Friday, December 13, 2019

Paradoxes of Scripture


Proverbs 11:24 “There is one who scatters, yet increases more; and there is one who withholds more than is right, but it leads to poverty.”

A paradox is not two waterfront piers next to each other; that would be a “pair of docks”. Kidding aside, the word paradox means a tenet or proposition contrary to received opinion, or seemingly absurd, yet true in fact. As in the saying “To get, we must give.” I read that this is not the world’s method for attaining prosperity, but it is the paradoxical message of today’s verse, as well as that of Christianity in general.

An article noted some of the many other paradoxes in the Bible related to this basic truth. To really live, we must die gets its paradoxical meaning from Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me”. Likewise, to save one’s life, he or she must lose it gets its meaning from Luke 17:33, “Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it”. Similarly, to be wise, we must become fools receives its connotation from 1 Corinthians 3:18, “If any man among you seems to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise”. The saying, to reign, we must serve comes from Matthew 25:21, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things”.

To be exalted, we must become humble is from Matthew 20:16, “And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted”. To be first, we must be last. “So the last shall be first, and the first last”. Finally, note the nine-fold paradox of a truly Christian ministry: “In all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God. . . . By honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things” (2 Corinthians 6:4, 8-10). 

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