“He Also Has Become…”

04 Monday Mar 2024

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Hello Readers and welcome to another post on Renaissance Woman!  If this is your first post, I am currently in the middle of a study on the Whole Armor of God as described by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6 verses 10-18a.  My current focus is the Helmet of Salvation so, as you read on, you may wonder why I am (still) writing about obedience.  There are two passages of scripture that have convinced me that understanding what the Bible means by obedience is crucial to understanding what it means for Jesus Christ to be our salvation.  For that is what I believe: salvation is not something Jesus did for us before disappearing into some far off heaven somewhere.  He Himself is salvation.

That is a thought I want to focus on in future studies.  For this week’s post, I must take another look at obedience.  2 Corinthians 10:4-6 says, “For the weapons of our warfare  are not carnal but  mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and  every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready  to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.”  Hebrews 5:8-9 says that Jesus, “though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.  And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.”

In these two passages, I see a connection between obedience and both Spiritual Warfare and Salvation.  There is a third passage that comes to mind as I meditate on the first two.  I am going to quote an extensive portion as it all pertains to the point I will attempt to make in this post: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.  And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.  Therefore God has also highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:5-11).

The Greek word translated “obedient” in the Philippians passage is of the same family as the word translated “obedience” in the first two quoted.  “Obedient” is hupekoos (G5255) and is an adjective.  “Obedience” is hupakoe (G5218) and is the noun.  The Strong’s Concordance says both words come from hupakouo (G5219) which is the verb.  The word itself means “attentive hearkening, compliance, submission, to listen attentively, to hear under as a subordinate, to heed or conform to command or authority.”  I’ve already gone through these definitions and performed some study on just what “the obedience of Christ” means so I don’t want to take too much time performing what would amount to repetition.  And yet, if these are the meanings of the words, what does it mean for Jesus Christ having to learn to attentively listen to God?  What does it mean to my understanding of who Jesus is if I must think of Him in terms of being subordinate to God?  Who is Jesus, really?

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke record Jesus asking a form of that question to His disciples.  Jesus first asks, “Who do men say that the Son of man is?” or “Who do men say that I am?”  The disciples give their various answers and then Jesus asks: “But who do you say that I am?”  This question is just as pertinent now as it was then.  I have asked people who wish to share their belief system with me this same question: “who do you say Jesus is?” and the answer I receive most often is “we believe He is the Son of God.”  That answer does make it sound as if we would be of one mind regarding the foundation of our belief but different people mean different things when they say “He is the Son of God.”

R. H. Ben-Shalom makes this point in his book Papa’s Last Words: They Lied About God.  In his chapter titled “Christ” he writes: “The phrase the “sons of God” has many meanings.  It can mean spirits without flesh, spirits in flesh who trust and obey God, or those who have been resurrected into their glorified bodies” (Ben-Shalom, Pg. 88). 

Those who answer me with “we believe He is the Son of God” can potentially mean many things but a great many of the answers boil down to this: whatever they mean by “the Son of God”, they do not intend to suggest Jesus is equal to God nor is He God.  They will use scripture to undergird their belief.  One such is John 5:30 where Jesus Himself says, “I can of Myself do nothing.  As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.”  Another passage I hear quoted a great deal is Mark 10:18: “…Why do you call Me good?  No one is good but One, that is, God.”  A third is John 5:19: “…Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.”

If these were the only passages of scripture we ever heard, who could blame us for doubting that Jesus is the divine Son of God: the Eternal Word made flesh?  But, these aren’t the only passages.  We must consider John 8:58 where Jesus declares, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” We must also consider John 10:24-33: “Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, ‘How long do You keep us in doubt?  If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.’  Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe.  The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me.  But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you.  My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.  And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.  My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.  I and My Father are one.’  Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him.  Jesus answered them, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father.  For which of those words do you stone Me?’ The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.”

On Jesus’ claim to be Divine R. H. Ben-Shalom writes; “C. S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, is correct in his deduction: Y’hoshua the Anointed One (Jesus the Christ) was either who He claimed to be, or a demonic false prophet, or a madman.  The Instruction of Yah, blessed be His Name, and the ancient Jewish legal system did not condemn you for being a “son of God” in the sense of being a human devotee of God.  It did not condemn you for being a Torah-keeping anointed one.  The ancient Jewish legal system, however, condemned you for blasphemy, such as claiming to be the Son of God in reference to being God, or of God, meaning divine.  The Sanhedrin, the Jewish court, condemned Y’hoshua the Anointed One for only one reason: He claimed to be the Son of God in the sense of being God.  History attests to His existence.  History attests to the only accusation that led to His execution and death on the cross” (Ben-Shalom, pg. 90).

The divinity and humanity of Jesus is a vast subject and one I cannot possibly address in a short blog post.  1 Peter 2:7-8 says, “…The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense” so I am certain the debate on Jesus’ identity will no doubt rage until the day “every eye sees Him”.  However, truly knowing Him is possible to whosoever wishes it.  I would draw your attention back to Matthew 16.  “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” Jesus asks, and then He asks; “But who do you say that I am?”  Simon Peter answers, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”.  Jesus’ reply is: “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”  If any of us want to know who Jesus is, we have the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation, the Spirit who testifies of Jesus, the Spirit who leads us into all truth, the gift of God, living inside of us.  We do not need flesh and blood to tell us who Jesus is: His Spirit in us will reveal to us who Jesus is.

As to what I believe about Jesus learning obedience, meaning He had to learn to listen attentively to His Father’s voice as one subordinate; I return to the passage in Philippians.  My NKJV renders verse 7 as, “but made Himself of no reputation”.  The Amplified has it, “But stripped Himself [of all privileges and rightful dignity]”.  The New American Standard says, “but emptied Himself” and the New International says “but made himself nothing.”  I cannot imagine what it was like for the Word, the One by whom everything was made, the One who is-according to the wording of the Amplified Bible-“essentially one with God and in the form of God” (Phil. 2:6), to empty Himself in order to become one of us.  As one of us, He had to learn to listen attentively to the voice of His Father, the same as we must learn to listen attentively to the Voice of Jesus Christ, the One who has the name which is above every other name.  I cannot express how grateful I am He did so, because, being made perfect, He is both the author and Captain of our Salvation.

There is a fantastic declaration in Isaiah 12:2: “Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; For YAH, the Lord, is my strength and my song; He also has become my salvation.”  Behold, Jesus the Anointed One, the Unique Son, the only begotten of the Father, the Word made flesh!  He limited Himself to a flesh body and became one of us!  He died but the grave could not hold Him!  Behold, He liveth forevermore and sits at the right hand of the Father!  Behold Jesus, the One who is our salvation!  He is eternal salvation now to all who obey (attentively listen to) Him!

Hallelujah! 

Amen.

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

References

The Comparative Study Bible, Zondervan Bible Publishers, The Zondervan Corporation, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1984

Aland, Kurt, Synopsis of the Four Gospels, United Bible Societies, USA, 1982

Ben-Shalom, R. H., Papa’s Last Words: They Lied about God, ERAS Press, 2020

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

Ready to Vanish Away

26 Monday Feb 2024

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

I continue this week in my study on the Whole Armor of God with my particular focus on the Helmet of Salvation.  As I have begun my word study on the Helmet of Salvation, I have concentrated on the word “obedience”.  Why?  Because of two passages of scripture.  The 1st is 2 Corinthians 1-:4-6; “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.”  The second is Hebrews 5:8-9; “though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.  And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.”  There is a direct correlation between obedience, salvation, and spiritual warfare in these passages and it is something I want to understand.

I spent the week praying and meditating and a sentence I would have sworn was a portion of scripture kept coming to mind.  It was, “I desire obedience rather than sacrifice”.  However, when I went to the scriptures in order to find it, it wasn’t there.  I realized I was mashing together two passages of scripture.  The 1st was Hosea 6:6; “For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” and the 2nd was 1 Samuel 15:22; “So Samuel said, ‘Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.” 

There is a valuable lesson here which I was reminded of and which I am going to briefly share with all of you: Test Everything.  I was sure I was remembering a portion of scripture.  Perhaps I had heard someone quote it using those words or perhaps I was indeed simply mashing together two passages of scripture on my own but we Christians have it hard coded into us that the Bible is the final word on all subjects.  If I hadn’t checked but had trusted I was remembering correctly, what would “I desire obedience rather than sacrifice” led me to believe about the character of God?  Perhaps it wouldn’t have been negative but it would have been inaccurate.  I cannot stress it enough: do not unquestioningly believe anything anyone tells you about what the Bible says, especially if they are doing so in an attempt to direct your life in any way.  Test it.  Does the Bible really say it?

I find the Ancient Languages fascinating and am constantly adding to my library in order to increase my knowledge of them but I don’t believe we have to be Greek and/or Hebrew scholars in order to accurately fact check scripture.  Many people put down the Strong’s Concordance but I find it to be a useful tool.  Let’s take the word “obey” as an example: I pointed out last week there are six different Greek words translated as “obey”.  They can’t all mean the same thing and a Strong’s Concordance reveals that at a glance.  If you find you have an interest in delving deeper into the Ancient Languages then do so but, again, it isn’t necessary for fact checking what you hear.  I fact check every Bible teacher I listen to.  I fact check myself (which is a good thing because I don’t always remember correctly!).  I hope and pray all of you are doing the same.

There is a second part of this lesson I also want to share and that is, don’t be afraid of mistakes.  My remembering two passages as one and my searching them out has been an immensely valuable way to spend my time this week because I saw into the heart of our God.  I saw how much He wishes to be known.  And, I saw even more clearly that obedience doesn’t always mean doing what we’re told and/or keeping rules: it means listening to His voice.

I shared in last week’s post the Greek word hupakoe (G5218) which is translated as “obedience” in the New Testament.  The word means “attentive hearkening”.  As I trace it through its related words and compound parts there is also contained within the word the idea of taking action but the action taken comes as a result of hearing.  I was curious what Greek word would appear in place of “obeying” and “obey” in 1 Samuel 15:22.  In “obeying the voice of the Lord” and I found akon (G189) which means “hearing, listening”.  I didn’t find the exact grammatical word for the Greek used in “to obey is better than sacrifice” but I found forms of it in both the Strong’s and BDAG.  The word is epakouo (G1873) and it means “to hearken, to hear, to listen intently.”

One of my Bible Teachers says “you stand and fall by your definitions” and I wholeheartedly concur.  If we believe “obedience” is to do as we are told, to keep God’s law, to adhere to some list of rules put forth by our denomination, we have missed it.  The word means there is one in leadership over us, we listen attentively to all that one says, and we act accordingly.  That One is Jesus Himself for He is the One to whom all authority on heaven and earth has been given.  He is the rightful ruler and King and His is the only voice to which we ought to be listening.

I checked Hosea 6:6 in the Septuagint and didn’t find any of my Greek study words there.  I was struck as I read this passage in the various translations listed on Biblehub.com.  I liked those that used personal language.  The New Living Translations says, “I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices.  I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.”  The Contemporary English Version has it, “I’d rather for you to be faithful and to know me than to offer sacrifices.”  The GOD’S WORD Translation says, “I want your loyalty, not your sacrifices.  I want you to know me, not to give me burnt offerings” while the Good News Translation renders this passage as, “I want your constant love, not your animal sacrifices.  I would rather have my people know me than burn offerings to me.”  The Amplified uses the word “covenant” in its rendition: “For I desire and delight in [steadfast] loyalty [faithfulness in the covenant relationship], rather than sacrifice, And in the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.”

There is no substitution for knowing God.  It is the desire of His heart.  What I find so terribly sad is that it is not the widely expressed desire of the heart of a great many believers.  Their singular hope is to get to heaven when they die.  What they’ll do when they get there is anyone’s guess: worship God for all eternity, dance on golden streets…it’s all a bit vague.  There is no such emphasis on heaven as a destination in the Bible.  Rather, the Eternal Life we are all aspiring too is clearly spelled out.  “Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3).  “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ.  This is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20).

This post is in danger of becoming rather long so I will bring it to a close and continue next week.  I want to close with a passage from Hebrews 8 in which the Writer quotes Jeremiah 31:31-34: “…’Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah-not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord.  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.  None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.  For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.’ In that He says, ‘A new covenant’ He has made the first obsolete.  Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away” (Heb. 8:8-13).

We are in Christ and are partakers of this New Covenant.  The desire of our God in establishing this New Covenant is that we would know Him, each one of us, and hear His voice.  May that be our prayer in this upcoming week: Open my eyes to see You that I might know You and my ears to hear Your voice alone!

Amen.

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

References

1 Samuel 15:22 Interlinear: And Samuel saith, ‘Hath Jehovah had delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices as in hearkening to the voice of Jehovah? lo, hearkening than sacrifice is better; to give attention than fat of rams; (biblehub.com)   

Strong’s Greek: 189. ἀκοή (akoé) — hearing, the sense of hearing (biblehub.com)

Hosea 6:6 For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. (biblehub.com)

Danker, Frederick William, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (BDAG), Third Edition, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago Illinois, 1957, 1979, 2000

Lanier, Gregory & William Ross, Septuaginta: A Reader’s Edition, Volumes I & II, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody Massachusetts, 2018

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

Mind Over Mind

19 Monday Feb 2024

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Image by ha11ok from Pixabay

Hello Readers!  Welcome to Renaissance Woman where, this week, I am posting another installment in my Whole Armor of God study series.

My study passage is Ephesians 6:10-18a and I am currently looking at the Helmet of Salvation.  In last week’s post, I quoted 2 Corinthians 10:4-6: “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.”  This passage has been at the forefront of my mind as I have considered what ‘bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ’ means in terms the Helmet of Salvation protecting the head and thus our thoughts. 

Do you ever think about yourself? Of course we do but I mean paying deliberate attention to how exactly it feels when you think.  Do you recognize there is a YOU that knows YOU are thinking thoughts?  YOU are thinking and the thoughts themselves can be scrutinized, considered, and then either accepted or disregarded.  We are not separated from our thoughts because the chemicals associated with them affect our bodies but neither are they the masters of us.  Our brains are constantly absorbing information and, as we aren’t always aware of all we are absorbing, I do recognize that some of the thoughts that come into our minds are utterly foreign to who and what we know we are.  Still, the thought can be recognized as such and, while it can be exhausting, we do have the ability to decide which thought we are going to entertain and which we are not.  Therefore, it is a fact that we are the Masters of our thoughts.  It only remains to be seen whether we will choose to act in that capacity.

When we with conscious deliberation choose to act in that capacity we Believers in Jesus can find ourselves on the horns of a dilemma.  Many are they who level accusations of close-mindedness at us.  We have all seen the caricature of the close-minded person.  This is a person who will not learn either through arrogance that he or she knows all or through fear that if he or she entertains a thought that is different from his or her current belief system, he or she will be scorned and cut off.  In religious terms, there is the fear of the possibility of being led astray by a devil and ending up spending an eternity in hell.  Few people genuinely wish to be close minded and yet, there is no denying the very real danger of indiscriminate open-mindedness.  There are arguments and high things that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God and which are well worth eradicating from the fields of our minds.  We Believers must be discerning, holding fast to what is good and rejecting what is not. 

How do we do that?  I am not a proponent of deciding for ourselves what is good and evil because that is eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the fruit of that tree is death.  This passage in 2 Corinthians tells us we are to be “bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”  What does that mean?  Is that thinking only what our Church leaders tells us is okay to think?  Is it following the Bible like a rule book and obeying everything we read in it?  If that is so, what do we do when we encounter passages that appear to contradict each other?  And then, if we are among that group of Believers who have seen that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death (see Romans 8:2), what are we obeying?  Jesus did say, “if you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15) which He’d already given in John 13:34: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”  John the Beloved does expand on this a bit in his 1st letter: “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.  And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.  And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.”

I do think it’s important to note the Greek words translated as “keep” and “obey/obedience” in these different passages are not the same.  The Greek word translated as “keep” is number 5083 in the Strong’s Concordance: tereo which means “to guard from loss or injury”.  Obey is a bit more complicated: as I run down the list of scripture passages containing the word “obey”, I find there are 6 unique Greek words all translated as “obey” (there are 7 different Strong’s Numbers but 3980 is the verb form of 3982 [peitharchein, peitho] so I’m counting them as one word). I could spend weeks studying “obey” but, for the sake of this study, I will focus on the Greek noun translated “obedience” in 2 Corinthians 10:4: hupakoe (G5218) and the verb hupakouo (G5219) translated “obey” in various passages.

What do we think of when we hear the words “obey” or “obedience”?  The first meaning that comes to mind is “to do what one is told”.  Perhaps it is the same for you.  I admit I was surprised to find that wasn’t the meaning of the Greek word nor is it the first thing I read when I look up “obey” in the dictionary.  The first thing I read in the dictionary entry is “to hear” and that is backed up by the definitions for the Greek.  The Strong’s defines hupakoe (G5218) as, “attentive hearkening”.  It does go on to define the word as “by implication compliance or submission” but also says that hupakoe comes from hupakouo (G5219).  Hupakouo is defined as, “to hear under (as a subordinate) to listen attentively, to heed or conform to a command or authority”.  Hupakouo is a compound word formed of hupo (G5259) and akouo (G191).  Akouo means, “to hear” but I found the definition of hupo particularly interesting.

It means “under” or “beneath” but with verbs means “the agency or means-through”.  Returning to 2 Corinthians 10:5 in the Greek, I find that same little word tou which tells me the Apostle Paul is not admonishing us to force our thoughts to conform with strict obedience to some rigid system but is rather saying we are bringing every thought into captivity to Christ’s obedience.

Hebrews 5:8 says that Jesus “though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.”  The next verse says, “And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey (hupakouo!) Him.”  The same Greek word is used by Paul in Romans 1:5-6: “Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ.” 

I have a 12-week study booklet on Romans.  I don’t even know how many years it has been since I first picked it up intending to spend 12 weeks in the Book of Romans and yet am still on question 2 of Week 2: “What might Paul mean by ‘the obedience of faith’?”  I still don’t have a concise answer to that beyond “it’s all interconnected and it’s all Jesus Christ.”  Romans 10:17: “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith OF (tou) the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”  The meaning of obedience is “attentive hearkening”.  The emphasis has to be on hearing. 

This post is getting to be rather long so I will close with this: we bring our every thought into the captivity of the obedience of Christ.  He is the Word of the Father.  His Spirit lives in us speaking the Word that is Jesus Christ to us.  Thus, we don’t have to worry that our bringing our thoughts into captivity means we are engaging in some form of religious close-mindedness.  Neither do we have to worry that our desire to hear and learn and live accordingly will lead us to dangerous levels of open-mindedness.  The same mind that was in Christ Jesus is in us through the Holy Spirit therefore we are not closed or open minded but rather Christ-minded.  We are joined to the Lord and are thus of One Spirit with Him.  May the Spirit of Truth guide us into greater understanding of this reality in Christ over the coming days.

Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Amen.

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

References     

2 Corinthians 10:5 Interlinear: reasonings bringing down, and every high thing lifted up against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of the Christ, (biblehub.com)

Guralnik, David B., Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, Second College Edition, William Collins + World Publishing Co., Inc., Cleveland • New York, 1970, 1976

Strong, James, The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, TN, 1990

Wilson, Jared C., Knowing the Bible: Romans A 12-Week Study, Crossway, Wheaton, Illinois, 2013, Page 12

Seeking a New Groove

12 Monday Feb 2024

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Hello Readers!  It’s a new week and time for a new post on Renaissance Woman!

I am continuing in my study of the Whole Armor of God described by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:10-18a and am finally moving on from the Shield of Faith to the Helmet of Salvation.

With simply a surface look at the Helmet of Salvation, a few things come to mind.  First is that the helmet protects the head and Christ Jesus is described as “the head”.  Paul does so in the same letter to the Ephesians: “but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head-Christ-” (4:15) and again in Colossians 1:18: “And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.” 

As I began studying the word “salvation” I also started making a list of scripture passages that stood out to me.  The Old Testament makes the point that salvation belongs to God, is of God, and is God Himself.  2 Samuel 2-3 says, “…The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; The God of my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, My stronghold and my refuge; My Savior, You save me from violence.”  Psalm 3:8 states, “Salvation belongs to the Lord.  Your blessing is upon Your people.”  Psalm 27 opens with “The Lord is my light and my salvation…”  Psalm 62:7 says, “In God is my salvation and my glory; The rock of my strength, And my refuge, is in God.”  I’ll quote just one more: “The Lord has made known His salvation; His righteousness He has revealed in the sight of the nations” (Psalm 98:2).

My study up to this point has caused me to completely agree with those who say the Whole Armor of God is Jesus Christ.  Therefore, He is our Helmet of Salvation just as He is the head of we who are His body and the head over we who comprise His church.  I don’t yet have a clear picture of what this means but it feels significant.  It is an observation I will hold close as I proceed in the study.

The second observation I make is that the helmet protects the head and thus the brain which is the seat of all thought.  I am fascinated by the scientific studies on the brain and how the mind comes to exist.  Our thought patterns are just that: patterns in the brain.  Our thoughts form grooves in our brain and the more we entertain a thought, the deeper the groove thus our thoughts are of paramount importance.

The New Testament agrees.  Thought is a crucial component of Spiritual Warfare.  I’ve already quoted 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 but must do so again: “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ”.  Verse 6 continues with, “and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.”  I’ve linked some articles below that speak of our thoughts forming grooves in our mind.  Changing our thought habits, or forming a new thought groove, is not a simple undertaking.  I don’t know if you have ever tried to actually change your mind but it is difficult.  It can actually hurt.  I wonder if this isn’t what verse 6 is referring to in such harsh language.

I find this to be a difficult verse to understand.  I’ve quoted it from the New King James but other versions aren’t any clearer.  The King James says “And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.”  The Amplified does attempt to do just that-amplify-with, “Being in readiness to punish every [insubordinate for his] disobedience, when your own submission and obedience [as a church] are fully secured and complete.” As I look at this verse as a continuance of the one before, I like the idea of considering thoughts as my subordinates because it oftentimes feels as though I am under their control.  There are many Christian Teachers who refer to “The Battlefield of the Mind” and I can’t help wondering if this passage is not speaking of demonic powers but is rather speaking to our thoughts and the deep grooves (strongholds?) they form in our mind as we allow them to repeat as well as the difficulty in redirecting our thoughts from these easy pathways and forming new grooves as we bring all of our thoughts into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

Whether the passage does refer to thoughts or not, there are many other passages of scripture that stress the importance of our minds-and thus our thoughts-being renewed.  These very words are used by Paul in Romans 12:2: “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”  In an earlier chapter of this same Epistle, Paul writes; “For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be” (8:6-7).  Paul’s letter to the Ephesians says this: “This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart” (Verses 17 & 18).

Philippians 2:5 says, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus”.  As I consider all of these passages, I must return to a scripture passage that has been of such great importance to me since my first study on John 3:5.  That passage is Ezekiel 36:26-27: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.”

The Greek word translated as “salvation” in The Helmet of Salvation is soterion (G4992) meaning “defender, defense” and is related to soteria (G4991) meaning “rescue, safety, deliver, health, salvation, save, saving.”  Is this the picture the Apostle Paul is intending to convey with his Helmet of Salvation?  That Christ Himself not only rescues and delivers our minds but defends them against thoughts that would seek to destroy our knowing God?  Is he saying also that Christ Himself is our very mind?

I hope to have answers to these questions, and many more, by the end of this particular segment of my study.  I hope you will stay tuned in the upcoming weeks.  Until then, May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, guard all of our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Amen.

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

References     

How the Mind Emerges from the Brain’s Complex Networks | Scientific American

How to rewire your brain – Center for Healthy Aging (colostate.edu)

Create New Habits: Cut a New Groove – Bryan Nichols & Associates Psychological Services, Inc. (drnicholsandassociates.com)

The Comparative Study Bible, Zondervan Bible Publishers, The Zondervan Corporation, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1984

Strong, James, The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, TN, 1990

The River Within

05 Monday Feb 2024

Posted by in Studies, Whole Armor of God

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Hello Readers and welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman and another post on the Shield of Faith!

I had thought last week’s post would be the last on the Shield of Faith but, as I received some feedback on last week’s post, I found one more post was necessary.

What is the Shield of Faith?  The Old Testament refers to God Himself as our shield.  Genesis 15:1 records the word of the Lord coming to Abram in a vision and saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram.  I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”  Deuteronomy 33: 29 says this: “Happy are you, O Israel!  Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, the shield of your help…”  There are passages in various Psalms that describe God as our shield.  I want to focus on three separate passages that stood out during my study.  The first I’ve already touched on in last week’s post: Psalm 3:3 says, “But You, O Lord, are a shield for me” and the Hebrew word translated “for” could accurately be translated “around me” or “about me”. Indeed, the New American Standard has “about me” and the New International “around me”.  This Hebrew word (#1157 in the Strong’s Concordance) also carries the meaning of “within”: a thought I will return to in a moment.

The second passage is Psalm 91:4.  Some translations render this passage as “his truth shall be thy shield and buckler” while others have it as “his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart”.  The Amplified covers all its bases and has this verse as “His trust and His faithfulness are a shield and buckler.”

The third passage appears in three different books of the Bible.  The first is 2 Samuel 22:31: “As for God, His way is perfect; The word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.”  The second appearance is Psalm 18:30: “As for God, His way is perfect; The word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.”  The third is Proverbs 30:5: “Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.”

John 1:1 states “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  In John 14:6, Jesus describes Himself as “the way and the truth and the life.”  Holding this in mind, I return to the passages of scripture I’ve shared and wonder if they aren’t saying something far and above anything I’ve ever heard before.  Are these passages expressing separate thoughts?  The way of the Lord is perfect, His word is proven, and He is also a shield or is it saying The way of the Lord is perfect, His word is proven, and then the “He” that is a shield and buckler is the He who is the way and the word?  Is the truth and faithfulness that is a shield and rampart some attribute He bestows on us or is the shield and rampart He who is faithful and true?

I listen a great deal to Malcolm Smith and one of the points he stresses over and over is 1 John 4:8; “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”  “He does not have love”, Bishop Smith says, “He is it!”  I think of this when it comes to these passages of scripture and Jesus.  Jesus does not have the word: He is it!  He does not show us the way: He is it!  He does not simply tell us the truth: He is it!  He does not have faithfulness: He is it!  He does not give us a Shield of Faith: He is it!

And, He wasn’t all of these things sometime in the past and then will be these things again sometime in the future.  He is all of these things in us now.  How is this possible if He is seated at the right hand of the Father, received by heaven until the times of the restitution of all things? (See Ephesians 1:20, Acts 3:21).  If Jesus is in some far off heaven somewhere and we are down here waiting for His second coming, how is He all of these things now?  Doesn’t the Bible say our inheritance is reserved in heaven for us? (1 Peter 1:4).

Yes, it does.  However, the Bible also says we are established in Christ, sealed, and given the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee (or earnest, or downpayment-2 Corinthians 1:21-22).  This Spirit is the Spirit described by Jesus in Chapters 14-17 of John’s gospel.  There is another promise in John 14:23: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”  “We love,” John says in his first letter, “because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19) and “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5).  I can’t help but to quote 1 Corinthians 6:19 again: “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” 

In John 14: 18-20 Jesus says, “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.  A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me.  Because I live, you will live also.  At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.”  The rest of the New Testament tell us of all that is ours because we are In Christ and Christ is in us.  Now.  This moment.  He is in us and we are in Him! The Father and Son have made Their abode in us!  How?  Because we are joined to the Lord and are of one spirit with Him!  (Back to 1 Corinthians 6).

Our Shield of Faith is Jesus Christ and we know this is the truth because the Spirit bears witness in our hearts it is so which brings me back to my thought at the beginning of this post.  The Hebrew word in Psalm 3:3 translated as “for”-thou art a shield for me-also carrying the meaning “within”.  In Christ we live and move and have our being.  If we believe that, it is not too difficult to picture Him as a shield surrounding us.  We are hidden in Him and His life quenches the fiery darts of the wicked one.  But there is another picture I admit I am just coming to see and understand and that is that Jesus Christ is a shield within us.  Jesus says, “’He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’ But this He spoke concerning the spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive;  for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (John 7:38-39). 

The river is a symbol I find throughout the Old and New Testaments.  One of my favorite passages is Psalm 46:4: “There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God”.  I find this same river in Revelation 22:1; “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.”  The River also appears in Ezekiel 47 where the prophet is first brought in up to his ankles, and then his knees, and then his waist, and then he must finally swim in it. 

There are passages of scripture where both the word and the Spirit are likened to water (See Isaiah 44:3, John 4:14, 1 Corinthians 12:13, John 15:3, Ephesians 5:25-27).  Faith is our response to who God has revealed Himself in Jesus.  The scriptures are of immense value in that revelation but, the Word is alive in us now.  We live in union with Him via His Spirit in us who speaks what He hears.  That word is energizing vitality.  It is living water within us, water that fill us to overflowing and flows out to the world around us.  I cannot say it too many times: our Shield of Faith-that Shield that is Christ Jesus Himself-does surround us on every side but it is also a river of life within us.

When the fiery darts of the wicked one come seeking to shake our faith and to convince us our God is something different than the One revealed in Jesus Christ, the river of living water that wells up from within us and flows out from us not only quenches them but I daresay sweeps them away. 

There is so much more to be said on faith and the word and I anticipate unearthing even more treasures as I move on to study the rest of the Whole Armor of God.  Until next week, I close with Paul’s prayer in his letter to the Ephesians: “Therefore, I ask…the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith: that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height-to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

Hallelujah!  It is so! 

Amen.

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

References     

The Comparative Study Bible, Zondervan Bible Publishers, The Zondervan Corporation, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1984

Strong, James, The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, TN, 1990