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Is It "Expedient"? Or Is It Optional
Cecil B. Douthitt, Fort Smith, Arkansas The English dictionary definition of a word may not be its New Testament meaning at all.
In modern parlance the word "expedient" is used with reference to things that are matters of choice, optional, elective, not compulsory. But it is not so used in the New Testament. According to New Testament usage if a thing is expedient, it is as binding and compulsory as a divine command or a direct order. It is never used with reference to one "method" out of many, any one of which would be permissible.
The word "expedient" is a translation of the Greek word "sumphero" which appears sixteen times in the Greek New Testament. It is translated "expedient" seven times, but in none of its sixteen appearances is it used with reference to anything optional or elective.
In John 11:50 Caiaphas prophesied saying, "It is expedient for you that one man should die for the people". Then in John 18:14, "Now Caiaphas was he that gave counsel to the Jews, that it was expedient that one man should die for the people'. The death of Jesus was necessary and indispensable for the salvation of souls; it was not optional. It was not possible for that cup to pass and for some other "method" to be employed in saving the lost. It was God's immutable will for it to be done that way. It was expedient, and that does not mean that some other "way" or "method" would have been permissible.
In John 16:7 Jesus said, "It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you". Was his going away just one out of many ways whereby he could send the Comforter unto them? Was it just a method which he chose because it happened to be the most convenient way to send the Comforter? His going away was "expedient"; it was essential and indispensable; it was the only way to make possible the coming of the Comforter.
"All things are lawful for me; but not all things are expedient" (I Cor. 6:12). "All things are lawful; but not all things are expedient" (I Cor. 10:23). Paul knew that an idol was nothing, and eating meat sacrificed to an idol was optional with him. His eating would not make him any better; his not eating would not make him the worse. However, under certain circumstances it would be expedient for him not to eat such meat. When it became expedient for him to abstain from eating it, the thing ceased to be a matter of choice. If he had eaten when it was expedient for him not to eat, he would have sinned "against the brethren" and "against Christ" (I Cor. 8:12). "Expedient" did not mean "optional" to Paul.
It was not "expedient" or mandatory ordinarily for Paul to glory (II Cor. 12:1), but he would do so because of disparagement of adversaries.
"And herein I give my judgment: for this is expedient for you who were the first to make a beginning a year ago, not only to do, but also to will" (II Cor. 8:10). It was God's will for Paul to write these things to the church at Corinth, and it was God's will for the Corinthians to fulfill their promise and supply the needs of the saints in Jerusalem. These things were not in the realm of the optional; they were in the realm of expediency; they were required; they were binding.
To say that things optional (such as the methods of teaching, or the methods of travel in obedience to the command to "go", or the hour in which the church should assemble on Lord's day) are "expediencies" is to use the word in a sense in which it is not used in the New Testament. According to New Testament usage, all things in the realm of expediency are binding, obligatory and mandatory. The things in the field of option or choice are not in the field of expediency. The dictionary definition of "expedient" does not harmonize with the New Testament meaning of the word.
If there is anything that the New Testament calls `expedient" which is not as essential and compulsory as the commandments of God, I do not know what it is.