Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:
1I am urging you, therefore, brothers, because of the sympathies of God, to present your (pl.) bodies [as] a living sacrifice, holy, [and] well-pleasing to God, [which is] your (pl.) logical/reasonable act of worship..
The old KJV translated this verse beginning as “I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God…” The NIV today begins, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy…” You will notice above in my fairly literal translation that, rather than “mercy/mercies,” I have used the word “sympathies.”
As it turns out, the Greek word being translated “mercies” is not the word one would expect. There is a word “eleos,” which very specifically means “mercy,” and is, almost without exception exactly the word you would have expected to find. However, the word we do find here is “oiktos.”
When a person is scratching around in the ancient languages, after a while you get used to certain words you expect to see. When it’s something else, it is always a good idea to pause. No two words mean exactly the same thing. The differences may be slight, but still, one wonders why Paul would choose oiktos rather eleos, if all he meant was “mercies.”
Here’s what I want to suggest. Mercy is certainly a wonderful thing. As the old saying goes, “Grace is when God gives us what we don’t deserve; Mercy is when He doesn’t give us what we do deserve!” All of us thank Jesus from the bottom of our hearts for His mercy. However, mercy, in and of itself, can be, in a sense, a cold thing.
What I mean is, it is something you choose to do. There could be a judge who wants to be known as a merciful judge, so he plans that, about every tenth case he tries, he’ll let the person off. So at around that tenth case, the person is found clearly guilty, but the judge chooses to say something like, “In light of the circumstances, I’m simply going to drop your charges. You’re free to go.” If it were you or me, we would thank him profusely and definitely tell our family and friends about what we saw as his kindness.
In that case, even though the judge really doesn’t care about the person, yet he can show “mercy” in a very official sort of way. That would be the usual word “eleos.” “Eleos” itself is almost never used in such a cold sense, but it could be. And that is where “oiktos” comes in.
“Oiktos” is definitely a more emotional word, which I believe is better translated “sympathies,” as I did above. In typical usage, I would say there is no difference between the words, just as we would see no big difference between “mercies” and “sympathies.” However, there is a difference, and once again, I think “mercies” are more about something you do, while “sympathies” are more about how you feel. Now go back and think about this verse and read it as “sympathies” rather than “mercies,” and what do you find?
What I see is that what Paul is referring to is not primarily what God has done, but what He feels. What is sympathy after all? Sympathy sees another person’s sorrows or afflictions and simply “feels sorry” for them. Sympathy does not consider what that person does or doesn’t deserve. Sympathy doesn’t consider if they got themself into this or not. It just sees their misery and feels sorry for them. It may express itself in being merciful. But can you see, there is a fine line between the feelings of sympathy and the action of mercy?
That fine line is what I’m talking about here in Romans 12. “I urge you, therefore, brothers, because of the sympathies of God, to present your body,,,” Think with me for a second not just about God’s great mercies, but about His sympathies! For me personally, this is another one of those atom bombs of truth I get from studying the Bible! Paul isn’t just asking us to think back about what God has done, but what He has felt. He’s taking us behind the curtain of God’s acts…to actually see His heart!
Have you ever thought about how the great God of heaven, the Creator, the King of the universe, the infinite, eternal I AM feels sorry for you? He looks down from heaven and sees you in the misery of your sin, sees all of us in the miseries of this sin-cursed world, and His big eternal heart is moved to sympathy! Completely apart from questions of who deserves or doesn’t deserve whatever. Completely separate from matters of justice and judgment and all of that judicial sort of business, He simply feels sorry for you.
Someone may be objecting at this point, thinking I’m somehow suggesting something below God’s great regal dignity. Actually, that is exactly what blows my mind – to see past all the “regal,” judicial business and see His heart. Consider yourself -- do you ever just “feel sorry” for someone? Where do you get that from? Is it not rising from a heart that was “made in the image of God?” You have those feelings of sympathy precisely because God does.
In our case, feeling sympathy might lead us to be foolishly merciful, whereas, even with those feelings, God will always still do right. That is true enough, but, once again, we’re distinguishing between those feelings and the acts that follow. We can look back over those first eleven chapters of God’s amazing mercies, the whole great Plan of Salvation, and be literally awestruck at what He has done for us through Jesus. However, Paul is here calling you and me to look even deeper and see not only God’s acts of love on our behalf, but to see His heart of love! This isn’t just official. It’s personal.
Have you ever paused to consider that the Lord feels sorry for you? Have you ever really thought of how, as He sees you in your miseries, that even though you may deserve them all (and worse), that you bring them on yourself, while others tell you, “You made the bed; You’ll just have to sleep in it,” that all of that aside and regardless of what He may have to do, behind it all He simply feels sorry for you?
My own heart just reels with those thoughts. I feel like Paul has taken me to a depth I’ve never gone before. No wonder Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.” Even from the Cross, He was seeing you and me in the misery of our sins and His big heart was moved to sympathy!
What to do? I want to dwell more on these thoughts, to deliberately see God’s sympathies as I read the Bible, to see more of His heart as I read. And then, I want to deliberately let sympathy happen in my own heart. As I see people, I want to be wise, but I want to let my heart see their miseries and, like my Father, allow myself feel sorry for them. Maybe I still need to say, “No,” or, if I was a judge, I might have to pronounce them guilty, or as a parent administer discipline, but under it all, I want to feel what God feels. I want to be like Him. I want to be like Jesus. I want to have His heart.
If you’re reading this, even as I type, I know your life is very hard in many ways. Some you deserve and some you don’t, but I hope it encourages you as much as it does me to know that God cares.
No comments:
Post a Comment