"...The Servant of the Lord Must Not Strive..."

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[theresearchpersona]

''"...The Servant of the Lord Must Not Strive...''

Remember the [mis]use of this? Did anyone else pay attention to the context preceding? The misuse should be obvious--the KJV uses "strive" in contexts like

''Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, But those who keep the law strive with them. - Proverbs 28:4''

Which is, God's law--the law of righteousness--notwithstanding all the Dispie "OMG it said law and we're under grace!!!!!"

The preceding verse with our own here, together:

''23But refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels. 24The Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged,…''

That is, let's remove the strunk-and-white hackishness and the numbers,

''but refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels; the Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged,…''

and the funny part is, if we really want to screw with those who hack the scriptures in GC* churches,

''but refuse the moronic (Gr. mōras) and ignoramous (Gr. apaideutous) speculations (Gr. zētēseis) knowing that they produce quarrels; the slave of the Lord must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged,…''"

Which is to say (besides "OMG, they defied Jesus by saying MORON!!!") the apostles not only know how to insult and contend (Jude 1) as they denounce ignorance attempting to speculate on the Scriptures--how many times did you hear one of the undisciplined men speculate thereupon, or about their meanderings in their coterie of brother-banding as the multipe-elder team(!!!) and core???; renouncing learning?--but that the quarrelsomeness here has less to do with a penchance or disposition to contend that arises in the context of calling-out one of those "leaders", and everything to do with quarrels arising from unlearned men.

It's their ignorant speculations that engender strife--and the duty of the Lord's slave to contend against such men (Jude 1). I'm sure they could get Hershel to author another sleight-of-hand regarding the Greek here, but it's blatantly obvious this was just an abused verse anyway (again, Jude 1--makes it pretty freakin' evident).

I say, "The Lord's servant/salve must strive/contend with ignorant and evil men."

Amen.

[Huldah]

It's been a long time for me, and I don't remember this particular phrase. How were they interpreting it at GC?

[EverAStudent]

I certainly remember their misuse of the idea that to not be "quarrelsome" meant that we must never find fault with their opinions, doctrines, or odd misinterpretations of Scripture.  sigh...

Remember how they used to constantly misuse Genesis 32:24 in a similar way?  They always said that Jacob "wrestled in prayer" with the angel all night, and that this was a good thing that the did! 

Of course the text says that Jacob fought against God all night and "prevailed," that is, he never gave in to God's will.  Therefore, God disabled his hip to gain his attention and then renamed him Israel, "God will rule over you yet." 

Such poor interpretations as theirs come from a lack of training, study, and discipline. 

[MarthaH]

The church which I attended has 10 pastors now, and only one has formal training. The rest are being taught by each other and is influenced heavily by tradition.

I had the opportunity to hear from the person who baptized me and he was part of the movement from long ago and followed Jim McCotter to D.C. His assessment as one who sat directly under his feet is that Jim is evil. Mind you, he is still a Christian and supports missions heavily. His basic assessment of Jim is that he loves money and that he is a wolf.

If Jim is the root of the movement, is it any wonder that the tree bears abusive fruit? In order to truly change, they would have to align themselves with proper teaching. In my opinion, GCLI doesn't cut it. The main division of the association of churches from GCM came when GCM tried to give their missionaries proper teaching from seminaries. GCLI is a response, in part, to the seminary push from the GCM arm. I do not think, however, that GCLI undoes the bad traditions of the McCotter era. In fact, I feel it confirms their traditions. Traditions do not guard against wrong doctrines. Case in point is that at least one of their national leaders embraces much of the Charismatic movement.