Katartismenoi

Paul, in addressing the church at Corinth, chided them about their divisions. They were dividing the church into factions - the Appolons, the Cephans, the Paulonians, and letting their "hero worship" of various servants of God destroy their unity. In 1 Corinthians 1:10, Paul tells them, "Brothers, I urge all of you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to be in agreement and not to have divisions among you, so that you may be perfectly united in your understanding and opinions." In this verse he uses a very interesting Greek word - Katartismenoi - translated "united."

It’s the same verb used in Ephesians 4:12, translated "to perfect" (to perfect the saints, to do the work of ministry, and to build up the body of Christ). The word is translated "restore" in Galatians 6:1 (Brothers, if a person is caught doing something wrong, those of you who are spiritual should restore that person in a spirit of gentleness. Watch out for yourself so that you are not tempted as well.) In Matthew 4:21, it is translated "repairing" and refers to restoring nets to usefulness. (Going on from there he saw two other brothers-James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee repairing their nets....)

Therefore, we can see by the way the word is used in these verses, Katartismenoi (pronounced kat-ar-tis-mos') could very well be paraphrased as "mending with a view toward rendering something as functional again."

That is why Advent, and especially, "The ARC" exists. We acknowledge a mandate from God to "mend" lives shredded by substance abuse. As a friend of mine, Rev. Mickey Evans, so aptly puts it, we are to "make diamonds from the devil’s scrap pile." That is our mandate, and by God’s grace, that is what we plan to do - until the end of the age.

Randy

(The verses used are taken from the International Standard Version® (V.1.2.2) of the Bible, Copyright © 1996-2001 by The ISV Foundation, All Rights Reserved. The ISV Foundation's website is at: http://isv.org.)