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