, is vanity. As is the saying of the wise, “all that cometh is vanity.” [Eccl. 1; 2:11,17; 11:8; Isa. 11:17]

{216} This fair is no new-erected business, but a thing of ancient standing; I will show you the original of it.

Almost five thousand years agone, there were pilgrims walking to the Celestial City, as these two honest persons are: and Beelzebub, Apollyon, and Legion, with their companions, perceiving by the path that the pilgrims made, that their way to the city lay through this town of Vanity, they contrived here to set up a fair; a fair wherein, should be sold all sorts of vanity, and that it should last all the year long: therefore at this fair are all such merchandise sold, as houses, lands, trades, places, honours, preferments, titles, countries, kingdoms, lusts, pleasures, and delights of all sorts, as whores, bawds, wives, husbands, children, masters, servants, lives, blood, bodies, souls, silver, gold, pearls, precious stones, and what not.

And, moreover, at this fair there is at all times to be seen juggling cheats, games, plays, fools, apes, knaves, and rogues, and that of every kind.

Here are to be seen, too, and that for nothing, thefts, murders, adulteries, false swearers, and that of a blood-red colour.

{217} And as in other fairs of less moment, there are the several rows and streets, under their proper names, where such and such wares are vended; so here likewise you have the proper places, rows, streets, (viz. countries and kingdoms), where the wares of this fair are soonest to be found. Here is the Britain Row, the French Row, the Italian Row, the Spanish Row, the German Row, where several sorts of vanities are to be sold. But, as in other fairs, some one commodity is as the chief of all the fair, so the ware of Rome and her merchandise is greatly promoted in this fair; only our English nation, with some others, have taken a dislike thereat.

{218} Now, as I said, the way to the Celestial City lies just through this town where this lusty fair is kept; and he that will go to the city, and yet not go through this town, must needs go out of the world. [1 Cor. 5:10] The Prince of princes himself, when here, went through this town to his own country, and that upon a fair day too; yea, and as I think, it was Beelzebub, the chief lord of this fair, that invited him to buy of his vanities; yea, would have made him lord of the fair, would he but have done him reverence as he went through the town. [Matt. 4:8, Luke 4:5-7] Yea, because he was such a person of honour, Beelzebub had him from street to street, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a little time, that he might, if possible, allure the Blessed One to cheapen and buy some of his vanities; but he had no mind to the merchandise, and therefore left the town, without laying out so much as one farthing upon these vanities. This fair, therefore, is an ancient thing, of long standing, and a very great fair.

{219} Now these pilgrims, as I said, must needs go through this fair. Well, so they did: but, behold, even as they entered into the fair, all the people in the fair were moved, and the town itself as it were in a hubbub about them; and that for several reasons: for–

{220} First, The pilgrims were clothed with such kind of raiment as was diverse from the raiment of any that traded in that fair. The people, therefore, of the fair, made a great gazing upon them: some said they were fools, some they were bedlams, and some they are outlandish men. [1 Cor. 2:7-8]

{221} Secondly, And as they wondered at their apparel, so they did likewise at their speech; for few could understand what they said; they naturally spoke the language of Canaan, but they that kept the fair were the men of this world; so that, from one end of the fair to the other, they seemed barbarians each to the other.

{222} Thirdly, But that which did not a little amuse the merchandisers was, that these pilgrims set very light by all their wares; they cared not so much as to look upon them; and if they called upon them to buy, they would put their fingers in their ears, and cry, Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity, and look upwards, signifying that their trade and traffic was in heaven. [Ps. 119:37, Phil. 3:19-20]

{223} One chanced mockingly, beholding the carriage of the men, to say unto them, What will ye buy? But they, looking gravely upon him, answered, “We buy the truth.” [Prov. 23:23] At that there was an occasion taken to despise the men the more; some mocking, some taunting, some speaking reproachfully, and some calling upon others to smite them. At last things came to a hubbub and great stir in the fair, insomuch that all order was confounded. Now was word presently brought to the great one of the fair, who quickly came down, and deputed some of his most trusty friends to take these men into examination, about whom the fair was almost overturned. So the men were brought to examination; and they that sat upon them, asked them whence they came, whither they went, and what they did there, in such an unusual garb? The men told them that they were pilgrims and strangers in the world, and that they were going to their own country, which was the heavenly Jerusalem, [Heb. 11:13-16] and that they had given no occasion to the men of the town, nor yet to the merchandisers, thus to abuse them, and to let them in their journey, except it was for that, when one asked them what they would buy, they said they would buy the truth. But they that were appointed to examine them did not believe them to be any other than bedlams and mad, or else such as came to put all things into a confusion in the fair. Therefore they took them and beat them, and besmeared them with dirt, and then put them into the cage, that they might be made a spectacle to all the men of the fair.

Behold Vanity Fair! the Pilgrims there
Are chain’d and stand beside:
Even so it was our Lord pass’d here,
And on Mount Calvary died.

{224} There, therefore, they lay for some time, and were made the objects of any man’s sport, or malice, or revenge, the great one of the fair laughing still at all that befell them. But the men being patient, and not rendering railing for railing, but contrariwise, blessing, and good words for bad, and kindness for injuries done, some men in the fair that were more observing, and less prejudiced than the rest, began to check and blame the baser sort for their continual abuses done by them to the men; they, therefore, in angry manner, let fly at them again, counting them as bad as the men in the cage, and telling them that they seemed confederates, and should be made partakers of their misfortunes. The other replied that, for aught they could see, the men were quiet, and sober, and intended nobody any harm; and that there were many that traded in their fair that were more worthy to be put into the cage, yea, and pillory too, than were the men they had abused. Thus, after divers words had passed on both sides, the men behaving themselves all the while very wisely and soberly before them, they fell to some blows among themselves, and did harm one to another. Then were these two poor men brought before their examiners again, and there charged as being guilty of the late hubbub that had been in the fair. So they beat them pitifully, and hanged irons upon them, and led them in chains up and down the fair, for an example and a terror to others, lest any should speak in their behalf, or join themselves unto them. But Christian and Faithful behaved themselves yet more wisely, and received the ignominy and shame that was cast upon them, with so much meekness and patience, that it won to their side, though but few in comparison of the rest, several of the men in the fair. This put the other party yet into greater rage, insomuch that they concluded the death of these two men. Wherefore they threatened, that the cage nor irons should serve their turn, but that they should die, for the abuse they had done, and for deluding the men of the fair.

Then were they remanded to the cage again, until further order should be taken with them. So they put them in, and made their feet fast in the stocks.

{225} Here, therefore, they called again to mind what they had heard from their faithful friend Evangelist, and were the more confirmed in their way and sufferings by what he told them would happen to them. They also now comforted each other, that whose lot it was to suffer, even he should have the best of it; therefore each man secretly wished that he might have that preferment: but committing themselves to the all-wise disposal of Him that ruleth all things, with much content, they abode in the condition in which they were, until they should be otherwise disposed of.

{226} Then a convenient time being appointed, they brought them forth to their trial, in order to their condemnation. When the time was come, they were brought before their enemies and arraigned. The judge’s name was Lord Hate-good. Their indictment was one and the same in substance, though somewhat varying in form, the contents whereof were this:–

{227} “That they were enemies to and disturbers of their trade; that they had made commotions and divisions in the town, and had won a party to their own most dangerous opinions, in contempt of the law of their prince.”

Now, FAITHFUL, play the man, speak for thy God:
Fear not the wicked’s malice; nor their rod:
Speak boldly, man, the truth is on thy side:
Die for it, and to life in triumph ride.

{228} Faithful’s answer for himself

Then Faithful began to answer, that he had only set himself against that which hath set itself against Him that is higher than the highest. And, said he, as for disturbance, I make none, being myself a man of peace; the parties that were won to us, were won by beholding our truth and innocence, and they are only turned from the worse to the better. And as to the king you talk of, since he is Beelzebub, the enemy of our Lord, I defy him and all his angels.

{229} Then proclamation was made, that they that had aught to say for their lord the king against the prisoner at the bar, should forthwith appear and give in their evidence. So there came in three witnesses, to wit, Envy, Superstition, and Pickthank. They were then asked if they knew the prisoner at the bar; and what they had to say for their lord the king against him.

{230} Then stood forth Envy, and said to this effect: My Lord, I have known this man a long time, and will attest upon my oath before this honourable bench, that he is–

JUDGE. Hold! Give him his oath. (So they sware him.) Then he said–

ENVY. My Lord, this man, notwithstanding his plausible name, is one of the vilest men in our country. He neither regardeth prince nor people, law nor custom; but doth all that he can to possess all men with certain of his disloyal notions, which he in the general calls principles of faith and holiness. And, in particular, I heard him once myself affirm that Christianity and the customs of our town of Vanity were diametrically opposite, and could not be reconciled. By which saying, my Lord, he doth at once not only condemn all our laudable doings, but us in the doing of them.

JUDGE. Then did the Judge say to him, Hast thou any more to say?

ENVY. My Lord, I could say much more, only I would not be tedious to the court. Yet, if need be, when the other gentlemen have given in their evidence, rather than anything shall be wanting that will despatch him, I will enlarge my testimony against him. So he was bid to stand by. Then they called Superstition, and bid him look upon the prisoner. They also asked, what he could say for their lord the king against him. Then they sware him; so he began.

{231} SUPER. My Lord, I have no great acquaintance with this man, nor do I desire to have further knowledge of him; however, this I know, that he is a very pestilent fellow, from some discourse that, the other day, I had with him in this town; for then, talking with him, I heard him say, that our religion was naught, and such by which a man could by no means please God. Which sayings of his, my Lord, your Lordship very well knows, what necessarily thence will follow, to wit, that we do still worship in vain, are yet in our sins, and finally shall be damned; and this is that which I have to say.

{232} Then was Pickthank sworn, and bid say what he knew, in behalf of their lord the king, against the prisoner at the bar.

Pickthank’s testimony

PICK. My Lord, and you gentlemen all, This fellow I have known of a long time, and have heard him speak things that ought not to be spoke; for he hath railed on our noble prince Beelzebub, and hath spoken contemptibly of his honourable friends, whose names are the Lord Old Man, the Lord Carnal Delight, the Lord Luxurious, the Lord Desire of Vain Glory, my old Lord Lechery, Sir Having Greedy, with all the rest of our nobility; and he hath said, moreover, That if all men were of his mind, if possible, there is not one of these noblemen should have any longer a being in this town. Besides, he hath not been afraid to rail on you, my Lord, who are now appointed to be his judge, calling you an ungodly villain, with many other such like vilifying terms, with which he hath bespattered most of the gentry of our town.

{233} When this Pickthank had told his tale, the Judge directed his speech to the prisoner at the bar, saying, Thou runagate, heretic, and traitor, hast thou heard what these honest gentlemen have witnessed against thee?

FAITH. May I speak a few words in my own defence?

JUDGE. Sirrah! sirrah! thou deservest to live no longer, but to be slain immediately upon the place; yet, that all men may see our gentleness towards thee, let us hear what thou, vile runagate, hast to say.

{234} Faithful’s defence of himself

FAITH. 1. I say, then, in answer to what Mr. Envy hath spoken, I never said aught but this, That what rule, or laws, or customs, or people, were flat against the Word of God, are diametrically opposite to Christianity. If I have said amiss in this, convince me of my error, and I am ready here before you to make my recantation.

{235} 2. As to the second, to wit, Mr. Superstition, and his charge against me, I said only this, That in the worship of God there is required a Divine faith; but there can be no Divine faith without a Divine revelation of the will of God. Therefore, whatever is thrust into the worship of God that is not agreeable to Divine revelation, cannot be done but by a human faith, which faith will not be profitable to eternal life.

{236} 3. As to what Mr. Pickthank hath said, I say (avoiding terms, as that I am said to rail, and the like) that the prince of this town, with all the rabblement, his attendants, by this gentleman named, are more fit for a being in hell, than in this town and country: and so, the Lord have mercy upon me!

{237} Then the Judge called to the jury (who all this while stood by, to hear and observe): Gentlemen of the jury, you see this man about whom so great an uproar hath been made in this town. You have also heard what these worthy gentlemen have witnessed against him. Also you have heard his reply and confession. It lieth now in your breasts to hang him or save his life; but yet I think meet to instruct you into our law.

{238} There was an Act made in the days of Pharaoh the Great, servant to our prince, that lest those of a contrary religion should multiply and grow too strong for him, their males should be thrown into the river. [Exo. 1:22] There was also an Act made in the days of Nebuchadnezzar the Great, another of his servants, that whosoever would not fall down and worship his golden image, should be thrown into a fiery furnace. [Dan. 3:6] There was also an Act made in the days of Darius, that whoso, for some time, called upon any god but him, should be cast into the lions’ den. [Dan. 6] Now the substance of these laws this rebel has broken, not only in thought, (which is not to be borne), but also in word and deed; which must therefore needs be intolerable.

{239} For that of Pharaoh, his law was made upon a supposition, to prevent mischief, no crime being yet apparent; but here is a crime apparent. For the second and third, you see he disputeth against our religion; and for the treason he hath confessed, he deserveth to die the death.

{240} Then went the jury out, whose names were, Mr. Blind-man, Mr. No-good, Mr. Malice, Mr. Love-lust, Mr. Live-loose, Mr. Heady, Mr. High-mind, Mr. Enmity, Mr. Liar, Mr. Cruelty, Mr. Hate-light, and Mr. Implacable; who every one gave in his private verdict against him among themselves, and afterwards unanimously concluded to bring him in guilty before the Judge. And first, among themselves, Mr. Blind-man, the foreman, said, I see clearly that this man is a heretic. Then said Mr. No-good, Away with such a fellow from the earth. Ay, said Mr. Malice, for I hate the very looks of him. Then said Mr. Love-lust, I could never endure him. Nor I, said Mr. Live-loose, for he would always be condemning my way. Hang him, hang him, said Mr. Heady. A sorry scrub, said Mr. High-mind. My heart riseth against him, said Mr. Enmity. He is a rogue, said Mr. Liar. Hanging is too good for him, said Mr. Cruelty. Let us despatch him out of the way, said Mr. Hate-light. Then said Mr. Implacable, Might I have all the world given me, I could not be reconciled to him; therefore, let us forthwith bring him in guilty of death. And so they did; therefore he was presently condemned to be had from the place where he was, to the place from whence he came, and there to be put to the most cruel death that could be invented.

{241} They therefore brought him out, to do with him according to their law; and, first, they scourged him, then they buffeted him, then they lanced his flesh with knives; after that, they stoned him with stones, then pricked him with their swords; and, last of all, they burned him to ashes at the stake. Thus came Faithful to his end.

{242} Now I saw that there stood behind the multitude a chariot and a couple of horses, waiting for Faithful, who (so soon as his adversaries had despatched him) was taken up into it, and straightway was carried up through the clouds, with sound of trumpet, the nearest way to the Celestial Gate.

Brave FAITHFUL, bravely done in word and deed;
Judge, witnesses, and jury have, instead
Of overcoming thee, but shown their rage:
When they are dead, thou’lt live from age to age*.

*In the New Heaven and New Earth. {footnote from one edition}

{243} But as for Christian, he had some respite, and was remanded back to prison. So he there remained for a space; but He that overrules all things, having the power of their rage in his own hand, so wrought it about, that Christian for that time escaped them, and went his way. And as he went, he sang, saying–

Well, Faithful, thou hast faithfully profest
Unto thy Lord; with whom thou shalt be blest,
When faithless ones, with all their vain delights,
Are crying out under their hellish plights:
Sing, Faithful, sing, and let thy name survive;
For though they kill’d thee, thou art yet alive!

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/131/131-h/131-h.htm

Bunyan’s Man and His Muckrake

From Pilgrim’s Progress Part 2, the story of Christian’s wife Christiana and their boys, we are bought to a room in Interpreter’s House where we see another reality, namely: that of a man leaned forward, eyes locked downward, always seeing his rake and the muck he moves with it. This is of course a picture of a man whose eyes are not on God, and Heaven, but on the World.

The text of this passage is below, highlights are mine:

After awhile–because supper was not ready–the INTERPRETER took them into his significant rooms, and showed them what CHRISTIAN, CHRISTIANA’S husband, had seen some time before. Here, therefore, they saw the man in the cage; the man and his dream; the man that cut his way through his enemies; and the picture of the biggest of them all; together with the rest of those things that were then so profitable to CHRISTIAN.

This done, and after these things had been somewhat digested by CHRISTIANA and her company, the INTERPRETER takes them apart again, and has them first into a room where was a man that could look no way but downwards, with a muck rake in his hand. There stood also One over his head with a celestial crown in his hand, and proffered to give him that crown for his muck rake; but the man did neither look up nor regard, but raked to himself the straws, the small sticks, and dust of the floor.

Then said CHRISTIANA, “I persuade myself that I know somewhat the meaning of this; for this is a figure of a man of this world. Is it not, good sir?”

Inter. “Thou hast said the right,” said he: “and his muck rake doth show his carnal mind. And whereas thou seest him rather give heed to rake up straws and sticks, and the dust of the floor, than to what he says that calls to him from above with the celestial crown in his hand, it is to show that heaven is but as a fable to some, and that things here are counted the only things substantial. Now, whereas it was also showed thee that the man could look no way but downwards, it is to let thee know that earthly things, when they are with power upon men’s minds, quite carry their hearts away from God.”

Chris. Then said CHRISTIANA, “Oh, deliver me from this muck rake!”

Inter. “That prayer,” said the INTERPRETER, “has been lain by till ’tis almost rusty. ‘Give me not riches’

“Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me:” Proverbs 30:8

is scarce the prayer of one of ten thousand. Straws, and sticks, and dust, with most are the great things now looked after.”

With that MERCY and CHRISTIANA wept and said, “It is, alas ! too true.”

http://www.covenantofgrace.com/pilgrims_progress2_interpreters_house.htm

An artist’s image of the above portrays is below:

man-with-muck-rake-bunyan; Janice Campbell, JUNE 21, 2017, www.excellence in literature .com

Calvin’s Little Book, Week #16

This week we’ll pick up where we left off after Week #14, and Section 4 of Chapter 4, which in the D&P translation starts on p. 97. As noted previously in Week #14, I have collected Calvin’s comments on the evils of the World, and our perverse attraction to it, in a special topics page, here:

One key discussion point we should note derives from the D&P translated word “mire” which is in the first sentence of Calvin’s opening Sec. of Ch 4, namely 4.1. That word in Calvin’s original, both Latin and French, is the word for “beastly” in English. Calvin was expressing the very important point that in our fallen nature the passions, appetites, priorities, etc. of our such being is “beastly,” namely that of (undomesticated) animals seeking food, reproduction, shelter, territory, and so forth.

Calvin’s Heading

Taken from Beveridge’s translation, the heading Calvin gave for this Section 4.4 is below:

4. Weariness of the present life how to be tempered.
The believer’s estimate of life.
Comparison of the present and the future life.
How far the present life should be hated.

 Calvin, J., & Beveridge, H. (1845). Institutes of the Christian religion (Vol. 2, p. 285). Edinburgh: The Calvin Translation Society. [highlights, mine]

Calvin’s Opening Sentence

Calvin’s organized writing begins with a theme sentence for his Sections. Here the Beveridge translation gives us:

4. In proportion as this improper love diminishes
[“diminishes” Lat. root: de (of) + trahō (dragged) = drawn away / down, dragged off]
our desire of a better life should increase.

 ibid.

The Teeter-Totter of that which Diminishes and that which Increases

Calvin gives us a teeter-totter concept: one end is “improper love” and the other “better life.” The key idea is as the one “diminishes”–improper love–the other should “increase”–desire for a better life. As noted above, the root of Calvin’s Latin original word is detraho, where “tradho,” and its other forms such as “tractus,” is the root of the English word for “tractor,” that farm machine that drags implements to reshape the soil. This gives us a richer view of our situation than “diminish,” namely: what’s required is not turning down the volume but being dragged away from the proclamations of human-wisdom given in popular media.

The teeter-totter framing gives us the imagery of no compromising; it’s one primary leaning, or the other. This no compromise relationship was expressed by the Lord in the Sermon on the Mount:

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Matt 6:19-25 (ESV, highlights mine)

Later, the Lord restated this principle connecting it with faithfulness, now to an audience that included the Pharisees:

10 “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. 11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? 13 No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” 14 The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. 15 And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

Luke 16:10-15 (ESV, highlights mine)

So the question can be framed as this: to what am I “faithful” toward?

One obvious possible answer is that I am faithful to my natural desires of an earth-bound, fallen son (or daughter) of Adam, which is to pursue that which is drawn by my eye, my flesh, and my pride of life (1 John 2:16). The Pharisees who considered themselves to be God-followers, and man-leaders, while being God-honored, found Jesus’s teaching ridiculous (ESV), which other translations give us as scoffed, scorned, mocked, deriding, sneering. (Whenever, one finds many different words translating the same original word it is a clue for us that the full nuance in the original is richer than can be captured in a one-to-one word-mapping). Later, the Pharisees determine the words of Jesus are literal blasphemy; here they are seen as unworthy of any wise person, let alone someone being thought to be a rabbi by the people (a wise teacher of the true words of God).

What Grows from One’s Diminished Improper Love? “Desire for a Better Life”

Much like a parent advising a child making dumb, earthy choices, Calvin’s opening sentence gives us the emergence of the “desire for a better life” upon having been ‘dragged away’ from our improper loves.

This phrase–“desire for a better life”–is the chorus of a song sung into our ear, and emerging from our own nature, thousands of times a day. It’s ‘the pitch’ behind advertising campaigns for products for sale, activities offered, candidates and political parties, and broadly The Religion Industry (TRI) and The Political Industry (TPI). One could use such phrase as the explanation for almost every choice and action one is inclined to take. Why does, or should, one go to school? For a “better life.” Exercise and healthful diet? “Better life.” Work hard? “Better life.” Make lots of money? “Better life.”

Well, it is important to ask, then, the meaning both of “better” and “life.”

What is “Life?”

I once bought the foundational medical textbook of obstetrics used by a major med school as a gift for someone becoming a mom. Before I gave it away, I examined the index of some dozen or more pages looking for something like “life, meaning of…” or even just “life.” There was no such entry. However, there were massive, and distressing, entries for birth defects and diseases that occur in physical life. (Which is why giving such a gift a new mom-to-be is a really bad idea).

One can summarize the point of medical schools as being sustaining physical / biological “life.” When one enters the medical system, be it by ER, by annual physicals, or to a ‘doc in a box’ urgent care neighborhood facility, it is all and only about such “life.”

We have, however, other institutions and practioners of another form of “life,” that of soul-life, or psychological life. There is some connection of soul-life with bio-life, but there are distinctions, and drugs and counsel that seek to make sense of the difference and help make it “better.” The institutions of TRI and TPI make its own claims on this domain.

What Calvin, and the Scriptures, bring us to is understanding that as new creations in Christ, we have a distinct “life,” known by many terms in Scripture: eternal life, Spiritual life, regenerated life, et al. And important Koine word here is zoe, which has become a widely used girl’s name.

We cannot even begin to examine the full scope of “life” as the Bible provides it to us. Given below is a pdf of an excellent resource that can be used for further, deeper study:

Calvin highlights a particular distinctive of “life” which is the “better,” namely “heaven.” The word “heaven” occurs more than 400 times in Calvin’s Institutes. Here in our present Section 4.4 we have:

  • “If heaven is our country, what can the earth be but a place of exile?” and
  • “But “whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord,” (2 Cor. 5:6.) Thus when the earthly is compared with the heavenly life, it may undoubtedly be despised and trampled under foot.” (ibid., emphasis mine)

Such reference to “heaven” is contrasted with our most-present experience of “earth, earthly” (shown below are all of Calvin’s usages in Ch 4, which below are designated “III, ix” referencing Institutes’s Book 3 and Chapter 9, which has become Ch 4 in our Little Book):

Institutes of the Christian Religion III, ix 

The crown of victory in heaven after the contest on earth.

Institutes of the Christian Religion III, ix, 1 

But when you attend to the plans, wishes, and actions of each, you see nothing in them but the earth

Institutes of the Christian Religion III, ix, 1 

In short, the whole soul, ensnared by the allurements of the flesh, seeks its happiness on the earth

Institutes of the Christian Religion III, ix, 2 

2. For there is no medium between the two things: the earth must either be worthless in our estimation, or keep us enslaved by an intemperate love of it. 

Institutes of the Christian Religion III, ix, 2 

For we form all our plans just as if we had fixed our immortality on the earth

Institutes of the Christian Religion III, ix, 2 

Who then can deny that it is of the highest importance to us all, I say not, to be admonished by words, but convinced by all possible experience of the miserable condition of our earthly life; since even when convinced we scarcely cease to gaze upon it with vicious, stupid admiration, as if it contained within itself the sum of all that is good? 

Institutes of the Christian Religion III, ix, 3 

For the Lord hath ordained, that those who are ultimately to be crowned in heaven must maintain a previous warfare on the earth, that they may not triumph before they have overcome the difficulties of war, and obtained the victory. 

Institutes of the Christian Religion III, ix, 3 

When once we have concluded that our earthly life is a gift of the divine mercy, of which, agreeably to our obligation, it behoves us to have a grateful remembrance, we shall then properly descend to consider its most wretched condition, and thus escape from that excessive fondness for it, to which, as I have said, we are naturally prone.

Institutes of the Christian Religion III, ix, 4 

If heaven is our country, what can the earth be but a place of exile? 

Institutes of the Christian Religion III, ix, 4 

But “whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord,” (2 Cor. 5:6.) Thus when the earthly is compared with the heavenly life, it may undoubtedly be despised and trampled under foot. 

Institutes of the Christian Religion III, ix, 5 

I admit this, and therefore contend that we ought to look to future immortality, where we may obtain that fixed condition which nowhere appears on the earth

Institutes of the Christian Religion III, ix, 5 

For Paul admirably enjoins believers to hasten cheerfully to death, not because they “would be unclothed, but clothed upon,” (2 Cor. 5:2.) Shall the lower animals, and inanimate creatures themselves, even wood and stone, as conscious of their present vanity, long for the final resurrection, that they may with the sons of God be delivered from vanity, (Rom. 8:19;) and shall we, endued with the light of intellect, and more than intellect, enlightened by the Spirit of God, when our essence is in question, rise no higher than the corruption of this earth

Institutes of the Christian Religion III, ix, 6 

6. Thus, indeed, it is; the whole body of the faithful, so long as they live on the earth, must be like sheep for the slaughter, in order that they may be conformed to Christ their head, (Rom. 8:36.) Most deplorable, therefore, would their situation be did they not, by raising their mind to heaven, become superior to all that is in the world, and rise above the present aspect of affairs, (1 Cor. 15:19.) On the other hand, when once they have raised their head above all earthly objects, though they see the wicked flourishing in wealth and honour, and enjoying profound peace, indulging in luxury and splendour, and revelling in all kinds of delights, though they should moreover be wickedly assailed by them, suffer insult from their pride, be robbed by their avarice, or assailed by any other passion, they will have no difficulty in bearing up under these evils. 

Institutes of the Christian Religion III, ix, 6 

But the wicked who may have flourished on the earth, he will cast forth in extreme ignominy, will change their delights into torments, their laughter and joy into wailing and gnashing of teeth, their peace into the gnawing of conscience, and punish their luxury with unquenchable fire. 

ibid. (highlights mine)

 And, so, Calvin’s use of “earth” echoes the Book of Ecclesiastes and its repeated reference to “under the sun” and “vanity” (emptiness, vapidity).

Calvin’s Cited Verses in Ch 4, Sec 4

Below is a pdf of the four verses Calvin cites in 4.4:

Calvin’s teaching in this section is severe with respect to this present life contrasted with the heavenly life to come. Before dismissing this, or some of this, attributing it to his ‘severe’ nature (which was not actually the case), let us dig deeper into the following Biblical texts.

2nd Corinthian Epistle, and the Life Yet to Come

Chapter 5 of 2 Corinthians begins as follows:

5:1 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavensFor in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwellingif indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by lifeHe who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

2 Cor 5:1-5 (ESV, highlights mine)

Then what follows is the verse Calvin cites, 2 Cor 5:6:

There is an error in the red-font legend: It should be, reading top to bottom…ESV, Lemma, Lemma Transliterated, Root, Root Transliterated, CODE, Strong’s G. The CODE is used by Logos s/w to categorize the morphology (specific role) of the respective word in the mss, which form is not shown above. Briefly, in the context of the above:

Dative case words are designated by “D” in the second position, thus DDSN is a definite pronoun, in the Dative case, Singular Neuter. Genitive case words have a “G” in the second position, thus DSGM is a definite article, Genitive, Singular Masculine. Verbs begin with a “V.” Participle forms of a verb have “PP in the fourth position. So VPAP-PNM is a verb, in the Present Active Participle form, Plural Nominative Masculine, and VRAP-PNM is in the Perfect tense (the “R”).

There is much to be noted above, so let us pause and consider it. Shown are seven lines of text in the following order top to bottom: the ESV translation, the Koine manuscript (mss) in which it originated, the “Lemma” of the mss word (aka as “the dictionary form”), the root from which the Lemma stems (if any), the CODE of the particular semantic form (job) of the word, and finally the Strong’s G number that can be used with sites such as Blue Letter Bible .org.

We see that the verse begins with “so,” or “therefore,” so it points us back to the opening verses of Ch 5, shown above. In particular the preceding verses end with the claim of a guarantee, an astonishing and greatest possible one of significance, namely that of the Holy Spirit of God assuring our transit from ‘here’ to ‘there,’ and eternally so.

Given such reality, and certainty, vs. 6 then says we are “always” of “tharsos” which word is “thorax” in English, referring to our chest cavity in which our heart resides. But there is a different Koine word for “heart” (“cardia,” from which of course we get cardiac) but tharsos means more than either the physical heartbeat or the place of desires and passions: it means that of outwardly expressed courage that comes from deep within. The word only occurs six times in the NT, and five of them in 2 Corinthians, which is remarkable; the other other occurrence is Heb. 13:6–“the Lord is my Helper, I will not tharsos what man can do to me.” It also occurs 10 times in the OT, notably at Exodus 14:13 where the Lord delivered Israel from its slavery in Egypt across the Red Sea, so there is a beautiful parallel to our text here in 2 Cor 5:6.

As shown above there are there participles. Participles are verbs but are used as adjectives, so they are active, activating modifiers. The first and third ones, as shown are in the “present” tense emphasizing ‘the now’ of the participle modifier, whereas the second one is in the “perfect” tense which is the form that had a particular beginning in the past and continues to the present. The tense of participles is, as a general rule, tied to the tense of the main verb, which is here “we are away,” which is also in the present tense. So the entire verse is emphasizing a present reality of life in our respective “tents” awaiting a permanent, heavenly dwelling.

The other two phrases, the shown dative and genitive ones, frame the rest of the context. Dative phrases can tell us many things but here is either (or both) conveying the idea of our location (in the body) or the instrumentality of our present being (that the body we occupy in the ‘instrument’ of our being in spacetime, with all its temporal, mortal limits). The genitive phrase tells us something the ‘belongs’ to our being, namely that it is necessarily “away from the Lord.” Because this context is about contrasting our present body / life with that which is to come, this being “away” is not about the Lord’s absence from overseeing our life, or accessible to our prayers, and all such, but about the stark reality that we are not bodily joined to a form that will one day be in His physical presence. The OT book Song of Solomon gives us a deeply mysterious, poetic picture of “the bride” longing for, and in search of, her “bridegroom,” that connects with this idea. Similarly the many “lamentation” genre Psalms, which is the largest category of Psalms has this same element of us not being wholly home.

Given such condition, Calvin’s claim of holding no grip of love on this present life is right, though it can feel wrong as we have certain joys here, some genuine from God and others deceitful, actually many others deceitful.

Because this concept is difficult for most of us most of the time, I have paste in below this same interlinear format for the other verses Calvin has cited:

Romans 7:4

Philippians 1:23-24

Romans 14:8

The Ache of Incompleteness, Inadequacy of the Present World

A further connection to Calvin’s main point in this Sec. 4, and actually all the Sections, of Ch 4, is found in the important chapter of “Good Works” found in all the key Reformation Confessions. In particular, consider the below, Chapter 16 of the 1689 London 2nd Baptist Confession, which became the important 1742 Philadelphia Confession:

CHAP. XVI. Of Good Works.
1. Good Works are only such as God hath (a) commanded in his Holy word; and not such as without the warrant thereof, are devised by men, out of blind zeal, (b) or upon any pretence of good intentions. a Mic. 6.8. Heb. 13 21. b Mat. 15.9. Isa. 29.13.

2. These good works, done in obedience to Gods commandments, are the fruits, and evidences (c) of a true, and lively faith; and by them Believers manifest their (d) thankfullness, strengthen their (e) assurance, edifie their (f) brethren, adorn the profession of the Gospel, stop the mouths of the adversaries and glorifie (g) God whose workmanship they are, created in Christ Jesus (h) thereunto, that having their fruit unto holiness, they may have the end (i) eternal life. c Jam. 2.18.22. d Ps. 116.12,13. e 1 Joh. 2 3.5. 2 Pet. 1.5-11. f Mat. 5.16. g 1 Tim. 6.1. 1 Pet. 2.15. Phil. 1.11 h Eph. 2.10. i Rom. 6.22.

3. Their ability to do good works, is not at all of themselves; but wholly from the Spirit (k) of Christ; and that they may be enabled thereunto, besides the graces they have already received, there is necessary an (l) actual influence of the same Holy Spirit, to work in them to will, and to do, of his good pleasure; yet are they not hereupon to grow negligent, as if they were not bound to perform any duty, unless upon a special motion of the Spirit; but they ought to be diligent in (m) stirring up the Grace of God that is in them. k Joh. 15.4.6. l 2 Cor. 3.5. Phil. 2.13. m Phil. 2.12. Heb. 6.11 12. Isa. 64.7.

4. They who in their obedience attain to the greatest height which is possible in this life, are so far from being able to superrogate, and to do more then God requires, as that (n) they fall short of much which in duty they are bound to do. n Job 9.2 3. Gal. 5.17. Luk. 17.10.

5. We cannot by our best works merit pardon of Sin or Eternal Life at the hand of God, by reason of the great disproportion that is between them and the glory to come; and the infinite distance that is between us and God, whom by them we can neither profit, nor satisfie for the debt of our (o) former sins; but when we have done all we can, we have done but our duty, and are unprofitable servants; and because as they are good they proceed from his (p) Spirit, and as they are wrought by us they are defiled (q) and mixed with so much weakness and imperfection that they cannot endure the severity of Gods judgement. o Rom. 3.20. Eph. 2.8,9. Rom. 4.6. p Gal. 5.22,23. q Isa. 64.6. Ps. 143 2.

6. Yet notwithstanding the persons of Believers being accepted through Christ their good works also are accepted in (r) him; not as though they were in this life wholly unblameable and unreprovable in Gods sight; but that he looking upon them in his Son is pleased to accept and reward that which is (s) sincere although accompanied with many weaknesses and imperfections. r Eph. 1.6. 1 Pet. 2.5. s Mat. 25.21.23. Heb. 6.10

7. Works done by unregenerate men although for the matter of them they may be things which God commands, and of good use, both to themselves and (t) others; yet because they proceed not from a heart purified by (u) faith, nor are done in a right manner according to the (w) word, nor to a right end the (x) glory of God; they are therefore sinful and cannot please God; nor make a man meet to receive grace from (y) God; and yet their neglect of them is more sinful and (z) displeasing to God. t 2 King. 10.30. 1 King. 21.27,29 u Gen. 4.5. Heb. 11 4.6. w 1 Cor. 13.1. x Mat. 6.2.5. y Amos 5 21,22. Rom. 9.16 Tit. 3.5. z Job 21.14,15. Mat. 25.41,42,43. 

London 2nd Baptist Confession of 1689, Chapter 16 (highlights mine)

The connection of the above highlighted text and our thoughts here in Calvin’s Ch 4 is this: even as we progress–however haltingly, erratically, imperfectly–on this maturation of the Christian walk (aka “sanctification”) we often, and rightly, perceive the horizon to which we long actually recedes and our falling short, and those around us, actually increases. As troubling as this can be, it is the nature of pursuing the ultimate “image” to which we were called to be in Gen. 1 and 2, and which image was vandalized even to the sentence of death in Gen. 3.

Even secular pursuits toward an ideal of excellence / perfection has a parallel feature. Consider the connection between a recently passed classical pianist and musicologist–Karl Haas–and his teacher–Artur Schnable–and his teacher–Theodor Leschetizky–and going back even to Brahms and Beethoven, all strivers for an artistic perfection of musical performance, and never reaching the experience, the finality, the ‘doneness’ of it. The ideal, even in this domain, is an asymptote, not a ‘dot’ on the spacetime line of “perfect” at some final moment of one’s human life. The central cemetery in Vienna Austria holds the remains of some 44 famous pursuers of musical perfection, completeness. This site has a photographic record of these gravesites.

Chalmer’s Book: The Expulsive Power of a New Affection

A useful resource on the practical outworking of diminishing one love / inclination for a better one is a book by Thomas Chalmers, D.D. (1780-1847) entitled: The Expulsive Power of a New Affection. Below is a product description of that book from Amazon.

Dr. Chalmers states that “It is seldom that any of our tastes are made to disappear by a mere process of natural extinction,” and “the heart must have something to cling to—and never, by its own voluntary consent, will it so denude itself of all its attachments.” Therefore the superior affection for God through the free Gospel of Christ is necessary to displace worldly affections. This sermon, written by one of the foremost minds of his day, has become seminal for modern thought.

Amazon Books

John Piper has written an essay praising Chalmers’s book, here: The essay is well worth reading. Below is a quote from it:

I recall once being asked a trick question: If you had access to all the latest machinery in a sophisticated science lab, what would be the most effective way to get all the air out of a glass beaker? One ponders the possible ways to suck the air out and create a vacuum. Eventually, the answer is given: fill it with water. That is the point of Chalmers’s famous message. It is intended as an illumination of 1 John 2:15:  Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Chalmers poses for himself the question: How shall the human heart be freed from its love for the world? (How shall the air of world-love be removed from the soul-beaker?) This “love” is not a duty one performs. It is a delight one prefers. It is an affection before it is a commitment.

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-expulsive-power-of-a-new-affection

Resources for Week #17 are here: