Latest / Reformed Thinking / ἀδόκιμος (Adokimos): Rejected After Testing
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
- 0:01We are doing a deep dive today into a concept that really sets
- 0:06at the center of Christian accountability and, well,
- 0:08assurance too, the whole idea of a divine standard of approval.
- 0:13We've gathered a lot of source material here, some very
- 0:16detailed linguistic studies and theological work that all focus
- 0:18on a specific family of Greek terms.
- 0:21Our mission is to take those technical insights out of the
- 0:23lexicon, you know, and turn them into a working understanding of
- 0:27what it means to be considered acceptable or, on the other
- 0:29hand, rejected in God's eyes. And this isn't just an academic
- 0:33exercise. It's about getting a handle on
- 0:35the seriousness and also the comfort that's found in God's
- 0:38sovereignty over who gets validated.
- 0:40It is, and that standard is really defined by three Greek
- 0:43words that are all connected. You have doki mazo, which is the
- 0:46active verb, the process of testing or examining something.
- 0:49Then you have Doki MOS, which is the result, the state of being
- 0:52approved, genuine, certified. And then it's opposite, a doki
- 0:55MOS, which is, well, it's pretty stark.
- 0:58It means rejected, failed, or just fundamentally disqualified.
- 1:01And the weight of this word group comes from the fact that
- 1:04it sets the terms for final acceptance or rejection, not
- 1:08just in some abstract way, but across our conduct, our
- 1:11spiritual health, and yes, the final judgment.
- 1:14Right. And what's so interesting is
- 1:15that the concept starts in very practical, almost mundane
- 1:19settings. The historical background,
- 1:21before it ever gets applied to the soul, is all about rigorous
- 1:24technical insection. We're talking about the refiners
- 1:27fire verifying if a substance or a person met an external
- 1:32verifiable standard. OK, so let's start there in the
- 1:35ancient world, in the marketplace.
- 1:36If we trace this word group back, what's it all about before
- 1:40we even get to the New Testament?
- 1:41Well, the likely root is a word dokai, which means watching.
- 1:45Watching, Yeah, and it suggests a very careful fixed gaze, not a
- 1:49casual glance. It's the difference between,
- 1:51say, scanning a page and doing a detailed audit.
- 1:54So if something is called Doki Mos, it means it has survived
- 1:57that level of scrutiny and been certified as the real.
- 2:00Deal and the most vivid, the first application of that kind
- 2:03of scrutiny is with things like metals and coins, right, quality
- 2:07control. Absolutely.
- 2:08Just think about the Roman economy.
- 2:10A coin has the emperor's face on it, but that's only valuable if
- 2:14the metal itself is what it claims to be.
- 2:17Documos refers to an object that's been tested and found
- 2:21genuine. The Septuagint, which is the
- 2:23Greek Old Testament, uses it this way all time.
- 2:26And this is where we get that powerful analogy that runs all
- 2:29through scripture, the refining fire.
- 2:32That's right. Fire is the test.
- 2:34It's the means of verification. You take a lump of gold or
- 2:36silver, you put it in the furnace, and you heat it up.
- 2:39That heat forces a separation. The true metal separates from
- 2:43the impurity that draws. The Hebrew word for that is sia.
- 2:47So if the silver comes out pure, it's dokimos.
- 2:49It's proving genuine, but if it has too many impurities, it's
- 2:52either thrown out or it has to go through more refining, which
- 2:55is, you know, a painful process. We see this in Genesis in First
- 2:58Chronicles for instance. That image is so critical.
- 3:00The test isn't optional, it's actually required for
- 3:03verification. It's a standard that just strips
- 3:05away all pretense. The fire doesn't care about what
- 3:08an object claims to be. No, it only cares about its
- 3:10actual composition. And that same practical,
- 3:13verifiable test was then applied to people, especially people who
- 3:17are being considered for public trust.
- 3:19Yes, Dokamazo in the classical world meant to test or to
- 3:23examine someone before approving them for an office.
- 3:26So what did that look like? If you were a candidate for a
- 3:29civic role, what was the test? Writers like Plato and Xenophon
- 3:33give us a good idea. When they were testing
- 3:35candidates for state office, the examination was really
- 3:38comprehensive. They weren't just checking your
- 3:41family connections or, you know, your education.
- 3:43They were verifying your fitness for the role and maybe most of
- 3:47all, your character. The person seeking office had to
- 3:50prove their integrity, their capability for the job.
- 3:54You're only accepted as a magistrate after you pass the
- 3:56Dokamasu. So the key expectation was
- 3:58reliability. It was if a public figure was
- 4:01deemed docomos, it meant they had shown they were reliable
- 4:05under scrutiny, they were worthy of public trust.
- 4:07There's a really interesting example of this from Josephus
- 4:10right with the Essenes. Yes, a fascinating 1.
- 4:12The Essenes were this ascetic Jewish sect, and their whole
- 4:16initiation process was built around this idea of attestation,
- 4:20of proving yourself. I think he mentions A2 year
- 4:23probation period, that's it. The character to Otos of a
- 4:26novice who wanted to join the Essenes was tested.
- 4:30It was Doki Mazatai for two full years before they were accepted
- 4:33into the community. So they're just watching them.
- 4:35They're watching everything. How the person acts under
- 4:38stress, how they handle temptation, whether they're
- 4:41outward behavior matches their inner character.
- 4:43It was a long, very intense vetting process and you only got
- 4:47in if you demonstrated a reliable character.
- 4:50And it wasn't just for people. Xenophon uses the term for
- 4:52objects too. Yes.
- 4:54Anything that vital had to be verified.
- 4:56You had to test the quality of horses for the military or the
- 4:59fitness of your weapons before a battle.
- 5:01All of this required dokimazo. The horse has to prove its
- 5:04speed, its stamina, the sword has to prove it won't break.
- 5:07Anything that required reliability had to be certified
- 5:10as Dokimos. So all of this background really
- 5:13sharpens the meaning of Dokimos for us.
- 5:16It isn't just a simple declaration of acceptance, not
- 5:19at all. It's a statement that this
- 5:21person or this thing has successfully met a standard
- 5:25after going through some kind of intense trial.
- 5:27It's passed the test. Exactly.
- 5:30And you even see Philo the Jewish philosopher, starting to
- 5:33apply this to the spiritual life.
- 5:35He uses documos for souls that are accepted into God's circle
- 5:39of friends. So these are souls who were
- 5:42proven faithful. Right.
- 5:43And the concept carried this inherent weight.
- 5:46You don't just passively become a friend of God, you become a
- 5:48friend of God by passing the trials and showing that your
- 5:52spiritual character is genuine. So OK, when the new testing
- 5:55writers pick up this language, they are basically telling us
- 5:57that the God we serve doesn't grant approval based on, say,
- 6:00feelings or appearances. He grants it based on verifiable
- 6:05demonstrated character that's been proved in the fire.
- 6:07That's it. The place of scrutiny shifts.
- 6:09It's no longer the City Council or the jeweler.
- 6:11It's God himself. This is where the word group
- 6:13gets its huge theological leverage.
- 6:16The New Testament applies do kimazo to that tension at the
- 6:19core of the Christian life. We've received salvation, but we
- 6:23are also living with an impending judgment, so our whole
- 6:26existence is under divine testing all the time.
- 6:29And the Old Testament had already laid the groundwork for
- 6:32God as the great scrutinizer. You have the psalmist praying.
- 6:35Examine me, O Lord, and prove me.
- 6:37Try my reigns and my heart. That's an invitation to a pretty
- 6:41intense inspection. That awareness of God's constant
- 6:44testing is everywhere. Paul even uses the active
- 6:47participle to define God. In First Thessalonians 2.4 he
- 6:51says God is Libuki Mazum Dascardia's home and he who
- 6:54tests our hearts. Right.
- 6:56And Paul is using this to defend his ministry, isn't he?
- 6:58He is. He's saying that he and his
- 7:00fellow workers weren't trying to please men.
- 7:02They were approved by God and that's why they were entrusted
- 7:05with the Gospel office. That's a huge statement against
- 7:07the people who are questioning his authority based on things
- 7:10like how well he could speak or how much money he had.
- 7:13He's basically saying our call is genuine because God approved
- 7:16us for it. Exactly.
- 7:18Their apostleship wasn't about a popularity contest or visible
- 7:21success. It was based on the secret
- 7:24sifting counsel of God. God tested their inner motives,
- 7:27their consciences, and He found them fit for the job.
- 7:30That is the only validation that counts.
- 7:32The prophet Jeremiah takes this imagery even further.
- 7:35He connects God's testing of an individual's heart to these
- 7:38large scale historical judgments against the entire nation.
- 7:41Yes, Jeremiah 11.20 says that God is the Lord who tries the
- 7:45reigns in the heart, the reigns there.
- 7:47That's the innermost being, the seat of your motivations and
- 7:49will. So God's testing isn't random.
- 7:52It's a process that's woven into history itself.
- 7:55And in Jeremiah 6, the image just becomes brutally visceral.
- 7:58God appoints Jeremiah to sift the people.
- 8:01He uses that image of the purifier of metals.
- 8:03God says I have made you a tester of metals among my people
- 8:06that you may know and test their ways.
- 8:08So God is telling Jeremiah, you're my assay officer.
- 8:11Your job, your whole ministry, is to expose the dross.
- 8:14And what's the result of that test on the people of Judah?
- 8:18God says they are all grievous revolters, they are bronze and
- 8:22iron. They are all corrupters.
- 8:24The bellows are burned, the refiner refines in vain, for the
- 8:28wicked are not plucked away. It's a painful conclusion.
- 8:32God's testing fire didn't remove the wickedness because the
- 8:35people were just so fundamentally debased.
- 8:38The whole process ends not with purification, but with God's
- 8:41final rejection up at Okimahz's of a whole generation that
- 8:45failed the test of covenant faithfulness.
- 8:48And this leads us straight to the Last Judgment, which the New
- 8:50Testament presents as the final moment of this ongoing divine
- 8:54scrutiny. The Last Judgment is the
- 8:56definitive moment. It's when all human life and all
- 8:59our achievements are put to the test.
- 9:00The classic text here is First Corinthians 3.13, where Paul
- 9:03talks about the building work of Christian ministers.
- 9:06Right. He talks about some building
- 9:07with gold, silver and precious stones, while others are using
- 9:09wood, hay and straw. And the fire is coming to test
- 9:11the whole thing. The fire will prove the value,
- 9:14the quality, the inherent worth of each person's work.
- 9:18The Greek is to Pyr Doki Masai. The fire will test it.
- 9:21Now this is a key point for you listing.
- 9:23Paul makes a distinction between the work and the worker.
- 9:26The worthless materials, the wood, hay, straw, they get
- 9:29burned up by the fire, but the worker is saved.
- 9:32Yet, as he says, as through fire.
- 9:35That distinction is so comforting, but it's also deeply
- 9:38sobering. It tells us that our salvation
- 9:41is all about Christ, but the effectiveness and the
- 9:43genuineness of our Christian labor are put to the same
- 9:46rigorous test as a piece of metal.
- 9:48That's it. The fire of judgement validates
- 9:50the genuine product, the gold and silver, and it destroys the
- 9:54fake or temporary editions, the hay and straw.
- 9:57So the test isn't about salvation, it's about spiritual
- 9:59quality and motive. The person who has proven
- 10:01himself in life and whose work passes that fire test of
- 10:04judgement, that's the one who is Dokimos.
- 10:06And the reward for being proven genuine is spelled out by James.
- 10:10James 1.12 gives us the direct connection.
- 10:13Dokimos, Genominos, Lopsetaitone, Stefanontos use
- 10:17haven't become proved. He will receive the Crown of
- 10:19Life. So the crown isn't just given
- 10:21out automatically. No, it's the promised reward for
- 10:24those who endure the trial and are found to have a true,
- 10:27verifiable character. This whole framework of divine
- 10:30testing gets back to that tension Paul had with the
- 10:32Corinthians. They were looking for validation
- 10:35based on human categories. They were.
- 10:38The Corinthians were obsessed with outward signs of spiritual
- 10:40authority, impressive speeches, flashy displays of charisma, and
- 10:45they judged Paul and his friends harshly because they didn't have
- 10:49that worldly Polish. Paul just confronts this vanity
- 10:52directly in 2nd Corinthians 10 Point old team.
- 10:54What's his main response there? He.
- 10:56Just draws a line in the sand. He says.
- 10:58It is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the
- 11:01one whom the Lord commends. He just pulls the rug out from
- 11:04under their entire system of evaluation.
- 11:06He does human categories, fame, reputation, appearance.
- 11:10They are totally irrelevant to the standard of divine
- 11:13attestation. God and God alone issues the
- 11:16final verdict on who is dokomos. So if the ultimate validator is
- 11:20God who looks at the heart, then our effort should be focused
- 11:23entirely on aligning our character with it His searching
- 11:28eye. Whether the world or even the
- 11:29church happens to notice or not. This reality of constant testing
- 11:34is really what defines the believers experience.
- 11:36Yes, and that's why the early church, which lived under this
- 11:40constant external pressure, persecution, oppression, social
- 11:43alienation, saw that situation of affliction or ellipsis as the
- 11:48very Crucible for proving one's faith.
- 11:50The. Situation for the community of
- 11:52Christ was never abstract. It was often painful.
- 11:54Phillipsis that word for pressure.
- 11:56It was the default setting. But Paul takes this negative
- 11:59reality and turns it into a positive mechanism for creating
- 12:02spiritual stability and strength.
- 12:03This is that famous chain of spiritual virtues in Romans 5.
- 12:06It's worth breaking down how document fix into that
- 12:09progression. So Romans 5 verses 3 and 4.
- 12:11It shows a logical step by step process.
- 12:13It does. Affliction works.
- 12:15Patience or hypo money? Patience works.
- 12:17Document and document works. Hope and document is not the
- 12:21process of testing, but the quality that results from it.
- 12:24Proven character or verifiable proof?
- 12:26So it's the spiritual metal that's been put to the fire and
- 12:29come out whole. Yes, the basis of your
- 12:32attestation is the patient faithfulness that continues
- 12:35despite the crushing weight of negative circumstances.
- 12:39In that sense, Dokie May is the concrete evidence that your
- 12:42faith is real. It's the thing that assures you
- 12:44that the hope you have isn't just wishful thinking, but it's
- 12:47grounded in a tested reality. And this ability to face
- 12:50suffering with spiritual stability is why both James and
- 12:53Peter tell believers to find joy in these moments of trial.
- 12:56Which seems completely backward to our modern way of thinking
- 12:59where we try to avoid all discomfort.
- 13:01It does, but James 1.2 says to count it all joy when you fall
- 13:06into various temptations. But as well.
- 13:08Poka Y and Peter echoes this. He says the being grieved by
- 13:12various trials is necessary so that the testing of your faith
- 13:15can achieve his purpose. The thought underneath it all is
- 13:18that affliction and trial are reasons for joy.
- 13:20Because they perform this necessary testing function, they
- 13:23reveal the genuine article inside you.
- 13:26A believer should welcome the testing because it reveals what
- 13:28is true. OK, let's focus on the term for
- 13:30that resulting proven worth to Dokumian.
- 13:33It's related to Dokumi, but maybe it points more to the
- 13:36tangible result. Dokumian is the neuter form of
- 13:39the adjective that means tested or genuine.
- 13:41It's often translated as proof or proven character.
- 13:44So James 1.3 explains that the testing of your faith to
- 13:48Dokumian Humantus pistets produces endurance.
- 13:53There's a slight debate here, isn't there?
- 13:54Does Doquemian mean the means of testing the trial itself or the
- 13:58genuine character that the test revealed?
- 14:00There is, but while some argue for the means, the context,
- 14:04especially when you look at First Peter, strongly suggests
- 14:06it's the resulting quality. Peter connects the two ideas so
- 14:09clearly. In First Peter 1.7.
- 14:11He says the genuineness of faith proved in suffering is much more
- 14:14precious than perishable gold which is tried by fire.
- 14:17That is a shocking comparison. Why is proven faith more
- 14:20precious than refined gold? Because gold perishes, but
- 14:24faith, when it's been proved by God, does not.
- 14:28Gold is tested by fire to verify its purity, but faith, the faith
- 14:33that has survived the trial, is the result that lasts forever.
- 14:37Dokemian signifies that proven, genuine character of faith that
- 14:40has come out of the furnace, authenticated and ready to be
- 14:43presented to Christ when he is revealed.
- 14:46And this idea of attestation isn't just about internal
- 14:49patients. It has to show up in active,
- 14:51verifiable conduct and ministry. Oh absolutely.
- 14:54Faithfulness in ministry is a central way this is shown.
- 14:57Paul praises Timothy to the Philippians and he points to his
- 15:01document, his proven character, which was demonstrated by the
- 15:04fact that he served faithfully with Paul for the gospel as a
- 15:07son with a father. So Timothy's track record, his
- 15:10actual verifiable actions, that's what constituted his
- 15:12approval. That's it.
- 15:14And the Corinthians, who are so quick to judge Paul, they were
- 15:16themselves challenged to provide document to provide proof of
- 15:19their own spiritual health through their material
- 15:21generosity. Right.
- 15:22Paul uses the collection for the poor Saints in Jerusalem as a
- 15:26kind of test case. He does.
- 15:28He tells the Corinthians he wants them to give proof,
- 15:30document of their genuine love and obedience through this
- 15:33collection. So obedient sacrificial conduct,
- 15:36in this case being generous to people they had never even met,
- 15:39that serves as the objective verification of their subjective
- 15:42claim to spiritual health and love for Christ.
- 15:45What's really surprising, though, is Paul's view on
- 15:47internal division on heresy within the Church.
- 15:51He seems to suggest that even these painful negative things
- 15:55have a divine purpose in this whole testing process.
- 15:57He does in First Corinthians 11.1 teen he makes this very
- 16:00severe claim. He says divisions Harris must
- 16:04necessarily arise so the document, those who pass the
- 16:07test may become manifest among you.
- 16:09So heresy is a test of discernment and allegiance.
- 16:12It is. It forces you to make a choice.
- 16:15The documentary are the ones who stand fast and sound doctrine,
- 16:18who cling to Christ and who refused to break the body into
- 16:20pieces over worldly or fault intellectual ideas.
- 16:23It's like a spiritual filtration system.
- 16:25It uses internal stress to separate the genuine from the
- 16:28counterfeit, to expose who has true character and who is just
- 16:31following a trend. And the final conclusion here is
- 16:33that the main demand on every Christian is to present oneself
- 16:36as dokimos to God. Paul tells Timothy to strive to
- 16:40present himself to God as an approved worker.
- 16:43Spouteson, Sauron. Dokimon, Paris de aasi Tutesh.
- 16:47And that approval is based on excellent achievements in gospel
- 16:50ministry, on discipline service, and on behavior that other
- 16:54people recognize as the mark of a valuable disciple of Christ.
- 16:57It really moves the Christian life away from being just a
- 17:00passive receiving of grace to an active discipline striving
- 17:04toward a verifiable God approved character.
- 17:07The seriousness of this standard becomes crystal clear when we
- 17:10look at its opposite, a dokomos. If dokomos carries all the
- 17:14weight of divine acceptance, then a dokomos means, well,
- 17:17complete theological devastation.
- 17:19It is a complete reversal. It means rejected, failed,
- 17:21spurious, worthless base. It means you have failed to meet
- 17:24the necessary divinely mandated standard.
- 17:27If dokimos is the purified gold, a dokimos is the counterfeit
- 17:30coin or the metal that failed the quality check.
- 17:32It was just thrown on the scrap heap.
- 17:34And historically, the Old Testament used the same
- 17:36metallurgical image for moral failure.
- 17:38Yes, in Proverbs 25.4 it's used for the dross that's purged from
- 17:42silver. Isaiah 1.22 uses a Hebrew term
- 17:46that the Greek later translates as worthless silver.
- 17:49The metal just has no inherent purity or value, so it's
- 17:52rejected. Philo also used this idea for
- 17:55worthless words, desires and deeds that are typical of a
- 17:59foolish person. One of the most stark examples
- 18:02of this idea of worthlessness applied to creation is in the
- 18:04book of Hebrews, where it connects the failure to produce
- 18:07fruit with a judgement of rejection.
- 18:10Hebrews 6.8 uses adokamos for barren soil.
- 18:14The soil had received the rain. It was meant for cultivation,
- 18:17but instead all it produced was thorns and thistles.
- 18:20It is a dokomos and near a curse because it has failed its whole
- 18:23intended purpose. It's judged by its lack of
- 18:25expected works or fruit. It's deemed unusable, unfit for
- 18:28what the master needs. That is a terrifying parallel
- 18:31for the spiritual life, that usefulness is the measure of
- 18:33approval. And Paul makes the threat of
- 18:35being a dokomos intensely personal, especially for anyone
- 18:38in ministry. He uses the dramatic analogy of
- 18:40the ancient games like the Olympics and Corinth.
- 18:43That's First Corinthians 9, 1.27 where he talks about rigorously
- 18:46training and disciplining his. Body.
- 18:48Yes, Paul says. He trains his body like a slave.
- 18:51Mopus, Alice, Crexes, Altos, Adochemos, Chinumi.
- 18:55For fear lest after preaching to others, I myself should be
- 18:58disqualified. The term adakamos here doesn't
- 19:02refer to losing the final race. It refers to the judge
- 19:05eliminating A contestant who failed the mandatory preliminary
- 19:08examination. So the fear isn't just about
- 19:10missing the prize, it's about being declared unfit to even get
- 19:13on the track in the first place. Precisely.
- 19:15The athlete had to pass a very stringent physical and moral
- 19:18test before the Games even started.
- 19:21Being a docchios means being deemed unqualified.
- 19:24It means having preached the authentic truth, but failing to
- 19:26embody the self-discipline and authentic character that's
- 19:29required for the crown. The fear of disqualification, of
- 19:32being exposed as a fraud, was a powerful driver for Paul's own
- 19:35rigorous self-control. And this word gets its most
- 19:38severe usage when it's not just applied to works or discipline,
- 19:41but to the mind itself. That's in Romans 1.28,
- 19:44describing the judgement on godless humanity.
- 19:47Oh, this passage uses the word group with just astonishing
- 19:49force. It's a devastating linguistic
- 19:51link. Paul says that because they did
- 19:53not approve the verb is to have God in their knowledge, they
- 19:59failed to deem him worthy of recognition.
- 20:01So God in turn gave them over to an adoki Mon noun.
- 20:05So they refused to pass a judgement in God's favor.
- 20:07So God hands them over to a mind that is itself rejected, an
- 20:10unapproved, debased, corrupted mind.
- 20:13It's a judicial action, a divine abandonment.
- 20:16The mind is made incapable of sound spiritual or moral
- 20:19judgment. It's unfit to properly discern
- 20:21truth and virtue. And that leads them to do things
- 20:24they should not do. Tom MO Cathiconta this condition
- 20:27having a docomo noun, it signifies a complete
- 20:30determinative outlook that has just utterly failed the standard
- 20:33of attestation before God. Which suggests a kind of
- 20:35spiritual incompetence so deep that they are incapable of any
- 20:38genuine good. That's borne out when Paul
- 20:40describes those who oppose the gospel.
- 20:42Like the heretics in Titus 1.16. He defines them as corrupted in
- 20:46their intelligence and radically A Dokamoy, unqualified, useless
- 20:51or incapable for any good work. Their distorted minds make their
- 20:55actions worthless in God's sight.
- 20:57The state of Adakamos is one of total rejection, and it results
- 21:01from a life that refused the standard of God's scrutiny.
- 21:04So, given the gravity of that divine standard and the
- 21:07terrifying possibility of being found adakamos, the Christian
- 21:11life must include a constant, serious ethical duty.
- 21:14We have to check our own spiritual accreditation.
- 21:17We do. If God is the ultimate tester,
- 21:20why is self examination needed? It's because we live by faith
- 21:23and we are so prone to self deception.
- 21:26Self testing is the believers necessary act of lining up our
- 21:29internal assurance with the objective divine standard.
- 21:32We're called to test our own spiritual proof.
- 21:34Yutis doki mazeda. Examine yourselves as Paul
- 21:37challenges the Corinthians in 2nd Corinthians 13.5.
- 21:40And Paul throws this challenge out at the height of his dispute
- 21:42with the Corinthians, when they were questioning his authority.
- 21:45He just flips the script on them.
- 21:47He does. He asks them to test themselves
- 21:49for one simple reason. Unless you should be void.
- 21:53The Greek is a medi, A Dukamoy estate.
- 21:55Unless you yourselves are fundamentally unapproved or
- 21:58disqualified. He hopes that in their own self
- 22:00scrutiny they will confirm that they are Dukamoy, and by doing
- 22:04that they'll have to confirm that the apostles they were
- 22:06criticizing are also UK esman A Dukhamoy, not unapproved.
- 22:10The challenge is severe. Look at your own life before you
- 22:13presume to judge those whom God has attested.
- 22:16And this required self scrutiny becomes especially urgent in the
- 22:19context of our corporate life, particularly when observing the
- 22:22Lord's Supper. Yes, First Corinthians 11.28 is
- 22:25a direct command. It comes right after Paul
- 22:27describes the chaotic and undisciplined way the
- 22:29Corinthians were celebrating the Lord's Supper with his blatant
- 22:32disregard for one another. They are challenged, document
- 22:35secuded. The Ancupos Hyocontin let a
- 22:38person test himself before participating.
- 22:40What specifically were they failing to test in themselves?
- 22:43They were failing to test their attitude toward the body of
- 22:45Christ, and that means both the physical body of the Lord
- 22:49represented by the elements and the body of believers
- 22:51represented by the community. They were approaching Christ's
- 22:54presence carelessly, without reverence or love for their
- 22:57neighbors. Self scrutiny requires checking
- 22:59our immediate motive, our current moral standing, and our
- 23:02relationship with the community before we come to Christ's
- 23:05table. To fail this test is to eat and
- 23:08drink judgement on yourself. This duty of testing goes beyond
- 23:11just personal accreditation. It extends to testing and
- 23:15proving what God desires of us. How does the renewal of the mind
- 23:18connect to this? Romans 12.2 explains that
- 23:21spiritual transformation, metamorphosis, and we're being
- 23:24continually transformed is achieved through the renewal of
- 23:27the mind is to document him as the to the lama, to Theo so that
- 23:31you may verify what the will of God is.
- 23:34The renewed mind gains the ability to critically evaluate
- 23:37and approve God's will. It's not passive acceptance.
- 23:41It's an act of spiritual and moral discernment that proves to
- 23:44experience that God's will is good, acceptable, and perfect.
- 23:47So we're constantly putting God's principles to the test in
- 23:50real life and verifying that they're true.
- 23:52And this duty then has some specific areas of ethical
- 23:55discernment. It does first, we're told to
- 23:57discern what is fitting in a given situation.
- 24:00Philippians 1.10 tells us to test Ted Diferanta what things
- 24:05differ or are morally fitting so that we may be sincere and
- 24:08without offense until the day of Christ.
- 24:11This requires constant calibration.
- 24:13Second, the basic rule of life is testing what is pleasing to
- 24:16the Lord. Documente este este guare estos
- 24:19tu quiche which we see in Ephesians.
- 24:21Our actions should never be governed by, you know, whim or
- 24:24selfish desires, but by the seriousness of determining what
- 24:26delights the Lord. And we also have a clear
- 24:28instruction about religious phenomena and doctrine.
- 24:30We can't just accept everything that claims to be spiritual.
- 24:33Absolutely not. The general rule is simple, but
- 24:36it covers everything. Padte de doki mazete tequilan
- 24:39cadete test all things hold fast.
- 24:41What is good. That's First Thessalonians 5.21,
- 24:44and John commands us to test the spirits.
- 24:47The church has an obligation to verify the authenticity of every
- 24:50spiritual manifestation, every claimed prophecy, every
- 24:53doctrine. We have to reject what is
- 24:55suspect and hold only to what has been certified as true and
- 24:59good by the divine standard. And finally, we see Jesus
- 25:02criticizing his own contemporaries for failing this
- 25:05very act of discernment. He connects spiritual testing to
- 25:08history itself. Luke 12.56 is just a biting
- 25:12reproach. Jesus sees their skill at
- 25:14predicting the weather. He says, you know how to
- 25:17evaluate the appearance of the earth and of the sky.
- 25:19How is it that you do not evaluate this present time,
- 25:22Ellen? Karen Tutten.
- 25:23They were experts at reading the clouds for rain.
- 25:25But they completely failed to discern the crucial
- 25:28eschatological time, the arrival of the Messiah, when a decision
- 25:32should have been made about Him. Their failure to verify the
- 25:34spiritual meaning of historical events LED directly to their
- 25:37refusal to approve Christ. They were dokimos at being
- 25:40weather watchers, but a dokimos at being spiritually discerning
- 25:43citizens of the Kingdom. And this brings us to the final
- 25:46ultimate act of rejection in the New Testament, which is
- 25:49expressed by this intensified verb apodokimazu.
- 25:52This means to throw out in the test, or to find utterly
- 25:56unworthy and discard. And what gives this concept its
- 25:59greatest theological irony is that the figure this ultimate
- 26:03rejection is applied to is Christ himself.
- 26:05This is the deep paradox that sits under the entire Christian
- 26:08concept of approval. Jesus quotes Psalm 117 to the
- 26:12chief priests and elders after the parable of the wicked
- 26:14husbandmen, he says live on Han Apodokimazan Hoy Okodomandez.
- 26:19The stone which the builders rejected, found unworthy in the
- 26:21test, has become the head of the corner.
- 26:23The builders there, they represented the established
- 26:25religious authority, human wisdom, human insight.
- 26:29They scrutinized Christ. They subjected him to their
- 26:31tests of acceptability, power, conformity to tradition,
- 26:34political usefulness, and they declared him Apodokimazu.
- 26:38They judged him by their human faulty categories and found him
- 26:41lacking. And that rejection is the
- 26:44ultimate verification of the futility of human judgement.
- 26:47The most genuine, perfectly tested and fully approved
- 26:50individual. Whoever lived was found unworthy
- 26:53by the highest human authorities.
- 26:56Peter picks up this theme, stating that Christ is the stone
- 26:59which was rejected by you builders, but which has become
- 27:02the head of the corner. So our foundation as Christians
- 27:04is literally the rejected article.
- 27:07This fact completely validates Paul's argument to the
- 27:09Corinthians. Divine attestation stands
- 27:12completely outside of all human systems of judgment and
- 27:14criteria. It forces us to redefine what
- 27:17documents truly means in the spiritual sense.
- 27:20If the world rejects you because you don't conform to its
- 27:22standards of charisma or success, that rejection might
- 27:25actually confirm your genuine character, as long as you're
- 27:28standing firm and sound doctrine and discipline.
- 27:30So the ultimate measure of worth is not found in avoiding the
- 27:33furnace of testing, whether that testing comes from internal
- 27:36doubt, external persecution, or corporate division.
- 27:40True worth being documos, is shown by the patient
- 27:43perseverance of faith in the middle of that affliction.
- 27:46The fire cannot consume those who are genuinely united to
- 27:49Christ. They emerge like refined gold,
- 27:52attested by God alone. This deep dive has covered a lot
- 27:55the historical roots, the theological weight, and the
- 27:58severe counterpoint of this language of testing documazo
- 28:01documos and a documos. This word group demands a
- 28:04constant rigorous self scrutiny in light of a divine standard
- 28:08that looks past all outward appearances.
- 28:10We. Have to get that acceptance is
- 28:11not automatic, it is the result of verification.
- 28:13Documos signifies the divinely improved, tested, and genuine
- 28:17life, while a documos signifies the rejected worthless dross
- 28:21disqualified because it failed to meet the verifiable standard
- 28:23of faith and obedience. So as we all go back to our
- 28:26regular duties, knowing that the standard for accreditation is
- 28:29focused on the unseen purity of the heart, how honest has your
- 28:33own self testing been this past week?
- 28:35Where might you have avoided submitting a particular action
- 28:38or a thought or an attitude to that critical Christ centered
- 28:42examination as I showed it done through post Hirocum?
- 28:45And if you ran your life through the refiners fire, what
- 28:47unnecessary and worthless materials would be consumed?
- 28:49That's something worth watching carefully.
- 28:52Until next time, keep thinking.