Stewardship and Dispensations: The Significance of Οικονομός and Οικονομία

The sixty-six books of the Bible span thousands of years of man’s history and beyond. They begin before God created man and end with the creation of new heavens and a new earth where righteousness settles down and feels at ease¹.  Within the pages of the Bible, we see changes in the relationship and expectation that God has for mankind and the failure of mankind to live up to God’s expectation, which ultimately brings judgment. In the garden of Eden, man was not allowed to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil². Upon eating of the fruit from this tree, mankind’s spirit was separated from God³, he became subject to physical death, and was expelled from the garden⁴. Having been expelled from the garden, the expectation for man was to properly govern the manner of his life by the knowledge of good and evil that he now possessed. However, again men failed and God judged the earth by bringing a flood⁵. After the flood, God instructs Noah that men are to govern themselves and capital punishment is implemented⁶. Again, men fail to follow God’s instruction, rejected God, and sought their own way. Therefore, God brought judgment and forced man to separate and spread across the earth⁷.  This judgment brought about multiple languages and the division of the continents, which caused man to spread out across the earth⁸.  Having scattered man across the face of the earth, God then approaches Abram and ultimately offers him four covenants⁹. These covenants included a promise of […]

1 Thessalonians

Paul and Silas and Timothy to the assembly of Thessalonica in God the Father and The Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and peace is to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

We give thanks to God always concerning all of you, making mention of you upon our communication of worship, constantly remembering your work of faith and the toil of love, and the patience of hope of our Lord Jesus Christ before God our Father, intuitively knowing, beloved brothers, your election from God, because our gospel did not come to you in word alone, but also in natural ability, and by the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance, just as you intuitively know such as we became among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and the Lord, having received the Word in much tribulation with joy from the Holy Spirit, so that you have become an example to all those believing in Macedonia and in Achaia. For from you the Word of the Lord has been sounded not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in all places your faith before God has gone out, so that we have no need to speak anything, for they themselves announce what sort of entrance we had towards you and how you turned to God from idols to serve the true and living God and to wait for His Son out from the heavens, who was raised out from the dead, Jesus, our deliverer out from the wrath to come.

For you yourselves intuitively know, brothers, our entrance to you, that it did not come to be empty, but having suffered and been mistreated, just as you intuitively know in Philippi, […]