Open to damnation discussion

If you’ve heard him speak, you know his stance: Brother Jed thinks we’re fornicating, drinking, and feminist-ing our way to eternal flames. We asked Dr. Sylvester Johnson, director of graduate studies in the Department of Religious studies, to analyze three of Jed and Martha’s favorite Bible verses. Martha sent us the scriptures. Religious literature is open to interpretation, Johnson says.

"For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness." – Romans 6:20

SJ: This is part of Paul’s typical use of “slave/manumission” language to empha- size to his readers that their choice is between slavery to righteousness or slavery to sin. Either way, they will be slaves, but they will also be free—either from sin or from the obligation to live righteously.


"Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever," – 1 Peter 123

SJ: This writer, who is claiming the identity of Peter, is describing the Christian life metaphorically as rebirth and stemming from immortal “seed” rather than merely physical sperm. The point is to contrast spiritual birth with physical birth.


"Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up." – 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

SJ: In this text, Paul is writing about special abilities he and his followers believed were spiritual gifts. Different people had different abilities. As background, some of the Corinth Christians had claimed to have better abilities than others. Here, Paul claims no single gift is better than another and all should be valued equally. So, later in this chapter, he uses the human body as a metaphor for the body of Christians: They all need each other and no single member should develop an exaggerated sense of self-importance.