Dodd: the Divine Commonwealth

Saturday, August 4, 2018
    Feast of John Vianney, Curè d’Ars, 1859
Meditation:
    Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
    —1 Corinthians 8:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    We have spoken throughout of the Divine Commonwealth. That phrase represents Paul’s “ecclesia of God.” It is a community of loving persons, who bear one another’s burdens, who seek to build up one another in love, who “have the same thoughts in relation to one another that they have in their communion with Christ.” It is all this because it is the living embodiment of Christ’s own Spirit. This is a high and mystical doctrine, but a doctrine which has no meaning apart from loving fellowship in real life. A company of people who celebrate a solemn sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood, and all the time are moved by selfish passions—rivalry, competition, mutual contempt—is not for Paul a Church or Divine Commonwealth at all, no matter how lofty their faith or how deep their mystical experience; for all these things may “puff up;” love alone “builds up.”
    In the very act, therefore, of attaining its liberty to exist, the Divine Commonwealth has transcended the great divisions of men. In principle, it has transcended them all, and by seriously living out that which its association means, it is on the way to comprehending the whole race. Short of that its development can never stop. This is the revealing of the sons of God for which the whole creation is waiting.
    ... C. Harold Dodd (1884-1973), The Meaning of Paul for Today, London: Swarthmore, 1920, reprint, Fount Paperbacks, 1978, p. 144-145 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 8:1; Rom. 8:22; 12:1-2; 1 Cor. 1:10; 11:33; Phil. 2:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, show me how to help with the building up of the church. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Dodd: the Body of Christ

Friday, August 3, 2018
Meditation:
    Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours...
    —1 Corinthians 1:2 (KJV)
Quotation:
    In this Body of Christ, Paul sees “the ecclesia of God.” Ecclesia is a Greek word with a splendid history. It was used in the old free commonwealths of Greece for the general assembly of all free citizens, by which their common life was governed. When political liberty went, the name still survived in the restricted municipal self-government which the Roman State allowed. It was taken over by the brotherhoods and guilds which in some measure superseded the old political associations. Among the Jews who spoke Greek, this word seemed the appropriate one to describe the commonwealth of Israel as ruled by God—the historical Theocracy. Our translation of it is “Church.” That word, however, has undergone such transformations of meaning that it is often doubtful in what sense it is being used. Perhaps for ecclesia we may use the word—simpler, more general, and certainly nearest to its original meani ng—“commonwealth.” [Continued tomorrow]
    ... C. Harold Dodd (1884-1973), The Meaning of Paul for Today, London: Swarthmore, 1920, reprint, Fount Paperbacks, 1978, p. 145 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 1:2; 10:32; 11:22; 2 Cor. 1:1; Gal. 1:13; 6:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Do I lack love for the common life of the church? CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Paton: the relevance of flesh

Thursday, August 2, 2018
Meditation:
    And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
    —John 1:14 (ESV)
Quotation:
    A vocation to marriage is a vocation to glorify God in a particular state with its necessary rights and duties. It can only be combined with the vocation of a pioneer missionary of the classic type if matrimony is felt to be spiritually neutral, irrelevant to God’s calling. Marriage can be irrelevant only if we believe that the body, matter, is neutral, irrelevant, or evil. Man can not believe that and believe the Christian faith. God made matter, and was incarnate in it: the comparison of the relation of husband and wife to that between Christ and the Church naturally follows. But this conclusion is not always drawn, for orthodox Christians are often prone to speak and behave as if the Word... became not flesh but spirit.
    ... David M. Paton (1913-1992), Christian Missions and the Judgment of God, London: SCM Press, 1953, p. 45-46 (see the book)
    See also John 1:14; Isa. 7:14; Rom. 9:5; Gal. 4:4-5; Phil. 2:5-8; 1 Tim. 3:16; Heb. 2:17; 1 John 4:2-3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me contentment in the condition You created me for. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Phelps: prayer supplemented by action

Wednesday, August 1, 2018
Meditation:
    Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
    —James 4:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Prayer is the preface to the book of Christian living; the text of the new life sermon; the girding on of the armor for battle; the pilgrim’s preparation for his journey. It must be supplemented by action or it amounts to nothing.
    ... Arthur Stevens Phelps (1863-1948), included in Leaves of Gold, Evan S. Coslett & Clyde Francis Lytle, ed. [1948], Honesdale, Pa.: Coslett Publishing Company, 1938, p. 156 (see the book)
    See also Jas. 4:8; Ex. 14:15; Ps. 43:3; Luke 18:10-14
Quiet time reflection:
    May I be constantly reminded that the Lord’s purposes are behind all my activities. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Ignatius of Loyola: God's silences

Tuesday, July 31, 2018
    Commemoration of Ignatius of Loyola, Founder of the Society of Jesus, 1556
Meditation:
    For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
    —Hebrews 4:12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    He who hath heard the Word of God can bear his silences.
    ... St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491/5-1556) (see the book)
    See also Heb. 4:12; Lam. 3:25-29; Acts 4:31; Heb. 13:7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your word carries me over any obstacle. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Wilberforce: on Sunday

Monday, July 30, 2018
    Commemoration of William Wilberforce, Social Reformer, 1833
Meditation:
I was glad when they said unto me,
    Let us go into the house of the LORD.
    —Psalm 122:1 (KJV)
Quotation:
    All these several artifices, whatever they may be, to unhallow the Sunday and to change its character (it might be almost said “to mitigate its horrors,’) prove but too plainly, that religion, however we may be glad to take refuge in it, when driven to it by the loss of every other comfort, and to retain, as it were, a reversionary interest in an asylum, which may receive us when we are forced from the transitory enjoyments of our present state; that in itself wears to us a gloomy and forbidding aspect, and not a face of consolation and joy; that the worship of God is with us a constrained and not a willing service, which we are glad therefore to abridge, though we dare not omit it.
    ... William Wilberforce (1759-1833), A Practical View, Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 1829, p. 174 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 122:1; 5:7; 63:1-3; 84:10; 1 Pet. 5:2-3;
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, sharpen my desire for worship. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Martin: missionary principles

Sunday, July 29, 2018
    Feast of Mary, Martha & Lazarus, Companions of Our Lord
Meditation:
    And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.
    —1 John 4:14-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The breadth and depth of [William] Carey’s missionary service [in India] is well illustrated in the principles laid down for themselves by the Serampore Brotherhood to be read three times a year in each station in their charge. Here is a summary:
    1. To set an infinite value on men’s souls.
    2. To abstain from whatever deepens India’s prejudice against the Gospel.
    3. To watch for every chance of doing the people good.
    4. To preach Christ crucified as the grand means of conversions.
    5. To esteem and treat Indians always as equals.
    6. To be instant in the nurture of personal religion.
    7. To cultivate the spiritual gifts of the Indian brethren, ever pressing upon them their missionary obligation, since only Indians can win India for Christ.
    ... Hugh Martin (1890-1964), Great Christian Books, London: S.C.M. Press Ltd., 1945, Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1946, p. 101-102 (see the book)
    See also 1 John 4:14-15; Matt. 10:32; Luke 12:8; Rom. 10:9; 14:21; 1 Cor. 8:13; 1 Thess. 4:11-12; 1 John 4:2; 5:1
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, open my eyes to the opportunities for ministry You place before me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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