Tuesday 13 October 2009

Background

This passage, or at least the end of it, and the verses thatfollow, have caused a great deal of controversy because of theirapparently strident condemnation of homosexual practices. This is acomplex and emotive debate, of course, and not one we can resolvehere.

But what we can say is that Paulwas not engaged in the debate thatupsets so many Churches today. He was writing as a 1st century Jew,not a 21st century Christian. And he was explaining why everyone,whether Jew or Greek (ie Gentile) needed the salvation which thegospel proclaimed and which faith embraced. This is a central themeof this letter. So Paul used a familiar Jewish diatribe against thegodless and wicked Gentiles, describing their foolishness, idolatryand immorality. His Jewish readers would have appreciated this, aswould educated Greeks (and Romans) who shared this Jewish distastefor the 'common people'. Contemporary Greek philosophers wrote verysimilar things.

What his readers didn't know, of course, was that Paul was going togo on to include them in the "everyone" who needed salvation - Jewsas well as Greeks. So, whatever else Paul might have been sayinghere, he was going to go on to say that respectable, religiouspeople were no different in the sight of God from those who werenotoriously ignorant, idolatrous and immoral.

At the heart of Paul's argument was the conviction that God hadraised Jesus from the dead in order to establish a 'new humanity' -in fact, a whole 'new creation' - united by faith in Jesus Christ.And this, he said, revealed "the righteousness of God". This is oneof those tricky phrases in the Bible that is often misunderstood.It is often thought that it means something like purity or moralperfection or hatred of sin. And it does sometimes convey thatsense. But at its heart it means simply 'doing the right thing'. Itis more than just a moral quality (although it is that) - it isabout both willing, and doing, the right thing.

And, said Paul, God's righteousness brings about humanrighteousness, through faith in Jesus Christ.

To Ponder

"Respectable, religious people were no differentin the sight of God from those who were notoriously ignorant,idolatrous and immoral." How would this go down in the Churchtoday?

Why do you think that the current debate abouthomosexuality seems to dominate large parts of the Church? Where doyou think Paul would stand on this?

What does righteousness mean to you?