'and the Lord's bondservant must
1. not strive but
2. be kind to all
3. able to teach
4. patient when wronged
5. with gentleness
6. correcting those who are in opposition (to) ..the truth..
i live in a fallen world where it seems that truth is hated and lies abound. i have a choice. do i flow downstream with the lies that surround me or do i continually, painfully 'row' upstream against them, first by living truth in my own life and then by encouraging others to do so too? most people seem to have chosen the broad (easy) way. it seems that few have chosen to even attempt to 'row' against lies. have any but Jesus of nazareth done it consistently in every situation? if so, i would think that their number would have to be extremely small for i have never met one..i have read of some who seemed to but how can one examine any one life through the pages of a book...or in person for that matter?
Jesus said, 'STRIVE (agonidzO, the greek word we get our word, agonize, from)...so Jesus said, 'AGONIZE to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able'. (luke
agonize - to suffer extreme anguish or pain; to put forth great effort
13.24) if i even attempt to correct and destroy a lie in my own, usually unseen by the human eye, life, i find agony, it is crucifixion of self. if i attempt to correct a lie in someone else's life, i find it is agony, it is crucifixion of self. so far i am finding that the former calls for a genuine asking of the Lord that He would reveal my true heart wickedness.. in every area of my life, inside and out, by wrestling in prayer over what He reveals until a genuine heart change is experienced. it sometimes seems an interminably long, painful and, at times, horrible reality.
how do i go about the latter? to do it properly i read here 6 things i must do/be. only God can produce these genuinely in the human heart. only by seriously seeking for His illumination, His repeated forgiveness and restoration of my soul when again and again i swoon, near death and Destruction because of my grievous sins, in the end experiencing the miraculous transforming power of His grace as He mysteriously moves me to hunger and thirst for His righteousness..in me..and through me...for how can i help another to a place i've never been myself. if i ever do/be the following six things it will be the grace of God...oh may this be my consciousness at any given moment that i am what i am by the grace of God alone.
1. i must NEVER strive... WAR or battle another WITH my WORDS. every word i speak must be employed to the end that there will be a change of mind and heart with the result that the lie is replaced with the truth. words must be sparsely employed. on the other hand,as with any change from lie to truth within my own life, many secret words to God must be said.
2. i must always BE KIND. some time ago, when i looked at this word as it occurs in I corinthians 13, trying to understand better what love is all about i came up with the idea that kindness is 'being helpful, making oneself useful to someone'. this time i looked at it a bit more and what once seemed possible to do now became absolutely undoable. isn't that so true? i am trying to live the life of God in my own power! impossible. His law only shows me that it is impossible for me to do. all this doing/being stuff must be done by Christ doing/being through me..is that not right? (how exactly does that happen, i wonder, and pray and wait...) so here are the results of my word study this morning of 'kind'. as i read and thought about the meanings i felt on the one hand that i couldn't do them, but on the other hand i recognized Christ shining in them, Jesus as i may be beginning to know Him. i list what the dictionary says about 'kind' below..its etymology, its synonyms.
to be kind is to be
*FAVORABLE - kind, propitious,friendly, affectionate;palliative, tender, averse to censure; conducive to,contributing to, tending to promote (in this context)... 'love'?
a. PROPITIOUS - is disposed to be gracious, merciful; ready to forgive sins and bestow blessings..i'm not at all like this but i know someone who is.
b. FRIEND - is on good terms with another
c. AFFECTIONATE - has a bent of heart towards; desire toward
(affect- from latin ad (to come near, approach) + facio (to make); to act upon; move to passion; tend to by natural affinity/disposition; love or regard with fondness
-FOND (OF)- (chaucer, fonne- a fool; scottish, fon- to play the fool; irish, fonn- delight, desire, a longing which signifies, to diminish, impair mental powers, make foolish, make destitute of reason) much pleased; loving ardently; relishing highly
d. PALLIATIVE - acts as a cloak for, cover with excuse; serves to extenuate negatives (make thin, lean; lessen) by excuses or favorable representation; mitigating (lessen in force, intensity), alleviating (relieve, assuage) bad
e. TENDER - soft, delicate in texture or consistence, easily injured; yielding easily to force or pressure; fragile; easily broken, divided, compressed or injured; frail, thin, fine, slender;of weak or delicate; characterized by, exhibiting or expressing delicacy of feeling or susceptibility to the gentle emotions; constitution.
f. AVERSE TO CENSURE - does not like to pass judgment on, criticize or condemn another person
g. CONDUCIVE TO.......LOVE?
*.ATTRACTIVE - draw to by moral influence
3. i must know the bible experimentally. that is, i must not only be very familiar with its contents, but be intimately connected with its author, not only carrying everything in my life to Him and being reluctant to leave His word, but consecrated to showing my love to Him by keeping His commandments and ready to share Him wherever, whenever....in other words i must have come to be APT TO TEACH.
4. i must be PATIENT WHEN WRONGED. the word here is aneksikakon. moulton has 'bearing evil without resentment'.; strong has 'enduring evil'; liddell lists its classical cognates: the word- 'enduring pain', its verb- 'to be long suffering', its noun- 'forbearance'; lenski renders it here, 'putting up with what is bad'.
5. i must correct with GENTLENESS, praotAs.
trench, in his 'synonyms of the new testament' has a section where he speaks of this word and its synonym, epiAkAe in which he writes,
'tapAvophrosUnA (tap) (note: this word literally means 'lowly + mind', the word for 'humility' in the new testament) and epiAkAa (ep) (note: this article is mostly about this word and perspective is further gained as to word meaning by comparing it with tap and pra), though joined together by clement of rome, are in their meanings too far apart to be fit subjects of synonymous discrimination; but praotAs (pra) (note: this is the word translated 'gentleness'. this is a bit linguistically deep but i think its excellencies are such that, even if a few are gotten, can significantly help us understand just with what spirit we are to correct a person who is in need of truth), which stands between, holds on to both. the attempt has just been made to seize its points of contact with tap. without going over this ground anew, we may consider the relations to ep in which it stands.
the mere existence of such a word as ep is itself a signal evidence of the high development of ethics among the greeks. (no latin word exactly and adequately renders it; 'clementia' sets forth one side of it, 'aequitas' another, and perhaps 'modestia'
(by which the vulgate translates it, Ii corinthians 10.1) a third; but the word is wanting which should set forth all these excellencies reconciled in a single and a higher one.)
it expresses exactly that moderation which recognizes the impossibility cleaving to all formal law, of anticipating and providing for all cases that will emerge, and present themselves to it for decision; which, with this, recognizes the danger that ever waits upon the assertion of legal rights, lest they should be pushed into moral wrongs, lest the 'summum jus' should in practice prove the 'summa injuria'' which, therefore, urges not its own right to the uttermost, but, going back in part or in the whole from these, rectifies and redresses the injustices of justice. it is thus more truly just than strict justice would have been...aristotle....sets the akribodikIos, the man who stands up for the last tittle of his leagal rights, over against the ep...this aspect of EP, namely that it IS A GOING BACK FROM THE LETTER OF RIGHT FOR THE BETTER PRESERVING OF THE SPIRIT, must never be lost sight of.
THE ARCHETYPE AND PATTERN OF THIS GRACE IS FOUND IN GOD. all His goings back from the strictness of his rights as against men; all his allowance of their imperfect righeousness, and giving of a value to that which, rigorously estimated, would have none; ALL HIS REFUSALS TO EXACT EXTREMENPENALTIES (psalm 85.5) ALL HIS KEEPING IN MIND WHEREOF WE ARE MADE, AND MEASURING HIS DEALINGS WITH US THEREBY; all of these we may contemplate as ep upon His part; even as they demand in return the same, one toward another, upon ours. peter, when himself restored, must strengthen his brethren (luke 22.32). the greatly forgiven servant in the parable (matthew 28.23), having known the ep of his lord and king, is justly expected to shew the same to his fellow servant. the word is often joined with phlanthrOpia..AmerotAs..aveksikakia and often with praotAs...
the distinction between pra and ep...aquinas too has a fine and subtle discussion on the relations of likeness and difference between the graces which these words severally denote..among other marks of difference he especially presses these two: the first that in 'clementia' (=ep) there is always the condescension of the superior to an inferior, while in 'mansuetudo' (pra) nothing of the kind is necessarily implied...and the second, that which has been already urtged, that the one grace is more passive, the other more active, or at least that the seat of the pra is in the inner spirit, while the ep must needs embody itself in outward acts.
it is instructive to note how little of one mind our various translators from wiclif downward have been as to the words which should best reproduce epiAkAa and epiAkAs for the english reader...the first has been rendered in all these ways:
meekness, courtesy, clemency, softeness, modesty, gentleness, patience, patient mind, moderation.
the second has been rendered:
temperate, soft, gentle, modest, patient, mild, courteous.
'gentle' and 'gentleness', on the whole, commend themselves as the best; but the fact remains, which also in a reat measure excuses so much vacillation here, namely, that we have no words in english which are full equivalents of the greek. the sense of equity and fairness which is in them so strong is more or less wanting in all which we offer in exchange.
6. finally, i must CORRECT every person (?!) who in any way (?!!) is living contrary to Truth. (if this is not true, who among all the ones who constantly in one way or another are living contrary to Truth do i correct and who do i say nothing to?
the word here is pIdeUO. lenski renders this EDUCATE. pIs- child; the verbal ending -eUO denotes a state. the verb then literally means 'to be together with a child" ...if i relate to truth breakers in this way the Lord may grant them a change of mind that leads to the doing of truth.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment