“try
to learn what is pleasing to the Lord”+
This is one occasion where the Authorised Version's more literal approach to translation is better than the RSV, which I normally I read from here, at least at the beginning of the verse. It has “proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.”
The
Greek verb underlying this word, “proving”, δοκιμάζω/dokimazo
(dok-im-ad'-zo) means
to “discern
by testing”.
It means more than we normally mean by the RSV's “try to learn”.
And the Greek grammar shows that here it is a participle [a verb
ending in -ing in English, acting as an adjective] which explains
further the statement of verse 8, “walk as children of the light”.
[Verse 9 is parenthetical.] The RSV weakens this connection by making
it seem a new statement. So, to understand what St Paul means in
using this word, it helps to translate the essential parts of the
sentence this way: “Walk as children of the light, discerning by
testing what is pleasing to the Lord.” OK, but what does that mean?
Lots of
Christians want to know how to discern God's will for their lives.
And the Bible does teach us that the Scripture [Psalm 119:105], the
inner prompting of the Holy Spirit [Psalm 143:10, Isaiah 30:21, John
16:13], the counsel of other Christians [Proverbs 15:22], and
reasonable common-sense [1 Corinthians 14:6-23] are all to be used
for this purpose. But Scripture comes first. And, the truth is, that
most of what we really need to know to do God's will is no
mystery, and is the same for all of us: Strive to love God and strive
to love your neighbour, by active worship and proactive good deeds.
In fact both our Epistle and our Old Testament Lesson covered most of
the territory!
But someone
might say, “Yes, yes, I know all that. But what about the precise
direction I need for my
life, for big decisions when it is not obvious which way is right, or
best? How do I know which
deeds to do?” Well, you know what, since God will direct our paths
anyway [Proverbs 3:5-6] as long as we trust him and try to obey what
we do
know, our cogitations about those things probably don't matter as
much as we think they do. Many Christians have prayed this kind of
wise prayer, “Lord, overrule my circumstances according to your
will”.
However, there is more to it than that, and the verse I began with leads the way.
However, there is more to it than that, and the verse I began with leads the way.
So, what does
it mean to discern what pleases the Lord by testing/trying?
It could refer to the process of working out what is right by
comparing each choice with the standard of Scripture, etc. But I
think it also means that we discover by doing. Since so much
of what God wants from us is far from mysterious, if we dive in by
doing the obvious, if we search for good to do, then harder choices
will take care of themselves. It's all too easy to know what God's
general will is in the abstract, but fail to do anything much about
it in a concrete way. The solution to this problem is to choose to do
good works, and not worry too much at first about which ones. “Just
do it”, as Nike says.
[Illustration
of opposite mindset: Stories of students saying “But I can do it in
my head!” “Oh yes … how marvellous for you ...”]
The truth is
that for most people, it is practice rather than theory where we come
up short in living right. Ignorance is less of a problem than
laziness, fear and selfish desire. It is by obeying the will of God
that we are sure of that we can more easily discover his will
when we come to the more difficult forks in the road. Using the light
we already have illuminates yet more. Often God will simply construct
our circumstances so that the path becomes clear and the “forks”
disappear. And if some things we “test”, don't work out, that's
OK too. All things work together for good for those who love the
Lord, as St Paul tells us elsewhere [Romans 8:28].
We get the
same message in Colossians 1:10, where the Apostle says “we pray
this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and
may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every
good work, growing in the knowledge of God”. Note
that growth in knowledge comes after living the life and doing the
work in this verse.
This Lent,
let us choose to do some specific good works, perhaps even doing
something new, but without worrying too much about the specifics, and
let God take care of the rest. +
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