Or, Nature’s Light on Neutrality’s LiesRomans 1:21-23October 17, 2021 Lord’s Day Worship Sean Higgins

Hubris really is the right word for all of this. Hubris is juicy pride; press it like rare steak and self-conceit squishes out like blood pools on the plate. Hubris is arrogance, but with a fist raised toward heaven more than against other humans. Hubris is a kind of insanity, so we can modify Einstein’s definition to fit: hubris is receiving the same gifts over and over and expecting the Giver to be gone the next time. Hubris is also expecting the Giver not to mind being ignored.

It is funny, as in, so shockingly unbelievable, that you’d think it must be satire. Imagine the headline: “Man gets breath, would rather die than say ‘Thank you.’” We aren’t shocked because we breath ingratitude’s exhaust all the time. We’ve been lead to believe, by God’s enemies, that honoring God is weak and foolish. It’s supposedly simplistic to acknowledge and worship God. But deep down in places people don’t talk about at parties, they know. Their knowledge haunts them like an embarrassing shadow.

The wrath of God is being revealed against this suppression of truth. They are desperate to keep it on the down low, even though they know.

They know that there is a God who made all that they see, a God who made the the world and who made them. God showed and is showing Himself to all men through creation and they are “without excuse.” The Greek word (ἀναπολογήτους) means without apology, as in, they have no defense.

In verses 21-23 it’s as if Paul backs up the theological bus and runs over the Great Pumpkin of Hubris again. He gives a second “because” (διότι), a second set of refusals with reasoning based on their knowledge of God, knowledge that is real, relevant, and that they are committed to reject.

Five characteristics of this hubris:

1. Without a Sense of Obligation

The first part of verse 21 is the fundamental failure of man since the fall. It is the face of suppression. Certainly some men go out of their way to protest against God, so-called militant atheists, but this is the typical, mundane “practical” atheist version of unrighteousness.

“The wrath of God is being revealed…because having known God they neither give God glory nor give God thanks.”

The ESV “honor God” is okay, but the verb (ἐδόξασαν) is related to the noun doxa, glory. Men will not give glory to God. They refuse to acknowledge His worth.

It’s so insane it is immoral. How can a person be trusted who can’t, who won’t answer such a simple A or B choice correction? Jonathan Edwards once proposed the following thought experiment. Imagine there was a third-party judge in the universe with impeccable wisdom and courage. Imagine this judge was assigned the case of determining worth between two sides. On one side is God and on the other side is all the best of mankind and the rest of the universe. The judge looks at the scale. There is no question. Even considered collectively, all creation cannot be more glorious than the Creator.

To know just a little bit more than the above is to know that man’s glory goes with God’s; reflections are only as good as they are turned toward the original. When we worship the God of glory we are being made full (see Ephesians 3:19), and failing to do so we shrivel, we are hollowed out, we are nothing but dust. This will be obvious soon.

It is an interesting connection: they did not give God glory and they did not give God thanks. Both praise and gratitude are parts of worship, sometimes overlapping but able to be distinguished. But it is ingratitude that corrupts man and rusts out his soul in hubris and resentment. Men will call themselves women before they will give God thanks. Men will literally go to hell rather than give God thanks.

Being thankful is the image-bearers godly response to all the gifts of God. Being thankful is inve[...]

Or, Nature’s Light on Neutrality’s LiesRomans 1:18-20October 10, 2021 Lord’s Day Worship Sean Higgins

Introduction

I am not just saying this because I’m a preacher, but there may be no more relevant paragraph in Scripture for sake of the believer’s perspective on the unbeliever’s perspective. If you’ve heard of the evangelism training program that walks another person down the “Romans Road,” which is a fine set of training wheels, this paragraph really ought to be the starting point (though it’s usually Romans 3:23). I know that preachers can oversell a text, but while it may not be my favorite paragraph, I think it is the definitive paragraph for giving insight to those who live away from faith and against faith.

These six verses, Romans 1:18-23, reveal the baseline of God’s problem with men. These verses reveal the root of idolatry, immorality, sexual perversion, and cultural collapse. These verses identify every unbelieving man’s greatest threat. These verses explain how men can be so foolish and why they are so committed to their foolishness. These verses reveal both the power and the limits of true scientific observation. These verses introduce the initial stages of God’s wrath. These verses explain why the power of the gospel is so gloriously necessary. These verses pull back the curtain on the common ground for our evangelism and apologetics. These verses provide the alternative, which isn’t a good alternative, to living from faith to faith.

To receive the truths in this paragraph by faith is to increase our confidence in the gospel, and also to answer questions about what happens to those who never hear the gospel. To receive these truths by faith begins to show those of us with faith what it means to live by faith. Here is why we need the gospel. Here are the consequences of receiving and benefiting from God’s gifts without giving Him credit.

If verses 16-17 provide the thesis to the epistle, they also begin the transition from the greeting to the main body of the letter. From here in 1:18 to 3:20, the tone changes from thanksgiving to an obvious theme of judgment. The righteousness of God is revealed in 3:21-8:39, and Paul has a lot to say about it. But 1:18 begins to describe the wrath of God. His wrath is present and future, here and forever. It is especially present among the Gentiles (1:18-32), the wrath deserved by Jews will follow shortly.

Wrath, especially God’s wrath, does not mean arbitrary or vindictive rage. He is not an angry drunk, He is not an out of control monster, like so many Greek gods. God’s “emotions” are perfect, and His responses are the only responses guaranteed to be appropriate in the universe.

His wrath is revealed, the same word and idea as in verse 17 about God’s righteousness. Wrath is unveiled, in the process of being exhibited, and it is from heaven. How high do the implications of this claim go in Paul’s mind? It’s more than literary flourish. It’s also provocative that wrath originates in heaven, rather than saying that righteousness does, though of course righteousness does as well. But what good is this qualification?

That God’s wrath is revealed from heaven may highlight how inescapable it is. All of earth is under heaven; there is no place below heaven that is not seen. It may also emphasize how perfect the wrath is; no bias or bribes are in effect. It may also emphasize the divinity of the wrath. It is called “the wrath of God,” and it is God on His throne in heavenly majesty and glory. God Himself unveils this God-ly attribute.

Many so-called “Christians” are ashamed of this part of God. Many Christians are so embarrassed that it’s common to hear a claim that wrath belongs to the God of the Old Testament. But wrath belongs to the God of heaven, and there is no other God.

If God is righteous, if God is “holy, holy, holy,” if God is omniscient, if God is true, then He must judge t[...]

Or, My Faith has Found a Resting Place1 Peter 1:10-21October 3, 2021 Evening Service Jim Martin

Galatians 6:1-5October 3, 2021 Lord’s Day Worship Ryan Hall

Or, The Business of RighteousnessRomans 1:16-17September 26, 2021 Lord’s Day Worship Sean Higgins

Introduction

God is in the righteousness business. What I mean is that He is engaged in an activity for a particular end. His business is not to make money, but to remake mankind. He isn’t open for business only on certain days of the week, M-F, or Sunday, but His work goes on around the clock. God is in the business of revealing His righteousness as men receive it by faith and as they embody it by faith. It’s a gift business, start to finish, all the way through. It is good news.

Romans 1:16-17 provide the thesis statement of the letter. These two verses fit in the flow of his greeting, and in fact are subordinate to the last assertion Paul made in verse 15. There are four “for”s following his comment that he is eager to preach the gospel among them: 1) for he’s not ashamed of the gospel, 2) for the gospel is God’s power, 3) for in the gospel God’s righteousness is revealed, and then 4) for God’s wrath is revealed (verse 18). Verse 18 changes the subject, even though it is still offering additional explanation on the previous.

Although grammatically verses 16-17 contain subordinate clauses, thematically they contain the superlative climax. This is the center of the evangel, and of the epistle.

Paul writes to the Romans because he sees them as part of his calling as the apostle to the Gentiles. Even more, he writes to them to establish a relationship so that perhaps they could be his base of mission to take Christ into Spain and West from there. And, in all this, he writes to them about the gospel of God, the gospel of righteousness, so that they would have a gospel base for Christian living. Here is the obedience of faith, here is blessing, here is bold hope. He had such obedient and blessed boldness, and it came from the gospel.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”

Here is a three step explanation of his eagerness to preach the gospel.

Eager BECAUSE he’s not ashamed of the gospel.

This is a well-known statement for many Christians, but that familiarity masks how odd it sounds, at least without some assumptions and context. Paul was eager to come to Rome, eager to encourage and be encouraged by the Christians in Rome, eager to preach the gospel in Rome. Who said anything about him being ashamed? Ashamed about what? Ashamed in what way?

When Paul writes about not being ashamed he isn’t referring to some guilt or moral stain. He’s speaking about not being ashamed as not being fearful. There are a number of synonyms that help us understand. He’s not hesitant to speak about it, not feeling the need to keep it quiet. He wasn’t reluctant to make it public.

And the reason that someone might be reluctant to talk about it is that you anticipate that it might not be appreciated by those you tell. In Paul’s case, he had experience. He had experience on both sides of the stick.

Before he believed in the gospel, when his name was still Saul, Paul was persecuting people who believed this message. He was putting them to death, and doing so in the name of God. He was making martyrs of the gospel of righteousness in, what he thought was, the service of righteousness. He also knew Jesus’ teaching about how men would naturally receive the news: they would insult the believers, hate them, treat them with contempt. As Paul was in Corinth when he wrote to the Romans, he knew that the word of the cross was scandalous to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. As any timeline of Paul’s life shows, before writing to the Romans he had already been imprisoned, laughed at, stoned and left for dead. He was not imaging things.

Being asha[...]

Or, Getting Faith Where It Needs to Be1 Peter 1:1-9September 19, 2021 Evening Service Sean Higgins

Introduction

One question that we’ve thrown around recently is if our church is prepared for more suffering. There are different kinds of suffering, and who’s to say what kinds may or may not be around the corner (even as was true for Peter’s readers). The Lord knows, the Lord wills. There is a sense in which you never really know if you’re prepared until you’re in the midst of the trouble and, according to the Bible, some troubles are the means to increasing our ability to handle them. But whether or not we are prepared, 1 Peter is written with an expectation that you can do some things to get ready.

1 Peter is about suffering, as a Christian and even for doing good as a Christian. It is less about personal suffering, as in, from sickness or injury or depression, though it has application for all kinds of griefs (see verse 6). It is more about relational suffering, we could call it social suffering, with insults (4:14) and slander (4:4) from others. It is about suffering that might happen when a woman is married to a disobedient husband (3:1-6), suffering under a crooked boss (2:18-25), suffering under ignorant (if not malicious) government (2:13-17), and suffering in a culture that is non-Christian (2:11; 4:3-4). 1 Peter was written to Christians in such a hostile environment, and it has application for much of what we see around us now.

The three main themes of 1 Peter are suffering, submission, and salvation, but in the reverse order. Peter thought there were things Christians could do to prepare for suffering, and he thought so directly and by argument. That’s why the first chapter and a half are about our salvation, because when we understand what our God-given faith is for, we will be less surprised at the fiery trial that’s upon us (4:12). Faith is given by God, and in another way it is made by fire.

The Peter who wrote the letter is the apostle Peter. He watched his Lord suffer, up close. He tried to avoid suffering one memorable time by denying that he knew the Lord. By the time he wrote this letter he had already spent time in prison for preaching.

He wrote to the elect exiles throughout a dispersion, perhaps better not capitalized as a proper noun. These were “scattered” Christians in the area of modern day Turkey. Though he was the apostle entrusted with the gospel for the circumcised (Galatians 2:7-8), the description of his readers in 1 Peter seem to be more Gentile, even if mixed.

That Peter refers to “the futile ways inherited from your forefathers” (1:18) indicated that most of his readers were Gentiles. They had once not been a people, but are now God’s people (2:10).

The provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia were diverse demographically, though all of them were part of the Roman Empire at this point. The order in which the areas are listed probably designates the order in which the courier (Silvanus, see 5:12) would carry the letter to the readers.

Evidence is lacking for an official government policy against Christians. Though Nero’s persecution around A.D. 64 was clearly targeted at Christians, it’s not clear that martyrdom was expected by Christians before that, even if the culture was unfavorable or belligerent against Christians.

So Peter calls them exiles, not because they weren’t living at home. It is more than a geographical condition, it is a spiritual one. We’re living away from our native country; our citizenship is dual-nature (earth and heaven per Philippians 3:20), resident aliens.

This world is not the Christian’s home. We are “aliens and strangers” (1 Peter 2:11: NASB), “foreigners” (NIV), “pilgrims” (KJV). I do think that this is true, and it does not have to make a man a dualist if he also pays attention to his responsibilities as an exile, w[...]

Or, The Gift of ConformityRomans 1:8-15 September 19, 2021 Lord’s Day Worship Sean Higgins

Introduction

What do you give the city that has everything? As the capital of the Roman Empire, Rome (and her Caesars) didn’t actually have it “all,” but that’s a lot easier to see from our perspective. What would have been harder at the time to see is that the city did have some Christians, and that fact alone was something to celebrate as much as it was surprising. Paul writes to the saints in this moral cesspool (as we’ll read in the second half of Romans 1), to strengthen their grasp of the gift, and because they were strategic to the spread of the gift (Romans 15:24).

Rome was always on Paul’s mind. He writes that the Christians in Rome in particular were always on his mind and in his prayers. He wasn’t just being polite; this is more than Christian-courtesy. He saw them as part of his apostolic charge, those he was to care for and those he was to partner with.

This paragraph communicates his thanks for them, which was typical near the beginning of first-century letters, but, like the previous paragraph, this thanksgiving stands out from the typical.

Amazing Faith (verse 8)

Every letter written by Paul that we have includes some sort of thanks (except his letter to the Galatians who had abandoned the gospel).

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. (Romans 1:8)

We will look in vain for a “second” to this First. It happens to Paul a few times where his “first” is an only. This is an ordinal orphan, left all by itself.

The thing at the top of his mind is his gratitude. It is not gratitude to them, but gratitude for all of you and to my God. Hold that in mind for a moment.

The reason he’s thankful is because their reputation as believers had spread throughout all the world. The news of their faith in the announced good news was being announced. The fact of their faith, the fact that the gospel was already bearing fruit that far away from Jerusalem, caused a burst of gratitude.

There’s a lot to read still in the letter, and there’s plenty more about God’s sovereignty. But this thanksgiving to God for the testimony of faith means that the presence of faith and the reputation of that faith was gift. God gave it, that’s why God gets the thanks. If faith came from smarts, Paul might have expressed thanks that they were smart. Even then, we’d still need to ask, where did the smarts come from? And we know from too many other places that without grace, the wisdom of man only finds hell.

This isn’t just Pauline politeness, this is praising God for doing what the Caesars couldn’t coerce nor any man could produce. Look! Even in Rome there is faith in Jesus Christ. Their faith was always on Paul’s mind.

Desire to Visit (verses 9-10)

Verses 9-10 give some explanation of his thanks, with verses 11-13 giving some explanation of the explanation. Paul defends, so to speak, the fervor of his gratitude by arguing from the fervor of his desire to visit them.

For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. (Romans 1:9–10)

The more their reputation of faith spread from Rome the more the apostle to the Gentiles wanted to go to Rome. He didn’t don the aviators and think to himself, “Mission Accomplished”; they were always on his mind.

What they couldn’t see was how serious he was about seeing them. He called God as his witness that they were always on his mind. Paul served this God with this Son proclaimed in this gospel, and when he prayed mentioned them without ceasing and was always..asking God to get him to Ro[...]

Or, What Sets This Salutation ApartRomans 1:1-7 September 12, 2021 Lord’s Day Worship Sean Higgins

Introduction

This is the longest of all Paul’s greetings, and verses 1-7 are (if you notice the punctuation in almost every major English translation) one long sentence. The outline of the salutation is typical for a first-century letter: The Author’s identification and function (verses 1-6), The Recipients’ location and identification (verse 7a), The Greeting (verse 7b).

The gist of the paragraph, what stands out in the paragraph, is the gospel of God, prophesied in Scripture and concerning Jesus Christ. The gospel was Paul’s life and the theme of this letter. This is a gospel greetings.

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, (Rom. 1:1)

As with almost every epistle (an English word derived from the Greek word epistole (ἐπιστολή), which we typically refer to as a letter), the author identifies himself. No one wrote more epistles in the New Testament than Paul.

Because he wrote so many letters (13 included in the NT)–some to churches he had started, some to churches he had visited or had only heard about, as well as a few letters to young pastor disciples–we know a lot about him. And yet we ought to try to appreciate what the recipients of this letter knew about him, which only could come from reports (since he hadn’t been to Rome yet) and from the letter itself.

Paul identifies himself in this letter in three related ways.

First, he is a servant of Christ Jesus. A doulos (δοῦλος) is a slave. So many English translations use the word “servant,” including William Tyndale as far back as 1522. There is a tendency today to make a significant distinction between slave and servant, defining a servant as one who serves in perhaps better, less abject conditions. But the ones who read this letter would not have had a lot of questions about what this word meant, even though they might have known different δοῦλος in different situations. Based on what we know about the demographics of Rome in the first-century, many of the recipients of this letter were probably slaves themselves.

The point is that the slave is bound to another, to an owner or master. The slave is not free, which is just as much a relational bond as it is an economic class.

Paul’s master is Christ Jesus. Three more times in this opening paragraph Paul reverses the order, “Jesus Christ” (see verses 4, 6, 7). Whatever the possible nuance of order, Jesus is the focal point of this greeting as will become obvious in the following verses.

It is an interesting first impression for Paul to make: he is not his own.

Second, he is called (to be) an apostle. An apostolos (ἀπόστολος) is a delegated messenger. Christians know the word, and we know that the original group of Christ’s 12 disciples were named apostles (Luke 6:13). They were His students, then they became teachers about Him. Apostles were gifts from God for the saints (see Ephesians 4:11; 1 Corinthians 12:28).

That Paul was called further indicates that it wasn’t his prerogative. He was knocked to the ground (Acts 9:4) and his life redirected. He will use the same idea in verse 6 about those “called to belong to Jesus Christ” and in verse 7 about those “called to be saints.” Someone else is doing the calling.

Third, he is set apart for the gospel of God. Though his slavery was first, this is the focal point of the introduction.

Paul says he was aphorismenos (ἀφωρισμένος), or “having been set apart for the gospel of God.” The voice of the verb is passive, meaning that someone other than himself did the separating. As he was called by another, so he was set apart by another. God drew the line in the sand, so to speak, and put Paul on the other side.

Paul was a tent[...]

Or, The Empire Disrupting Power of RomansRomans 5:21 September 5, 2021 Lord’s Day Worship Sean Higgins

Introduction

The selection of a book of Scripture and start of a new sermon series is a big deal. Not that studying any part of the Bible would be bad (all His works are great and studied by His people for their delight, Psalm 111:2), but certainly some sections at some times are more relevant. Because of my approach, preferring to preach about paragraph at a time, a book with some size could be a year of two of Sundays.

Over the summer at least three people recommended Romans to me, about a month apart from each other and completely unaware of each other. They also had different reasons. There was no other consensus to consider, and all the elders affirmed the choice of Romans. Here we are.

I have taught through Romans about one and a half times already, and it was twenty years ago. I got into chapter eight with the seventh and eighth graders at Grace Community Church before moving to Marysville in 2001, and started over in chapter one that fall until finishing all sixteen chapters. Some of you here today not only heard those sermons, I think you’d say that some of those sermons were vital to your understanding and appreciation of the gospel. Maybe you remember titles such as “The Performance Treadmill” and “God’s Display of God.”

What shouldn’t be a surprise, but is still quite surprising, is that I am almost a completely different preacher than then, and while I still believe probably everything I said/taught, I can’t imagine saying/teaching it that way now. I believe the same gospel, and I’ve also come to see the gospel’s dominion in ways I didn’t have categories to imagine back then. “Jesus is Lord” (Romans 10:9) is a confession like a deep and full well; the water on the surface is the same as the water further down, but by grace the taste keeps getting gooder.

In addition to commentaries, I’ve now read some of Livy and Suetonius and Tacitus; the historical context for Romans is more clear, and more ugly than I thought. I knew about paganism and idolatry and nationalism from the Old Testament, but now I’ve also read more about the myths and the “futile ways inherited from … forefathers” (1 Peter 1:18), so the religious context into which Jesus came and Paul preached is even more desperate and bleak than I had considered. I was living 2000 or so years into church history, but now I’ve learned more about how that history doesn’t make sense apart from the “flood-tide of Christ” (a phrase used in the third century).

It has affected even the angle from which I see the purpose of Paul in writing it, and how that makes it relevant for every context, but maybe especially as an encouragement for us, right now, staring wide-eyed and jaw-dropped at a society abandoned to God’s wrath like Romans 1, full of moral goodie-two-shoes (which we’ve nicknamed social justice warriors) like chapter 2, and headed toward the collapse of an empire with exactly the truth we need to repent from sin, resist sin, and rejoice in the God of our salvation.

It was a verse in Romans that converted Augustine (albeit in sort of a “random” reading). It was a phrase in Romans that liberated Martin Luther and ignited the 16h century Reformation. The truths in this letter are the core of Christianity’s dominance in Western Civilization. The gospel has done more to topple idols and tyrants, to undo sinners and Caesars, than any other single influence. The gospel of Christ is the power of God to subdue rebels and remake men.

And it is all gift.

The two greatest works of God are creation and redemption. Both are undeserved, unearned, and un-asked for. Both are givens. Both are gifts. Both gifts establish new ways of life.

Paul’s epistle to the Romans is perhaps the single greatest and sustained (let alone inspired) writing on salvation. As early as Romans 1:16, Paul pre[...]

Or, A Lot of RejoicingEcclesiastes 5:18-20 August 29, 2021 Lord’s Day Worship Sean Higgins

Introduction

I want to remind you, encourage you, as well as myself, that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. Paul asserted such to the Corinthians at the end of his great argument for the Christian’s resurrection.

Therefore (in light of your resurrection to immortality and glory in Christ’s resurrection), my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:58)

You might suppose that certain resurrection, to an existence where perishability and dishonor and weakness is no more, would make our sowing in the natural, temporal body only as significant as the dust we’re made from (see 15:42-44, 49). But Paul says the opposite. And if we connect it with the same wisdom Solomon pundit-ed we grasp that our perceiving of life beyond the sun is the only guarantee of meaning and joy in our toil under the sun.

All sorts of things are ramping up even as summer winds down. The school year, arbitrarily determined as it is, sets almost as many of our current rhythms as the calendar year and the changing of seasons. The start of the school year is a mini restart, and whether you are a student or parent or parent-teacher or teacher or just someone who drives through slower-speed limit school zone traps, we can see that there is a Wholelotta Work to do.

And, as much as ever it would be easy to be disturbed/distracted/discouraged from our work because the world has gone crazy. The world is in a war of crazy. The world is full of those apparently trying to outdo one another in crazy (contra outdoing one another in showing honor as Paul exhorted in Romans 12:10). In many ways the crazy is hard to ignore. As the man pointed out in “Hoosiers,” there is a difference between a man who gets naked and howls at the moon and a man who does the same thing in your living room. Folly seems omnipresent, if not eternal. But folly isn’t either. The Lord gives His people perspective–wisdom and hope, as well as pleasure–a glad satisfaction, when He enables them to see beyond the sun, when we know there is more than the disrobed howler in eye-sight.

So as you get back into a season of earlier mornings (maybe), and moldy water bottles, as the rain inevitably returns and dampens your enthusiasm, as you keep watching the (intentional) damage being done to us, our country and companies, by our own representatives, may the word of the Lord encourage your labor in the Lord, and may He give you enjoyment in the process.

Having Only Half

All of what we have is gift. We have nothing that we weren’t given (1 Corinthians 4:7), even if what we were given were “raw” resources to obtain other things. It’s important to remember that because we’re supposed to be thankful to the Giver, and also because we cannot make or find joy on our own. This is the dark side of King Solomon’s coin in Ecclesiastes 6.

Solomon observed a heavy evil, a brutal burden on men who are given everything they think that they could want except for joy.

he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them (Ecclesiastes 6:2)

This man has money, toys, and respect. He has a thousands-of-years long life (6:6) and hundreds of great-grand kids (6:3). But he doesn’t have thankfulness, “his soul is not satisfied” (6:3), whether it’s because he wants more and more (the law of diminishing returns) or because he finds that his huge pile really is hollow. All he has is in this life, and all he has still isn’t the life he wishes for.

Ecclesiastes describes the vanity of vanities under the sun, that is, life not in and for the Lord. “Under the sun” is almost a technical phrase to describe the perspective of the this-[...]