The language of the New Testament does not recognize our concept of “to decorate.”
In our culture “to decorate,” while a desirable activity at times, is regarded as essentially unnecessary. For example, when it comes to decorating your house, having the house is the essential thing. Decorating it, well, the choices are unlimited. Go to the Home Depot; leaf through catalogues; make it look southwest.
(When I was in architectural practice in Philadelphia, I had one client tell me: “I want the living room to look southwest; southwest!” I can still hear her scratchy voice; she was insistent. So we thought of ways to make the drywall corners rounded to look like adobe…).
Decoration, then, is the cosmetics externally applied to something. Decoration is the costume something is dressed up in. And costumes are easily changeable.
The Greek New Testament – which is to say, the common language of the Hellenistic world in which Jesus lived and during which a few writings by a few obscure people turned out to be the inspired word of God – the Greek New Testament does not recognize this idea of “to decorate.”
It does have the word “to adorn,” κοσμέω, which occurs ten times.
And yesterday one of those times stopped me in my tracks. It is in a comment Paul made in his letter to Titus. It is in reference to servants: they are to be submissive, well-pleasing, not argumentative, in everything they are to “ … adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.”
So doctrine is to be adorned. Isn’t this decoration? Not exactly.
This word for adornment goes hand-in-hand with the word for “world,” κόσμος, which occurs 184 times in the New Testament, specifically when the intention is to describe a well-ordered state of affairs populated by inhabitants.
The lesson is this: doctrine rightly understood is doctrine lived out visibly in a well-ordered life and, beyond that, in a well-ordered world. Anything less than this is merely religious principle. Too many times we get the principles right, but what we see, what our senses take in, what we experience – in other people, in church practices, and if we really look hard, in ourselves – is the mess of unadorned doctrine. Which is the same as doctrine misunderstood, misapplied, and missing the whole point about being a servant of the Creator God.
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Titus 2.9-10 Servants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.
The nine other times “to adorn” occurs: Matthew 12.44; Matthew 23.29; Matthew 25.7; Luke 11.25; Luke 21.5; 1 Timothy 2.9; Titus 2.10; 1 Peter 3.5; Revelation 21.2; Revelation 21.19.
κοσμέω (kosméō): Strong’s number 2885: to put in proper order, i.e. decorate (literally or figuratively); specially, to snuff (a wick).
κόσμος (kósmos): Strong’s number 2889: orderly arrangement, i.e. decoration; by implication, the world (in a wide or narrow sense, including its inhabitants, literally or figuratively (morally)).
4 comments:
Doctrine inspired by and justified in the atoning work of Christ is doctrine that we as Christians desire to live out out faithfully. By God's grace, when we do live out sound doctrine faithfully, we are a testimony to correct doctrine (the truth). By making doctrine visible in the testimony of how we live our lives, it is our great pleasure to be an adornment to that doctrine. Not that our savior needs anything from us, including any adorning, but that we are honored to be able to adorn that doctrine by our testimony.
"doctrine rightly understood is doctrine lived out visibly in a well-ordered life and, beyond that, in a well-ordered world. Anything less than this is merely religious principle."
I would go further to say that rightly understood (or inspired) doctrine is doctrine that manifests visibly in life to produce a biblically ordered life/world. Anything less than this dead doctrine akin to what a pharisee would believe, which is merely religious.
Fascinating.
Perhaps in a little less articulate way I would say that decoration, or better yet adornments, call attention to that which is being adorned.
Absorbing and living out what we learn in the Word of God become rich adornments that call attention to God and His ways. God does not need the adornment, but we humans do. I think humans fundamentally need this kind of adornment to truly understand sound doctrine. Somehow we need to both contribute to the adornment and see the adornment by others to more fully understand the Gospel.
Thank you Brad. Architects like you and me know a little bit about adornment versus decoration. When Louis Sullivan said "form follows function" he wasn't really talking about anything "functional" in the utilitarian way the phrase as come to be used (his precise phrase was "form EVER follows function"). Sullivan was actually talking about the LIFE of the material (like stone) being organically extracted by the artist so that its real nature comes through in the artwork. He was, in other words, talking about adornment from within, not decoration from without.
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