130
THE KING’S BUSINESS
The Advantage of Being a Jew. The apostle names five personal privileges which the JeW claims for himself above all other men. “Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God, and knowest his will, and approves! the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law” (2:17, 18). “Behold, thou are called a Jew:” Paul was a Jew (Philippians 3:3-6) ; so was Christ (Matthew 1:1; John 4:9, 22). The Jews were the chosen people of God. That in itself was an honor. “Thou restest in the law-” The Jews found relief for their spiritual perplexities and a solution for their spiritual troubles in a divine revelation which they acknowl edged as the basis of all God’s dealings with men. This was a jgreat privilege. . “Thou gloriest in God.” The Jews put no confidence in idols, as did their heathen neighbors. They gloried in the knowledge of the one true God. .This, too, was a matter of honor and privilege. “Thou knowest his will.” They were not groping in the dark as to what was in the law, nor as to the will of God concerning them and their lives. They were the re cipients of a revelation concerning their destiny, past, present, and future. They were “expert in testing things.” They could test religious truth with dis crimination. They were expert in matters of casuistry, because of their knowledge and instruction in the law. No Gentile laid claim to such privileges as these, all of which were claimed by the Jew and admitted by Paul. The apostle names these privileges one by one in order that he may emphasize them and show the responsibility of the Jew in connection therewith. The Superiority of the Jew. ( Five things are enumerated in which the Jew claimed superiority to others (2:19,20). He was a “guide to the blind;” a “light of them which are in darkness;” a “corrector of the foolish;” possessing the form and scheme of the law of truth; mature, as con
trasted with “babes,” in their understand ing of truth. In 2 :21-24, Paul admits the truth of all these points of advantage, and, by a series of questions, asks them if they had lived up to these privileges. The Jews claimed that they “knew” more of truth than the Gentiles. The question the apostle asks is, Did their superior knowledge profit them any? Did it affect their lives for. godli ness ? The Jew Equally Guilty. The apostle answers the question in the negative, and shows that the Jews, with all their superior privileges, were guilty on the same three counts as the Gentiles: they were immoral; they were sensual; they were idolatrous. It is interesting to note in this connection that the order of these three indictments is the opposite to that set forth in 1:18-32, because here he is dealing with a people who had the, knowledge of God, but being immoral in life, were led into idolatry; whereas in speaking of the Gentiles, they, through their idolatry and loss of the true knowledge of God, were led into sensuality and immorality. However much the Jew himself boasted of his own self-righteousness, the Gentile was fully aware of the fact that the Jew, equally with him, was a sinner destitute of God’s righteousness and under the divine wrath: “For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written” (2 :24). Practical Application. In the apostle’s dealing with the Jew, he has much to say to us, who have even more privileges over the Jew than the Jew over the Gentiles in the days gone by. What did the privilege of the Jew profit him? What do our privileges profit us? They boasted of their superior honor and privi leges, but failed to live a life adequately and proportionately superior. They were merely hearers of the Word and not doers. Are we? To whorii much is given, of him much is required (Luke 12:47, 48). Of us to whom, by reason of a favorable circum-
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs