25 April 2006

Today we continue with the discussion around what will happen to the principalities and powers in the writing of Ronald Sider.

...Does not 1 Corinthians suggest that the principalities and powers will be destroyed rather than restored? ...1 Cor. 2:6 says that the rulers of this age are "doomed to pass away." And 1 Cor.15:24 declares that Christ will deliver the kingdom of God the Father "after destroying every rule and every authority and power." But is this the proper translation? The key word in both passages is the verb katargein. This verb means "to make ineffective or powerless." It also means "to abolish or destroy."...
But the verb does not always mean "destroy." In 1 Cor. 13:8, Paul says that our present prophesies and knowledge are imperfect and will therefore pass away (same verb). But he does not mean that knowledge will be destroyed; rather, he means that the imperfections of our present understanding will be removed.

I did to a bit of jumping in the text here but it was in order to show that the Christ of God is of a power that is greater than all powers and all principalities and it can therefore not have to function as we are likely to function. Nothing need be destroyed. Within the power of the resurrected Christ, all things will move forward with imperfections removed...or...with destructive powers made ineffective or powerless. What a vision! This must be a part of what so many people of resistance are able to see. The Christ leads us into a new creation and a new life even in the face of all the powers and principalities because we can exist contrary to their might and force because we are a part of the transformation that is already moving along its way. Think about the civil rights movement. Those folks walked in the face of the powers of the day and did not let those powers have their way and their say among them. They lived in a new light. Yes, it often meant that they had to face much brutality. And yet, the principalities and powers were quite ineffective in trying to make their power rule the lives of these saints. I am always in a state of complete awe when I hear about and see such people.

Connection: In little things we begin to live contrary to the powers and in that, we do, indeed, make them powerless. Remember, even...in the little things where we all might be able to begin the journey to the cross.

Come, Lord of New Life, and make us bold within the ordinary ways and days at hand. It is by your power that we are able to stand and live within a vision where you rule both now and forever. Amen.