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Friday, March 13, 2009

1.Tim 1.

reflecting book John; reading book just any book (maybe proverbs).

"5Die Hauptsumme aller Unterweisung aber is Liebe aus reinem Herzen und aus gutem Gewissen und aus ungefärbtem Glauben."

These texts are words from the apostle Paul to Timothy. This situation is different then the once we had in the Evangelien which we have read so far. These are words from one person directly addressed to another person. It is also not a report like text which shows us actions and what has happened where when and how it also has no direct speech, but words which contain advices, warnings, encourages and comfort to a very close person of Paul. ("2an Timotheus, meinen rechten Sohn im Glauben")

After the greetings to Timothy he talks about some grievances due to the attitude of some believers in their faith. He says that he went to Mazedonien to advice them not to teach something else ("3einigen zu gebieten, dass sie nicht anders lehren") He discovered that there are several phenomens recarding written text and their usage which are not helpful or healthy.

(1)The first would be that people start to concern about unimportant details ("4geschlechtsregister") which will start senseless and endless discussions. Ans those discussions will lead to nothing, help no one and only cause contorversies (4). Sometimes when we try to focus too much on the bible we also might start those kind of discussions about the meaning of maybe the translation of one sentence or about an explanation and the meaning of one single word. Of cours it is not that i mean that reading the bible too carefully is evil or bad, but as everything there will be an area where it is overexaggurated and not healthy anymore (like food, you really really need it in live, but when you eat way too much you can become sick and also die) Alles in maßen. Reading the bible carefully and pay attention to the words of God is something beatiful when its done together and a felloship like this can glorify God.
But the case discribed here is that the people do not see God behind the words and his essence between the lines. One worker of God once said that we can see at least see God and know him better when we read the bible. We might do not understand every story, every prophesy or every word but what we can see, feel and notice is God himself. And if too much attention is paid on things that only support this understanding than the focus is off-centered, likewise

Beside this there is also the unnecesary concern about myths (4), meaningless talk(6) of people who "want to be teachers of the law" (6) but do not know and understand them sufficiently.

But in the center of this paragraph he already named the "goal of this command", a main essence of the words of God and the scripture.

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