St. Paul here is the moral obligation of the debtor to pay his debt. In few things do Cliristians show greater moral laxity than in the matter of debt. Evidently St. Paul had already noticed this laxity. He makes this exhortation the occasion of a strong argument for love, but the context shows that literal financial obligations {dcpeiX-q, common in the papyri in this sense) are in mind as well as the metaphorical applications of d^eiXo).
2. Metaphorical uses. — The examples in the apostolic period chiefly come under this heading. The debt of love in Ro 13** is a case in point. It may be noted that dydirrj can no longer be claimed as a purely biblical word (cf. Deissmann, op. cit. p. 70). None the less Christianity glorifies the word. The debt of love is the only one that must not be paid in full, but the interest must be paid. For other instances of dtpeiXu see Ro 15'"-'', 1 Co 5^". In Ro 13'' 6(peiXri covers all kinds of obligations, financial and moral (cf. also 1 Co 7** [conjugal duty]). The metaphorical use of 6(peiX4Tr]s appears in Ro 1", Gal .5*, etc. The metaphor of debt is found in various otlier words. Tiius, when St. Paul speaks of Christians being ' slaves of Christ,' he is thinking of the obligation due to the new Master who has set us free from tiie bondage of sin at the price of His own blood. The figure need not be overworked, but this is the heart of it (cf. Ro 6'8-22, Gal 2^ 5', 1 Co 6-« 7"-^ Ro 3-^ 1 Ti 26, Tit 2^* ; cf. also 1 P 1'^ He 9^-). (See Deissmann, op. cit. pp. 324-44 for a luminous discussion of the whole subject of manumission of slaves in the inscriptions and papyri, as illustrating the NT use of words like dTroXvrpcjcns, Xvrpoia, Xvrpov, dvTiXvTpov, dyopd^u, Ti/j.ri, iXevdepoio, iXeijOepos, eXevdepia, dovXos, dovXevu}, KaTa5ovX6ui, etc. ) The use of dwodiSuai with the figure of paying off a debt is common (cf. Ro 2« 12'^ etc.). dppajSuiv (Eph V*) presents the idea of pledge (mortgage), earnest money to guarantee the full payment (Deissmann, op. cit. p. 340). In He V- in the same way ^yyvos is surety or guarantor. It seems clear that dtadriKi] in He
286
DECREE
DEMAS
91^'' has the notion of a will (testament) which is paid at death. Deissmann (op. cit. p. 341) argues that ' no one in the Mediterranean world in the first century A.D. would have thought of finding in the word BiaO-nKT) the idea of " covenant." St. Paul would not, and in fact did not.' That sweeping statement overlooks the LXX, however. Cf. art. Covenant. The figurative use of iXKoydu occurs in Ro 51^
LiTERATUKE.— Artt. in HDB, DCG, JE, and CE, and Com- mentaries on the passages cited ; A. Deissmann, Bible Studies, Eng. tr., 1901, and Light from the Ancient East^, 1911; A. Edersheim, LT iL p. 26Sff. ; E. Scliurer, UJP 11. i. 362 f. A. T. KOBERTSON.
DECREE. — This word occurs only three times in the NT, once in the singular (Lk 2^), where it is the decree of Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed, and twice in the plural (Ac 16^ 17^), the reference in the one case being to the de- cisions of the Apostolic Church at Jerusalem, and in the other to the decrees of the Roman Emperors against treason.
The word in its technical or theological sense of the Divine decree of human salvation, or of the decrees of God comprehended in His eternal purpose whereby He foreordains whatsoever comes to pass, is therefore not found in the NT at all. The Greek word which it most nearly represents is irpbOeats, which describes the purpose of God in eternity for the salvation of men. 'They that love God ' are ' the called according to his purpose ' (ol Kara Trp69e<n.v kXtjtoL, Ro 8^^). ' The purpose of God according to election' {i] kct iK\oyT]v irpdOecris ToO 6eo0, 9^^) is to stand, not of works but of His own sovereign grace who calls them that believe. Christians are 'allotted their inheritance, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his will ' {Trpoopia9ivTes Kara Trpddeaiv tov to, ir6.vTa ivep- yovvTos, Eph 1"). The Divine purpose is ' a purpose of the ages' which God fulfilled in Christ (Eph 3") as He had purposed it in Him (irpo^dero, Eph 1'). God's eternal decree depends upon the counsel of His own will, for it is ' not according to our works but according to his own purpose {Kara idiav irpdOecriv) and grace given in Christ Jesus before times eternal' that ' he saved us and called us with a holy calling ' (2 Ti P). See artt. Call, Election, and Predestination.
The decree of God, however, is not to be con- ceived in the same way as that of Darius or Nebu- chadrezzar, who could say, ' I have made a decree : let it be done with speed ' (Ezr 6'^). God's decree has no constraining eli'ecton the things to which it is directed, because it is not promulgated to the world, but is really His secret plan for the regula- tion of His own procedure. It is not the proximate cause of events, yet the objects which it contem- plates are absolutely certain, and are in due time brought to pass. Whilst the decrees of God are ' his eternal purpose whereby he foreordains whatsoever comes to pass,' yet He accomplishes His ends by the means proper thereto, and even when men are moved by Divine grace to embrace the gospel oiler, they do so in the exercise of their liberty as free agents. As St. Paul says : ' God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctitication 01 the Spirit and belief of the truth' (2 Th 2"). T. NiCOL.