Tag Archives: Faith

Death to Life; Darkness to Light

08 Monday Apr 2024

Posted by in Studies, Whole Armor of God

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Hello Readers!  Welcome to Renaissance Woman!

This week’s post is another installment in my study on the Whole Armor of God as described in Ephesians 6:10-18a and my particular focus is still the Helmet of Salvation.

The Greek word soterian is translated as salvation and means “to save, deliver, heal, preserve, make whole, rescue, safety, defense.”  The related word soter means “deliverer, savior”.  This entire family of words not only describes who Jesus Christ is but what He has done and continues to do in each of our individual lives.  I have been pondering the significance of salvation being referred to as a helmet and what it then means for our thoughts to be saved.  As I read Ephesians 6:12, I think of our wrestling against principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this age, and spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places and how this wrestling takes place in our minds.

In last week’s post, I wrote: “Because we are in Christ, we are seated with Him in heavenly places.  How can that be since as I write this I am seated in my office chair in the office space inside my house?  We are seated with Him in the Spirit.  In this realm of Spirit, we encounter a spiritual enemy whose sphere of influence is our minds.  But, this enemy is a defeated one because Christ, who is our life, has destroyed the works of the devil.”

Am I making two contradictory statements?  How can I say Jesus Christ Himself is our armor, that His victory is complete therefore ours is complete in Him, and we are now seated with Him in heavenly places and at the same time say we encounter spiritual hosts of wickedness in the same heavenly places and our Christian lives are ones of warfare?  Which is it?  Both are true until our thoughts are utterly saved although a better word is renewed.  Just this morning I was reminded of Colossians 2:13-15 which says, “And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us.  And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.  Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.”

This then is the truth.  Whatever power or ruler or principality or spiritual host we might encounter is disarmed.  Colossians 2 also says, “For in Him (Jesus Christ) dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him who is the head of all principality and power” (see verses 9 & 10).  That is worth repeating: He is the head of ALL PRINCIPALITY AND POWER.  All means all.  Therefore, there is no other power-and that includes the Devil-who Jesus Christ is not the head of and has not disarmed.

How many of us know this?  How many of us have ever had it taught to us by our religious leaders?  Are we taught that Jesus Christ has disarmed and triumphed over every principality and power or are we told our enemy is so powerful it has the ability to deceive the majority of humanity and drag them into hell?  If it is true that Jesus has disarmed principalities and powers, triumphed over them, and is now the head of all principality and power, why is there still so much evil and suffering in the world?  I don’t wish to offer up pat answers, especially when suffering is so terrible and personal.  What I will offer are a few passages of scripture and a prayer the Holy Spirit increases our understanding.

The first is in 1 Peter 5:8 but I am going to quote from verse 6: “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”  I can’t find a passage anywhere in the New Testament where any of the Writers suggested they were worried about or afraid of the enemy.  James says “resist the devil and he will flee from you” (4:7).   What then could Peter mean by referring to the devil as a “roaring lion seeking whom he may devour?”  That certainly sounds terrifying but, taking all of this into consideration-principalities and powers being disarmed, Jesus the head of all principalities and powers, yet our enemy roaming about like a roaring lion-I would say our enemy is disarmed but still possesses a voice and a sphere of influence in which to use it.

That sphere is death and I am referring to death as a state of mind.  Before you close out of this post, consider these passages of scripture.  Romans 8:6-11 says, “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.”  At an earlier place in this same letter, Paul writes, “Therefore, just as through one man sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned-For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.  Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come” (Ro. 5:12-14).

This concept is repeated in 1 Corinthians 15:21-22 which says, “For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” Hebrews had this to say about death: “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”

I hope you can see the picture being painted by these scriptures.  Every human being on this planet has partaken of the life of Adam in that we are all flesh and blood and subject to death.  These scriptures don’t only refer to the physical death we are all subject to but also to a way of thinking that is death called being carnally minded.  The devil had the power of death and thus power over the carnal mind.  Disarmed he might be, but his voice is that of a roaring lion and, for those who have not yet come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, this voice resonates in their minds and causes terrible fear.

Those of us who have come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ are no longer carnally but Spiritually minded.  John 5:24 & 25 records Jesus saying; “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.  Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.”  1 John 3:14-20 says, “We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren.”  “There is no fear in love,” John writes later in this same letter, “but perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18).

The Greek word metanoia has been translated as “repentance” in most of our Bible translations.  It means “to change one’s mind”.  I don’t see it as merely thinking different thoughts though we humans have great powers of self will and the ability to train our minds to think a different way.  No, I see metanoia as changing one’s mind within the framework of Philippians 2:5: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”

There is a passage in 2 Corinthians that says, “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”  To be Spiritually minded is life, the Spirit is the Lord, and we have the mind of Christ.  Our thoughts then are joined to the One who disarmed all principalities and powers.  He is our Deliverer and Savior who protects our minds like a helmet.  Any thought influenced by the spirit of this world merely pings off the helmet that He is.  He keeps our minds safe while He renews them.  As our minds are renewed, we are transformed into His image.

Talk about mental health!  Isn’t it wonderful?

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

References

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

Guarded On All Sides

29 Monday Jan 2024

Posted by in Studies, Whole Armor of God

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

This week’s post is another installment in my study on the Whole Armor of God described by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:10-18a.  This post will (I think) be the last on The Shield of Faith which we are told to “take up” because, with it, we “will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one”. 

There is a long standing belief that the Apostle Paul was describing the Roman soldiers either soaking their shields in water or covering them with a wet hide in order to protect them from burning arrows.  I cannot say with absolute certainty that this is not true.  I have added a few books to my reading list to see what arguments are made and sources used for this belief and, since I have not yet read them, I am putting this idea on a shelf until a later time.  What I will say is that my studies on Ancient Warfare has told me this is highly unlikely.  I shared these studies in last week’s post so won’t repeat them here.

My studies have also led me to believe fiery darts or burning arrows were not something a Roman Soldier would face in open combat.  I don’t know if this is true for you but the mental picture that would form whenever I read this passage in Ephesians was one of Roman Soldiers lined up in battle using their shields for protection against flaming arrows being shot at them by the enemy.  Both sermons I heard and images from movies helped to form this mental picture.  If this picture is inaccurate (and I believe it is) what does this mean when we study Paul’s letter to the Ephesians?  Was Paul mistaken?  How does this passage tie in to the warfare of the day?  If it doesn’t describe actual warfare, can we trust this passage?

My study has led me to answers that I find satisfactory.  If you have asked these questions yourself and perhaps not dared to ask them of anyone else, I hope these answers are a help for you as well.  My simple answer is this: I believe the Apostle Paul used actual warfare as an analogy but then built on it in a way that transcends any sort of warfare.  He twice made the point that our warfare is spiritual rather than carnal and our enemy a spiritual rather than one of flesh and blood (See 2 Corinthians 10:4-5, Ephesians 6:12) so I am not at all bothered he would begin with an analogy rooted in actual warfare but then point out our weapons have properties far and above their earthly counterparts.

There is every reason to believe the Apostle Paul wrote his letter to the Ephesians while he was in prison being guarded by Roman soldiers.  I believe that he would not have let such an opportunity go to waste.  I imagine him asking his guards questions, drawing them out, building relationships with them, and looking for those opportunities to share the gospel.  I think these soldiers would have eventually shared their experiences and thus Paul’s passage on the Whole Armor of God was rooted in ancient warfare but, rather than describing battles fought by infantry,  I believe the picture he was painting was one of siege warfare. 

Flaming arrows were an integral part of siege warfare.  The goal of using them was to cause distraction, chaos, and terror.  The arrows didn’t need to start a fire though if even a few succeeded the better for the army laying siege.  These arrows did need to be stamped out and that meant the defender no longer had his full attention on any mounting attack.  As I take this into account along with the fact that the Apostle Paul writes it is the Shield of Faith which quenches these fiery darts, I see both the enemy’s tactics revealed as well as our defense against them. 

I have spent weeks looking at the definition of faith along with the meaning and use of the word in its original language.  I think the dictionary definition of faith is important to know as it makes me careful to listen to what others mean when they use the word while at the same time I am careful to hold the original meaning close.  The original use of the word was one of covenant.  Faith was the response one made to another person according to all that person revealed him or herself to be.  Our faith in God is the same: God reveals Himself to us and we respond to that revelation.  “Faith comes by hearing,” Paul writes in his letter to the Romans, “and hearing by the word of God” (10:17). 

Jesus is the Word who became flesh John writes in his gospel and he goes on to write “No one has seen God at any time.  The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (See John 1:14-18).  As our eyes are opened to see Jesus, who is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15), we respond to that revelation.  We come to know Him intimately and through Him to know the Father.  This knowing is the definition of eternal life (See John 17:3, 1 John 5:20).  It makes perfect sense to me that the Apostle Paul would state the defense against the fiery darts used in siege warfare-weapons intended to distract and cause fear-was the shield of the faith which originates in the revelation and word of God.  “Has God indeed said…?” the enemy asked in the garden and the tactics have not changed in millennia.  Perhaps not every arrow will start a fire, but if they can lure us away from our stability in our faith and make us doubt all He has revealed Himself to be, the tactics have been successful.

But, the Apostle Paul writes the Shield of Faith quenches every fiery dart and there is no proof a Roman soldier ever used his shield to quench anything.  Protect and deflect absolutely: quench no.  I can see the Apostle Paul warning his readers of how the enemy would attack.  There would be no need to go out to meet the enemy in battle: the enemy would come to us.  The attack would be leveled at the foundation of our faith and trust in Jesus Christ.  We would find ourselves under siege.  The analogy found in Ancient Siege Warfare is a perfect one.  And yet here is where the Apostle Paul transcends his analogy and, in order to understand why he writes the Shield of Faith quenches all the fiery darts of the wicked one when no shield would have been capable of such a feat; we have to take into account several things.  First, the two words used for “word”.  Second, Psalm 3:3 and third, Paul’s understanding of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is the logos of God (John 1) and our faith comes by hearing the rhema (Romans 10:17).  Logos (G3056)means “something said, including the thought, by implication a topic (subject of discourse) reasoning” while rhema (G4487) means “an utterance”.  There isn’t much discernable difference between the words on the surface but let’s think of it this way: Jesus is the thought of God made manifest in flesh.  He is the living word, God expressed, and is also the revelation of God’s thoughts toward humankind.  The words (rhema) He speaks are spirit and life (John 6:63).  When Jesus faced the enemy in the wilderness, he spoke these words: “man shall not live by bread alone but by every word (rhema) that proceeds from the mouth of God.”  We need both: we must know the Logos of God who is Jesus Christ but we must also hear the rhema that proceeds out of His mouth.

Psalm 3:3 says “But You, O Lord, are a shield for me…”  It would be more accurate to use “around” or “about” in place of “for” in this passage.  The word in the Hebrew is baadi (H1157) and means “in, up to, over against, beside, among, behind, about, within.”  Each of these words is important to consider and the picture here is not just of a shield being carried in front of one but rather a shield that utterly surrounds and protects.  I have no doubt the Roman soldiers would have loved to possess such a shield and I think this is Paul’s point: you, Believer, possess such a shield.  “In Him we live and move and have our being” Paul declared to the Athenians (Acts 17: 28) and I think this is his point in his letter to the Ephesians: the wicked one will lob fiery darts at you in an attempt to destroy your faith but fear not!  Your Shield of Faith is the very life of Christ which surrounds you on every side!  This shield quenches every fiery dart!

The Shield of Faith.  Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.  Man shall live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.  The words that Jesus speaks are spirit and life.  Before Jesus ever declares the words He speaks are spirit and life, He says, “it is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.”  Jesus later says this about the same Spirit: “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.  He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you” (John 16:13-14).

I find it interesting that the word used in Ephesians 6:16 and translated quench is translated as quench in another significant passage. The word means “to extinguish” and is used for what the Shield of Faith does to the fiery darts of the wicked one but is also used in 1 Thessalonians 4:19: “Do not quench the Spirit”. 

This is something far too many believers have done.  They have fallen victim to the fiery darts of “the Holy Spirit died out with the last apostle” and the fiery darts of “the Holy Spirit was no longer needed once we had the Bible.”  The Bible is precious to me.  It contains the very words God has spoken to so many others but the fact remains it contains the words God has spoken.  The Spirit gives life, Jesus said, and the New Testament is packed full of the description of our new covenant life in Jesus Christ through the vitalizing working of the Holy Spirit.  Without the Spirit at work in our lives, speaking what He hears to our hearts and minds, and causing our knowledge of Jesus Christ and who we are in Him to come to maturity; the Shield of our Faith cannot quench the fiery darts of the wicked one. 

Paul writes this in 2 Corinthians 11:3-4: “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.  For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, of a different gospel which you have not accepted…”

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth.  He is the only trusted voice to lead us into the truth that is Jesus Christ.  Without His teaching, guiding, instructing, and leading, we have not heard the words by which faith comes and our shields are not capable of quenching the fiery darts of the wicked one.  There is no substitution for KNOWING Jesus Christ, and through Him the Father, for yourself.  That is done by the Holy Spirit indwelling us and teaches us.  You must know He indwells YOU.  You must know that YOUR body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.  There is no priest or teacher or any other intermediary that is necessary.  The Spirit has been shed abroad in YOUR heart!  This is the absolute truth.

Maybe this is too much for you to believe.  Read the scriptures I have shared in this post for yourself.  Read to the end of John 6 where Peter says, “To whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.”  Then ask that the Spirit Jesus promised He would send would open your eyes to see Jesus has kept His promise.  Ask Him to convince you it is the truth that both Jesus and the Father dwell within you in the Spirit, and ask Him to open your ears to hear the words of eternal life.

Faith comes by the hearing of these words of God and this faith is a mighty shield that surrounds you on every side.  It is a living shield fully capable of quenching every fiery dart of the wicked one.

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     

Quenching fire arrows on shields (romanarmytalk.com)

Hebrew Concordance: ba·‘ă·ḏî — 8 Occurrences (biblehub.com)

Green, Jay P., The Interlinear Bible: Hebrew, Greek, English, Volume 2, Authors for Christ, Inc., Lafayette, IN, 1985

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

The Key of Life

15 Monday Jan 2024

Posted by in Studies, Whole Armor of God

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Image by PixiMe01 from Pixabay

Hello Readers and welcome back to Renaissance Woman!

I missed posting last week due to an aggravation of my shoulder injury.  I’ve been taking it easy, sitting in my chair, reading some books, and thinking about faith.  And now, back to it!

The Apostle Paul describes faith as a shield in Ephesians 6:16 and as a breastplate in 1 Thessalonians 5:8.  Faith then is pictured as something that protects but, in order to understand how faith is protective, it’s important to understand what faith is.

I’ve been looking at the various definitions of faith.  A word is defined by its usage but that doesn’t necessarily mean that definition will bear any resemblance to the original meaning of the word.  Such is true with faith where I find it defined as an unquestioning belief that does not require proof or evidence and as a religion or system of religious beliefs whereas the original meaning of the word was that of confidence, trust, be convinced or persuaded, a compact.  I’ve shared J. Preston Eby’s definition of faith: “Faith is the mental attitude of confident response which is evoked in you by what another person reveals himself to be.”  I find this definition is the closest to what I have discovered both “faith” and the New Testament Greek pistis originally meant.  Pistis is related to peitho which carries the idea of being convinced or persuaded and I think it’s important to keep both meanings in mind when attempting to define “faith”.

The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 10:17, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  The Young’s Literal Translation has this verse as, “so then the faith [is] by a report, and the report through a saying of God”.  I’ve been thinking about this verse a great deal over the last week as I have meditated on the meaning of faith and this verse has helped to answer a question that surfaced in my mind at the beginning of the study.  That question is this: does the Bible describe different kinds of faith namely, our faith verses God’s faith?  If I’d had to give an answer at the beginning of this study, I would not have answered with an unequivocal “yes”; but I would have had to admit the Bible does appear to do so.

The faith recorded in the gospels, the faith that so astonished and pleased Jesus, could not have been the “faith of the Son of God” the Apostle Paul mentions in Galatians 2:20.  Jesus had not yet been crucified, risen from the dead, and ascended to the right had of The Father nor had the Holy Spirit been poured out.  So, the faith that caused people to come to Jesus was a faith inspired by the signs and wonders He performed and the word about Him that spread throughout the land but could not possibly have been His faith.

My study of “faith” meant I read the entry in the New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology.  There, I found; “The accounts of Jesus’ teaching contain several sayings which appear to go beyond the specific situation in which they occur (Mk. 9:23, 11:22 ff.; Lk. 17; 5,; Matt. 17:20).  The distinctive feature of these sayings about faith consists in the fact that they present the believer with unlimited possibilities, and that Jesus expressly summons his disciples to this boundless faith…There was a special kind of faith in God or Jesus-faith.  The antithesis between small and great (Lk. 17:6; Matt. 17:20) presents a contrast between the human attitude and the greatness of the promise.  What takes place in man is small compared with the greatness that comes from God.  However, Jesus spoke of a boundless faith as if of something new.  He did not build on something that was already there, but upon something new (Page 600).”

In his study series on Faith, J. Preston Eby references the Story of the Fig Tree related in Mark 11: 12-25.  Mark 11:22 (referenced in the above quote) is where Jesus is recorded as saying “have faith in God”.  Mr. Eby points out this is a mistranslation of the Greek and it ought to be rendered as “have the faith of God”.  I had never heard this before so, of course, I had to check. I have two Interlinear Greek New Testaments and each one renders this passage the same: ΄Έχετε πίοτιν Θεοΰ (Echete pistin theou). This is literally “Possess Faith God”.  There is no en in this passage but I cannot say that rendering it as “Have faith in God” is incorrect.  The King James, Amplified, New American Standard, and New International all have “Have faith in God”.  Young’s Literal Translation as “Have faith of God” and the rendering on Bible Hub has “from God”.  Whether the translations ought to have “in” or “of” or “from” is not an argument I have any interest in getting involved in.  I do find there is enough to question whether “in God” is the most accurate translation and, were I to stop here, I would have to say, “yes: the Bible is describing different kinds of faith”.

However, Mr. Eby brings up this passage and the translation thereof in these paragraphs:

“We have already stated that faith is produced by someone beyond oneself, therefore we need to have no hesitation whatever in saying that faith in God is not something that you and I just “decide” to have.  It is our Lord, Himself, who must produce faith in the apprehended ones.  It is not something that originates with us as a result of our decision or determination to “have faith” in God.  GOD is the source and originator of our faith!  The unfailing testimony of scripture is that all faith originates in God and is imparted to men by God.  There is no such thing as “our” faith apart from “God’s” faith.  Our faith is simply the faith that God has given us-the faith that HE has evoked in us by the revelation of Himself unto us.

               Thus we read in Mark 11:21-22: “And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto Him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away. And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.”  That is how it reads in the King James Bible but that is not how the Greek text reads.  The Greek text says, “And Jesus said to them, Have the faith of God”-that is, the faith that originates in God and comes from God.  This is in beautiful harmony with what Paul says in Galatians 2:20: “…the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the FAITH OF THE SON OF GOD who loved me, and gave Himself on my behalf.”  Can we not see by these significant words that we do not live in the spirit by virtue of our faith IN the Son of God, but by the faith OF the Son of God IN US.  We live by HIS FAITH that has been evoked in us!  It should not be difficult for any enlightened mind to comprehend that when Paul adds concerning the Son of God this precious expression, “…who love me, and gave Himself on my behalf,” he speaks of the transcendent fact that Jesus gave Himself, poured out Himself, shedding forth out of Himself all that He is and all that He has that we may be recipients of His fullness.  Oh, yes, He poured it out for us – sharing His wonderful life, victory, power, faith, nature, love, wisdom, and righteousness with us!  Oh, the wonder of it!” (The Law of Faith, Part 1).

I do not disagree with what Mr. Eby has said. And yet…I agree we cannot have a confident response to God unless God Himself reveals Himself to us.  I wholeheartedly agree He is both the source and originator of our faith.  And yet, the response is still mine.  In this sense, it is my faith because I am responding to the revelation I have received.

In my previous post The Future is Now!, I related how I had looked at “faith” as it appears in Hebrews 11:1 and how I’d read through the various commentaries on this passage.  Both the Pulpit Commentary and Vincent’s Word Studies speak of faith outside of a religious sense.  The Pulpit Commentary states, “Even in ordinary affairs of life, and in science too, men act, and must act, to a great extent on faith; it is essential for success, and certainly for all great achievements-faith in the testimony and authority of others whom we can trust, faith in views and principles not yet verified by our own experience, faith in the expected outcome of right proceeding, faith with respect to a thousand things which we take on trust, and so make ventures, on the ground, not of positive proof, but of more or less assured conviction.”  Vincent’s Word Studies says (of pistis) “Without the article, indicating it is treated in its abstract conception, and not merely as Christian faith.” (See Bible Hub link below).

This I can agree with: that faith is a universal experience to all humankind and it is only taking into consideration what has served as the source or originator that the type of faith is defined.  For example, suppose a friend comes to me having seen a movie and persuades me to go with her to see it for myself.  I am persuaded by her argument (peitho) and I go with her because I know her as a friend and trust or have faith (pistis) she knows me well enough that this movie will be something I enjoy.  Now, that trust may be misplaced but that is not relevant to the point I am making. “Faith comes by hearing” Paul says in Romans 10:17 and there are a myriad of voices speaking to us attempting to persuade us to their way of thinking.  Our confident response of faith depends on whether we have been convinced and trust the one doing the convincing.  When it comes to the revelation of God in Jesus Christ, made real to us by the Holy Spirit, God is One speaking, revealing Himself, and convincing.  I am still left with the fact that I am the one convinced and my response of faith is still just that: mine.

I am convinced the Whole Armor of God is Jesus Christ Himself.  Thus, the Shield of Faith is His faith, not mine.  Therefore, what does it mean to live by the faith OF the Son of God?  Galatians 2:20 in its entirety says, “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.  And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (KJV).  Malcolm Smith speaks of Jesus Christ in us as our very source and being of life and yet not displacing us.  I live and yet it is Christ living in me.  I have faith because Jesus has revealed Himself to me but I live by His faith.

I wonder if this my faith verses His cannot be resolved with another illustration.  I follow the Physics + Astronomy Facebook page.  There was a video posted not too long ago where a tuning fork was fixed to a table.  Another tuning fork, larger than the one on the table, was tapped on a surface so that it began to hum with its tone.  It was brought close to the fixed tuning fork but, since they were not keyed to the same tone, the fixed fork remained silent.  Then, a second tuning fork was tapped on a surface and it began to hum.  This time, when it was brought close to the fixed fork, that fork began to resonate with the same tone because both forks were tuned the same.  As they both sang together, it was impossible to distinguish how much sound was coming from one fork as opposed to the other: there was only the sounding of a single tone.

Now, this illustration does begin to break down because it is Christ in us, rather than next to us, but it is still an illustration that has stuck with me.  Many voices seek to attract my attention and persuade me the words they are speaking are the truth.  Their truth does not resonate with me because there is only one Truth and the words He speaks are spirit and life.  My faith has come, not only by the hearing of His words, but by His giving Himself to me.  He has come, resonating in the key of life, and His life is the key to which I, as I am conformed to His image, am tuned.  In reality then, there isn’t my faith and His faith because I cannot tell where mine ends and His begins.  I in Him and He in me: we are no longer two but One and I cannot tell us apart.

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 LAW OF FAITH Part 1 by J. Preston Eby (godfire.net)

Mark 11 Interlinear Bible (biblehub.com)

Hebrews 11:1 Commentaries: Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (biblehub.com)

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

Brown, Colin, The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Volume 1, Regency Reference Library, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1967, 1986

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

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

Marshall, Alfred, The NIV Interlinear Greek-English New Testament, Regency Reference Library, Zondervan Publishing House, Grad Rapids, MI, 1976

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

Young, Robert, Modern Young’s Literal Translation: New Testament with Psalms & Proverbs, Greater Truth Publishers, Lafayette, IN, 2005

Resolved to Listen

01 Monday Jan 2024

Posted by in Studies, Whole Armor of God

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Happy New Year, Readers!  Welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman where, this week, I continue looking at the Whole Armor of God as described in Ephesians 6:10-18a with my focus still on the Shield of Faith.

I cannot underestimate the importance of listening.  So few of us truly listen.  Far too many of us wait for gaps in the conversations or for the one speaking to take a breath so that we may insert our words, take control of the conversation, and steer it where we would.  Far too few of us listen in order to establish deep connections through conversations and far too few of us listen to hear whether or not those connections can even be established.

Take the definition of faith: there are conversational traps easy to fall into and difficult to discern until one has already fallen into them, unless one takes the time to listen.  Two people can come together both using the word “faith” and both can mean the word two entirely different ways.  How the word is meant by the one using it is not clear without careful, intent listening. 

My New World Dictionary offers up 6 definitions for faith and I find it is the first 3 which are used the most often.  The first is “unquestioning belief that does not require proof or evidence”.  The second is “unquestioning belief in God, religious tenets, etc.”  The third is “a religion or a system of religious beliefs (the Catholic faith)”.  It does not take a great deal of listening time to understand which definition is being used.  Sadly, I find those deep connections are difficult to form with those entrenched in these three definitions.  They have no interest in hearing how faith is a covenant word and I have found it is best to remain a listener in these situations.  If you do try and share the truth, you’ll eventually have to take a breath and you will find your opportunity is gone.

When I am in these situations, I keep two passages of scripture close to my mind and heart.  The first is 1 Peter 3:5: “be ready with an answer to everyone who asks…” the second is 2 Timothy 2:23-26: “But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife.  And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”  Listening is crucial in these situations and I don’t mean mere listening to what the other person is saying: I mean listening for the voice of the Holy Spirit in the midst of these situations.  If He gives the words to speak He will also create the opportunity for speaking them.  Speak the truth in love!  If He does not, stay silent!

Silence is a difficult thing for believers.  If we come away from a conversation not having “shared our faith”, we have been taught we have failed God because it is our responsibility to fill the earth with the knowledge of God and make disciples.  After all, “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed?  And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?  And how shall they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14).  I would ask, what does it mean to “share our faith”?  Definition 4 of faith in the dictionary is “anything believed”.  I find many believers cleave to this definition and use “faith” when they really mean “knowledge”.

Knowledge is not what the Greek word pistis translated as “belief” and “faith” in our Bibles originally meant.  As I’ve said, it is a covenant word and the closest dictionary definitions to the original intent of the word are numbers 5 and 6: “complete trust, confidence, or reliance” and “allegiance to some person or thing, loyalty”.  I shared J. Preston Eby’s definition of faith and I have not come up with a better: “Faith is the mental attitude of confident response which is evoked in you by what another person reveals himself to be.”

Faith is not knowledge.  When we share our faith with another person, we are not sharing what we know about God but rather who God has revealed Himself to be.  It’s a subtle but disastrous distinction and I believe with everything I am the key to recognizing what we are sharing with another person is love.  “Knowledge puffs up” the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 8:1, “but love builds up.”

The Apostle Paul begins that beautiful description of love in 1 Corinthians 13 by writing, “But earnestly desire the best gifts.  And yet I show you a more excellent way.  Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.  And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”

I’ve been meditating on this passage since watching one of Malcolm Smith’s webinars (linked below).  I listened to Bishop Smith read the passage in its entirety and wondered if the Apostle Paul was saying love was more important than anything, including faith.  That couldn’t be because our God is love and is also the author and finisher of our faith.  Since both are found in Him, they had to both flow and work together.  I spent some time meditating and here’s what I think Paul is saying: since faith is our confident response to who and what God has revealed Himself to be, if that response is anything less than the love of God, then the Holy Spirit still has a great deal of work to do in us.

The Amplified Bible says this clearly in 1 Corinthians 13:3: “Even if I dole out all that I have [to the poor in providing] food, and if I surrender my body to burned [or in order that I may glory] but have not love [God’s love in me], I gain nothing.”  Then comes the description of what the love of God is:

“Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.  It is not conceited-arrogant and inflated with pride, it is not rude (unmannerly), and does not act unbecomingly.  Love [God’s love in us] does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it-pays no attention to a suffered wrong.  It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.  Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances and it endures everything [without weakening].  Love never fails-never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end” (Amplified, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a).

This is the love Jesus meant when in John 13:35, He says, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” This directly follows His new command in verse 34: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have love you, that you also love one another.”  When we read through these passages, how are we doing on living that sort of love?  When we “share your faith” with another person, how do we think about that person?  Do we love that person?  Do we see that person as someone so beloved by the Father that Jesus was sent?  Or, do we share our faith in an attempt to get-off-the-hook with God e.g.; “I said the words: if they don’t believe them that’s their problem: my hands are clean”?  The scripture is clear: if we have not shown that person the love of God, we are the same as a noisy gong or clanging symbol. 

Of course this love is impossible for us: that’s why it’s called God’s love.  We do not have it within ourselves nor can we show it to others but “with man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”  “Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit” were the words of the Lord to Zechariah and those words are as true today as they were then.  It is possible to define faith as “being convinced by argument” and I think many Christians have attempted to do just that: convince others of the truth of Jesus through arguments. 

What about Romans 10:17 which says, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”? Doesn’t that mean we should be speaking the truth at every opportunity?  I would ask; are we speaking the truth in love and by love I mean the love of God?  Are we speaking to point out transgressions rather than speaking the truth that “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them”? (2 Corinthians 5:19).  Are we telling people what wretched, filthy sinners they are or are we speaking the truth that Jesus Christ has “once, at the end of the ages…appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself”?   

James 1:19 says, “So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath”.  As the calendar switches to a New Year, I only have one resolution: that I would be given ears to hear.  Not just what the Father is saying but to what my fellow human beings are saying.  May I listen for that opportunity for the deep connection which is an agape connection.  May I pray this prayer for everyone who crosses my path: “Father, who so loves this person, how are you revealing that love to this person through me in this moment?”  When I receive the revelation of the love that He is, may my confident response-which is my faith-be that love.

“And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

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

References

THE LAW OF FAITH Part 1 by J. Preston Eby (godfire.net)

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

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

Comfort and Joy

25 Monday Dec 2023

Posted by in Studies, Whole Armor of God

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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Happy Christmas, Readers! 

Monday is my usual post day and, this year, Monday happens to be Christmas Day. 

I am still in the midst of my study on Ephesians 6 verses 10 through the first part of verse 18.  This is the passage where the Apostle Paul describes the Whole Armor of God.  I have not yet moved on from the Shield of Faith and did wonder what sort of post I could create for Christmas Day that would continue to reveal the true definition of faith.

That might seem silly because of course Christmas is all about faith for Christians.  I find that “faith” in this respect is used to mean “a religion or a system of religious beliefs” which is definition 3 of “faith” in my New World Book Dictionary.  Those who use “faith” mean the set of rules and regulations set down by their denomination, the theology stamped approved by their denomination, and the fiercely held but not always audibly expressed idea that the faith of their denomination is the True Faith: all others are mistaken and have fallen short of the truth.

I suppose I ought to admit I am rather ambivalent about Christmas.  On the one hand, there is everything I have learned about Christmas traditions.  Would it shock you to learn that there is no Christmas movie (that I can bring to mind) that accurately portrays the birth of our Lord and Savior and that the Nativity Scenes where the animals gaze benevolently at the newborn Christ, the Shepherds bow down in worship, and the Three Wise Men offer their gifts, directly contradicts the Biblical story?

Only the Shepherds were there to see the Baby Jesus.  The Wise Men-and there had to be a great many more than three visitors from the East-didn’t arrive until Jesus was a child and, when they visited Him, they did so at the house where He, Mary, & Joseph were living (see Matthew Chapter 2).  There is every reason to question whether His birth occurred in December and there is also reason to question whether the place He was born ought to be translated as “stable”.  All of these things as they are celebrated during Christmas are traditions and are “faith” only in the respect that they are the traditions of a belief system accepted by a wide group of people.

All of these things I can take or leave.  If I have the opportunity to partake of these traditions, fine; if not, equally fine.  It is the people I am partaking with who are important.  I also admit there are some aspects of Christmas I thoroughly enjoy.  Some of the Christmas music is the most beautiful I’ve ever heard.  So beautiful, I don’t always save these songs for Christmas.  You can find me singing “Joy to the World” and “O Holy Night” at any time of the year.  And, accurate or not, I do like the Nativity Tableau because it is a picture of what the Hebrew words translated “remember” and “remembrance” mean.  The two words are spelled the same but are pronounced with different vowels.  Remember is zakar and it means “to mark-so as to be recognized-to remember, to mention”.  The Strong’s also defines it as “to be male” which makes this word worth a devoted study.  The word translated as “remembrance” is zeker and isn’t all that different than zakar being defined by the Strong’s as “a memento, recollection, commemoration.”  The Strong’s also includes the word “scent” and “to burn incense” in these definitions and I like the idea of all of our senses being involved in our remembering.

Remembrance in the Biblical sense of the word is not an intellectual exercise.  The meaning can be seen in these Christmas celebrations: acting it out as if Jesus was being born this very night, celebrating the Word made flesh, recognizing our likeness in His face, and reveling in the indescribable love of God.

Unto us a Child is born.  Unto us a Son is given.

But, this remembrance is not our faith.  We are not acting out a mere belief system.  We are celebrating-or ought to be celebrating-the revelation of God Himself in Jesus Christ.  This revelation of God in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, the humility in the heart of God in that God became one of us-limited in every way as we are, tempted in every way as we are-is the catalyst for a response in us and that response is the definition of faith.

I read J. Preston Eby’s teachings and only recently discovered he’d written a short series on faith.  I am currently on page 3 of the first study but have read enough that there is plenty to ponder.  Mr. Eby opens his study series with this definition of faith: “Faith is the mental attitude of confident response which is evoked in you by what another person reveals himself to be.”

Mr. Eby goes on to write, “The very first thing that you will surely observe about this definition is that it declares that your faith is not something that you decided to exercise.  Rather it is a response produced in you by someone other than yourself!  True faith never accrues to the praise of the one who possesses it, but rather, to the glory of the one who evokes it!  Then, in the second place, the “mental attitude of confident response” known as faith is totally dependent upon revelation, that is, the uncovering or unveiling of another person’s inner being in such a way that he may be seen as he really is.”

Does Jesus have December or a September or an April or some other birth month?  Was He born in a stable or some other type of room?  I do enjoy reading what others have to say on these subjects.  I don’t have time for arguing about it because, whatever the facts may be, the truth is we have an unpredictable God who, maker and ruler of all things, did not choose to be born in a way that fitted His station.  He was born to poor peasant parents, had a manger for His bed, and while angels filled the skies with song, only shepherds were there to mark His birth.

Tomorrow will be December 26th.  Perhaps many of you will begin taking down decorations and packing them away until next year.  Perhaps many of you will find tomorrow to be a bit of a letdown.  Perhaps you sought the Magic of Christmas and needed Santa and Elves and Flying Reindeer in order to find it.  But then, you probably stopped believing in all of that years ago.  You try to create magic for your children but deep inside you know magic is nothing more than illusion and sleight of hand.

None of your days have to be a letdown.  We don’t have to try and stir up some sort of holiday spirit and try to keep it going into the cares and trials of our daily lives.  Jesus is not just the reason for the season, He is the reason for everything that exists: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.  All things were created through Him and for Him.  And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” (Colossians 1:15-17).

I follow the blog Hebrew Word Lessons and a recent post addressed Christmas.  The point was made about the unlikelihood of Jesus having a December birth but also pointed out the beauty of celebrating His arrival with lights during the darkest time of the year.  The author also writes, “This Messiah (Anointed One), who would come as a child, would be an awe-inspiring, mighty, eternal, peace-bringer.  And He would be a counsellor…an intimate advisor for every human heart.”  John 14:16 refers to the Holy Spirit as the Comforter and the Amplified expands that word with “Counsellor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby”. (See also John 14:26-28).  

Today is the day chosen to be the commemoration of God’s coming to earth through His being born a human being.  However you choose to mark today, if you do so choose to mark today, I hope it is a day full of the comfort and joy that belongs to each one of us.  Because that baby is no longer a baby.  He is the risen and ascended Lord Jesus Christ, sitting at the right hand of the Father, with all authority in heaven and on earth His, ever living to make intercession for us, dwelling in us in and by His Spirit. 

When we experience the vitality of us in Christ and He in us, all substitutions pale in comparison. Our reality is we have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of us.  Emmanuel, God with Us, has become God in Us.  Our very bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit not just today but every day.  He is our Comfortor and His fruit is joy.  The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation, will open our eyes to the magnitude of what it means to live in union with Christ in us: we only have to ask.  And then, having opened our eyes, this same Spirit will strengthen us to live our lives in response to all we have seen: a life of faith.

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

References

THE LAW OF FAITH Part 1 by J. Preston Eby (godfire.net)

Revisiting COUNSELLOR ‹ Hebrew Word Lessons ‹ Reader — WordPress.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, 1953, 1976

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