September 12, 2007
Las Vegas
While vacationing for a week in Las Vegas my daughter’s dieting regime was sorely tested. Stepping on the bathroom scales when she returned home she announced, “What happens in Vegas doesn’t always stay in Vegas.” I’m thinking calories and sin have something in common - they often don’t bite you until a week later. “The sins of some men are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them; the sins of others trail behind them.” 1 Timothy 5:24 NIV
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Gail;
-----I Timothy 5:24 is an interesting verse. Epakoloutheo, the Greek behind “trail behind,” is used four times in the New Testament Each time it is used it carries a connotation of the consequential. I never have entirely settled on what to think of this verse, because I can see in it two meanings. Allowing the literal meaning of the Greek to come forth, it seems to say some sins lead one’s way to judgment. Like bait on a trap these sins focus their draw upon the ingrained desire and lead one straight to them. Other sin is not what one desires or intends to do, but is more a consequence of what he does. The one is direct and deliberate, the other develops indirectly as an effect of something else done.
-----On the other hand, proago very closely links the ideas of “visibility” and “apparentness” to a sense of “leading.” The star that led the wise men to Bethlehem proagoed them. Then the second half of verse 25 introduces the idea of “being hidden” to the context, which conceptually participates in the aspect of “apparentness.” Verse 24 and verse 25, having a comparative relationship to each other, give me the strong idea that Paul is saying the sins of some are done in plain sight where all can see even as they are being done. But the sins of others are done in stealth and become apparent only in time.
-----I know some foods attract me straight to them. I give no thought to who is watching or to the inevitable, mid-drift expansion. Yet other foods sit quietly amongst the garnishments and somehow get caught up in your hand as it passes. Maybe in addition to the correlation you have found between calories and sin, we can see another. Not only does the effect of caloric excess show up on the scale a week later, but possibly there was also the slightest “freedom from observation” felt by being so far from the community back home. Anyhow, whether consumed in the open or consumed in secret, each extra calorie will be revealed at a level of about one-half our stature.
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