Greek
Words and Concepts
Grace - Faith, Hope, Peace
Love
Spiritual Growth - Advancing after Salvation
Works Vs Divine Good Production
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Grace - Faith, Hope, Peace
Charis
- Grace
Charis
means grace - to give without strings. Technically, it is used to
represent the entire plan of God for mankind. The word
represents "all that God can do for humans because of the
Work of Jesus Christ on the cross". We do not earn it or deserve
it. It is given to us freely . . . as a gift without strings. It is
given to all of those who freely choose FOR God. He calls to all of
us, "Come to me." Those who say "Yes" receive His
grace and are in His Plan of Grace. We do not earn it or deserve it.
It is a gift of God.
Pistis
- faith/"that which is believed" (doctrine)
Pistis
means faith. From the "Dead Sea Scrolls" discovered in the
1940's, scholars learned that pistis was had a passive use - 'that in
which we believe' or doctrine.
The Bible says "as a man thinks in his heart, so he is." That could also be said as, "what you think is what you are." Faith and "that which we believe" are very close concepts.
"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was made Flesh". Jesus Christ IS the Word of God. His Thinking is pure Divine Viewpoint. His "Way of Life" was Divine Viewpoint applied to experience." We need to imitate Him. We need to study His viewpoint and grow in the grace and KNOWLEDGE of Jesus Christ.
That
means that the 'Hearing of doctrine/faith' in the Greek more
accurately means the whole process of:
1) Hearing the "call" of God. He desires that ALL be saved and
grow in spiritual maturity. Those who say YES become family
of God.
2) Being positive to listen to the gospel/"good news" teaching.
3) And, next having positive volition and accept what was
taught was Truth.
4) Having heard and accepted the gospel as Truth, accepting
by faith Jesus Christ as your savior. And, this is the point the
Galatians were at when Paul left them. They had heard the Word
of the coming of Jesus and believed. At that time they would have
been filled with God the Holy Spirit (see also Acts
19).
5) That process moves one into the Church Age and gives them the
opportunity to not only be Family of God, but now be Royal Family
of God ("To whom much is given, much is expected"). We must
STUDY to learn how to Walk in the MORE Excellent Way
demonstrated by Jesus Christ. That means that we must take our
same faith in God and His Son . . . and now apply it to the
"Mind of
Christ" - the Bible. We must have the willingness to replace our
own norms and standards in our soul with those of Jesus Christ.
Paul was asking the Galatians in Galatians 3:2:, did they receive the filling the Holy Spirit through the Mosaic Law or when they put their faith in Christ? The obvious answer is "faith in Christ". This is no where better expressed in the Bible than Acts 19. The followers of John the Baptist had not received the Baptism of God the Holy Spirit until they heard about Jesus Christ having come. They believed and were filled with the Spirit.
Here, the Galatians may not have even heard of the Mosaic Law until after Paul left. Paul taught the gospel of Christ and Church Age Bible Doctrine - the Grace Plan of God. Apparently, later the legalistic Jews followed behind Paul to 'straighten out' Paul's teaching. They said the gentiles had to be circumcised to be saved, could not eat pork, keep the Sabbath, on and on.
Elpis
- Hope/"Absolute Confidence"
Elpis
means "hope" to the unbelieving world. Once you understand (Hebrews
11:1) that "Doctrine is reality", then you come to
understand that God and His promises coming true is what is real.
Once a person becomes a mature believer, "elpis" no longer
means "hope". It means "absolute confidence" in
God and His Promises. See Romans 5:4 and
following for more.]
Eirene
- peace/prosperity/"Inner peace"
Eirene
means prosperity, benefit, welfare, and tranquility. In the
technical sense, it means "inner happiness" - the benefit
of grace.
But
there are a number of types of peace. The main Biblical use of
"peace" is that a "peace" is now possible between
a perfect God and His creatures who choose from their "own free
will" to became imperfect (starting with Adam and the Woman in
the Garden). So, this type of "peace" was the peace that
was "bought" by Jesus Christ on the cross.
The
second type of "peace" is sharing the inner peace of God.
This is the type of peace that God always has had and always will
have. He never changes (He is immutable). Two of the benefits of
becoming a spiritually mature believer are sharing His inner peace
and His inner happiness.
The
third type of "peace" is between peoples and nations.
There is a time for peace and a time for war. Both are part of God's
perfect plan of Grace. And His timing is perfect. Wars and rummors of
wars will be with us until the Second Advent of Christ. Until then,
"peace on Earth" is a time believers should use to rebuild
their society and prepare for the next war that WILL come.]
Love
Agape
- Impersonal Love
In
the Greek there are two words that are unfortunately each translated
"love" in the New Testament. There are probably many
"shades" of meaning within each word. But, in general,
agape is a fantastic concept that Paul covers extensively (I
Corinthians 13:4-7). It is an impersonal type of love. It is the
type that says I am going to be free of mental attitude sins (lust,
envy, gossip, hatred, etc.) toward my neighbors (people in my
periphery) based on the doctrine/faith in my own soul. It is based on
the strength of the character of the person doing the loving - with
NO basis on the characteristics of the object of the impersonal love.
When Jesus was asked what is the greatest commandment (Matthew 22:37-39), He said to love God (using "agape" in an unusual form for "Divine Love") . . . He then went on to say the second commandment is like it. We are commanded to "agape love your neighbor as yourself". Finally, he said ALL the other laws are based on these two! If you follow these two commandments, following the others will just happen!
Paul explains that our "Walking in the Way of Jesus Christ" is "powered" by means of agape love (Galatians 5:6 and 14). On God's side, He sent believers in union with His Son, His Spirit beginning on the first Pentecost after the cross. God the Holy Spirit is our teacher when we are in fellowship. On the believer's side, we are to learn and apply Jesus' thinking to our Way of Life. Jesus said primarily - Love God first. Second, love those around you as you love yourself! All else is anchored by these two commandments.
Phileo
- Personal Love
In
the Greek there are two words that are unfortunately each translated
"love" in the New Testament. There are probably many
"shades" of meaning within each word. But, in general,
phileo is the personal type of love. It is based on the strength of
the characteristics of the object of the personal love. Only if the
object is perfect, can phileo be applied 100% of the time. So, we can
"love" God all the time using Phileo Love. For example, we
love a woman as Christ loved the Church (we are willing to die for
her!). We marry her and apply phileo love toward her. We grow to that
close, personal love relationship for everything our wife is. Then
she proves she is human and fails us one way or the other. We are
crushed (in reverse, her knight falls off his horse and she is crushed).
Time to get a divorce and try again? No! Switch to impersonal love and love her based on who and what you are. Give her time to confess her sin to God and recover. Put her failure out of your thoughts and remember that you also fail all the time. Keep applying agape impersonal love and forgive as God forgave her. Eventually, phileo personal love will return. So, in a marriage, the partners need to remember to switch to agape love when the lifemate of their free will choice proves to be human.
But instead of switching to agape love, the person not Walking "in/with Christ" (applying Jesus' doctrinal teaching to their way of life) keeps bringing up the failure over and over. They somehow act like they are greater than God and can not forgive. They judge, malign, gossip, and retaliate. They eventually turn their close, phileo love to hatred. [Sidenote: all this time they are "sinning" they are out of fellowship and it is a primary reason God does not "hear" their prayers (I Peter 3:7)].
Ginosko
- "To
know perfectly and still love"
In
the Greek, ginosko means to "know". The Greeks used it as
an idiom meaning to know someone very well and still to love them. It
was used that way in I Corinthians 8:3,
I John 2:13 and John
8:19. When it is used of God, ginosko is usually perfect and
past tense. This means that He always has known all the good and bad
about us, but He has loved us in the past with the result that He
will love us always. He actually "loves" the Divine
Righteousness that is imputed in us at the point of salvation. And,
once imputed, it is there permanently. So perfect God can "love
perfectly" His own Divine Righteousness.
Spiritual Growth - Advancing after Salvation
Dikaiosune
- "the process of becoming righteous"
Dikaiosune
means more than righteousness. The "sune" suffix means
that it is a "process". It describes in one word
"Walking in the More Excellent Way of Jesus Christ". It is
the process of becoming a believer, taking in simple doctrine and
building a foundation in the soul. Then adding more complex thought
on top of the simple and up comes the structure in your soul.
Finally, it means building an "edification complex in your soul.
That is the 'total fulfillment of your spiritual maturity'. Jesus
Christ was the only human to "complete" His ECS. Our race
is to the end of our lives. His Maturity level is the top of the
hill. Our race is up hill to reach His level. All will fall short,
but it is the "process" that is important. We take in His
Thinking and apply it to our lives. That is Jesus' Thinking working
through His Body.
There are at least three "medals" offered for faithful service (in the day the bible was written "crowns" were given winners as medals). Discover your spiritual gift. Stay in fellowship (I John 1:9). Grow in grace (spiritual maturity). Exercise your gift the best you can. Let God decide if you are to be rewarded with a medal.
There also is mentioned a "uniform of Glory" at Revelation 3:4-5. This seems to be like our "medal of honor". Again, no use to worry about it. Let God give what is His to those He chooses!
Works Vs Divine Good Production
Ergon
- means "works" or "Divine Good Production".
Ergon
is the Greek word that means "works. In Galatians
5:18 and following, we learn that when anything is done under
the lusts of the flesh (using human viewpoint thinking) it is called
"works" (and only creates human righteousness which brings
no glory to God). (See also I
Corinthians 3:13.)
When a believer in Christ in the Church Age has used I John 1:9 and is in fellowship, he is filled with God the Holy Spirit (just as it was with Jesus Himself in His 1st Incarnation). God the Holy Spirit is our Paraclete or Helper/Teacher. As we learn Divine Viewpoint by studying the Word, He makes it clear to us what is Divine Viewpoint. When we replace our human norms and standards in the soul with Jesus' Divine norms and standards and apply them to our lives, we are "living Christ". It is His Thinking we are applying in our lives. It is His Thinking and He receives the credit or glory. He has produced Divine Righteousnesses through us. In this case, ergon should translated "Divine Good Production" so it is not confused with "human works". Only Someone Divine can produce anything that is Divine!
Current Day Example: Say you are in your new car just cruising along at 55 MPH and you are pulled over and given a ticket. The policeman says, "There are no posted speeds. It is what I say it is." That was the condition of mankind before the Law was given to Israel (primarily to Moses so let us call it the "Mosaic Law"). God said to mankind you have been violating my laws "without the speed limit being posted".
Once the Law was given, the people knew what the "speed limit was". It was mostly "don't do this and don't do that." So by staying "mostly" below the speed limit, the number of violations was lowered. And, God gave them a "traffic school" of sorts to remove the "points from their record". Their traffic school was to go to a priest and follow the ritual of making a sacrifice to God.
This process temporarily put the believer back in fellowship with God, but, was there any glory to God in any of this process? None that God mentions in the scriptures that I can find!
At the right time (God's timing is perfect), Jesus was brought into the World. He worked with his hands and made His own vehicle (His Way of traveling through life was unique). Its maximum speed was 45 MPH! He never violated the Law even once! But "his unusual method" of traveling through life sure upset a lot of "habitual speeders"! They honked at Him and stuck out their tongue and shook it at Him (we use the middle finger, they used the tongue). They yelled at Him to get out of their way! Things were moving quite nicely as they were (in their opinion, not God's!). He was just in the way! (which was true, but they did not know it!)
Now the "speed limit signs" (The Mosaic Law) emphasized "Don't do this and don't do that." The doctrine of Jesus, in contrast, says "Do this and do that - in My Name."
Paul
says to imitate him (Paul) . . . as he imitates Jesus. If you adopt
Jesus' Way, though the Law is still there, it is unnecessary. You
will not approach "speeding". And, you will be replacing
your ideas of how to live with Jesus' norms and standards. When you
"do things" . . .
in
fellowship . . . applying His Thinking to your experience . . .
HE
receives all the glory (it is His thinking after all).
But, He is Omniscient. He knows you will NOT "follow Him" perfectly. You will speed. So, He has given you a BETTER traffic school. It is a "self-study course"! You do not have to go anywhere and see anyone else! YOU are your own priest! You confess your sin directly to God - through your High Priest (Jesus Christ) - and your transmission is forgiven (sorry, could not resist - "transgression" :-).
What types of things are considered "speeding" by God? Read the Old Testament (or see a summary at Galatians 5:19-21 ). What "things" constitute "Traveling/Walking as Jesus Traveled/Walked?"
That hinges on two commandments: Love your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. Second, love "your neighbor" (those around you) as you love yourself (Matthew 22:37-39).
Paul also periodically gives us "categories" of thoughts and overt activities that bring glory to God and His Son. At Galatians 5:22-23 Paul lists the "fruit" or "profit" from imitating Jesus and "Walking by means of God the Holy Spirit" (which is how Jesus operated under His 1st Incarnation - His Deity agreed to not use His Personal Powers so that Jesus could be our prototype. We know this because Satan tried to get Jesus to use His own deity in the temptations in the desert - see Matthew 4:3).
Now anything that God produces is Divine. If you allow Jesus to produce divine good through you, He receives the glory. But, He allows you to keep for eternity future the "gold, silver, and precious metals" produced through you (I Corinthians 3:12).
But, in contrast, nothing a "created" can produce is divine. God says that in His opinion, "your righteousnesses (righteous production in view now) are as a filthy garment (Isaiah 64:6 - when "unclean"/"out of fellowship" all production is "human" and "less than Divine"). This is the "wood, hay and stubble" of I Corinthians 3:12 that will be burned away and will not go into eternity future with the believer.
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