664
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
romans
| [[Isaiah 10:15]]
| "Does the axe raise itself above him who swings it ..."
| Tools are subservient to their user. In context, God is wielding Assyria as a weapon against Israel and it is inappropriate for Assyria -- as the tool -- to think that they acted independently. A similar point is made in several places (e.g. [[Isaiah 29:16]], [[Isaiah 45:9]], [[Romans 9:21]]) about the relationship between a clay pot and the potter.
As a more general saying, however, this verse points out that no technology is greater than it's wielder, but merely a tool in the wielder's hand. Does that continue to be accurate in the age of intelligent machines?
|-
| As a principle, Paul tries to become "all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some" ([[1 Corinthians 9:21]]). So it is not surprising that he would use whatever technology was available to further his cause.
|-
| [[Romans 6:13]]| Our bodies can either be instruments of wickedness or instruments of righteousness.| In the ''Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words'', Vine says the meaning of "instruments" here is most likely as a weapon. We as people are like tools that, in the cosmic war, are used to advance one side or the other. Our bodies, as technology, are not neutral, nor mindlessly forced into service: Paul calls us choose to which purpose we will offer ourselves.
|-
|
|
|-
| [[2 Timothy 2:20]] - [[2 Timothy 2:21]]| All sorts of artefacts may be used for good or evil. Even people can become "an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work".
|
|}
