That’s Bogus

My twenty-something son uses the word bogus in a curious way.  It’s hard to define.  There is much more to it than false or counterfeit, the standard dictionary meaning of the term.  For example, when told what I expect about responsibility with regard to paying bills, living in our house, what I’m willing to help with, and the strings that go with me helping in terms of making decisions, his response is, “That’s bogus!”  I think it means something like unjust, unfair, or maybe even hypocritical.  I feel like the dad who sent along some fatherly advice to his daughter and received a text message, “LOL.”  He thought it meant “Lots of Love.” 

Yet I’m pretty interested in my son’s use of bogus.  It’s a complex idea that he’s trying to express, misguided though he may be.  Somehow, bogus seems to fit it.

It’s like the New Testament’s use of the term righteousness, which is likewise a pretty complicated idea.  Kittel’s Theological Dictionary of the New Testament goes on for over 50 pages about what this word means in scripture.  I think my son would describe that fact as bogus. 

Nevertheless, here’s the basic idea.  It refers to relationship, the relationship between humans and God, and the conduct that follows from such a relationship.  In the Old Testament, it is defined by the law.  In the New Testament, it is defined by the grace offered to humanity in Christ.  It is about the term of relationship, a covenant if you will.

That’s the sense in which righteousness is used in the epistle and gospel for this Sunday.  “No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness.”  (Rom. 6:13)  The issue is how to live out a relationship with God, to align with God’s purposes in the relationship, the relationship with ourselves and with the world.

It is likewise in the gospel.  “Whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous.”  (Rom. 10:41)  In other words, our relationships with each other reflect the status of our relationship with God.

Bogus to my son is also a relational word.  What he was trying to express about my plan toward encouraging responsibility and self-sufficiency is that he didn’t like what he thought (incorrectly, by the way) it was saying about the relationship.  Bogus is to break, or perhaps to change, a relationship.

Here’s what the theological term righteous means.  It means the opposite of bogus.

Peace,