Lessons #197 and 198
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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual exposition not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GWT = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New English Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
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Live as children of light (Ephesians 5:8-14)
…. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 14 for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
The concern of Ephesians 5:8-14 that we have been expounding is for believers to live as children of light, that is, that believers should live their lives under the control of the Spirit so that they can exhibit the virtues associated with the Holy Spirit such as goodness, righteousness, and truthfulness. However, the apostle, as an excellent teacher who is guided by the Holy Spirit, did not stop with a positive instruction of what it means to live as children of light but he presented the truth in a negative fashion. In other words, if a believer should forget the positive instruction that requires being filled with the Spirit such an individual would remember the instruction as given negatively. For it is not uncommon for humans to rebel against any instruction given to us. In effect, when we are instructed not to do something that is the thing we want to do because of our sinful nature leads us to rebel against anything that is intended to restrain it. , if we are instructed negatively what it means to live as children of light by telling us what we should not do, probably we will remember that negative instruction. That aside, the point is that the apostle explained what it means to live as children of light in a negative fashion. He indicates that it involves not participating in sinful activities that unbelievers practice. But he did not stop there. He went further to instruct us to expose these sinful activities of unbelievers. Having said these, the apostle then proceeded to provide justification for not participating in sinful activities but to expose them.
We are confident that the apostle provided justification for explaining what it means to live as children of light in a negative fashion that requires believers not to participate in sinful activities but rather to expose them in the sense of primarily speaking up against them as well as living lifestyles that will also convey how wrong these sinful activities are. This is because of the very first word for of verse 12. The Greek conjunction (gar) translated “for” in verse 12 is one that can be used in different ways in the Greek. It could be used as a marker of clarification of what precedes the clause introduced with the word in which case it may be translated “for, you see.” It can also be used as a marker of inference, implying that what follows it is a self-evident conclusion from what precedes so that it may be translated with “so, then, certainly”, among others. An interpreter takes the conjunction as a marker of contrast suggesting that it should be translated as “but” or “on the other hand” to avoid what he perceives as a contradiction with verse 11 in that verse 12 requires not speaking about sins that is in contradiction to the command of verse 11 that requires speaking up against sins. However, a different understanding of the verse as will become evident later removes the perceived conflict. Nonetheless, in our passage it is used as a marker of reason. This means that the Greek conjunction is intended to justify or give reason a believer should not participate in sinful activities that characterize unbelievers but also to expose these activities.
The reason believers should not participate in sinful activities of unbelievers instead to expose them is that they are things that are shameful to even mention. It is this reason that is given in verse 12, For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. It appears that the translators of the NIV wanted to focus the mind of the reader on the concept of shame in the manner in which they translated the Greek clause although the apostle seemed to have emphasized the activities of unbelievers. We say this because the first word in the Greek has to do with the things unbelievers do for the literal Greek reads For the things being done in secret by them are shameful even to speak.
The emphasis of the apostle is placed towards the end of verse 12 in the NIV in the clause what the disobedient do in secret or more literally the things being done in secret by them. It is understandable that the apostle puts emphasis on the activities of unbelievers. This is because that is what he had instructed believers not to be involved with in previous verse rather they should expose these activities. Thus, as he justifies his instruction, it is fitting to keep reminding believers that the apostle is concerned with activities of unbelievers or those sinful acts of the unbelieving world. It is not only that the apostle focused our attention on the activities of the unbelievers but he wanted us to recognize that these activities are usually carried out in secrecy, that is the reason for the phrase in secret. By the way, the Greek does not contain the word disobedient of the NIV in our verse instead we have the pronoun translated them in our literal translation which is rendered with the pronoun they in many of our English versions that changed the passive form of the Greek clause into active form. This notwithstanding, the use of the word disobedient of the NIV is a good one that replaces the pronoun them used in the Greek. This is because the pronoun refers to what the apostle wrote literally in the Greek in the phrase that translates into the sons of disobedience in Ephesians 5:6 which the translators of the NIV rendered as those who are disobedient. The things done in the secret are by those who are unbelievers that are described as the sons of disobedient.
In any case, the apostle did not tell us what these unbelievers do but simply referenced them in this passage. So, what are the things done in secret by unbelievers? In answering this question, we should recognize that whatever they are, they are not totally a reference to the fruitless deeds of darkness the apostle mentioned in Ephesians 5:11 since some of these fruitless deeds of darkness occur not in secret but openly. Having said this, the things done in secret are sinful activities that are clearly against God’s word and for which even the conscience of unbelievers tell them they are wrong hence their tendency to carry out such activities in secret. It is true that unbelievers may not have the Scripture read to them as to recognize how sinful their activities are but the reality is that God has inwardly placed His laws in minds of unbelievers that they know when they are doing that which God has forbidden. This is the truth conveyed by the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul in Romans 2:14–15:
14 (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, 15 since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.)
The sentence the requirements of the law are written on their hearts of verse 15 indicates God has put into the hearts of all people a basic moral sense of right and wrong so we can say that God’s command is intuitively known by all people. Thus, unbelievers although not having the word of God read to them still have the awareness of right and wrong. That God has written His law in our hearts is evident in the possession of conscience which is that moral faculty by which people judge their own actions to be right or wrong. In effect, the conscience is used to judge one’s own past actions or contemplated future actions. The conscience does not contain any moral law in and of itself but it makes a determination of rightness or wrongness of an action based on the inner law of God that has been written in our hearts. So, because God has put into the hearts of all humans the basic moral sense of right and wrong, people resort to doing things in secret because their conscience lets them know that what they are contemplating to do is wrong. Quite often, especially in this country, we are so focused on our privacy but this is especially the case when we are doing something wrong and so we claim that we want to protect our privacy. A person who does that which is right does not mind if others know about it. It is only when people do something wrong or plan doing something wrong that privacy becomes of a greater concern. A believer who wants to do things secretly because of the instruction of the Scripture is not particularly concerned with privacy as such. I mean that although the Scripture encourages us to be secretive in giving, for example, but we are not overly concerned if our giving to others is made public as we will if we did something sinful. We are saying that it is generally when we are doing something wrong or when we are doing something right but in a wrong way or when we are afraid that we resort to secrecy. We have to put it this way because we know that we are instructed to be secretive about the matter of giving, for example, but there are other things that may not in and of themselves be wrong but the way we go about them may be wrong and when that is the case we like to do things secretly. This point is demonstrated by Jacob. There was nothing wrong for him to take his family so as to return to Canaan but he did so secretly, as stated in the question of his uncle and father in law in Genesis 31:27:
Why did you run off secretly and deceive me? Why didn’t you tell me, so I could send you away with joy and singing to the music of tambourines and harps?
Jacob was afraid his father in law would not permit him to return to Canaan. This was his reason for secrecy regarding his departure from Paddan Aram. Anyway, unbelievers are aware that their activities violate God’s law and so they try to carry out their activities in secret.
We insist that the apostle did not directly define what he means by things unbelievers do as we read in the NIV in the clause what the disobedient do in secret or more literally the things being done in secret by them. This notwithstanding, we have enough information from the Scripture to recognize some of the things the apostle had in mind when he wrote the clause we are considering. One of the things he would have had in mind that unbelievers practiced in secret is sexual perversion that was prevalent among unbelievers, especially that of homosexuality that he described in Romans 1:24–27:
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. 26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
I know that if you live in the USA today this kind of declaration of the Holy Spirit through the apostle does not sound right because the courts have decided that there is nothing wrong with homosexuality. People knew that it was wrong for a man to desire another man or for a woman to desire another that is why those who have practiced homosexuality has done so in hiding. But because of decadency coupled with God’s judgment then such is viewed now as not wrong so that we can say that the courts essentially wrote in the hearts of people a new law that conflicts with the natural law that God had put in humans to recognize that such tendency was not natural. It should not surprise you that people then do not see anything wrong with same sex marriage because they have been led astray by Satan and because they are now under God’s curse. The apostle tells us in this passage of Romans 1 that such thing as we are witnessing is because God has brought judgment on people who have exchanged truth of God for a lie. Read again the sentence of verse 25, They exchanged the truth of God for a lie. The courts have exchange God’s truth for a lie and people have bought the lie so that something that was carried out secretly because of God’s inward law in humans that tells them that homosexuality is wrong is now carried out openly in defiance of God’s law. The Holy Spirit through the apostle had forewarned us in the Scripture that such an activity is a part of the sinful activities of unbelievers that believers should not participate in but expose.
Homosexuality is not the only activity that the apostle had in mind when he wrote in the clause what the disobedient do in secret or more literally the things being done in secret by them. He had in mind other sinful activities often carried out in secret or at night that he mentioned in Romans 13:13:
Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.
An activity that is often done in secret has to do with drunkenness as in the phrase in orgies and drunkenness. The meaning of the Greek word translated “orgies” is difficult to differentiate from the Greek word translated “drunkenness.” The word “orgies” is translated from a Greek word (kōmos) that originally was used in classical Greek for a festal procession in honor of Dionysus, something similar to the present-day festival of Mardi Gras, then it became a joyous meal or banquet but in the NT where the Greek word appears only three times, it is used to describe drinking parties involving unrestrained indulgence in alcoholic beverages and accompanying immoral behavior. The Apostle Paul used the word to describe the activities of sinful nature in Galatians 5:21:
and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Apostle Peter used it to describe the lifestyle of pagans or unbelievers in 1 Peter 4:3:
For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.
The word “drunkenness” is translated from a Greek word (methē) that means to become drunk with alcoholic beverages that also appears three times in the Greek NT, twice by the Apostle Paul in Romans 13:13 that we are considering and in Galatians 5:21 that we have cited previously. Its other use is where Jesus warned His disciples about worrying in Luke 21:34:
“Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap.
So, it is clear that both Greek words have the concept of drunkenness involved. Thus, the authorities tell us that it is difficult to distinguish the meanings of the two Greek words translated “orgies” and “drunkenness.” If any distinction in meaning is to be sought, the first denotes both heavy drinking and sexual immortality, while the second relates more strictly to drunkenness. Anyway, it is important to recognize that drunkenness and wild parties are part of the activities that are generally carried out in secret or at least some of the things that go on in them are kept secret. People who are alcoholics often do not admit it and so they are secretive about it. The reality is contrary to efforts to downplay drunkenness, it is not a sickness or disease. It is a sin. We know that it is sin because the Scripture tells us that it is one of the manifestations of the sinful nature. The Bible nowhere recognizes alcoholism or drunkenness as sickness but a sin. We can recognize this truth because the Bible nowhere tells us that in the church we should avoid those who are sick but we are clearly instructed to have nothing to do with any believer that is a drunkard as stated in that often neglected instruction of 1 Corinthians 5:11:
But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.
We mentioned some of the immoral activities of unbelievers that believers should not participate instead to expose. However, we should also include in these activities any effort that is intended to accuse someone falsely. It is not uncommon for groups of people to come together to manufacture lies intended to use the law against a perceived object of hatred or dislike. In effect, those involved will concoct stories that are necessary to cover a crime or to pin the crime on a hated object or to defraud an institution or a governmental agency. This can take place secretly in a community or within law enforcement. A believer should not be a party to such a thing rather to expose it. This will not make the believer popular but may in fact bring suffering in the sense that the believer may lose his or her job or be ostracized in a community. If this happens the believer should derive comfort in that he or she is suffering because of truth. This kind of suffering is that which the Holy Spirit warned us will take place in 2 Timothy 3:12:
In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,
This is a promise we do not want to claim but we can be certain that if we do not participate in a cover up or in falsely accusing others but expose the truth that we will be persecuted. People making up stories to cover the truth or to convict someone of a crime the person did not commit is not something new. The Jewish authorities tried to cover up the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ by bribing the Roman soldiers who guarded His tomb to say His disciples stole His body, described in Matthew 28:12–15:
12 When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, 13 telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ 14 If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” 15 So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.
We also know that Jewish authorities also concocted lies in order to stone Stephen to death, as recorded in Acts 6:11:
Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We have heard Stephen speak words of blasphemy against Moses and against God.”
The lie against Stephen was concocted secretly and so such an activity falls into the kind of activity unbelievers do secretly. Anyway, it is not uncommon for people to make up stories in order to convict a hated object but a believer who witnesses such an act should be willing to expose it, that is, to speak up against it.
The activities of the unbelievers that believers are not to participate instead to expose are often carried out not only in secret but they are also shameful things that should not be subject of discussions except on the condition that such things are being spoken against by believers, preferably before unbelievers. It is this description of the activities of unbelievers that is given in the sentence it is shameful even to mention of Ephesians 5:12.
The adjective shameful is translated from a Greek adjective (aischros) with meanings that range from “ugly” in an external sense to “base” as in moral deformity. It is in the sense of “ugly” in appearance that the Greek word is used in the Septuagint (Greek translation of the OT) to describe the seven cows of Pharaoh’s dream in Genesis 41:3:
After them, seven other cows, ugly and gaunt, came up out of the Nile and stood beside those on the riverbank.
The Greek word is one that is important in an honor-shame oriented society and so the word in general refers to that which fails to meet expected moral and cultural standards. Thus, the word can mean “improper” in the sense of a feeling of what is right or wrong created by manners and customs of a community. It is probably in this sense that the apostle used the word twice in his epistle to the Corinthians. First, he used it in the instruction that has to do with use of covering for a woman’s head during prayer in which the apostle indicates that it dishonors a woman to cut her hair in 1 Corinthians 11:6:
If a woman does not cover her head, she should have her hair cut off; and if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut or shaved off, she should cover her head.
This passage is not necessarily saying that women ought to wear head ties or scarfs when they pray as some have made it. Instead, it is concerned with a woman not cutting her hair short so she looks like a man in which case she appears to be in authority when she is under authority. A woman’s hair is really a sign of being under authority, as implied in 1 Corinthians 11:10:
For this reason, and because of the angels, the woman ought to have a sign of authority on her head.
This is a difficult verse to interpret because the verbal phrase to have a sign of authority on her head is literally to have authority on her head. The question is how to understand what the apostle meant in the verbal phrase. So, two most common interpretations have been given. A first common interpretation is that a woman should wear a veil as a symbol of her subjection to another’s authority. A second common interpretation is that it means a woman also has authority from God to pray and to declare His word in prophesy that she did not have before. While both interpretations make sense, it is probably the first the apostle meant. This is because it is the interpretation that indicates the apostle was not so much concerned with a woman wearing a scarf on her head as he was that a woman should have a sign of being under authority. For if she wears her hair short so she looks like a man then she has in a sense implied she is not under authority. It is not necessary for her to have a scarf so long as her hair is long. This is because the apostle later indicated that a woman’s hair is given her for a covering in 1 Corinthians 11:15:
but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering.
Because a woman’s long hair is a covering then she is covered when she prays or in public worship so that the apostle could say that the church does not have the custom of having a woman uncovered during worship, as he stated in 1 Corinthians 11:16:
If anyone wants to be contentious about this, we have no other practice—nor do the churches of God.
Second, it is also possible that it is in the sense of “improper” that the apostle used the Greek adjective translated “shameful” in Ephesians 5:12 in his contested instruction concerning women keeping silent in the church in 1 Corinthians 14:35:
If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.
The clause for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church implies that it is shameful in the sight of God or in the opinion of people in general or that she brings shame to her husband or herself to speak in the church. The meaning of the Greek adjective translated “shameful” in Ephesians 5:12 of “base” is reflected in Titus 1:11:
They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain.
The NIV and few other English versions used the word “dishonest” here but other English versions use such words as “sordid” or “base.” In our passage of Ephesians 5:12, the Greek adjective means “disgraceful” in the sense of being offensive to modesty and Christian purity.
Shame as we noted in the past, refers to an uncomfortable feeling of guilt and humiliation, usually arising from sin or failure. It is certainly useful in a society that is honor-shame oriented in that it keeps people from going against cultural norms or standards. Of course, we do not mean that everything considered shameful in such societies are correct. For example, in the ancient world childlessness was a cause for shame as we can infer from Rachel’s assertion of God removing her disgrace when she gave birth to a son, as we read in Genesis 30:23:
She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said, “God has taken away my disgrace.”
The same truth can also be inferred from Elizabeth’s praise of God because she became pregnant in her old age, as stated in Luke 1:25:
“The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”
A woman should not really be ashamed because of childlessness since that is under God’s control. A true reason to be ashamed is when a person sins against God or does that which is contrary to His word. We are saying that sin should bring a sense of shame. It is this truth that is recognized when the Scripture tells us that sinful conduct would lead to shame of people in Proverbs 14:34:
Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.
In this passage of Proverbs, the message is that righteousness brings power, prosperity or prestige to a nation while sin especially that of injustice brings shame to it. Nonetheless, the point is that sin should normally bring shame. For example, mistreatment of parents brings shame, as stated in Proverbs 19:26:
He who robs his father and drives out his mother is a son who brings shame and disgrace.
We say that sin should normally bring shame because unbelievers quite often do not care about sin and so are not concerned with such thing as shame. Therefore, they can do things that are shameful and think nothing about it or are not perturbed by their sin. Every believer should be concerned not to reach a state in his or her spiritual life where sin does not bring shame. This kind of state would be similar to the state of the Israelites that Prophet Jeremiah denounced in Jeremiah 6:15:
Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when I punish them,” says the Lord.
It is spiritually terrible for a believer to find himself or herself in a state where sin no longer causes the individual to feel shame. When this happens, the individual will not be concerned with repentance and being in fellowship with God and with fellow believers. Remembering that shame refers to an uncomfortable feeling of guilt and humiliation, usually arising from sin or failure then we will expect the feeling of shame to lead a person to repentance as that was what the Holy Spirit intended through the apostle in 2 Corinthians 7:9–11:
9 yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. 10 Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. 11 See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.
It is also probably because the apostle counts on the concept of shame being helpful to drive a sinning believer to repentance that he gave the instruction of 2 Thessalonians 3:14–15:
14 If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of him. Do not associate with him, in order that he may feel ashamed. 15 Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.
We are saying that shame has value in that it could cause a believer to be conscious of sinning against the Lord but if such an individual sins, a sense of shame will help lead the individual to repentance. Thus, it is important that the believer has a sense of shame with respect to sin. This being said, we know that there is a situation in which we should never feel shame: It is when we live according to the truth. If you live in accordance with God’s word and you do things that your society does not approve then you should reject any attempt to make you feel ashamed because of doing the right time. This point is important because we now live in a society that is devoid of shame with respect to sin but in which there is no problem in trying to shame those who live according to truth. For example, today we find that so many people want to shame someone who speaks out against homosexuality, for example, but that is wrong. As long as you stand on the truth then you should never be ashamed no matter how the society treats you. The point we are stressing is that believers should never be ashamed of living according to truth or speaking out against sinfulness. The only thing we should be concerned is that we are not selective in speaking up against sinfulness. As we have indicated, we should not pick and choose which sin to speak up against while ignoring others. We should speak up against lack of respect for authority but we should also speak up against abuse of authority. We should speak up against homosexuality but we should also speak up against all sexual immoralities such as sex outside marriage between members of the opposite sex. It is not one or the other. I am amazed as to how Christians in this country speak against sinful conduct in politicians they dislike but approve the same or are silent when the same is found on those they approve. The reason for this inconsistency is that believers immerse themselves into the world, refusing to accept what our Lord says that believers are in the world but not of the world. We should speak up against both if we are to be consistent in functioning with respect to truth. That aside, we want to stress that you should never be ashamed with respect to truth. In fact, the point we are stressing is that you should avoid the temptation to be ashamed for Jesus Christ, according to the warning of our Lord in Luke 9:26:
If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
Instead of being ashamed for Christ, you should take the attitude of the Apostle Paul who was not ashamed for suffering for Christ or preaching the gospel, as he stated in Romans 1:16:
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
Be that as it may, our concern in Ephesians 5:12 is that believers should not be involved in any activity that can be described as shameful as determined by the word of God. It is true that some societies operate in an honor-shame system but believers should always base what is right and wrong or shameful by measuring their conduct with the word of God since societies often change their norms and standards as to what is right or wrong. We should recognize that shameful conduct belongs to those who are unbelievers that are expected to spend eternity in lake of fire as indicated by the fact that such individuals will not enter the New Jerusalem that is mentioned in Revelation, as we read in Revelation 21:27:
Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
The Apostle Paul not only states that the things done by unbelievers are shameful but speaking about them poses difficulties as in the phrase even to mention or literally even to speak of. This phrase presents interpretation difficulties that involve first its relationship to the adjective shameful and then how to interpret the sentence it is shameful even to mention. The phrase to speak of can be understood either as defining the adjective shameful or explaining it. It seems that the literal phrase to speak or to mention of the NIV is intended to explain the adjective shameful so that the reader will understand more about what the apostle meant in the adjective shameful. This interpretation is supported by the Greek conjunction (kai) translated even in that it may also be used in an explicative manner so that it has the meaning “that is, namely.” This meaning implies that the sentence it is shameful even to mention can also be translated it is shameful, that is, to mention. Thus, we can see that the Greek conjunction could be used either to make an additional statement about the things unbelievers do, warranting the translation of the conjunction as even or that it is used to explain further what is involved in the shameful things they do so that the conjunction is translated that is. Anyhow, it seems that the literal phrase to speak of or to mention of the NIV is used to further explain the adjective shameful. This being the case, we still must interpret what the apostle means in the sentence it is shameful even to mention or speak of. There are two possible interpretations. It could mean that the believer who speaks of or mentions the sins of unbelievers that are committed secretly has a sense of shame. This is to say that it is with difficulty that such a believer speaks of the sins of unbelievers. He does not shy away from speaking of them but it is with great difficulty that he does so because of how abhorrent these sins are to the believer. Of course, there are those who understand it to mean that because of the shame associated with these sins believers are not even to mention them. This understanding could hardly be correct since the apostle already command believers to expose sins of unbelievers in verse 11. Another interpretation is that the sentence is concerned with the shame felt by the perpetrators of the sins carried out secretly. It is because these unbelievers feel shame that they do what they do secretly. Which of these interpretations did the apostle have in mind? This is a case where both interpretations are in view. In effect, the apostle implies that on the one hand, believers have uneasy feeling to speak about the sins carried out secretly by unbelievers but they do so in order to expose these sins. On the other hand, the unbelievers are themselves ashamed of their sins otherwise they would not carry them out in secrecy. In any event, believers are not to participate in the sins of unbelievers especially those that are done in secret because of how shameful they are but they are to expose such sins.