I have a question about irony

Dale · November 2, 2019, 2:07am

Here is the irony easter egg, not hard to find below the middle of p.3, for those of you who haven’t looked:

I do not think I could be convinced that 1 John 5:3 was intended to be ironic: “… this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome.” “And his commands are not burdensome” sounds more than a little like the “Be careful not to carry a load on the Sabbath day or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem” of Jeremiah 17:22. “Through the gates of Jerusalem” sounds more than a little like it includes commerce (cf. Nehemiah 13:15-22). Intended irony? I think not, and the commandment still stands. It stands as, among other things, an enduring metaphor of for grace and justification by faith: “…to the man who does not work but trusts God…” Rom. 4:5. The correlation between Jeremiah and 1 John is not just an academic and technical typology – it speaks to Father’s heart on the question. The argument is not hurt any by the presence of another well-known verse in Jeremiah 17. And we like monuments with all of the Ten Commandments on them. There is irony there.