God created us as reasonable creatures. To adopt rationalism is to make an idol out of reason, but for all that, we should still seek to be reasonable. The word alogos represents a failure at this place. In one place it is translated as unreasonable (Acts. 25:27). This is in the mouth of the pagan …
Bishop Buttinski
The next word to consider is a mouthful — allotriepiskopos. It refers to someone who is a busybody in the affairs of others. In the latter half of the word we can see the word that is rendered elsewhere as overseer or bishop. This busybody, this renegade bishop, is engaged in looking over the shoulder …
Polluting Idols
The word for pollution is alisgema, and is used once. In Acts 15:20, the decision of the Jerusalem Council was that the Gentiles needed to abstain from certain basic things, among them the pollutions of idols. However much idolatry may appeal to that which is primitive, and therefore pure, the end result of all forms …
Triple Threat
The New Testament rejects boasters (Rom. 1:30; 2 Tim. 3:2), and so it is not surprising that it also condemns the sin of boasting. The word is aladzoneia, and is rendered as boasting once and as pride once. The man who thinks he controls his own life, and who is going to go here or …
Boasting is Par for the Course
The word aladzon means boaster, which is how it is rendered in Romans 1:30, in the midst of another Pauline list of sins, including, but not limited to, “backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parent . . .” And in the perilous times, Paul says, “men shall be …
Sins Are Like Grapes
Related to akrasia, the word akrates is used once (2 Tim. 3:3), and it means incontinent. It is found in the middle of some other bad company — “For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers …
Overflowing Excess
A word meaning excess or lack of control is akrasia. It is used two times in the New Testament, once for a husband and wife who are sexually fasting and who are therefore tempted because of their incontinency (1 Cor. 7:5). The second use is when Jesus lambasted the Pharisees because they cleaned the outside …
The Genesis of Tumult
Paul tells us that God is not the author of confusion, but rather of peace (1 Cor. 14:33). The word for confusion here is akatastasia, and it is interesting that Paul contrasts it with peace. The confusion can simply be the way it is out in the world in unsettled times (Luke 21:9), or it …
Kittens and Cobras
When something is unruly it is untamed, uncowed, undisciplined. The New Testament uses this word (akataschetos) for the tongue, which no one can tame — an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. In case we let down our guard, we have to remember that this creature, the tongue, is full of deadly poison. When we …
Unstable in Trial
James tells us that a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways (Jas. 1:8). The word for unstable is akatastatos, and in this context it refers to a man who cannot thank God for trials. A few verses before this, James has famously stated that if a man lacks wisdom, he should ask God …