So who's lying? ( Titus 1 )

"All Cretans are liars," said the Cretan poet.

I don't know if Paul got the joke. If all Cretans are liars, how can you trust the Cretan who tells you that all Cretans are liars? Well, apparently Anaxamander (if memory serves me correctly) had a whole string of unpleasant things to say about his fellow countrymen:

Tit 1:12 Kendilerinden biri, öz peygamberlerinden biri şöyle demiştir: "Giritliler hep yalancıdır, azgın canavarlar, tembel oburlardır."

Let's look at a few words:

• Giritliler -- People of Crete, Cretans. Girit (Crete) + li (partaking of, citizen of) + ler (plural) [1]
  
• hep -- all
  
• yalancıdır -- Liar(s). Yalan (lie) + cı (agent ending, like the -er in baker) + dır (are)
  
• canavarlar -- beasts
  
• tembel -- lazy
  

After this observation was published, I imagine that the poet heard the same message communicated to Tom Wolfe after he published his first novel, Look Homeward, Angel. The message that became the title of his next novel, You Can't Go Home Again.

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[1] OK -- so li comes before ler. Even as it's idiomatically correct, in English, to talk about a "little old lady," but not an "old little lady." Size comes before time ... one of those "rules" that native speakers never even notice!

If you think it's hard now ... ! ( II Tim. 4 )

When times get tough, people get strange. There are times, rare in history, when a distinct demographic group suddenly is fascinated by God's truth, eager and responsive. This usually happens at times of national catastrophe. However, a more common reaction is to tune in to comforting lies. In the aftermath of the American war of Northern aggression, our people brooded over the smoking ruins of two Christian nations. The losers had lost the war, and suffered punitive military occupation. The winners lost their souls. This was the time when "dispensationalism," a perverted heresy that ran rampant through popular Protestantism, sank its roots into the hearts of this subculture. Paul warned Timothy using graphic language:

2Ti 4:3 Çünkü öyle bir zaman gelecek ki, sağlam öğretiye katlanamayacaklar. Kulaklarını okşayan sözler duymak için çevrelerine kendi arzularına uygun öğretmenler toplayacaklar.
2Ti 4:4 Kulaklarını gerçeğe tıkayıp masallara sapacaklar.

And today's word is:

• okşamak -- to caress, to fondle.

People who see nothing but increasing distress ahead are easy prey for those who seduce, caress, and fondle their ears. Who trot out rationalizations for why things turned out so bad.

And Paul's advice to Timothy was -- expect it, and soldier on.

If you can keep your head ( II Tim. 3 )

Paul loved the Jewish civilization, tradition, and culture, with all the passion of one who knew himself to be somewhat peripheral to it. Stalin, after all, was a Georgian. Hitler was an Austrian. And Paul, who had the most impeccable Jewish credentials, and had even completed advanced studies at Jerusalem U, studying with the most prestigious rabbis of his day, was still the guy from Anatolia.[1]

Yet, Paul knew that "the beloved community" was on a collision course with reality. His nation, his tribe, his people, were being mismanaged into destruction. Israel had crucified and rejected the Prophet God sent them, and that's a hard mistake to bounce back from. So, Paul warned his protege, dying cultures can break bad. Dying cultures can be possessed by an insane lust to share the misery. "Timothy, my lad, watch out," Paul wrote.

2Ti 3:1 Şunu bil ki, son günlerde çetin anlar olacaktır.
2Ti 3:2, 3 İnsanlar kendilerini seven, para düşkünü, övüngen, kibirli, küfürbaz, anne baba sözü dinlemez, nankör, kutsallıktan ve sevgiden yoksun, uzlaşmaz, iftiracı, özünü denetleyemeyen, azgın, iyilik düşmanı olacaklar.
2Ti 3:4 Hain, aceleci, kendini beğenmiş, Tanrı'dan çok eğlenceyi seven, Tanrı yolundaymış gibi görünüp bu yolun gücünü inkâr edenler olacaklar. Böylelerinden uzak dur.

Let's look at that last sentence:

• Böylelerinden -- from these kinds of people
  
• uzak -- far away
  
• dur -- stay!
  

Although it may be a surprise to today's apocalyptic nincompoops, Paul's letter to Timothy was written to Timothy. The condemned prisoner was giving the man he most counted on to further his legacy the exact admonitions and advice that protege needed. Paul did not break away from addressing Timothy to pen a handful of sentences for the entertainment of 20th century fortune-tellers.

Still, Timothy had to know what to expect as his culture came unglued. How people could be expected to react to those special pressures. What kinds of charlatans would arise to take advantage of the prevailing misery. All of this is helpful information for believers facing the unraveling of their worlds, at those hinges of history.

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[1] A man may live 50 years in the south -- but whenever he opens his mouth, people hear "Pittsburgh."

The Big Picture ( II Tim. 2 )

One of the metaphors Paul frequently uses is the soldier. I sometimes wonder how my life would be different today if I had answered my country's call back in the late '60s. When you march in demonstrations against your nation's military, even if only out of a desire to belong, a desire to impress your peers, it leaves a nagging suspicion, in the back of your mind, about your own manliness, your own courage, your own ability to face hardship and adversity. I know, logically, that my nation hasn't participated in a just war for well over 150 years. I know, as Smedley Butler realized, that most of our more recent wars have made a handful of plutocrats really rich, while costing the expendables their lives, limbs, and sanity.

Yet on a level beyond logic, a sense that one has avoided the challenge of his generation does leave one at a loss when talking with those who took the challenge, measured themselves against it, and measured up.

Well, as Uncle Remus used to say, "Dat's needer heer nor dare." Paul used the metaphor of military service to warn Timothy against the tyranny of petty distractions:

2Ti 2:4 Askerlik yapan kişi günlük yaşamla ilgili işlere karışmaz; kendisini askerliğe çağıranı hoşnut etmeye çalışır.

A few words:

• Askerlik -- military. asker (soldier) + lik (participating in the characteristics of)
  
• günlük -- mundane. gün (day) + lük (participating in the characteristics of)
• yaşamla -- of life
  
• işlere -- works
  

Now, on the one hand, most of life does consist of small duties, routine obligations. The problem happens when one gets immersed in the urgent to the extent of neglecting the important. There are always trivial things one could be doing. Programmers call those distractions "dogwash." When a major project is approaching its deadline, other things suddenly look interesting. Like washing the dog.

Only a vision of the Commander who conscripted us has sufficient power to break us out of the tyranny of the urgent, the immediate, and keep our eyes focused on the big picture.

Non-automatic gifts ( II Tim. 1 )

Second Timothy is believed to be the last letter Paul wrote. In any case, if he wrote anything after this letter, we don't have it. He's in prison, looking down the barrel of one last criminal trial, and probable execution. He is encouraging his closest associate, the younger man he trusts to carry on his mission. He reminds Timothy of how much he has going for him -- starting with the Biblical faith of his grandmother and mother. And, he reminds him of his spiritual empowerment:

2Ti 1:6 Bu nedenle, ellerimi senin üzerine koymamla Tanrı'nın sana verdiği armağanı alevlendirmen gerektiğini hatırlatıyorum.
2Ti 1:7 Çünkü Tanrı bize korkaklık ruhu değil, güç, sevgi ve özdenetim ruhu vermiştir.

Key words, verse 6:

• armak -- gift
  
• alevlendirmen -- stir up into flame
  

Key words, verse 7:

• Tanrı -- God
  
• bize -- to us
  
• korkaklık --fearful
  
• ruhu -- spirit
  
• değil, -- not
  
• güç, -- power, strength
  
• sevgi -- love
  
• özdenetim -- self-mastery
  
• vermiştir -- He has given
  

Each of us has his own special "gift," his own knack for doing something more easily than most of our peers. The problem is, these "gifts" do not operate themselves. Yes, God has equipped us with an ability to make an impact on our world. No, we can't go onto autopilot and coast along. For example, I have a gift for writing. However, unless I "glue the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair" and "drive the dreary quill," nothing happens, other than increasing anxiety and frustration.

Well, I'm memorizing verse 7, as part of the ongoing project of recalibrating the brain.

Servant or master? ( I Tim. 6 )

Here is an interesting article on the intersection of money and putperest (idolatry).

Here is the most famous quote from İncil about money:

1Ti 6:10 Çünkü her türlü kötülüğün bir kökü de para sevgisidir. Kimileri zengin olma hevesiyle imandan saptılar, kendi kendilerine çok acı çektirdiler.

Let's look at a few words!

• Çünkü -- Because
  
• her -- every
  
• türlü -- kind
  
• kötülüğün -- of evil
  
• bir kökü de -- a root of
• para -- money
  
• sevgisidir -- love is.
  

It's not the money itself that is evil, but the inordinate love of it. Like fire -- a wonderful servant, but a fearsome master!

Priorities ( I Tim. 5:8 )

Efeses is a sophisticated place. People loved having long conversations on speculative topics. Time after time Paul had to remind them -- directly, and again through Timothy -- that good doctrine must be lived. Consider this shocking offhand comment:

1Ti 5:8 Kendi yakınlarına, özellikle de ev halkına bakmayan kişi imanı inkâr etmiş, imansızdan beter olmuştur. 

Let's look at a few words:

• imanı -- the faith (direct object case)
  
• inkâr -- denial
  
• etmiş -- has made
• imansızdan -- than an unbeliever
• beter -- worse
• olmuştur -- has become 

A favorite scholar, R. J. Rushdoony, suggested that the American cult of celebrity correlates to the loss of reverence for worship. When we celebrate our covenant with God with condign passion and seriousness, we are less inclined to live (and lust) vicariously through the glossy pages of People magazine. 

Still, this is  a country that cherishes its heros, its larger-than-life sized "American idols." Sadly, this adulation of public figures has also affected the community of believers. Several decades ago, several very visible "televangelists" had spectacular public falls. A century ago, a Billy Sunday mesmerized a million people into performing a novel ritual, the "altar call response." Meanwhile, he lost all four of his own children. His advocacy of prohibition also discredited Christians in the larger public sphere ever since. 

Paul asserts that the man who refuses to measaure up to his responsibilities at home is "worse than an unbeliever." No atheist hurling[0] brickbats[1] at us from outside our community can do as much harm to the gospel we proclaim than the guy inside the camp who feels entitled to consort with prostitutes. 

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[0] Hurl is a less-common way of saying throw, and always refers to an object propelled with hostile intent. A decade ago, it was also a slang term for the verb vomit. 

[1] That's a funny old word, defined by its use. "An object, such as a piece of a brick, that is hurled in a fight."