Jesus – Page 3 – God Breathed Words

Posted on February 17, 2021 by christianwordsblog

DISCIPLE

… any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:33)

The word translated ‘disciple’ is μαθητής mathétés and it means one who subjects themselves to mental effort or rigour; mathematics, clearly a subject that demands much intellectual application, derives from the same root, mathema, which is literally ‘that which is learnt’.

A disciple, then, is different to a ‘follower’. During his ministry, large numbers of people followed Jesus from town to town and mountainside to lakeside, but only a handful transitioned into discipleship, why was this? Because few were willing to make the necessary effort or to pay the extreme cost of worldly renunciation. Jesus outlines by this first employing plain language:

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, ‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple …’ (ibid 14:25-26)

Posted on January 7, 2021January 7, 2021 by christianwordsblog

ANGER

‘In your anger do not sin’: do not let the sun go down while you are still angry,and do not give the devil a foothold. (Ephesians 4:26-27 NIV)

Many deem anger to be a sin, so to what does Paul elude here? Actually, he quotes from the Septuagint:

Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness!
    You have given me relief when I was in distress.
    Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!
O men, how long shall my honour be turned into shame?
    How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah
But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself;
    the Lord hears when I call to him.
Be angry, and do not sin;
    ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. (Psalm 4:1-4)

David is crying out to God but also pleading with his enemies (possibly rhetorically). He is asking them to bear their anger and not act upon it. And it is this that Paul reiterates to the man and woman now set apart in Christ to deal differently with anger, knowing full well that any opposition, prejudice or persecution will provoke anger.

Posted on January 5, 2021July 17, 2023 by christianwordsblog

GOSPEL (of Christ)

…If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

(Galatians 1:9)

Taken from the Anglo Saxon godes spell, ‘good words or speech’ the English language derives the word ‘gospel’. The Greek word translated ‘gospel’ is εὐαγγελίζεται euangelizetai, stands for the act of good speaking, literally communicating a good message. And for Paul, the message was sacrosanct and if any choose to deliver a different ‘gospel’, one did so at your eternal peril.

Twice Paul offers this imprecation at the beginning of Galatians. To Paul it was a serious matter to understand and communicate the gospel without deviation or corruption.

Posted on January 1, 2021February 15, 2022 by christianwordsblog

DWELL (Tabernacle)

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God’. (Revelation 21:3)

John the Apostle receives a vision:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. (ibid 21:1-2)

In this new earth, God will dwell with his people. The word ‘dwell’ translates a Greek verb σκηνόω skénoó, which literally means to camp, to live in a tent and in some versions is ‘to tabernacle’, referencing the Holy Tent in which God dwelt with his people Israel in Sinai.

Posted on December 18, 2020December 18, 2020 by christianwordsblog

(The Promise of) VICTORY

To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. (Revelation 3:21)

In the Bible book that contains John’s apocalypse, Jesus reveals to his disciple an assessment of the seven churches; which, in the apocalyptic symbolism where the number seven represents completeness, is the assessment of the church in its totality. It is a sobering read because the body of believers is clearly beset. That it is persecuted should come as no surprise, but what is shocking (or should be) is the parlous internal conflict.

Posted on December 10, 2020May 30, 2023 by christianwordsblog

ORACLE

Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. (Romans 3:1-2)

Oracles are divine utterances, λόγιον logion. Paul is of course speaking about all Scripture, which was for him the Tanakh, the Law, Prophets and Writings, latterly called The Old Testament.

An oracle is prophesy, as seen in the Hebrew:

Posted on November 9, 2020November 10, 2020 by christianwordsblog

Mind (of God)

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:14-16)

The Greek word for ‘mind’ is νοῦς nous, which is a loan word, ‘nouse’, in English, colloquially meaning ‘know-how’ or ‘common sense’; this is close to the Biblical sense of νοῦς, being ‘understanding’ and referring more to faculty of reason than the other Greek word for mind, ψυχή, psyche, which is more the containment or vessel of that faculty, and thus is understood to represent the soul.

Broadly speaking human knowledge of God can be said to be threefold in nature, innate, informed or inspired. The Bible shows that we may inherently know of God’s existence, need testimony as to His character, but knowledge of God’s mind, our Godly ‘nouse’, falls into last category, that of revelation.

Posted on November 5, 2020November 5, 2020 by christianwordsblog · 2 Comments

Subject (to governing authorities)

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgement. (Romans 13:1-2)

The word translated ‘subject’ is ὑποτάσσω hypotassó from hypo, ‘under’ and tasso ‘arrange; thus, under (God’s) arrangements. Paul is unequivocally saying that God institutes earthly governance and all governments must be respected by God’s people. Within ten years after this letter to the Roman church was written, the Emperor Nero unjustly blamed Christians for having starting a fire that devastated some two thirds of Rome. One of the emperor’s capricious punishments was to position Christians on poles and set them alight, as so called ‘Nero’s torches’.

Posted on November 1, 2020 by christianwordsblog · 1 Comment

Marriage (Rites)

And Pharisees came up to (Jesus) and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” (Matthew 19:3-6)

The Pharisees want to trip up Jesus regarding divorce; Jesus counters by reaffirming marriage as a sacred union and one that should not be sundered by any person. Jesus quotes from the ‘commentary’ in Genesis (2:24) and the Greek Matthew employs translated ‘join’ is the verb κολλάω kollaó, derived from kolla which means ‘glue’. Marriage is solemn and life-long commitment in the eyes of God.

Posted on September 12, 2020September 12, 2020 by christianwordsblog

Mother(hood)

The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. (Genesis 3:20)

When God created Adam and then for him a helpmeet, the woman, they were under no immediate obligation to procreate. They were perfect in every way and there was no disease. Adam and the woman would represent humanity and be undying.

Eternal beings are then created and nowhere in the Bible do the angels procreate; rather they are brought into being as celestial host and endure.