I love this verse - Ephesians 2:10
For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, prepared in advance for us to do.
The message puts it like this
He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.
5 comments:
Very awesome verse! One to definitely keep at heart :-)
Right now as far as specific careers and such, I'm not sure what God wants me to do...but as far as right now He wants me to be a good example to those around me and live His word :-) To follow Him in all my actions and let Him speak through me...
Hey Tom,
Just a thought about the passage you quoted...
This is one of the many ways in which Peterson took a little too much liberty in translating. He has oviously injected his reformed theology into this passage. The thought that we have to do works in order to be saved is a fallacy, and is harming the body. "The Message" has a few places where it twists scripture to make it say something that the was never intended (ie. James 1 is a horrible translation!).
Although this passage doesn't come right out and say that, if you know where he is coming from and read other stuff of his, you will see what I mean.
I see that you have a good heart and are really seeking Him, so I thought I would just send a warning your way about "The Message". We are completely saved by grace, and we need to be diligent to accurately handle the word of God (2 Tim. 2:15). Eugene Peterson has taken liberties to inject his personal theological beliefs into the very word of God, and I think this is dangerous (if not blasphemous).
I check in on your site every now and again, and I hope to see you continue strong in your walk with the Lord.
Peace!
thanx for the heads up and the wise words :)
and I do love 'the message' as much as it is innacurate at times. No translation is going to be completely perfect, because there is always an element of us in translation. The message maybe more so than others. I use the message as a commentary more so than a translation ;)
Regarding the verse though ... its inspired me to believe that I can do good things with Christ's strength. Because of my identity in Christ, I have the confidence to do things that God has for me do.
I didn't really even consider that Eugene might have been implying that good works are needed for salvation.
Thanks for the info though, some good points there, has made me think a bit more about the verse and the message
I'm definitely saved by grace, and the message reminded me to trust God to use me for good things :) and to even make a bigger effort in relying on Him. I know that the totally awesome things God has for me to do, I can't complete, only by his saving grace and awesome power are any of these things possible :)
I agree that this isn't probably what he was saying explicitly here, but if you look at other passages (like James 1) you see that he is definitely a "Lordship" guy.
I guess I ust think that if you are calling something a translation, which he calls "The Message", you should not take liberties in these areas.
Peace,
I think that Jason was getting at what I was saying.
If you read the intro to "The Message", Eugene Peterson says this: "The idea is to make it more readable-to put those ancient words that their users spoke and wrote every day into words that you speak and write everyday."
While I think that is a noble and worthy cause, Peterson has gone beyond that.
Jason noted that it "draws a conclusion of what God may have been saying". And that is the problem I have with the message. We are not given liberty to publish a book on what God "MAY HAVE BEEN SAYING", and label it as the word of God.
Lordship Theology hasn't even been around for 500 years, yet he feels he can slip his ideas in with God's inspired word. I have a problem with him calling it a "translation", when really it is a loose paraphrase at best, and falls short of the greek/hebrew many times.
For the most part I like the message, and I use it when I teach my students sometimes to help them understand the text. But I am always very careful to make sure that Peterson has stayed true to the intended meaning, and I only use it as a bible-help, not a bible. And on the controverial passages, he takes liberties that I find can cross the line of translation ethics.
He knows that your average joe can't read greek or test this against the original language, so he slips his dogmatics into the mix knowing that most people are taking it in by the truckload and can't taste his reformed contamination.
I think we need to read all translations (and I mean ALL) with a grain of salt. There are always gonna be controversies on translation. I just think that if you are a grace-theologian, you need to be especially careful when you read Peterson and his reformed collegues.
I hope that clears up my stance on "The Message".
Here is a site that I found that will no doubt make more sense than I do. A Critique of "The Message"
Post a Comment