There are so many sayings and phrases that have become a part of Christian vernacular. Many of them have ascended to being revered on par with scripture, but should they be? I hope to cover several of them in this post. Please comment and mention any I have not covered that you are interested in to allow me to expand this article and cover a good sampling of them. I am not averse to friendly discussion, either. I ask only that anyone who disagrees with me would do so respectfully. I have spent some time researching my topic and will be endeavor to be accurate. Most of my Bible quotes will be taken from the New American Bible (NAB), with possible references to the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), Douay-Rheims Bible (D-R), New International Version (NIV) or King James Version (KJ). There are many good translations of the Bible. My use of specific versions is no slight on the version that any person uses regularly. I am a Roman Catholic, so I often use Catholic translations of the Bible, since they contain the full cannon. I belonged to a Protestant denomination for many years and take no umbrage with my Christian brothers and sisters in those faith traditions. This blog seeks to be as accurate as possible when discussing matters of scripture and exegesis of them. Please read the scriptures I mention and feel free to read the entire passages they are found in to test me on this point. I do not think myself incapable of error and will humbly and thoughtfully consider any comments, suggestions or questions.
The first phrase I want to tackle is "Have you accepted the Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior?"
This phrase began to be used to focus on a particular aspect of salvation in Christ Jesus, but is it scriptural or even advisable? No where in scripture will you find a directive to make Jesus your personal savior. The closest scripture comes is in Acts 16:31 which says "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household". Notice that the salvation was for the entire household. Notice also in verse 33 "he and his entire household were baptized without delay". We also see that those who were saved were saved in the context of the Church. Baptism initiates believers into the family of God. Another good reason to avoid this type of phraseology is that it allows for each individual to put Jesus into their own personal mold. Think "Personal Jesus" as sung by Depeche Mode. While God does enter into a personal relationship with each of us, it is on His terms and in the context of His Living Body, The Church. When the focus is one's own personal God, it is very easy to think of God in such familiar terms as to deny the true power of what Jesus did and who God is. He is still God. He created us and has a right to demand that we obey Him. He has revealed Himself to us in specific ways that allow us to understand His character and what He desires of each of us. It goes beyond that as, through His Church, He frees us to be exactly what He created us to be. Each of us has a particular part to play in the life of the Church and in the evangelization of the world. Let us not forget that having a personal relationship does not give us the levity to change God's revealed character to fit our desires and circumstances. Rather, let us humbly seek to be our best selves, the people we can be only by cooperating with God's grace in our lives.
"Cleanliness is next to Godliness". Anyone know where that is in scripture? If you said it is not there, you would be right. Consider the following, however. "Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, making holiness perfect in the fear of the Lord" (2 Corinthians 7:1). Often, we associate the external appearance of a place with the character of the person who cares for it. If a place is poorly kept, we may view the person who keeps it as neglectful or lazy. This is a natural human reaction. The same is true of personal grooming. We are likely to think more positively of the man with clean fingernails, starched and ironed clothing, polished shoes and styled hair than we would of the man with dirty fingernails, wrinkled clothing and messy hair. Even though such external things reveal little about the heart of a person, it reflects well on our character and on the character of God if we are orderly and neat. If we claim friendship with God, we should be good representatives of His kingdom. While there is no particular reference to cleanliness being next to Godliness in scripture, it is a good policy and an orderly home, particularly the wife that keeps such a home, is extolled in Proverbs 31:10-31.
"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth". This phrase is found in scripture, but lest anyone think that is a standard to attain to, keep in mind it is within the context of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. Jesus finishes that particular phrase with "when someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well". Jesus taught us in the Beatitudes and Sermon on the Mount to peacefully resist evil and to literally go the extra mile (Matthew 5:41). This teaching shows us that while we can expect to encounter difficulty, we will receive blessing for responding to difficulties with grace and charity. The way of the world is eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The way of blessing is humility and obedience.
"Jesus didn't come to set up a religion". This is never said in scripture. We see, instead, that Jesus emphatically confirms that He came to fulfill the Old Covenant, not supplant it (Matthew 5:17). What had been revealed imperfectly in the Old Covenant was revealed perfectly in the New Covenant. In the Old Covenant, repeated bloody sacrifices were offered for the atonement of sin and thanksgiving offerings included a meal in the presence of God; in the New Covenant, one eternal sacrifice is offered for all and a bloodless perpetual memorial of that sacrifice is offered for atonement and as a thanksgiving offering in the form of a meal in which the presence of Christ comes to reside in each person. In the Old Covenant, failure to obey God's law resulted in strict punishment; in the New Covenant, God sends His Spirit to give us the grace to avoid sin completely. The law proved that we are incapable in and of ourselves to live rightly; the cross and resurrection proved that God offers us the grace necessary to live rightly. With that said, let us see what Jesus commanded the Church to do through His instructions to the Apostles. Matthew 28:18-20 is the Great Commission in which Jesus says "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age." Let's unpack that a bit. Jesus commanded that the Apostles baptize in the Trinitarian formula. That is a Rite of the Church, a sacrament He commanded there. He says He will be with them always. Notice He didn't say the Holy Spirit would be with them in this instance, He said that He himself would be with them. How is that possible? It is possible through the Rite of Holy Communion, which He taught them at the Last Supper. He is literally present in the consecrated bread and wine, a perpetual sacrifice which is brought to bear on our current reality through the ritual of repeating the words of blessing He taught His Apostles. He also refers to other things He has taught them to observe. We know that Jesus taught the Apostles many things that were not mentioned in the Gospels. It was normal to pass down important teachings by oral tradition at the time of Jesus. The scriptures themselves tell us that they are not the complete repository of Jesus' words and deeds (John 21: 23 says "there are also many other things that Jesus did"). The Apostle Paul alludes to oral tradition when he says "take as your norm the sound words that you heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard this rich trust with the help of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us" (2 Timothy 1:13-14) It is apparent here that Timothy is being charged with maintaining sacred tradition, which was passed on to him by word of mouth. All of this shows us that from the very beginning there were normal rites or sacraments in the Church, and this because Jesus had commanded and taught them. When Jesus returned to Heaven, He left a visible body, a visible kingdom. That visible body is the Church, and she demonstrates the Gospel to the world in many ways. An important way that she does this is through signs and symbols. The scriptures, the oral traditions, and the signs (sacraments) of the Church combine with the individual lives of Christians to form the witness of Christ on earth. True religion, then, is the giving of ourselves to God. We do so by many means. Religion has been treated as a bad word by many in our society. This should be no surprise to us. Jesus said we would be reviled and slandered for His sake. We shouldn't be ashamed of our religion.
I will come back to this post periodically to add sayings and explanations. Please comment.
