A PERVERSION OF SCRIPTURE.
A certain popular preacher, not long ago, took for his text for one of his syndicate sermons Rom. 1:14—“I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians.” Here are some excerpts, which in the main express his conception of this grand text:— “Paul practically says: ‘I, the apostle, am bankrupt. I owe what I can not pay, but I will pay as large a percentage as I can. It is an obligation for what Greek literature and Greek sculpture and Greek architecture and Greek prowess have done for me. I will pay all I can in installments of evangelism. I am insolvent to the Greeks.’” “‘I am debtor to the Greeks.’ In the first place, we owe to their language our New Testament. All of it was first written in Greek, except the book of Matthew, and that, written in the Aramaean language, was soon put into Greek by our Saviour’s brother James.” As we read the above, we involuntarily asked, What meaning has the Gospel to one who thus preaches, or to those who listen and suppose it Gospel teaching? He makes even the Word of God in the New Testament dependent on the Greek language; just as if God could not have given it to the world in the Latin, or some other tongue! Then, after referring to the Greek mythology, he says:— “There is not an effective pulpit or editorial chair or professor’s room, or cultured parlor, or intelligent farmhouse to-day, in America or Europe, that could not appropriately employ Paul’s ejaculation and say, ‘I am debtor to the Greeks.’” But if the world had not known the fables of Greek mythology, would not many more have turned to the verities of Holy Writ? “The fact is this, Paul had got much of his oratorical power of expression from the Greeks.” Of Paul’s oratorical power, let him speak: “Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth.” “For this grandest of all sciences, the science of healing, every pillow of recovered invalid, every ward of American and European hospital, may well cry out: ‘Thank God for old Dr. Hippocrates! I, like Paul, am indebted to the Greeks.’” The simple fact as regards the healing art is that the Word of God is far in advance of any scientific treatise on therapeutics. Its simple hygienic rules are better than all the theories of medicines from Hippocrates to the present. And Paul was an instrument in healing many which Greek skill could not reach. “Furthermore, all the world is obligated to Hellas more than it can ever pay, for its heroics in the cause of liberty and right.” As to liberty, the apostle found the Greeks sunken in hopeless bondage to the worship of thousands of gods which were no gods. The apostle carried to the poor Greeks a liberty higher than they ever knew. But was not Paul a debtor?—Yes, for he says he was. For what was he a debtor? Listen. Jesus Christ redeemed all men with his most precious blood. He purchased them from the slavery of sin and death to the liberty of righteousness and life. He redeemed Paul by his own life, and Paul acknowledged Christ’s gift by accepting Christ, and acknowledged Christ’s ownership by giving himself for Christ’s service, to do all in his power for the purchase of Christ’s blood among all nations. He, therefore, counted himself a debtor to Greeks and Barbarians—all men—because he belonged to Christ, and Christ had purchased all men. This is as true of every man as it was of Paul. If you acknowledge your obligation to Christ, you will count yourself to be debtor to all, not because of what they have done for you, but because of what Christ has done. This is the meaning of the scripture. It does not glorify the Greek, but it glorifies Christ, and man in Christ.