Training For Death

Socrates once said, “All of philosophy is training for death.” ~Excerpt of Phaedo  This comes from the man who is credited with the founding of moral philosophy and the study of ethics. Many Christian theologians down through the years considered him a pagan prophet almost on par with the Old Testament prophets of old. The Socratic method, where one systematically questions the premise of another’s stated belief, remains as a necessary and valuable tool to get at truth. Questions such as: “What do you believe about that? Why do you believe it? How did you come by that belief?” and so forth quickly peel the onion down to the core. We often find through such questioning a mass of unoriginal, conflicting and subjective ideas that have been collected like lint from snatches of cultural buzz. There is no core but rather a scratchy recording of something read or heard somewhere and sometime by someone.

The Apostle Paul knew all of this. He once employed a bit of the Socratic method to a gathering of bearded philosophers on Mars Hill in Athens. Luke faithfully records the scene in Acts 17. It’s a good read. And Paul, having been steeped in Greek philosophy, Rabbinical method, and now the spirit-filled Christian faith spent his life dismantling weak thinking. He knew that the thoughts of the world would eventually hollow out the soul and inevitably alienate man from man, and man from God. It would not, in the words of Socrates, train the soul for death.
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And so, Paul says, Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. ~Romans 12:2 The word for transformed is: μεταμορφόω (me-tä-mor-fo’-ō). It is the word used to describe the process whereby a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. It is also the same word that was employed to describe Christ’s transfiguration in front of Peter, James and John: After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfiguredbefore them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus. ~Mark 9:2-4  

Paul tells us that this transfiguration, this metamorphosis, takes place as we renew our minds. It is not a one and done. It is a deliberate and lifelong process. Real change has to be embraced. Some new moral muscles will get a work-out. And, as with all new exercise regimes…it will hurt!