Wide and Narrow
Posted by: forthrightmag <forthrightmag@...>
http://www.forthright.net
Going straight to the Cross
Take a lesson from the fish. The real ones. And
don't let the big words scare you.
Wide and Narrow*
by J. Randal Matheny
The Arctic rockcod (trematomus) lives in cold
waters and lives within a four degree variation of
temperature, between -2 Cº and +2 Cº. Outside of
this range, the fish dies.
On the other hand, the pupfish (Cyprinodon), found
in some desert lakes, can survive a difference of
10º to 40ºC with no variation in its behavior.
That, for Fahrenheit heads, is a difference of
between 50 to 100 degrees.
One species has little tolerance to temperature
changes, another can handle extreme fluctuations.
There are special terms for these types. The term
stenothermic refers to organisms having or
tolerating a small range of temperature;
eurythermic refers to organisms having or
tolerating a wide range of temperature. The prefix
steno- means narrow; the prefix eury- means wide.
Other ecological conditions give rise to other
technical words: The salmon, for example, is
euryhaline, able to exist in waters widely varying
in salt content; it can live in both the salty
ocean and in fresh-water rivers. Most fish,
however, are stenohaline, needing a stable salt
content to survive.
Time for a spiritual application.
I'm not an expert at creating new words, but
Christians should be stenodidactic, that is, they
have a narrow tolerance for what can be taught.
They believe and teach a narrow range of truth.
(Steno- = narrow; didactic fr. didakein, to
teach.) Jesus speaks of the narrow (stenos) gate
and the narrow way that leads to life (Matthew
7:13-14). His teaching was hard for many to
swallow (John 6:66), but he did not soften his
words or broaden his approach for those who wanted
a more tolerant view.
The word of God praises the stenodidactics. As
Paul wrote, "Now I praise you because you remember
me in everything and hold firmly to the
traditions, just as I delivered them to you" (1
Corinthians 11:2).
In spite of that, some people prefer to be
eurydidactic (remember: eury- means broad). They
tolerate a wide range of beliefs and doctrines.
They are happy to believe and teach one thing and
let you believe and teach another. But Scripture
does not look favorably on such tolerance.
"But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should
preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have
preached to you, his is to be accursed! As we have
said before, so I say again now, if any man is
preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you
received, he is to be accursed!" (Galatians 1.8-
9).
In the area of relationships, the situation
changes. The love, patience, forgiveness, and
acceptance which members of the body of Christ
should show one another indicate that Christians
should be eurycardiac (eury- means wide; -cardiac
you already know: heart).
Paul chides the Corinthians for having a narrow
heart -- they don't have room in their hearts for
him (1 Corinthians 6:11-13). Twice he uses the
Greek verb "stenochoreo" (note the prefix),
meaning "to cramp, crowd, confine, restrict," to
speak of their unwillingness to accept his love
and concern.
Some people will be, however, stenocardiac. They
insist on being critical, condemnatory, harsh,
unwilling to bear others' burdens, authoritarian,
and manipulative. They don't understand what it
means to be "tender-hearted" to one another
(Ephesians 4:32). The stenocardiacs look at others
with a disapproving frown and a pointing finger.
Eurycardiacs don't necessarily give up the narrow
way, but they do look upon others with the love
and compassion of Jesus Christ.
To sum up, Christians should be narrow-minded in
the truth of the gospel and broad-hearted in their
relationships with their fellow man. Like the
temperature-intolerant rockcod, the disciple will
not and cannot tolerate teaching outside the
"range" of Christ's words; the result is death.
And like the adaptable pupfish, the disciple
thrives in the "extreme temperature differences"
of human relationships.
May it truly be so of each one.
__________
I am indebted to a speech of Dr. Eugenio Mussak,
given 26 May in Sao Paulo, Brazil, for the
applicability of the ecological terms to other
areas of concern; his, to business and human
resources; mine, to the spiritual realm. His
material can also be accessed, in Portuguese, at
his website: http://www.eugeniomussak.com.br
--
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