Category Archives: Callous

Heart-shaped cracked stone glowing with light surrounded by seedlings on forest floor
Bible, Callous, Calloused, Hard, Heart, Rejection, Return, Romans, Scripture, Unforgiveness

A PARTIAL HARDENING

ROMANS 11:25

“For I do not want you, brothers and sisters, to be uninformed of this mystery—so that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in;”

We have all known some hard-hearted people in our lives. They refuse any expressions of love you give and, if they feel they have been offended by you (whether or not it actually happened), they write you off. That makes it impossible to have any kind of relationship with them. This hurts even more when it’s family. Hard-heartedness is not of God. Can’t be. He is love and wants His children to love each other.

Paul uses a Greek word in verse 25 that is only used two other times in the New Testament (Mark 3:5 and Ephesians 4:18). We will take a look at those in a minute. Here in today’s verse, it is referring to the Jews who had rejected the Messiah, Jesus Christ, in favor of their religion which they felt gave them special privileges as God’s chosen people. God allowed this “partial hardening” for a reason – to open up the message to the Gentiles. We’ve been looking at that over the past several verses. The Greek word is ṓrōsis. HELPS Word-studies says, this is defined as “hardness (from pōros, a kind of marble, used later of a callus formed on fractured bones)…insensibility, numbness, obtuseness, dulling of the faculty of perception, deadness.”

APPLICATION

In Mark 3:5 the word is used to describe the hardness Jesus saw in the Pharisees’ reaction to Him healing the man with the withered hand. In Ephesians 4:18 Paul uses the word again to describe Gentiles who are “excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart;”

But here in today’s verse, ṓrōsis is combined with an adjective, meros, which means a piece or portion. This implies that the hardness exhibited by the Jews that was allowed by God was not intended to be a full, complete or final hardness. God always has intended for the Jewish nation to return to Him. We saw that over and over in the Old Testament. Now, with the message of salvation completed by Jesus, He is desirous of their return, thus the partial hardness.

Never give up on a hard-hearted person. Continue to pray for them. You may not be able to have a relationship how, but God can still move mountains. My wife and I have been praying about a matter for some time now that fits this verse so well. We continue to pray. We continue to believe. And in His time (that’s the hard part, isn’t it?) He will move hearts from hardness to tenderness. I can’t wait to see the final result. How about you?

Give me faith to believe You are working behind the scene in all the hard-hearted people of the world. 

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Bible, Callous, Greed, Hard, Immorality, Impurity, Scripture

CALLOUS

EPHESIANS 4:19

“and they, having become callous, have given themselves up to indecent behavior for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.” 

My dad had calloused hands when I was growing up. He worked hard, usually a full-time job and at least one part-time as well. Those part-time jobs gave him the callouses. He painted houses for over twenty-five years after he finished his full-time job. He got those callouses from repeated actions with his hands and fingers holding those brushes and rollers. Over and over until the skin became hard. Callouses don’t happen overnight.

Paul uses the Greek word apalgeó, which literally means away from pain. This word is only used right here in the New Testament. It is translated as “callous” here. Paul is saying these unbelievers have deadened themselves to any kind of correction. They have practiced this “indecent behavior” for so long that no one can persuade them to change. Only God can do that. Paul is warning them to not follow their behavior.

APPLICATION

If there was ever a verse we can practice daily, it is this one. We need to avoid the things in our lives that can lead to this callousness towards sin. We see it all around us today. Who would have thought we would see the day when killing babies in the womb was seen as a woman’s choice. Wow! Now, don’t worry. I am not going to get on my soap box about that. I just use it as an example of callousness.

What are these behaviors Paul is warning us about? “Indecent behavior” is defined as “outrageous conduct, conduct shocking to public decency” (Strong’s Concordance). “Impurity” means uncleanness of a ritual type (perhaps referring to their idol worship). And I think we all know what “greediness” means, right?

We’ll see later in Ephesians 5:3, “for among you there should not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or impurity or any kind of greed, for these are improper for God’s holy people.” I think we can agree that these are behaviors we should all avoid. Repeated exposure to such things deadens are response. We get dull to correction and then those callouses build. Don’t let that happen.

Father, use Your tenderizing Holy Spirit in my heart to keep it sensitive to correction.

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