By Tyson Thorne

December 21, 2017
 
 

Give greetings to all the saints in Christ Jesus. The brothers with me here send greetings. 4:22 All the saints greet you, especially those who belong to Caesar’s household. 4:23 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit

Paul closes his epistle with a standard Roman greeting. First, he greets all those who will receive the letter, then sends greeting from his house which, in this case, includes a number of Christian converts among the guards which, from what we can determine from history, was likely the elite Praetorian guard. What more can be said about these three verses? After looking at these verses there is something that came to mind. Notice whom Paul greets in verse 21. The word “saints” is easy to overlook, but does raise a question: who are these saints?

There are a couple different traditions in Christianity about “saints”. The Catholic church and other liturgical denominations have a tradition of elevating some – not all believers but some – to sainthood after their death. At a minimum of five years after death, the pastor may make a petition to his bishop to award a sainthood. The pastor must be able to demonstrate the candidate was a believer, lived a virtuous live and depended upon God. This identifies the person as a “servant of God”, which is the first step. After this, the pastor must show the person had an adventurous faith, one that resulted in holiness. Once confirmed the candidate is then called the Venerable. Next is something called Beatification and establishes the person has performed at least one miracle. To become an actual saint, at least two miracles must have been performed by the candidate. At this point the case is presented to the Pope who makes a final decision as to the canonization of the person as a saint.

It is quite a process, and one that is not found anywhere in Scripture. I’m not criticizing the Catholic church in this, there ought to be a way to recognize Christians who have gone above and beyond what most will have to endure and there has to be a path to veneration for them. So we can safely conclude that the Catholic church simply uses the term “saint” differently than the Biblical writers. For them, it is more of a Hall of Fame.

How does the Bible identify a “saint”? Fairly simply, as it turns out. First, we can see that a “saint” is not a dead person, since Paul asks that they be greeted. Beyond that, we have to look at the original languages. Two Hebrew words are used for “saint” in the Old Testament, “chaciyd” and “qadowsh”. In the New Testament it is the Greek work “hagios”. All three of these words agree with the English translation of “holy one”. There is no requirement that the person has performed miracles, only that any person who is set aside for God’s purpose is a saint. This brings us to two possible options.

The first is that the term “saint” is applicable to all Christians. We are all separated from the world and considered servants of God. This gives our life holy purpose and, therefore, all are saints. The alternate viewpoint is that while all Christians do indeed belong to God, some are set apart for special service. This elect group, a group who have dedicated their lives to God in a very deliberate way, are saints. There is no clear Biblical answer to this dilemma. The practical side of me leans toward the former, but the romantic side of me (and my competitive nature) leans toward the later. In the end, you can pick whichever you like only be sure to use it consistently and know why you made the decision.

 
 
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