Synonyms: renounce, relinquish, dispense with, forswear, disclaim, disown, disavow, discard, wash one's hands of, give up, stop, cease, drop, forgo, desist from, have done with, abjure, abstain from, discontinue, break off, refrain from, set/lay aside, desert, leave, leave high and dry, turn one's back on, cast aside, break (up) with, vacate, quit, evacuate, withdraw from, surrender, cede, yield, indulge in, give way to, give oneself up to, yield to, lose oneself to/in, uninhibitedness, recklessness, lack of restraint, lack of inhibition, unruliness, wildness, impulsiveness, impetuosity, immoderation, wantonness
Antonyms: keep, claim, continue, stick by, self-control, power through, achieve, defend, bear, hope, acquire, quick visit, adopt, continue along, adhere, remain, pursue, support, take up, keep up, reuse, advocate, stay, persevere, cherish, keep going, carry on
Showing 4876 to 4900 of 4963 results
4876. Jesus' Death and Burial
John 19:28-37, John 19:38-42
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
The remaining activity on the cross (19:28–37) now emphasizes two dominant theological themes. First, Jesus is a Passover victim dying a sacrificial death. This motif already appeared in 19:14 (also 1:29) and again comes to mind here. Jesus’s thirst (19:28) echoes Psalm 22:15, while the ...
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
... , their act of healing in the temple precinct can also be considered a challenge to the temple leadership, as they are able to demonstrate the powerful presence of God apart from the temple practices. The exact location of this “Beautiful” gate (3:2) remains unclear, although it undoubtedly leads into the Court of Women and the Court of Gentiles. In light of the fact that the temple treasure was located in the Court of Women, those passing by this gate would have their offering ready. This is, therefore ...
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
... of his plan. Being persecuted, “all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria” (8:1). This persecution then launches the next stage, as announced in 1:8, when believers are to be witnesses in “all Judea and Samaria.” The apostles remained in Jerusalem probably because they felt the need to hold firm to the work that the Holy Spirit had established there. This also allows others to continue their work beyond the confines of the city of Jerusalem while they continue to minister ...
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
... ). When the crowd sees what has happened, they shout, “The gods have come down to us in human form” (14:11). Barnabas they call Zeus, and Paul, Hermes (14:12), and the priest of Zeus and the crowd want to offer sacrifices to them (14:13). Archaeological remains testify to the worship of Zeus and Hermes in this region in the Roman period. The fact that Barnabas is called Zeus, the head of the Olympian Pantheon, points to the fact that he is not considered to be of a lower status than Paul. Hermes is the ...
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
... events also point to the fulfillment of Isaiah’s promise explicitly noted in Jesus’s Nazareth sermon (Luke 4:18–19; see Isa. 58:6; 61:2). In the account of Paul and Silas’s imprisonment, one finds yet another ironic twist. While Paul and Silas remain in prison even after the miraculous earthquake that forces open the prison doors, it is the jailer who realizes that he needs “to be saved” (16:30). The ones in physical chains are able to deliver a message that frees the jailer from the chains of ...
4881. In Athens
Acts 17:16-34
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
... to the “poets” that they are familiar with. “We are his offspring” came from Aratus (Phaenomena 5; cf. Cleanthes, Hymn to Zeus 4), but the source of the earlier statement, “For in him we live and move and have our being,” remains unknown, though it resembles a phrase from Epimenides’ poem Cretica. Paul’s knowledge of the Greek poets points to his educational background, which was not limited to the Jewish Scriptures. These quotations also show Paul’s attempt to establish connecting points ...
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
... ). Human existence in the “flesh” or “sinful nature”—the life in opposition to God and his will—is not good, as humans were before the fall. “I” realize that I have only myself to blame: I know what is right, but I cannot do it. Doing good remains theory; doing evil is reality. Despite recognizing what is good and wanting to do it, we practice the evil in which we do not want to be involved (7:19). This historical reality demonstrates that my actions are not controlled by me but by sin, the ...
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
... and the seven thousand faithful Israelites who did not abandon Yahweh as a case in point (11:2–4; 1 Kings 19:10, 14). The conclusion is formulated in 10:5–6. God in his grace has chosen a remnant. It was always only a remnant of Israelites who remained faithful to God, and the salvation of this remnant is due to God’s election, which is a gift. In other words, the reason why some Jews receive God’s saving righteousness through faith in Jesus the Messiah is that God has graciously chosen them to be a ...
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
... kosher, in other words, slaughtered according to the rules of the law (Israelites may not eat blood; cf. Deut. 12:15–16). When Claudius evicted the Jews from the city of Rome in AD 49, the Jewish slaughterhouses were probably shut down, prompting Jews who remained in the city (and Jews who later returned) to refrain from eating meat altogether in order to avoid any unclean meat. As wine may have been offered in ritual libations in pagan temples before it was sold in the market, a scrupulous observance of ...
4885. The Lord’s Supper
1 Corinthians 11:17-34
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
... those who believe and act genuinely (receiving “God’s approval” as a result) from those who do not, other differences are unnecessary; and if stubbornly or pridefully maintained, they are liable to result in judgment (11:34). The division between those who remain hungry and those who get drunk at the Lord’s table is one such unnecessary and dangerous difference. For when it exists, the disunity created means that “it is not the Lord’s Supper” that is being eaten. Homes are settings in ...
4886. Love
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
... -face. For now, then, these analogies should caution us that our present knowledge of God (and, by implication, the worship such knowledge initiates) will change and pale when we come to know God as completely as he now knows us. In view of this, three things can be trusted to “remain” unaltered by the enlargement of our knowledge: “faith, hope, and love . . . but the greatest of these is love” (13:13).
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
... musical instruments must be distinct and clear if they are intended to convey a tune or a message that is understandable. Language itself furnishes a final illustration. For even languages, all of which have meaning, cannot convey their meaning so long as the hearer remains a foreigner to the language of the one who speaks. For the reason that has now been stated and illustrated, persons who speak in tongues in worship should pray that they may interpret this speech to the others present. This is true even ...
4888. Orderly Worship
1 Corinthians 14:26-40
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
... -spoken questions were ignored by husbands, or the bolder speech of women who ignored their husbands entirely and interrupted to ask questions of the person who was speaking. In any case, Paul’s instruction (14:34) is that such women “should remain silent in the churches.” (The Greek words here are more accurately translated “in the meetings of the church.”) “They are not allowed to speak” (in the disrespectful and disruptive way that they are doing), but “must be in submission” (to their ...
4889. The Resurrection Body
1 Corinthians 15:35-58
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
... in Christ over the sting of death (15:54–55). For death’s power over a sinful humanity has been destroyed by Christ, and he gives to all his own, whether living or dead, his victory over death in which they may gratefully share. Consequently, Paul encourages the Corinthians to remain true to their trust in Christ’s promise to share with them his victory over death and to devote themselves fully and without fear to the work of the Lord (15:58).
4890. Questions about the Collection and Paul’s Plans
1 Corinthians 16:1-4, 1 Corinthians 16:5-18
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
A final Corinthian question remains about “the collection for God’s people” (see also Rom. 15:25–28; Gal. 2:10). From the content of Paul’s reply, their questions seem to have been more concerned with the nature and timing of their own participation than with the collection itself or the rationale behind it. ...
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
... include “the churches in the province of Asia” (among which Paul is now working), Aquila and Priscilla (who earlier hosted Paul and worked alongside him in his initial mission in Corinth, departing and journeying with him to Ephesus, where they chose to remain), “the church [at Ephesus] that meets at their house,” and “all the brothers” (either the rest of the Ephesian believers or Paul’s fellow workers in the Ephesian ministry—in either case the word must be understood as a generic rather ...
4892. Epistolary Introduction
2 Corinthians 1:1-11
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
... experience of suffering in Paul’s life. The experience itself, which he compares in kind to the “suffering of Christ” as one involving distress, “hardships,” “great pressure,” despair, the imminence of death, and “deadly peril” (1:5–10), remains unmentioned (perhaps indicating that the Corinthians knew the facts well enough, including the part their own failure to honor Paul and his gospel had played in the apostle’s sufferings). Paul chooses rather to extol the “Father of compassion ...
4893. Titus Sent to Corinth
2 Corinthians 8:16--9:5
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
Prior, however, to the use of gifts in an effort to “honor the Lord” and demonstrate an “eagerness to help” (8:19), there remained the problem of the actual collection at Corinth. Apparently, as Paul was pondering precisely how to handle this task, Titus took the “initiative” (8:16–17). Paul, in turn, seeks in this section to commend Titus to the church. But Titus is not to be commended and sent on alone ( ...
4894. Sons of God
Galatians 3:26--4:7
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
... the couplets Jew/Greek and slave/free are not exactly like male/female. While the two former couplets eradicate any distinction whatsoever, the latter one, linked by the conjunction kai (“and”), indicates that while the complementarity of gender difference remains, such difference no longer represents any barrier to full participation in the newness of life found in Christ (see Snodgrass, 167). 4:1–7 · Maturing into sonship: Paul builds on the dual images of kinship and covenantal inheritance from ...
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
... the Gentile readers). Anticipating the sum of the matter (stated in 2:8–10), Paul suddenly asserts that this salvation from death is wholly God’s doing, an act of his grace (2:5). He then returns immediately to the point to state the two remaining ways in which God has interfered. Second, God raised us together with Christ, and third, he seated us together with Christ in that same heavenly place of honor that Christ himself now occupies (2:6). In other words, just as Christ is the manifestation of ...
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
... and suffering (see Phil. 1:7; 4:14). Even in talking about his possible death, Paul is full of joy because of their faith and the hope he has for God’s work in that community. Thus, he rejoices. And if Paul can rejoice in the face of death and remain hopeful, then the Philippians should be able to rejoice along with him (2:17–18).
4897. The Hymn to Christ
Colossians 1:15-23
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
... sin. Paul is not insinuating that the Colossians are to muddle along as best they can and hope that their faith manages in the end to carry them to heaven. The point Paul makes is that the Colossians must stay the course, both in mind and in behavior. They must remain connected to the head, Christ, for the body cannot live without its head. Paul gives no hint that he is worried they might not reach this goal.
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
The remaining call to faithful prayer includes several key terms from Colossians. Paul repeats his concern that the Colossians continue to be thankful (1:12; 2:6; 3:15). He speaks again of the mystery of Christ, having explained God’s salvation plan in Christ to bring all people into the family of God (1:26; 2:2). Paul connects his imprisonment with his preaching, much as he did in 1:24. And he invites the Colossians to enter into that ministry by living and speaking the gospel to everyone.
4899. The Disorderly
2 Thessalonians 3:6-15
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
... control. The church bears a responsibility to guide the conduct of its members as the group supports the common Christian virtues and helps each to avoid vice. The situation here is not exactly parallel to 1 Corinthians 5:9–11. Here the disorderly person remains a member of the community of salvation: “Yet do not regard them as an enemy, but warn them as you would a fellow believer” (3:15). Enemies were not simply tolerated during this era but rather became the object of ill will and action. Unruly ...
4900. Prayer and Worship
1 Timothy 2:1-15
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
... . The difficulty with this view is that Paul’s argument is not primarily situational but theological. It is altogether apparent that in his estimation some sort of unholy convergence of factors has emerged in Ephesus. Though specifics of the situation remain elusive, the problem Paul addresses involves a combination of the misinterpretation of Scripture (1:3–11), wealthy women (2:8–9), teachers who preach freedom from domesticity (4:1–5), and a teaching that the resurrection has already happened (2 ...
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