What about justification? How does God justify the ungodly? R.C. Sproul explains the dilemma in this short video clip.
A Theology of the Home — “The home is not a neutral zone for acting upon baseless desires, nor is it simply a bastion for maintaining traditional values. One of the primary purposes of the home is to cultivate Christlike virtues that animate who we are in private and facilitate what we do in public.”
$5 Friday — Good books are always $5 on Friday at Ligonier.
The Real Root of Sexual Sin — “The degrees of human sexual depravity, distortion, and destruction are of such a nature that nearly everyone thinks things and many do things that we have no other word for than evil.”
Is It Better for Moms to Stay at Home? — A balanced article on an important subject from first-hand experience.
5 Warnings to Those Who Merely Pretend To Be Godly — “As for those of us who truly believe, but still grapple with the temptation toward hypocrisy, let’s pray with Thomas Watson: ‘Lord, let me be anything rather than a hypocrite,’ for two hearts will exclude one from heaven. We may well ask, ‘What good will it do to a man when he is in hell, that others think he is in heaven?'”
The Bee Explains: What Is The Prosperity Gospel? — “Is it biblical? Yes, the prosperity gospel is laid out clearly in 2 Timothy 4:3–4.”
Reformation 500 Tour — Are you interested in traveling to Wittenberg and other key sites of the historic Reformation this September? Join me and James White as we tour these locations, preach, study, and learn the importance of our place in this long line of history. If you would like to join us—reserve your place in the tour soon.
Theology Word of the Week: Obey (ὑπακούω)
ὑπακούω impf. ὑπήκουον; fut. ὑπακούσομαι; 1 aor. ὑπήκουσα (s. ὑπακοή; Hom.+; ins, pap, LXX; TestSol 6:4 P; TestJob 4:8; Test12Patr; EpArist 44; Philo; Joseph., Ath. 15, 2) ‘listen to’.
① to follow instructions, obey, follow, be subject to w. gen. of pers. (Hdt. 3, 101 al.; so predom. in pap and LXX; TestGad 8:3) B 9:1 (Ps 17:45 v.l.; the text has μοι). W. dat. of pers. (Thu., Aristoph. et al.; Philo, Mos. 1, 156; Jos., Ant. 13, 275; TestJud 1:4; 18:6 θεῷ; Ath. 15:2 αὐτῷ [God]; Iren. 3, 21, 2 [Harv. II 113, 2]; in pap and LXX the dat. is less freq. than the gen. B-D-F §173, 3; 187, 6; s. Rob. 507; 634): parents Eph 6:1; Col 3:20; masters Eph 6:5; Col 3:22; cp. Ro 6:16; husband (cp. Philemon Com. 132 K. ἀγαθῆς γυναικός ἐστιν μὴ κρείττονʼ εἶναι τἀνδρός, ἀλλʼ ὑπήκοον; Jos., C. Ap. 2, 201) 1 Pt 3:6; the ἐπίσκοπος IEph 20:2, cp. IMg 3:2 v.l. Funk (Sb 7835, 10 [I b.c.] in the charter of the cult-brotherhood of Zeus Hypsistos: ὑπακούειν πάντας τοῦ ἡγουμένου); Christ Hb 5:9 (cp. Ael. Aristid. 50, 86 K.=26 p. 527 D.: τῷ θεῷ; EKamlah, Die Form der katalogischen Paränese im NT, ’64 [moral exhortation]). The pers. is supplied fr. the context (cp. PTebt 24, 26; TestJob 4:8; EpArist 44; 2 Ch 24:19 v.l.) Phil 2:12; 1 Cl 7:6; 57:4 (Pr 1:24). ὑπακούσωμεν τῷ ὀνόματι αὐτοῦ 1 Cl 58:1 marks the transition to the next usage (w. things).—‘To be in compliance’ (Aesop, Fab. 179 H.), w. dat. of the thing to which one is obedient or which one embraces in full surrender (cp. Athen. 6, 247d ὑπ. δείπνῳ=accept the invitation Theoph. Ant. 2, 25 [p. 162, 4] τῇ πατρικῇ ἐντολῇ) ὑπακούειν τῇ πίστει Ac 6:7; τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ Ro 10:16; 2 Th 1:8; τῷ λόγῳ ἡμῶν 2 Th 3:14; τῇ βουλήσει αὐτοῦ (=τοῦ θεοῦ) 1 Cl 9:1; 42:4 (Lat. tr.); τοῖς προστάγμασιν 2 Cl 19:3 (Aeschines 1, 49 and SIG 785, 18 τ. νόμοις; Demosth. 18, 204; Jos., Ant. 3, 207 τ. λεγομένοις; 5, 198); ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις αὐτοῦ (=τοῦ θνητοῦ σώματος ὑμῶν) Ro 6:12. ὑπηκούσατε εἰς ὃν παρεδόθητε τύπον διδαχῆς vs. 17 (παραδίδωμι 1b, end).—MWolter, Ethos u. Identität in Paulinischen Gemeinden: NTS 43, ’97, 439 n. 32 (lit. and pseudepigr. reff.).—Foll. by the inf. which shows what the obedience results in (Gen 39:10) Ἀβραὰμ ὑπήκουσεν ἐξελθεῖν Abr. went out obediently Hb 11:8.—Also of the enforced obedience of hostile spirits or powers ὐπακούουσιν αὐτῷ they are forced to obey him Mk 1:27; of the elements Mt 8:27 (OBetz, ZNW 48, ’57, 49–77, esp. 70–72); Mk 4:41; Lk 8:25; of a tree that must yield to a higher power 17:6 (cp. Hippocr., Epid. 3, 8; Galen VI 354 K., who speak of diseases that ὑπ.=‘must yield’ to a remedy [dative]).
② to grant one’s request, hear (of God Diod S 4, 34, 5 τοὺς ἀθανάτους ὑπακούσαντας; Vi. Aesopi I G 5 P. of Isis; Is 65:24; Jos., Ant. 14, 24.—X., Cyr. 8, 1, 18 of a judge who hears a plaintiff) 1 Cl 39:7 (Job 5:1).
③ to answer a knock at the door, technically of the door-keeper, whose duty it is to listen for the signals of those who wish to enter, and to admit them if they are entitled to do so: open or answer (the door) (Pla., Phd. 59e ὁ θυρωρός, ὅσπερ εἰώθει ὑπακούειν, Crito 43a; X., Symp. 1, 11; Theophr., Char. 4, 9; 28, 3; Lucian, Icar. 22 et al.) προσῆλθεν παιδίσκη ὑπακοῦσαι Ac 12:13.—M-M. TW. [1]
- William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker, and Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 1028–1029.
