URGENT URGING

Parents learn the art of urging early. It comes in the following forms: brush your teeth so you won’t lose them. Look both ways before you cross the street. Do not talk to a stranger. Do your homework so you can get good grades. Eat your brussel sprouts so you can grow up strong.

As children get older, the parental urging stakes go higher. Do not try drugs, they will fry your brain. Do not get drunk—remember your friend who died in the auto accident? Practice abstinence because STD’s are around every corner.

We understand the need for urging. It is the same in church life. There is the need for urgent urging. Listen to the apostle Paul as he urges his fellow Christians in Rome:

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship” (12:1).

It was common practice in Paul’s day, while writing letters, for a person to highlight one of the most important features of composition by prefacing it with the word “urge.” This was used to address the ethos (character or behavior) desired in the recipient of the letter. It basically has the idea of “calling in alongside of” or, strongly encouraging someone. One ancient Greek writer uses it to refer to calling in the general for strategy. He would have urged and encouraged his troops in the heat of battle.

What does Paul want in the character or behavior of his readers? He wants them “to offer their bodies as living sacrifices.” This was the point of his urgent urging. In Paul’s letters it is clear, just like today, that too many people separated their “spiritual” life from their “physical” life. But Paul attacks this heresy head-on. All forms of spirituality are embodied. That is, how we offer our bodies to God is the center of our spiritual life.

This urging of an embodied spirituality is just as relevant today as it was in the first century. It is easy to think that our spirituality has nothing to do with our bodies. But Paul insists that this approach to life is “spiritual act of worship.” Paul does not list this as one act of worship among many. This is the only time in Paul’s writings when he calls the doing of a thing a “spiritual act of worship.” He is not talking about something we do in the assembly on Sunday morning. He is urging a congruence between the spirit and the body as we live out our faith.

The church today needs more urgent urging! Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and we are bought with a price. We are not our own. Therefore, we need to let our character and behavior glorify God!

In Christian love, Curtis

Resources:

Bjerkelund, C. J. 1967. Parakaleo: Form, Funktion und Sinn der Parakalo Satze in den Paulenischen Briefen. Bibliotheca theological Norvegiva 1. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.

Grayston, K. (1980). “A Problem of Translation: The Meaning of parakaleo, paraclesis in the New Testament.” Scripture Bulletin 11: 27-31.

O’Brien, Peter T. 1999. “Letters, Letter Form.” Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, 552. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Xenophon. Anab. 3.1.32. Cited in Braumann, G. 1979. “Exhort.” New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology. Volume 1, 567-573. Edited by Colin Brown. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.