Video Transcript
So this is a comment that we got. This is one of my favorite comments because it starts with NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! And I’m so sorry that I offended you so badly. Genuinely not my intention.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Please. This is so wrong. Gentile literally means pagan. Go read Romans 11. We are no longer Gentiles. When we enter the covenant, we become God’s people. We’re grafted into the tree of Israel. 1 Corinthians 12, “When you were once Gentiles…”
This is actually a great question, even though I don’t think it was a question. It was a comment. It was a great comment.
Part of this is true in that we are grafted into the tree, which is Israel. The root that Romans 11 talks about the roots of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and how that tree, that family tree basically, the natural branches are the Jewish people. But many of them were cut off when they didn’t receive Jesus, and God took the Gentiles and he grafted them into this tree. So now we are spiritual descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We’re still Gentile though. And the reason I can say we’re still Gentile is a slew of scriptures where Paul, in Romans 11 says, I’m speaking to you Gentiles, and he says, I’m an apostle to the Gentiles. Where Acts 15, they declare that Gentiles that believe in Jesus, because that’s the whole context of Acts 15 is they’re meeting about all of these Gentiles getting saved, and they decide the Gentiles don’t have to become Jewish to be in the family of God. They can remain Gentile. And then Acts 15 ends with them saying, write this, and the letter says to the Gentiles. So Gentiles are still Gentiles.
Now this comment brings up a great point. 1 Corinthians 12 uses the same word that can also be translated pagan. So you can kind of swap out the word just like we did a video on the translation for the word Jew can also mean of the region of Judea or Judean or the Judean leadership. So this is a hard thing with translation because especially in Hebrew, I don’t know Greek as well, but a word can mean multiple different things depending on context. I’m in Hebrew right now, biblical Hebrew, and it’s one of the most frustrating things ever when my professors will tell me, yeah, you’ll just know based on context. Yeah, you’ll just know based on context. Yeah, you’ll know based on context. I’m like, what does the word mean? And they’re like, well, you’ll know based on context. I get that it’s frustrating. But 1 Corinthians 12 in context, he’s saying, when you were once, meaning you were once something, and if we insert the word gentile there, then all the other scriptures where Paul’s writing to the Gentile believers in Galatia, the Gentile believers in Rome, Acts 15 writing to the Gentile believers in all the nations, all of those scriptures become void. So we know that God’s word does not contradict. So if we see a contradiction, then we have to try and figure out what does it mean? And the answer is in this specific verse, he’s talking about paganism when we were once, pagans, when were once far away or cut off. But all throughout the New Testament, it’s clear we are still Gentiles and Jewish people are still Jews.
And we’ve said this multiple times, we don’t necessarily need to get into it, but Galatians 3:28, where most of the people will say, Jew and Gentile are not a thing. Galatians 3:28, there’s no longer Jew or Gentile. There’s no longer slave free. There’s no longer male or female. We like to talk about how there’s no longer Jew or Gentile. We don’t like to talk about how there’s no longer male and female. How do we wrestle with this? We realized that God was not trying to break down a distinction. He was trying to break down a barrier.
So great comment, great question. Sorry for offending you. I love you.
Hey, seriously, thank you for commenting on our videos. If you’re somebody that’s commented and you’ve been critical about what we’re saying, literally I hope we love you and we want to keep learning with you. Please, if you don’t agree with what we’re saying, put it in the comments. We just ask you to be kind and let’s learn together. We’re not saying we’re right all the time. Look seriously. But let’s go through the process of learning together and working together to solve some of these technical tricky questions. So please keep commenting, and I hope this was helpful for you as you guys listen to some of these things and looking forward to seeing you in another video.
