The
verse: There is an immediate
application to those begotten-again in Christ Jesus.
1
Cor. 11:1 KJV ¶ Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of
Christ. | We are told to imitate Paul as he imitated Christ.
Rom.
1:9 KJV For God is my witness, whom
I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son,
[…] ; | This is a priestly type of service (Rom 12.1) in an active
state of being in his begotten-again spirit (Rom 8.10 KJV), in the
spirit of that life which is in Christ Jesus (Rom 8.2), in the “new
man” (Col 3.10), pushing aside the habits and memories of the “old”
man (Eph 4.22). It is a
service of witness to the truth of the Gospel..
Rev.
1:5-6 KJV ¶ And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful
witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the
prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed
us from our sins in his own blood, 6 And hath made us kings and
priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and
dominion for ever and ever. Amen. | The first office ascribed to
Jesus in Revelation. Our empowerment to follow and imitate Him and
Paul in this office.
1
Jn. 5:3 KJV For this is the love of God, that we keep his
commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. |
Because of the love of God poured out in our hearts
(Rom 5.5), we are able
to guard His commandments and they are not grievous to us.
2
Co 4:17 LITV For the
lightness of our present affliction works out for us an eternal
weight of glory,
surpassing moment by surpassing moment; | In the original language,
the lightness of our afflictions is the subject. Following the
instruction to witness is not only, not grievous, but the afflictions
which follow will be perceived as light. And that unnatural
lightness of the afflictions will be perceived as working out an
eternal weight of glory, The treasure accumulates (Mat 6.19-21) where
the heart is (Rom 10.9-10), in heaven with the Lord (Eph 2.6).
For
– The
first word of the verse connects it with the immediate context, the
conversion of Saul of Tarsus (who became Paul, the apostle) on the
road to Damascus.
Acts
contains three accounts of this important event. (This reminds us of
the two accounts of royal history contained in Kings and Chronicles.
And even more of the four accounts of the first coming of Christ in
the gospels. The conversion of Paul seems to have intermediate
importance. It is important as a special model of conversion into
Christ for both Jew and Gentile. It may also be a model of the
conversion of the 144,000 of Rev 7,3-4. But most important perhaps is
the certification of Paul's apostleship. As ambassadors for Christ (2
Cor 5.20) we may often certify ourselves by the testimony about our
own coming to Christ though early parental influence or remembered
conversion.
Acts
22:14-16 KJV And he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee,
that thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and
shouldest hear the voice of his mouth. 15
For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and
heard.
16 And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away
thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. .
Thou
–
Not emphasized in the Greek as a separate word repeating the second
person singular form of the verb. Additional evidence that the
instruction is for others as well as Paul. (Older English
translations make the singular or plural second person distinction
plain without reference to the Greek.)
shalt
be –
The verb is also indicative future middle. It is a prophecy, not a
command. (As are the ten commandments. It was Israel that attempted
obedience (Exo 19.8). And when unable to even listen, chose obedience
through hearing a mediator (Exo 20.19). The prophecy is fulfilled in
the Millennium after God circumcises the hearts of His People (Deu
30.6). Jos 1.8 is another example of prophecy more than command. ).
Both Greek and Hebrew have imperative and exhortative verbal forms
and expressions, but a simple indicative of futurity seems to be the
meaning in these cases. The use of the English auxiliary verb is
misleading. Better to use “will” than “shall” in most places.
The voice of the verb is neither active nor passive, but middle. It
may imply that the action may be constrained by factors other than
the actor's intention.
his
–
Most likely refers to “that Just One”, Christ, in the previous
verse. Ambiguity between God and Christ is most noticeable in John's
writings. When both readings are consistent with scripture, both
should be accepted. Ambiguity was an economic means of expression in
days when writing was more arduous and copying expensive. The
necessarily very explicit style of science and scholarship has overly
effected our notions of good writing. The Greek pronoun is in the
dative case rather than the genitive. It has the sense of witnessing
for Him or on His behalf, rather than belonging to Him or witnessing
about Him or being from Him. These alternatives are true but the
focus in this verse is on the personal relationship of witnessing for
or on behalf of our Lord.
witness
–
The office and attributes of a witness are assigned to Paul. The
derivation of the Greek word indicates an ability to remember
accurately. It is one who attests the fact or truth of something. A
witness on behalf of or for Christ is in view. The content and
audience of the testimony are given below.
unto
– The
Greek preposition is “primarily used in marking the destination or
goal with implication of relationship rather than entry into”
according to Danker. This is confirmation of the personal
relationship focus of this verse. The aim of the witness is to
deliver a personal message on behalf of our Lord.
all
men –
It should not be necessary to say that all humanity or all persons
are in view. We used to be able to use context to easily
differentiate all humanity from all adult males. Both Greek and
Hebrew make the differentiation explicit. The word used here seems to
be derived from “face of man”. Women and children do add a good
deal of pleasantness to our face. Paul did witness to all men. His
special apostleship was to the Gentiles but he gave a proper priority
to the Jews in his journeys and his writings. The rejection of the
Gospel by the Jews in various places is a major theme in Acts. Romans
9-11 gives us a thorough perspective on this. In 2Cor 2.14-17 Paul
speaks of triumphing in Christ though this witness to all men and of
the great seriousness and importance of the ministry in rejection as
well as acceptance.
of
what –
Or “about those things which”. It is a genitive neuter plural
relative pronoun. It defines what is witnessed about in terms of the
connected last two verbs. The verbs are indifferent tenses so the
sense might be more fully rendered in English by “those things
which you have seen and which you heard (or hear)..
have
seen – The
tense of the verb is perfect and implies that the seeing is complete.
It focuses on the light which blinded Paul on the road to Damascus.
This was a real seeing with the eyes of the unapproachable light of
the presence of the Father in heaven where Christ sits at His right
hand. Paul's supernatural mental visions, such as the one in Acts
22.18, would seem to be in a lesser category in some sense. There is
a secondary sense here that pertains to Christian conversion in
general. It is seeing with an inner spiritual eye that is constitutes
a radically new perception of reality. This is something to be
remembered and appropriately used in witnessing..
and
-
The Greek word has rather wider usage than our “and”. There might
be a better translation: “what you have seen, even what you hear.”
The blinding light of God's physical presence is a part of, and the
essence of, as well as the beginning of special communication with
Him. For us, the radical new understanding of reality that comes with
conversion needs to be remembered in order to spur further
communication and prevent the loss of our first love (Rev 2.4-5).
heard.
- The
tense is aorist which is peculiar to the Greek and causes much
misunderstanding. It looks at an action as a whole and not as the
present or imperfect do, from the limited viewpoint of present or
past time. Sometimes context will tell us that the action has been
completed. The action may be regarded as taking place either in past
or present time. Some complicated rules of Greek grammar may give a
clue or to the expert, a firm opinion. I generally start with English
present tense in translation. I favor the present, “even what you
hear” in this case for the communication and the hearing are
ongoing. We do not have the special spiritual office and special
spiritual gifts and powers of Paul (1Cor 12.1,4-6). These have failed
(1Co 13.8) with the end of the time of special revelation (Rev
22.18). But with the completion of scripture improved faculties (1Co
13.9-12; Eph 4.) are available to all who wish to reign in life by
receiving the abundance available in Christ. the abundance of grace
and the abundance of the gift of righteousness (Rom 5.17).
I2C
151109aa Act22v14 word by word | I2C | 151109 2106 et
