What is a pagan,
anyway? If you don’t like words and word origins as much as I do, you might want
to skip a few paragraphs.
Dictionary.com offers
these definitions, with the warning that points two, three, and five are
disparaging and offensive.
noun
1. one of a people or
community observing a polytheistic religion, as the ancient Romans and Greeks: no
longer in technical use.
2. Disparaging and Offensive.
(in historical contexts) a person who is not a Christian, Jew, or Muslim; a heathen.
3. a follower of any of
various contemporary religions that are based on the worship of nature or the Earth;
a neopagan.
4. Disparaging and Offensive.
an irreligious or hedonistic person.
5. Disparaging and Offensive.
an uncivilized or unenlightened person.
(pagan. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged.
Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pagan
(accessed: October 28, 2014).)
The word pagan appears fourteen
times in the NIV New Testament; three of those times, it’s Jesus speaking in
what’s commonly called the Sermon on the Mount. (I call it Kingdom Torah, but
that’s a blog for another day.)
Jesus said, “If you love those who
love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you
doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is
perfect.” Matthew 5:46 – 47
Here
the translators used “pagans” to translate telonai,
literally tribute collectors. So how come they came right out and said “tax
collectors” in verse 46, but used “pagans” in verse 47?
Jesus
said, “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your
Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will
reward you. And when you pray, do not keep
on babbling like pagans,
for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your
Father knows what you need before you ask him”. Matthew 6:6 – 8
Jesus
said, “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’
or ‘What shall we wear?’
For the pagans run after all
these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his
righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
Matthew 6:31 – 33
In both Matthew 6 passages, the
translators used “pagans” to translate ethnikos
and ethne, which mean “adapted
to the genius or customs of a people, peculiar to a people, national suited to
the manners or language of foreigners, strange, foreign in the NT savouring of
the nature of pagans, alien to the worship of the true God, heathenish of the pagan,
the Gentile.” (Love me some British spelling!) (http://www.biblestudytools.com/search/?q=pagan&s=References&rc=LEX&rc2=LEX+GRK)
Non-word
lovers, join us here.
All this to say, in first century Israelite usage,
the Jews were “the people” and everybody else was “the peoples.” The outsiders.
The goyim of the Old Testament. The
pagans.
So what would you have to do for Jesus to call you
a pagan? Worship multiple gods? (See definition one.) Worship nature or the
Earth? (See definition three.) Be an uncivilized and unenlightened clod? (See
definition five) No. None of those.
You might be a pagan if…
- You
only love those who love you first.
- You
only say howdy to your own peeps.
- You
babble on in your prayers, telling God what he already knows.
- You
worry about what you’re going to eat, drink, or wear when God has promised to
provide all that.
- You don’t seek God’s kingdom and righteousness before your own concerns.
You might be a pagan. Don’t get mad at me; I didn’t
decide the criteria. Jesus did.
Besides, I might be a pagan, too.
