CalebInFloroda,
Thank you for your interest in my post. Isn't Biblical Exegesis one hell of a slippery proposition!? Had the Apostle Paul been a Stoic philosopher writing to Stoics, I might be able to accept your interpretation. Marcus Aurelius explains what you have written about in his MEDITATIONS and I do realize that what you have said about the lack of distinction between 'nature' and the 'natural, social order of things' was indeed the viewpoint of first century Hellenistic and Greek thought. No doubt, the Apostle Paul was familiar with Stoic thought and may even have been trained in dialectics, argumentation and logic. However, he was still of Jewish descent and was 'Christian' in his thought processes. Please see the following meaning of PHUSIS: http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/kjv/phusis.html