"Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision."
Phillipians 3:2
"Beware of the dogs.." What on earth, you might ask, is Paul trying to convey to the church at Phillipi? Should they have concern about Rover? - or Spot, the next door terrier?? Not hardly. As you are doubtless aware, the original texts were written in Green and Hebrew. The word "dog" here could be interpreted in one of two ways. In its original Greek, it would look like this: κύων
(pronounced koo'-ohn)..
Paul was most assuredly not speaking about the domesticated animals that you and I know about - and many of us love and treat as part of our family. No, Paul was issuing a very stern warning to church members and comparing them to the "dogs" of his time. In that day, these creatures would roam around in packs - very mean and vicious creatures looking for food to pillage through. They were doubtless very dangerous, dangerous animals; types of animals that might be dangerous to cross paths with if you were alone and they were in a pack. The closest modern day comparison might be a hyena, which makes a very loud barking, almost a laughing sound - the stuff of which nightmares are made.
Paul was referring, I believe, not only to people, who could be vicious like this, but issues and baggage, if you please, that could nip at the heals of the Phillipians and do damage to them, hinder their ministry, or worse, make them ineffective totally. So: here are my top several attack dogs for the year 2010 (in no particular order - you will be able to think of many, many more):
1. Racism - It is still absolutely incipient in our country. No Christian - be he black, white or any other color, can have full fellowship with God if he has animosity in his heart toward a man of another color
2. Legalism -
3. Liberalism
4. Ritualism -
5. Moralism - "I plan on going to heaven because of the good I've done helping in poor and starving children in Africa. I've given millions!"
6. Traditionalism - "Pastor, I don't think you understand!, my grandmama gave the money for the ground that this church was built on!"
Be aware of Satan's devices my friends. We are warned by the Lord Jesus that Satan prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (I Peter 5:8). He is not ignorant. Nor is he impatient.
"Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand." (Ephisians 6:13)
Men and women, let us stand and fight. Rest well after you've prayed tonight.
4 comments:
Jesus was a liberal in his day, don't forget.
Incorrect on two fronts. First, you speak of Jesus in the past tense. Jesus is the living God who is ALIVE and WELL - resurrected from the dead and now seated at the right hand of the Father! Jesus is neither Democrat nor Republican, Conservative nor Democrat. He is Messiah. He is the author of the Gospel. He is the living God and is far above the silly politics of man. Whoever you are, I hope you will come to the reality of a personal understanding of this truth.
Um, indeed He was a liberal in His day, while He was in human form. He railed against the Jewish establishment and showed humanity another way - the peaceful way - to turn the other cheek rather than subscribe to "an eye for an eye". They called it the "Good News", and it's not news unless it is new, which means that it is a diversion of the "norm" or conventional wisdom - OF HIS DAY. This flied in the face of the religious dogma in His day, and is ultimately the reason why He was crucified.
If you would step outside the confines of current politics and re-read my words, "in his day", you would understand that I am correct, rather than assuming I was speaking in terms of current political parties.
But my ultimate point in response to "Watch out for the Dogs" is that liberals have a place in this world, and that it does not pay to be against liberalism as you seem to be in your original post, to which I am responding. Sometimes it takes a liberal to wake everyone up and see that the current way is not the correct way or the best way. If it weren't for liberalism, African-Americans would not have their civil rights, for example. By nature, it is only liberalism that can do this. Conservatism, by nature, wants to keep the status quo.
Conservatism is also less democratic, in that those who subscribe to it band together into a voting block, as exemplified by the classical fasces. Democrats, by contrast, are more divergent in their voting habits. Conservatives see this as a weakness.
If you truly believe that politics are "silly" then you may consider rewriting "Watch out for the Dogs" to reflect those ideas.
Okay, Anonymous, get this: I'm going to post your comment because I don't want to be accused of shutting down or censoring activity or comments. But let me make this clear - #1 - you are a coward for not being willing to be associated with whatever you have to say. #2 - in case you didn't get it, this is a NOT a political blog. When I used the word "Liberalism", I was referring to liberalism as it relates to the Word of God - not "Liberalism" in post-modernist politics as you know them. Liberalism in the Word of God means taking content away from the Canon and legalism means adding content which was never there. Ergo, you have tried to insight a political discussion and failed. I am not interested in having political discussions in this forum - it was intended to be about sharing the Good News - as you called it - about Jesus. If you desire to insert political or "social justice" propaganda, please move on. In the future, no anonymous comments will be posted.
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