July 18, 2013
John 1:1 — In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Are you a lover of words? I am. In fact I am fiercely protective of words and their meaning (and sometimes even the spelling, because changing the spelling could cause someone to connect a word to a mistaken derivation!). Change the meaning of a word and you can change morality. That, of course, was the meaning of George Orwell’s analysis of “newspeak” in his novel 1984. Control language and you control thought. Control thought and you control morality. So, corrupt language, and you corrupt morality. But enough of my soapbox…
What is really on my mind today is the thought of wonderful, simple, impossible ancient words of the Bible. There are words that Myra and I talk about sometimes, and that I meditate upon — and that I find are incapable of final definition! Try some of these.
Love. How many times have you heard a scholarly teacher or preacher explain about the different Greek words for love? Or how many times have you heard the text, “greater love hath no man than this…”? But do you really understand love? Where does it come from? Where (sadly) does it sometimes go? How can God love me … what does that mean?
Grace. I know you’ve heard the definitions: “unmerited favor from God to man”, “a state of holiness created in man by divine grace” (yes that one’s a circular definition) … and there are many others. The definitions of Biblical interest really come down to a statement of a relationship between God and man. But the closest I can get to understanding it is that it’s God being kind to me because He wants to be, and needs no other reason.
Glory. God’s glory. That’s one Myra asked me about the other day. Complicated — God revealing Himself to us, us giving God the honor He is due, and that mysterious wonder called the Shekinah. The Shekinah, the dwelling glory of God. The white blazing fire of God.
Holy: 1 Peter 1:15-16 tells us “Like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’ ”. On the one hand, the idea of holiness is simple — be set aside, reserved for God. On the other hand, how do I do that? Moral purity is obviously part of holiness, but it’s purity with a special motivation…
Words, ancient words — so simple on the surface, but with so many layers. Words from The Word, the Logos. John’s gospel connects Logos to God. John is in the mainstream of Greek thought, which you find out if you love and study … the ancient words of scripture.
I’m just scratching the surface of a passion here — I love the words of the Word. Please fall in love!