Author Archives: Kate

Nothing But Work Work Work!

02 Monday Oct 2023

Posted by in Studies, Whole Armor of God

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Image by su mx from Pixabay

Hello Readers!  Welcome to a new week and a new post on Renaissance Woman!

In last week’s post, I started looking at the Breastplate of Righteousness.  That post contained a series of scriptures one of which was John 6:29: “Then Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent’.”

While conducting the study and writing last week’s post, I had also started reading Frances Ridley Havergal’s Kept For The Master’s Use.  I had no sooner scheduled last week’s post then I read, “What a long time it takes us to come down to the conviction, and still more to the realization of the fact that without Him we can do nothing, but that He must work all our works in us!  This is the work of God, that ye believe in Him whom He has sent.  And no less must it be the work of God that we go on believing, and that we go on trusting.  Then, dear friends, who are longing to trust Him with unbroken and unwavering trust, cease the effort and drop the burden, and now entrust your trust to Him!”

I wondered if I shouldn’t add this quote to last week’s post but, since I do try to keep these posts from growing too long, I decided to wait until this week.  As so, I am still looking at the Breastplate of Righteousness but am asking this week, just what do we think the Bible is saying when it speaks of ‘works’?  Reading John 6:29 it does appear that Jesus is saying our doing the work of God means believing.  I also quoted Genesis 15:6 last week which says, “And he (Abram) believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness”.  This scripture also appears to be saying Abram (or Abraham as he was named by God) did something-He believed-and it was his believing that was accounted unto Him as righteousness.

There are passages in Revelation that stress the importance of our committing righteous acts.  Revelation 19:8 says, “And to her (the wife of the Lamb) is was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”  Revelation 20:12 says, “And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened.  And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life.  And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.”  James 2:26 does appear to be the final word on the necessity of Christians performing works for it says, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” Strong words!

But then, there are other passages of scripture that seem to be saying something contradictory.  There’s Romans 3:21-28: “But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe.  For there is no difference: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.  Where is boasting then?  It is excluded.  By what law?  Of works?  No, but by the law of faith.  Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.”

Paul writes in his Epistle to the Ephesians “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9).  The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews has this to say about works: “For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His” (Heb. 4:10).

To work or not to work, which is it?  Perhaps it’s the type of works.  Galatians 2:16 says, “knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.”  Here, as in the passage I quoted from Romans, it is works (or deeds) of the law that are the problem.  We Christians don’t do works of the law: our works are keeping His commandments to prove we love Jesus, have faith in Him, and believe He is the son of God.

But then I run into another problem: is belief enough?  Going back to James’ letter: in the midst of his passage on faith and works, I find; “You believe that there is one God.  You do well.  Even the demons believe-and tremble!” So even our belief in God isn’t enough.  We have to believe in Jesus and prove we believe in Him by doing works.  That this is what is believed by a great number of Christians was brought home to me as I was listening to a Christian radio station and a well-known believer said it didn’t matter how long the lifespan; what mattered is what we did for Jesus during that lifespan.  Is this the truth?  Is that what matters?  Is it the sheer number of our works that equate to righteousness?  Is it the type of our works that equate to righteousness?

I would say none of the above.  I would say it is the source of our works that reveal the righteousness of Christ in us.  Are we working to prove the life of Christ resides in us or do our works flow out of His life within us?  As I return to John 6:29, I find a little Greek word that is often overlooked.  That word is tou and it means “of this person: his”.  It is the word chosen to relate Jesus’ words to us: “…this is the work of God”.  How do we read this?  Are we reading it as we are the ones doing God’s work or should it be read as His work as in “this is the work God does”?

I believe the latter.  I believe it because of scriptures like Hebrews 4:10.  I believe it because, when I continue on from Ephesians 2 verse 9, I read; “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (verse 10).  I believe it because we are crucified with Christ and it is no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us.  Every work then flows out of His life and, like our Forerunner, we do only what we see the Father doing.  The righteous acts with which we are clothed are only righteous if they flow out if His life and are energized by His Spirit.  Anything else is the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

This is too massive a subject to be covered in one or two posts so I plan to pick this up next week.  Until then, I leave you with another quote from Kept For The Master’s Use: “If we look at any Old Testament text about consecration, we shall see that the marginal reading of the word is ‘fill the hand’ (e.g. Ex. xxviii 41; 1 Chron. xxix 5).  Now, if our hands are full of ‘other things’ they cannot be filled with ‘the things that are Jesus Christ’s’. There must emptying before there can be any true filling.  So if we are sorrowfully seeing that our hands have not been kept for Jesus, let us humbly begin at the beginning, and ask Him to empty them thoroughly, that He may fill them completely.”

To which I say “Amen!”

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

Green, Jay P. Sr., The Interlinear Bible: Hebrew Greek English, Volume 4, Authors For Christ, Inc., Lafayette, IN, 1976, 1985

Havergal, Frances Ridley, Kept For The Master’s Use, Scriptura Press, New York, New York, 2015

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville Tennessee, 1990

A Straight Path

25 Monday Sep 2023

Posted by in Studies, Whole Armor of God

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Hello Readers and welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman!

I am continuing my study on the Whole Armor of God and the passage of scripture I am using is Ephesians 6:10-18a.  We are to put on and take up the Whole Armor of God so that we might be able to stand against the wiles of the devil and withstand in the evil day.  I want to spend some time studying “the wiles of the devil” and “the evil day” but, first, am going to look at the Armor piece by piece.  While “girding your waist with truth” is mentioned first, I have not been able to draw my attention away from the Breastplate of Righteousness.  The word ‘righteousness’ has been echoing in my mind for weeks now.  It is a fascinating word and is the subject of this week’s post.

What do we mean when we use the word ‘righteousness’?  An online search resulted in this definition for righteous: “1. (of a person or conduct) morally right or justifiable; virtuous; 2. very good, excellent.”  My New World Dictionary agrees, defining righteous as: “1. Acting in a just, upright manner; doing what is right; virtuous [a righteous man] 2. morally right; fair and just [a righteous act] 2. morally justifiable [full of righteous anger], 4. [Slang] good, excellent, satisfying, pleasant, authentic, etc.; a generalized term of approval.”

I can’t disagree with anything here.  My personal definition of righteousness has been those things pertaining to acts or conduct which would lead to approval.  Specific to Believers, we are “righteous” if we do the Will of God and keep His commandments: doing the right things lead to His approval of us.  This belief appears to be rooted in the Bible because Revelation 19:8 speaks of the wife of the Lamb clothed in fine linen which is the righteous acts of the saints.  One of the most quoted scriptures on righteousness is Genesis 15:6: “And he (Abram) believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.”  I don’t know that any believer would say Abram or Abraham as he became, possessed righteousness but he did something-he believed-and his act of believing was credited to him as righteousness thus indicating God’s approval. 

Our belief being a work is reinforced by the words of Jesus.  John 6:29 quotes Him saying; “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”  The same chapter declares the will of God to be that Jesus lose nothing of what the Father has given Him and that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life.  We do the work of believing and this belief is not only proof of our righteousness but our ticket to everlasting life and being raised on the last day (see John 6:38-40).

I would be curious to know how many of you reading this believe what I’ve written in the last paragraphs.  It is certainly what I’ve been taught from various pulpits.  There is no denying it appears to be backed by scripture and thus forms the picture of how I spent a great deal of my Christian life.  There is certainly a finished work of the cross.  There is no Jesus+.  Eternal life is the free gift of God in Jesus Christ but there is no escaping the fact that I must do my part.  I must believe and if I am not living victoriously then I have not believed hard enough and have to take care lest I lose my garment, be made to walk naked, and have my shame exposed (see Revelation 16:15).  If I fail to properly do the work, I lose God’s approval and risk spending an eternity separate from Him.   

However, is the meaning of righteous and righteousness moral conduct and right acts?  The word “righteous” comes from the Old English righwis (rightwise).  The first definition of “right” in the New World Dictionary is “not curved; straight;” and the dictionary states that definition is now only used in mathematics.  When I read down to the third and fourth entries, I find: “in accordance with justice, law, morality…fact reason, some set standard” which is how I find “right” is usually defined.  “Wise”in the Old English meant “manner, state, condition”.  So then being righteous or right wise was being morally correct and acceptable in one’s manner, state, or condition.

Looking at the Greek word translated as “righteousness” throughout the New Testament (Hebrews 1:8 is the exception), I found another definition that serves to expand the meaning a bit more.  The word is dikaiosune (G1343) and the Strong’s defines it as “equity (of character or act) justification, righteous.”  Dikaioma (G1345) meaning “an equitable deed” and dikaios (G1346) meaning “equitably” are both used in the New Testament as well and all three words are related to dikaios (G1342) meaning “equitable, holy, innocent, just” and come from the root dike (die-kay, G1349) meaning “right (as self-evident) justice (the principle, a decision, or its execution):-judgment, punish, vengeance”.  In turn, dike is related back to deiknuo (G1166) which means “to show”. 

I thought ‘equity’ and ‘equitable’ were worth looking up.  The meaning is “fair, just, impartial” and that fairness, justness, and impartiality pertains to laws or, in other words, a set standard which I feel brings me full circle.  I don’t find that my heading down this path has changed all that much how I define ‘righteousness’ or ‘righteous’.  For a believer, our set standard is Jesus Himself and therefore ‘righteousness’ is being aligned with and acting in accord with all He has revealed Himself to be which is shown in how we conduct ourselves day to day.  Which is impossible.

Bless religion’s heart but it has tried to make righteous conduct possible.  Various denominations all have their set standards of what righteous behavior looks like and it is presented to the congregation as rules to be followed.  If the congregation breaks the rules (which we inevitably must), there are various other acts we can perform to show not only how sorry we are but to work our way back into God’s good graces.  Wherein lies the rub: all of these rules of conduct and acts of repentance are built on the foundation that God the Father is disapproving and must be appeased.  We please Him by doing our work of believing but, if we should falter one iota in our belief, then we have doubted.  Our doubting does NOT please God and we should not expect to receive anything from Him (see James 1:6-8). 

Are you exhausted?  Burdened?  Heavy laden?  Are you hopeless?  Does the Bible itself increase your feelings of hopelessness?  Do you read a passage like Matthew 5: 20 where Jesus says, “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” and know such a requirement is not possible?  When you read Isaiah 64:6 which states, “all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” are you struck with the fear that God’s expectations are too extreme, that He knew we could not attain them, and that He just might not be equitable Himself?

This is too massive a subject to be dealt with in one post so I plan to continue looking at righteousness in the upcoming weeks.  I would urge you to see that the foundation of the Father being angry with you is an illusion.  When you see that, everything built on it crumbles to dust.  The foundation that can never crumble is Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God who is the very image and expression of The Father.  There is no difference in their characters.  Jesus is the one who knew no sin yet was made to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.  We are In Christ and therefore our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees as far as the east is from the west because our righteousness is His!  It is not just our manner but our condition and state of being that now is the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

In Jesus Christ we can rest in our rightwiseness.  The conduct of our lives will show His righteousness because it is no longer us who live but Christ who lives in us.  Christ in us and us in Him is the will of the Father.  Paul opens His letter to the Ephesians with this: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”   

This is what our Heavenly Father willed before we walked this earth and before we ever committed a sin.  He will carry the work He has begun in us on to completion and He will do so because He is equitable and acts in accord with the only set standard that could apply to the I AM: His own character which is agape.  That first definition of ‘right’ is “straight, not curved”.  He makes our paths straight.  He does so because of His goodness and not because we have worked so hard at believing that He is pleased enough to ease our way a little.  He leads us in paths of righteousness for His Name’s Sake!

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

Guralnik, David B., Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, Second College Edition, William Collins + World Publishing Co., Inc., Cleveland • New York, 1953, 1976

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville Tennessee, 1990

Ending in Death

18 Monday Sep 2023

Posted by in Studies, Whole Armor of God

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Hello Readers!  Welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman.

This week is a continuation of my study of the Whole Armor of God as described by the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians.  My study passage is Ephesians 6:10-18a.  For those of you who have been following along with all of my posts on this passage, you are well aware I have not made great inroads on this study.  I am, in fact, still looking at the words “take”.  Paul says to “take up the whole armor of God” in verse 13, “take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit” in verse 17, and says also “above all, taking the shield of faith” in verse 16.

“Take” in verses 13 and 16 are translated from the same word analambano.  The tenses are different but the words are the same.  “Take” in verse 17 is translated from the Greek dechomai.  The definitions of these two words aren’t all that different.  The Greek-English Lexicon (BDAG) defines analambano as “to lift up, carry away, take up, to take up in order to carry, to make something someone’s own by taking, with a focus on moral or transcendent aspects, to take to one’s self, adopt, take someone along on a journey, to take something up for scrutiny, take in hand” whereas dechomai is defined as, “to receive something offered or transmitted by another, to take something in hand, to be receptive of someone, to overcome obstacles in being receptive, to indicate approval or conviction by accepting” (BDAG, 66, 221-222). 

The two phrases that caught my attention are “to make something someone’s own…to take to one’s self” and “to indicate approval or conviction by accepting.”  What does it mean that two different words were used in this passage?  Is this passage saying we take the whole armor of God to ourselves and make it our own but then merely receive, or take hold of, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit?  Don’t we make salvation our own?  Since the Holy Spirit lives in us, don’t we also make the sword of the spirit our own?

As I meditated on the meanings of these two different Greek words I found the short is answer is “yes”.  A more descriptive answer is; since the whole armor of God is Jesus Christ, every piece ought to be considered part of the whole with no part considered greater or lesser than another.  As Jesus fully gives Himself to us, nothing lacking; so then does every part of the armor which He is become ours without limit.  And yet, I cannot deny the helmet of salvation and sword of the spirit are “taken up” dechomai rather than “taken up” analambano.  Can something be learned by considering these two different words and their usage in this passage?  Again, the short answer is “yes”!

I have been reading Andrew Murray’s With Christ in the School of Prayer and, just this last week, I read: “The whole of salvation is Christ Himself: He has given Himself to us.  He Himself lives in us…We participate, not only in the benefits of HIS work, but in the work itself.  This is because we are His Body.  The Head and the members are one: “The head cannot say to the feet, I have no need of thee” (1 Corinthians 12:21).  We share with Jesus everything He is and has. “The glory which Thou gavest me, I have given them” (John 17:22).  We are partakers of His life, His righteousness, and His work.”  (Murray, 115-116). 

This quote is taken from Andrew Murray’s Chapter Titled “Christ the Intercessor” and the entire chapter reiterated to me that I ought not to think of the helmet of salvation and sword of the spirit as something separate from the armor and shield: it’s all Christ.  The difference in Greek words was not suggesting to me that the helmet and sword were something I could receive but could not adopt as my own.  I think the difference in the Greek words are a warning and that warning is found in the portion of dechomai’s definition which says, “to indicate approval or conviction by accepting.”

I was reminded of something I had read in William Gurnall’s The Christian in Complete Armor.  He writes, “The Christian’s armour which he wears must be of divine institution and appointment.  The soldier comes into the field with no arms but what his general commands.  It is not left to every one’s fancy to bring what weapons he please; this will breed confusion.  The Christian soldier is bound up to God’s order; though the army be on earth, yet the council of war sits in heaven; this duty ye shall do; these means ye shall use.  And [those who] do more, or use other, than God commands, though with some seeming success against sin, shall surely be called to account for this boldness.  The discipline of war among men is strict in this case.  Some have suffered death by a council of war even when they have beaten the enemy, because out of their place, or beside their order.  God is very precise in this point; he will say to such as invent ways to worship him of their own, coin means to mortify corruption, obtain comfort in their own mint; ‘Who hath required this at your hands?’” (Gurnall, 50).

On the armor of God must be of God in constitution, Mr. Gurnall has this to say: “The Christian’s armour must be armour of God in regard of its make and constitution.  My meaning is, it is not only that God must appoint the weapons and arms the Christian useth for his defence: but he must also be the efficient of them, he must work all their work in them and for them.” (Gurnall, 54).

The Chapter in Andrew Murray’s book opened with this: “All growth in the spiritual life is connected with clearer insight into what Jesus is to us.  The more I realize that Christ must be everything to me and in me, that everything in Christ is indeed for me, the more I learn to live the real life of faith.  This life dies to self and lives wholly in Christ.  The Christian life is no longer a vain struggle to live right, but a resting in Christ to find strength in Him as life.  He helps us fight and gain the victory of faith!” (Murray, 115).

Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”  This is what I see in the difference between the two Greek words used in my study passage.  It’s all Christ.  There is nothing of Himself He holds back from us but He is THE WAY.  Jesus Christ is salvation.  I think it’s significant that Paul says “the helmet of salvation”.  I plan to take some time with this later in the series so will only say now that, the helmet does not only serve to keep our thoughts safe from the wiles of devil.  We have the mind of Christ but are admonished by Paul to “let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).  Our thoughts ought to be His thoughts.  We ought to be thinking about salvation the same way He thinks about salvation.

The sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, is ours to wield.  The Greek for “word” in this passage is rhema (G4487) and means “utterance.”  We are to live on every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4).  God did not stop speaking at some point in the past.  We are not stuck with the books that have been collected into that which we call The Bible.  No, we can hear God’s words for ourselves at any moment.  His Spirit lives within us and He guides us into all truth for “He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak” (John 16:13, emphasis mine). 

We indicate our approval and conviction by accepting His helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit.  When we go about our daily lives, we do so in the knowledge that Jesus Christ is the savior of the world.  We live each moment in vital union with the Father and Son in by and through the Spirit.  Like our Elder Brother, we know that we can of ourselves do nothing and so we do only those things we see The Father doing and we speak only those words we hear The Father speaking.

It is a heartbreaking truth that many believers have chosen to wear another helmet and wield another sword.  They do not declare the truth God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself not imputing their trespasses to them nor do they speak the word (logos) of reconciliation.  They do not listen for nor wait for the utterances of God but go rushing forth with swords forged from carnal interpretation forgetting the letter kills and it is the Spirit who gives life.

There is a way that seems right but its end is the way of death.  Jesus Christ is THE WAY and He is the only way wherein there is life.  Let us refuse the counterfeit armor of God and instead allow the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth.  May we listen for His voice alone and may grow more and more each day in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  May we dechomai only those things that are of Him and from Him.

To Him be the glory both now and forever!

Amen

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

Danker, Frederick William, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third Edition (BDAG), The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1957, 2000

Gurnall, William, The Christian in Complete Armour, Volume 1, Seventh Printing, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts, 2021

Murray, Andrew, With Christ in the School of Prayer, Wilder Publications, Radford, Virginia, 2008

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville Tennessee, 1990

Receiving What’s Mine

11 Monday Sep 2023

Posted by in Studies, Uncategorized, Whole Armor of God

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Hello Readers and welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman where, this week, I continue my study of The Whole Armor of God as described by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:10-18a. 

In last week’s post, I looked at the Greek word translated “take up” in Ephesians 6:13.  The word is analambano (G353) and is defined in the Strong’s as “to take up-receive up, take (in, unto, up).” Analambano is a compound word formed of ana (G303) and lambano (G2983).  The Strong’s defines Ana as “properly up but (by extension) used (distributively) severally, or (locally) at:–and, apiece, by, each, every (man), in, through.  In compounds (as a prefix) it often means (by implication) repetition, intensity, reversal.”  Lambano is defined as “to get hold of, accept, be amazed, assay, attain, bring, when I call, catch, come on (unto), forget, have, hold, obtain, receive (after), take (away, up).” 

As I attempted to take all of the entirety of the definitions into consideration, I wondered if analambano couldn’t be defined as “to constantly take hold of that which we have received in our inner being.”  I see no problem with that definition based on what I found in the Strong’s.  However, my definition needed to be tested both by looking analambano up in other resources and by seeing how it is used in other passages of scripture.  According to The New Koine Greek Textbook, analambano appears 13 times in scripture.  I’ll include a list at the end of this post in case anyone is interested in looking up the occurrences.  The Strong’s said that ana, when used in compounds as a prefix, often meant repetition, intensity, or reversal.  I found no sense of repetition as I looked up the other occurrences of analambano: intensity and reversal where another matter.

Five of the passages containing analambano had to deal with Jesus being “received” or “taken up” into heaven or, as 1 Timothy 3:16 has it, “received up into glory”.  I can only imagine how intense of a time this was for the disciples.  So intense was it that two men clad in white had to come to them and ask why they were just standing staring up into heaven (see Acts 1).  There is also a sense of reversal here though I wonder if the Disciples were fully aware of it until the giving of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.

There were other passages where I could see the idea of reversal.  Analambano is used to describe the Apostle Paul traveling on foot but then being “taken up” into a ship.  Perhaps “reversal” is too strong of a word to describe the usage here but, at the very least, there was a change in how Paul was travelling.  Analambano also appears in the story of Peter’s vision before he goes to see the Centurion Cornelius (see Acts 10:16).  The vessel in his vision is “received up” into heaven.  This was definitely a reversal in how Peter was to think and act toward those who were previously excluded under the Law of Moses but were now included in the Life of Christ.    

I discovered something else I found interesting.  Analambano is the word used in Ephesians 6:16: “above all taking (or having taken up) the shield of faith”.  It is NOT the Greek word translated as “take” in verse 17: “and take the helmet of salvation…” That word is dechomai (G1209) and, in order to understand the subtle difference in definition, I looked up both words in the Greek-English Lexicon (BDAG).  Here, analambano is defined as, “to lift up, carry away, take up, to take up in order to carry, to make something someone’s own by taking, with a focus on moral or transcendent aspects, to take to one’s self, adopt, take someone along on a journey, to take something up for scrutiny, take in hand” (BDAG, Page 66).  Dechomai is defined as, “to receive something offered or transmitted by another, to take something in hand, to be receptive of someone, to overcome obstacles in being receptive, to indicate approval or conviction by accepting” (BDAG, Page 221,222). 

My attention was focused on “to make something someone’s own” as opposed to “to receive something offered or transmitted by another.”  I wrote last week on how I pay attention to the mental pictures that form during studies.  When it comes to the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, I picture a soldier standing clad in the full armor.  A fellow soldier stands alongside and hands the first soldier both the helmet and sword and then the first heads into battle.  I want to spend more time exploring this as I look at the pieces of armor.  For now, I hope I am making clear the difference in intensity.  Both words do mean “to take up” or “to receive” but there is a difference in taking in hand something another offers to you and making something your own by taking it to yourself.

This is a massive subject I will be meditating on in the upcoming days: perhaps for years.  I am still a bit gob smacked that the same word used to describe the receiving of Jesus into heaven is the same word used to describe our taking up the whole armor of God.  There are depths here I have only begun to plumb.  I am also meditating on the Strong’s definition of ana: specifically repetition and reversal.

I have already experienced a reversal in my understanding of the Whole Armor of God.  I have always thought it something I had to mentally arm myself with before I left my house in the morning.  It was Christ Himself, of course, but still something external from me I had to attain to.  And, perhaps saddest of all, there was always the fear of; could I really consider myself clad in the whole armor of God if I didn’t quote that passage every day?  This passage was invoked like a talisman against evil.  I don’t remember every being taught to rest in the covenant I participated in by sheer gift and trust that Jesus Christ who is my armor would be my protection no matter what I faced. 

I have experienced a reversal in the direction of Spiritual Warfare.  Instead of going out and engaging who or whatever I perceive my enemy to be in attempt to advance the Kingdom of God here on earth, I rest in the finished work of Christ, I live out of His victory, and trust I am made more than a conqueror through Him who loves me. 

Perhaps there is no sense of repetition in the way analambano is used in my study passage.  After all, Christ died once for all and all authority in heaven and earth is His so the armor that He is isn’t ever going to change in composition or intensity.  However, there is a repetition in that, as my understanding changes, so is there a return and a reclamation and a receiving of all that is mine.  I can only receive to the extent my eyes have been opened to understand who Jesus Christ is, who He is in me, and who I am in Him.  As that understanding deepens, so too do I once more take up the Whole Armor of God and make it even more my own.  In this sense, I do constantly take hold of that which I have received in my inner being.

There is a passage in Revelation I will close with.  It is Revelation 22:12: “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.”  The Greek words for “coming quickly” are erchomai tachy.  Erchomai is a verb and its tense in this passage is present indicative.  Present is self-explanatory: it means NOW!  Indicative means it is telling a fact.  Translating tachy as “quickly” is perfectly fine although it is important to know it means “speedily” and “without delay”.  I have heard it said this passage could be rendered as “And, Behold, I am ever coming to you…” which I find beautiful.

Constancy is a better word than repetition and so is faithfulness.  He is ever coming to us.  He dwells within us by His Spirit.  Repetition can be a limiting idea-generating the mental picture of some sort of spiritual hamster wheel-and there is no limit in Jesus Christ: the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end, they are new every morning.

Great is His faithfulness!

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

List of passages containing analambano: Mark 16:19, Acts 1:2, Acts 1:11, Acts 1:22, Acts 7:43, Acts 10:16, Acts 20:13, Acts 20:14, Acts 23:31, Ephesians 6:13, Ephesians 6:16, 1 Timothy 3:16, 2 Timothy 4:11

References

livelingua.com/blog/present-indicative-english/#:~:text=Indicative means to tell the,in all the basic tenses.

Danker, Frederick William, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third Edition (BDAG), The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1957, 2000

Green, Jay P., The Interlinear Hebrew-Greek-English Bible, Volume 4, Authors for Christ, Inc. Lafayette, Indiana, 1796, 2000

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville Tennessee, 1990

Walker, Allen G., The New Koine Greek Textbook, Volumes II/III, 2014-2019

Canvas of the Mind

04 Monday Sep 2023

Posted by in Studies, Whole Armor of God

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

One of My Mom’s Acrylic Pours! Used With Permission

Hello Readers and welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman where, this week, I return to my study of the Whole Armor of God described by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:10-18.

I previously mentioned I was reading The Christian in Complete Armour by William Gurnall as part of conducting this study.  In his book, William Gurnall asks, “What is this armour?” and then answers his question as follows:

“By armour is meant Christ.  We read of putting on the ‘Lord Jesus,’ Ro. Xiii, 14, where Christ is set forth under the notion of armour.  The apostle doth not exhort them for rioting and drunkenness to put on sobriety and temperance, for chambering and wantonness [to] put on chastity, as the philosopher would have done, but bids, ‘put he on the Lord Jesus Christ;’ implying thus much [that] till Christ be put on, the creature is unarmed…The graces of Christ, these are armour, as ‘the girdle of truth, the breast-plate of righteousness’ and the rest.  Hence we are bid also [to] ‘put on the new man’, Ep.iv. 24, which is made up of all the several graces as its parts and members.  And he is the unarmed soul, that is the unregenerate soul, not excluding those duties and means which God hath appointed the Christian to use for his defence.  The phrase thus opened, the point is, to show that to be without Christ is to be without armour.” (Gurnall, 45)

That the Whole Armor of God is Jesus Christ is my belief as well, though I do try not to draw conclusions until a study is complete.  Still, I don’t suppose there are believers who would disagree with me or with William Gurnall so I take a brief moment to ask myself if it is necessary to dig further.  The moment is definitely brief because knowing the Whole Armor of God is Jesus Christ doesn’t do much to help me understand how and what the armor enables me to be in the world.  Thus, or hence (borrowing from William Gurnall) I will continue to dig into this passage until I am satisfied.

I am looking for a complete picture to form in my mind.  I have been thinking about communication, understanding, and how language forms pictures in our minds. This has been especially true over the last couple of weeks when I read a study by a Bible Teacher I admire and usually agree with.  I did not agree with the conclusions he drew in the particular study I read.  What he said would have made sense to me and I never would have thought to question it had I not already conducted a study on the passage he was using and therefore understood the meaning of the Greek, and had nothing but my English translation of the Bible to aid me. I realized how easy it is to draw erroneous conclusions as I almost did so when studying Paul’s admonition to “stand” in the Ephesians passage.

It seems so clear reading the English translations. “Stand” means just that: stand firm, unmovable.  The picture that had formed in my mind was that of believers as Spiritual Warriors, clad in the whole armor of God, strengthened in the Lord Jesus Christ to hold our ground, defend it to the uttermost, and not surrender even one iota to the enemy.  Then, I looked at the Greek word translated “stand” (histemi) and saw it did mean “made to stand” but carried also the idea of covenant and my mental picture disintegrated.  I could have put my conclusions into words, described my mental picture to the best of my ability, and there may have been those of you who would have agreed with me.  My conclusions would not have been totally inaccurate but neither would they have been correct.  I have to wonder how much harm a partially accurate bible study can do…

I do not want to get involved in arguments over the accuracy and validity of the various translations of the Bible.  However, I will say it is important to take care what pictures are being formed in our minds.  One of my favorite books on writing is Word Painting by Rebecca McClanahan and it is this book more than any other that has made me conscious of the way words paint pictures in my mind.  I would say it is important to realize the English words Bible translators have chosen to portray what the Hebrew and Greek intend are not always the best and most accurate.

I have already looked at the Greek word translated “put on” in Ephesians 6:11 and shared how the word means “to sink down into”.  It is not putting on a garment in the sense of ‘there’s my coat over there: I’m going to get it and put it on”.  It is more like snuggling into a blanket on a chilly day while resting on a comfortable couch except that, when we are speaking of the Life of Christ, there is no separation between Him and us.  Putting Him on would be more like saying the blanket is always a part of us and there is never an instant where we cannot snuggle into it and be warmed and soothed.

This made me wonder just what Paul meant when he said “Take up the whole armor of God” in verse 13.  Perhaps you are like me and the words “take up” instantly bring to mind Jesus’ command to “take up your cross and follow me” in Matthew 16:24.  “Take up” in the English paints a mind picture for me where both the armor and the cross are like that coat I mentioned before: it is something over there, apart from me, and I need to go to it, take it up, and put it on.  Is this the picture painted by the Greek?

Would you be surprised if I told you the Greek words used in these passages are not the same?  I was not.  In fact, I’ve come to expect it.  The Greek word translated “take up” in Matthew 16:24 is airo (G142) and is defined in the Strong’s as “to lift; by implication to take up or away, figuratively to raise (the voice), keep in suspense (the mind), specifically to sail away (i.e. weigh anchor); by Hebraism to expiate sin;-away with, bear (up), carry, lift up, loose, make to doubt, put away, remove, take (away, up).” There’s enough in this definition to make me question the mental picture this passage has always painted in my mind: that of me stumbling under the weight of my cross as I drag it along while following the Lamb withersoever He goest.  A study for another time.

The Greek translated as “take up” in Ephesians 6:13 is analambano (G353) and is defined in the Strong’s as “to take up-receive up, take (in, unto, up)”.  Analambano is a compound word formed of ana (G303) and lambano (G2983).  The Strong’s defines Ana as “properly up but (by extension) used (distributively) severally, or (locally) at:–and, apiece, by, each, every (man), in, through.  In compounds (as a prefix) it often means (by implication) repetition, intensity, reversal.”  Lambano is defined as “to get hold of, accept, be amazed, assay, attain, bring, when I call, catch, come on (unto), forget, have, hold, obtain, receive (after), take (away, up).”

Taking all of this into consideration, I don’t think I do the Greek a disservice if I begin to define analambano as “to constantly take hold of that which we have received in our inner being.” 

“The armour is Christ” William Gurnall writes and knowing that to be the truth is all well and good as long as we know exactly what Christ is to us.  What exactly have we received?  What are we taking hold of?  What word pictures have been painted on the canvas of our minds by the sermons we have listened to?  How have these pictures been formed by our understanding of the language used to translate our Bibles?  How accurate are they?  Unless we have laid hold of the living Christ in, by, and through His Spirit, the pictures cannot be at all accurate.

In his Epistle to the Ephesians, the same epistle in which he describes the whole armor of God; the Apostle Paul writes a glorious prayer:

“I do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.  And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.  And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.  But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

Now that’s something to take hold of!

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

Gurnall, William, The Christian in Complete Armour, Seventh Printing, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts, 2021, Page 45

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville Tennessee, 1990