Luke 1:17 -- απειθείς εν φρονήσει δικαίων. The angel Gabriel tells Zechariah that his son John will convert the unpersuaded to correct practical wisdom. They are currently unpersuaded by God or by God's teachings. John, empowered by the Holy Spirit, will have the ability to persuade them to both believe and act according to God's justice.
φρονήσει means a visceral understanding of the action to take. δικαίων identifies this as not just any practical wisdom, but the understanding of the just or righteous ones.
I'm comforted by the notion of instinctively knowing how to react in a situation, but also fearful of any religious leader who claims to know what God wants the followers of that leader to do.
If the course of action is limited to imitating the behaviors of the saints, then perhaps that narrowing of all possible actions to only the saintly ones will protect the persuaded from mistaking a human opinion for the voice of God.
Saturday, February 17, 2018
Monday, February 5, 2018
Good Book Club for Lent
The Episcopal Church is hosting a Lenten/Easter devotional practice that anyone can join. The Good Book Club provides resources for reading the Gospel of Luke during Lent and the Book of Acts during the Easter season. Find those resources here. My goal is to read along in the Koine Greek Bible. Thanks Episcopalians!
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