Tag Archives: Indwelling Spirit

Do I Not Hate Them Who Hate You?

12 Monday Jun 2023

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Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay

Hello and welcome to another post on Renaissance Woman!

Psalm 139 is one of my favorite Psalms.  It is the first one I ever memorized in its entirety and I often use the verses contained within it as prayers and reminders.  However, there is a passage towards the end of the Psalm that does feel like it doesn’t belong.  It starts in verse 19 but, for the sake of this post, I want to focus on verses 21 and 22: “Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate You?  And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?  I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies.”

There is an interesting story related in the Gospel of Luke Chapter 10.  Verse 25 states, “And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’”  The complete Jewish study Bible begins this verse with; “An expert in Torah stood up to try and trap him by asking…” Jonathan Mitchell’s New Testament describes the man as “a certain man versed in the Law (a Lawyer and a legal theologian; a Torah expert)”.  Jesus replies, “What is written in the law?  What is your reading of it?”  The lawyer answers, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself’.”  Jesus says to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.”  But the lawyer, “wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’”

The story Jesus tells after the lawyer’s question is the one often called “The Good Samaritan.”  It is a fascinating story with many layers to it.  An important point to realize when reading it the deep and abiding hatred that existed between Jews and Samaritans.  For Jesus to use a Samaritan in His story, especially when speaking to an expert in Torah, was one of those times we must pay close attention because Jesus is making a crucial point.

Who is my neighbor?  As I carefully listen to the things being spoken today I do not think I stretch things if I rephrase this questions as, “who am I allowed to hate?”  The answer to that appears to be found in Psalm 139: we can hate those who hate God, loathe those who rise against Him, count them our enemies.  Of course, there is some difficulty in determining just who hates God.  There are times when it appears obvious who hates God but it gets trickier when we come across those who claim to be believers in Jesus but don’t quite believe the right things.  There are so many lines drawn and labels applied to people so we can distinguish our enemies from our friends.  If you belong to my denomination, if you look like me, sound like me, believe like me then you are safe but if you don’t then you are not only against me but against God.  The story of The Good Samaritan is a warning to take care because our neighbor is not who we might think.  After all we humans judge by the outward appearance but God looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).  

And yet, we do live in a time where the heart seems to have been put on display.  The headlines have been full of behaviors where I think we could point a finger and say, “those people there are obviously against God so they are the ones I can hate” but then we come up against John 3:16 which says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” and 1 John 2:2: “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.”  But then, there are passages like Psalm 11:5 “The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, and the one who loves violence His soul hates” and Romans 9:13 where Paul quotes Malachi 1:2-3 saying, “as it is written, ‘Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated’.”  So; God hates but His commandment to us was “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you” (Luke 6:27-28).  Which is it?  Was David wrong in his Psalm or could it be we don’t have an understanding of what the Bible means by hate?

As I search for an answer to that, I have to wonder why “hate” was chosen in the first place by our English Translators.  My New World Dictionary defines hate as “to have strong dislike or ill will for; loathe; despise, to dislike or wish to avoid; shrink from (to hate arguments)”.  There’s a note under the definition that says “hate implies a feeling of great dislike or aversion and, with persons as the object, connotes the bearing of malice.”  Can this really describe our God as revealed in Jesus?

The Hebrew word used by David in his Psalm is sane (H8130, pronounced saw-nay) and is spelled Shin Nun Aleph (שנא).  The Strong’s concordance defines it as “to hate (personally) enemy, foe, odious” so isn’t all that helpful in trying to understand what sane means.  As I continued looking into the sane, I found articles that said “hate” was an incorrect translation of sane and “to love less” would be more accurate.  Others have said that the ancient pictograph of sane is a thorn and then a seed denoting something unsettling that would be turned away from.  One article says “the Hebrew view of hate was more about being hurt or wounded by something because of love being involved…When we feel pain, we want to withdraw; we are made in His image” (FirmIsrael).  Chaim Bentorah has an article devoted to Psalm 139:21 and the word sane and says his studies have suggested “reject” would be better than “hate” to translate the Hebrew.

I don’t disagree with anything I read in the articles linked below (and there are some wonderful points made about how God blessed Esau even though He supposedly “hated” him-worth reading) but I see something more in the picture formed by the Hebrew letters.  The Shin (ש) represents the totality of an entire process from beginning to end and means “whole, entire, intact” or “complete”.  It also carries the idea of repetition in that the process is completed over and over again.  Shin, with its three arms, also represents fire.  Nun (נ) means “emergence” but it also means “to sprout, spread, propagate, shine, flourish, blossom”.  The Aleph (א) is the letter that represents God but also is the letter that brings all of creation into unity with God.  Thus, in the Hebrew word sane, I see the picture of fire rooted in God.  His sane is the love of His Father’s heart that burns against anything that would keep His children from relationship with Him. 

What does the sane of God look like?  It does look like some harsh dealings as we read the Old Testament but each one of those instances describe the broken heart of God and His reluctance to act.  (I have touched on this in my studies on evil).  The fullness of the sane of God looks like Jesus coming to seek and save that which was lost.  It looks like the stories of Luke 15 where, when the precious lost sheep, coin, and son are restored to their rightful place, the call is “rejoice with me!”  United to Jesus Christ, One Spirit with Him, His sane burns in us.  The apostle Paul is a perfect example of the sane of God manifested in a human life.  As the zealous protector of the Temple, Paul hated the Christians in the dictionary definition of the world.  After His encounter with the living Jesus on the road to Damascus, Paul had sane against everything that sought to keep anyone from experiencing the fullness of God.  He became the one who wrote, “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19).

There’s a quote that’s recently been shared a great deal and it has bothered me.  It’s from one of Billy Graham’s sermons and he says, “The closer you get to Christ, the more sinful you’re going to feel”.  The quote is taken out of context and I have not yet had an opportunity to hear it within the entire sermon but, as it stands, I don’t agree with it.  What I believe is the more the life of Christ is formed in you, the more you will sane.  That is not a bad thing.  Our God is a consuming fire and, as we are transformed into the image of Jesus Christ from glory to glory, the more His fire burns in us.  We live rooted in Jesus Christ and His life in us shines out of us and lights the entire world.  We sane anything that would seek to destroy the precious treasure of His life within us and, at the same time, that life in us is an irritant to the world. 

There is so much more to be said on this.  I believe understanding the sane of God is the first step toward understanding spiritual warfare and is a subject I will continue to look at in the upcoming weeks.

Until then, let us remember “that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.  Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us; we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:19-20).  

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

References

Jacob I Loved, Esau I Hated – Hebrew Word for Hate — FIRM Israel

Sanay: To HATE – Hebrew Word Lessons

WORD STUDY – HATE – שׁנה | Chaim Bentorah

Did God Really Hate Esau? – Israel Bible Weekly (israelbiblecenter.com)

What Does The Word ‘Hate’ Mean In Hebrew and Greek? – Misfit Ministries

The Complete Jewish Study Bible, Hendrickson Publishers Marketing, LLC, Peabody, Massachusetts, 2016

Bentorah, Chaim, Hebrew Word Study: Beyond the Lexicon, Trafford Publishing, USA, 2014

Guralnik, David B., Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, Second College Edition, William Collins + World Publishing Co., Inc., Cleveland • New York, 1972, 1976

Haralick, Robert M., The Inner Meaning of the Hebrew Letters, Jason Aronson Inc., Northvale, New Jersey, 1995

Mitchell, Jonathan, The New Testament, Harper Brown Publishing, 2019

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

No Field Lies Fallow

05 Monday Jun 2023

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Image by Marion from Pixabay

Hello, Readers, and welcome to a new post on Renaissance Woman!

I ended last week’s post by asking how did all I had said in that post relate to the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares?  If you have not read last week’s post, A Vast Inheritance, I recommend doing so before continuing on.  If you are ready for my answer to that question, my answer is “Fruit”.  More specifically, the life of Jesus Christ manifested in us His people of which “fruit” in the scriptures is representative.

Let me explain.

First, I must review some bits of Dora Van Assen’s interpretation of this parable which kicked off my study.  Ms. Van Assen points out Matthew 13:35 quotes Psalm 78:2 saying, “I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world”.  It is her conviction that, in the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, Jesus is describing what happened in the Garden of Eden when sin entered into the plan of God.  Ms. Van Assen says the wheat in the parable represents the good thoughts and spiritual understanding planted in the mind of Adam by the Spirit of God while the tares represent evil thoughts and carnal understanding sown into the mind of Adam by the Adversary.  Ms. Van Assen goes on to say these two types of thoughts caused a duality within the mind of Adam which led him to fall into a carnal mind.  This dual mind was capable of bringing forth a harvest of a certain kind of man.  Ms. Van Assen stresses that the “battlefield is in the mind!” (See Kingdom Bible Studies article linked below).

I’ve been meditating on this for weeks now and a passage in James came to the forefront of my mind: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.  But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.  For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (James 1:5-8).

This has always been a difficult passage for me to understand although I have obeyed the command in it and asked God for wisdom.  I am convinced the wisdom we need is immediately ours, after all it is the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation who lives in us.  And yet, I am also convinced that, in some cases; that wisdom takes time to be fully realized.  Like building a house, strong foundations must first be laid.  That was my experience with this passage.  There have been glimmers of understanding as I have studied other passages and then, during the weeks of this study on The Parable, I came across a teaching by Don Keathley called “You Ain’t Double-Minded”.  I was instantly uncomfortable because that title seemed to be refuting the Book of James but I was also curious.  I clicked the link. (It’s excellent: I’ve linked Part One below)

Within the first few minutes, Mr. Keathley said something that grasped my attention.  He was describing the Garden of Eden and the various trees growing in it, especially the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  He pointed out there was only one Garden.  There were two Trees growing in it but they grew together in the same Garden.  This is the same picture as both wheat and tares growing in the same field and it made me wonder just what “double-minded” really meant in the Greek.

The Greek word used in James 1:8 is dipsuchos (G1374) and means “two-spirited, vacillating (in opinion or purpose), double-minded”.  The word is formed of dis (G1364) meaning “twice, again” and psuche (G5590) which means “breath, spirit, life, mind, soul”.  The Greek Lexicon of the New Testament defines it as “double-headed people who stagger helplessly here and there in their thinking” and “to be uncertain about the truth of something, doubting, hesitating.” 

 I have heard this passage used against those who doubt their belief in God.  The encouragement is to trust your leader and don’t ask questions.  I am convinced this is not what James is saying.  He begins his sentence with “if anyone lacks wisdom let him ask of God”.  A knowing and trusting of God must already be in place before anyone dares ask Him anything and that knowing and trusting is what James is telling us not to doubt. If we carry around false ideas of who God is and do not think He is trustworthy, odds are we won’t ask Him anything at all. If we did, how could we possibly receive anything from Him because, would we even recognize it? It all comes down to which spiritual influences we are allowing to sow seeds in the fields of our minds.  We must take care because there are many false ideas of who God is and many willing and waiting to sow those ideas in our minds. 

The Knowledge of the nature of God is what I believe is represented by the wheat and the tares.  My studies have brought me across some interesting facts about the darnel which is believed to the tare mentioned in Jesus’ parable.  The seeds of the darnel are poisonous.  Small quantities do actually have some medical benefit and have been used internally to treat dizziness, insomnia, and stomach problems and externally as a poultice to treat skin problems like shingles and ulcers.  The official name of the darnel, L. temulentum comes from a Latin word for “drunk” and, although bread made with darnel seed mixed with wheat is bitter to the taste, both bread and beer have been made with darnel deliberately included to give a special kick.  It’s a dangerous seed to play with though consumption of the darnel in greater quantities causes some of the same symptoms it has been used to treat and can be deadly.  It is a soporific poison causing a sleep that results in death.  It can also cause convulsions leading to death.

The seeds of the darnel are almost indistinguishable from wheat in seed form.  No one deliberately sows darnel in a wheat field and its presence in the field is often not known until the stalks produce fruit.  Then, the wheat and tares are so clearly distinguishable one from the other that a child can go into a field and separate one from the other.  When Don Keathley’s message got me thinking about the Garden of Eden, I remembered the lie used by the Serpent to deceive Eve.  It wasn’t encouragement to lie or cheat or steal or murder or drink or smoke cigarettes or anything else deemed a “sin” by various religious denominations.  The lie that brought sin into the plan of God was to believe a wrong thing about God.  The lie suggested He wasn’t trustworthy and that humankind was better off determining good and evil for themselves.  This same lie is present with us today and such false ideas about God are often difficult to discern because there is a touch of truth to them.   

A passage I’ve quoted portions of in a couple previous posts is 1 John 5.  The last verse of Chapter 5 and thus the entire Epistle, is “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.  Amen.”  Jonathan Mitchell’s New Testament renders this verse as, “Little children (born ones) keep yourselves in custody (or: guarded)!-away from the idols (the external appearances; the forms; or: = false concepts)!  Going back to the passage in James, “such a man is double-minded, unstable in all his ways.”  Keeping false ideas of God in our minds might feel good and even exciting but their fruit is death.

How do we guard ourselves from false concepts of God when the wheat and the tares in seed form are indistinguishable from each other?  How do we know whether or not the ones we are listening to are false teachers?  Jesus answered this in Matthew 7:15: “You will know them by their fruits.” 

An article I found on the Jewish Virtual Library says the darnel seed, while harmful to humans, is not harmful to birds, especially doves.  I tried to verify this with other articles and, while I did find a few that mentioned the seeds not being harmful to birds such as ducks or chickens, the original article (quoting the Mishnah in Kilayim) is the only source stating specifically the darnel seed is not harmful to doves.  I still found it interesting because it is the Holy Spirit is often represented as a dove in the Bible.  This thought brings me such comfort because, no matter how many times tares have been sown into the field of my life, they have not harmed the Spirit within me nor hindered His work in any way.

There have been many times when I have found myself in a situation where the seeds sown in the field of my life have been a mix of wheat and tares: false concepts of God that appeared to be the truth and I could not separate between the two.  At first, I could not distinguish between the fruit either and I ate of mixed bread.  There was euphoric moments I thought were proof of the moving of the Holy Spirit but these moments were always mixed with bitterness.  As I have continued to be guided by the Holy Spirit and have tasted His fruit, which is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control-I quickly became able to distinguish the fruit of the tares from that of the wheat.

That is, of course, not good enough.  No field lies fallow and discerning what type of fruit is growing in the field does nothing to increase either the health of the field or the field’s yield. I want there to be no tares at all sown in the field of my life but the fact remains the seeds of one are almost indistinguishable from the other: I cannot prevent tares on my own.  No matter: the seeds of the tares do not harm the dove who is the Holy Spirit.  He is the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation lavished upon us by a God of Love who pours out His Spirit even before we ask.  We ask knowing our God, trusting in His love, and assured that what we ask for is ours already.  He is our guide within and He alone reveals to us Jesus who is the Face of God. The Holy Spirit is the only way to distinguish the seed of the wheat from that of the tare.

He guides us into all Truth and we can trust that the One who began a good work in us will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

Hallelujah!  Amen. 

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

References

KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES: THE FIRSTFRUITS, THE HARVEST, AND THE VINTAGE by J. Preston Eby (godfire.net)

What Does Tares Mean? Bible Definition and References (biblestudytools.com)

Tares – WebBible Encyclopedia – ChristianAnswers.Net

Tares (jewishvirtuallibrary.org)

Darnel Ryegrass Plant Care & Growing Basics: Water, Light, Soil, Propagation etc. | PlantIn (myplantin.com)

A Short Summary on our Botanical Knowledge of Lolium Temlentum L.

Bearded Darnel – Medicinal Herb Info

Bearded Darnel – Medicinal Herb Info

 You Ain’t Double Minded – Don Keathley – YouTube

Danker, Frederick William, Walter Bauer’s A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Early Christian Literature, Third Edition, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1957, 2000

Green, Jay P. Sr., The Interlinear Bible, Volume 4, Authors For Christ, Inc., Lafayette, Indiana, 1976, 1985

Mitchell, Jonathan, The New Testament, Harper Brown Publishing, 2019

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

A Vast Inheritance

29 Monday May 2023

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Welcome, Everyone, to this week’s new post on Renaissance Woman!

I had thought He Loves the World would be the last in my current study on the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares and would also serve as a good segue into my study on the Full Armor of God.  And yet, when I looked at my notes, I found I had more to say.  Therefore, this week I am continuing my look at the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares and Jesus’ explanation of the parable as found in the 13th Chapter of Matthew’s Gospel.

Last week I looked at the Greek word translated “world” in Jesus’ words: “The field is the world.”  That word is kosmos and I shared a few passages of scripture where the word kosmos occurs.  One such passage was 1 Corinthians 11:32 which says, “But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world (kosmos).”  The Apostle Paul is speaking specifically of the Lord’s Supper when he writes this but I do want to take a look at the ideas of judgment and condemnation within the context of other scriptures.

The main interpretations of the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares say the Wheat and Tares represent two different types of people who are being left alone to grow together-either within the church itself or the world-until some future day when the tares are gathered together to be burned in the furnace and the wheat is gathered into the barn.  Sometimes declared but always inferred is some far off day of judgment where unbelievers are condemned and believers receive their reward.  My biggest problem with this is that the Nowness of our day to day lives is utterly ignored. 

Let us consider John 3:18-21 which says, “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.  And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world (kosmos) and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.  But he who does the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

This is not a passage I have ever heard a sermon on nor do I hear it quoted by fellow believers.  The message is clear.  Those who do not believe are condemned already.  The words Jesus spoke were true for everyone who listened to Him then and they are true for us now.  And, we are not left to wonder what He meant by condemnation: “and this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.”

There is an echo of this statement later in John’s Gospel in the record of Jesus’ conversation in the upper room before his betrayal and crucifixion.  Speaking of the Holy Spirit, He says, “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged” (John 16:8-11).  There is a “not yet but in the immediate future” idea to these words of Jesus because the Spirit was not yet given because He had not been glorified (See John 7:39).  That future Jesus was referring to was NOW during the day of Pentecost.  Peter quotes the Prophet Joel in Acts 2 saying “I will pour out of My spirit on all flesh”.  The Spirit has been poured out, continues to be poured out, and the time to which Jesus was referring began then and continues into our now.  The Holy Spirit is here and now the very presence of God on the earth and He is convicting the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. 

Sin, righteousness, judgment, condemnation…all of these are concepts deserving of devoted studies.  The point I am attempting to stress is the truth of Now.  So much of what I see and hear coming out of Christendom pushes everything off until some far off future.  This is only possible because of the marginalization-and in some cases outright denial-of the active presence of the Holy Spirit in the newness of our lives.  There is a circulating doctrine that the activity of the Spirit has ceased.  Any gifts were merely to authenticate the ministry of the Apostles and, once the Bible was completed, there was no more any use for them or, indeed, the Holy Spirit Himself (See article linked below).  I suppose that is why the best some denominations have to offer is a promise that, if you believe in Jesus now; you get to go to heaven when you die.

Does the Bible really say that?  I haven’t been able to find a passage issuing me that promise.  What I have found is 1 John 5:10-12: “He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son.  And this is the testimony; that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.  He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”  This sounds like a Now promise to me: not one I have to wait until some far off second coming nor experience physical death before I can claim it.

There are also passages like 1 Peter 1:3-9 which says, ““Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.  In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious that gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love.  Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith-the salvation of your souls.” 

This passage-and others like it-do speak of a future date of perfection, fullness, receiving a body like His, the restitution of all things, an inheritance reserved in heaven, etc.  It’s obvious we don’t have everything promised now because how many of us are walking around in bodies that can’t die?  I do agree there is so much yet to come but that doesn’t mean we stagnate now.  We believers are not a group of thumb-twiddlers waiting for some far off day when ZAP! Fullness of God is ours.  Our inheritance might be reserved in heaven but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t already exist in its entirety and, I would point out, we are of One Spirit with Jesus Christ and we are seated with Him in Heavenly places.  Who is to say this inheritance is not ours now to appropriate and enjoy?

Jesus also says of the Holy Spirit that, when He comes, He will both “honor and glorify Me, because He will take of (receive, draw upon) what is Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you” (John 16:14, Amplified).  What is the “mine” that Jesus is speaking of? Let us read verse 15 also: “Everything the Father has is Mine.  That is what I meant when I said the He will take the things that are Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) them to you” (Amplified).  Wow!  If that is true, and I would not dare call my Savior a liar, then just what are the limits to how we can live now?  What if there aren’t any?

You may be wondering how all of this relates to the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares and, to answer that, I need another post.

Until then, let us not be robbed of what is ours now but may the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation, in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, open the eyes of our understanding that we may know the hope if His calling, the riches of the glory of His inheritance in us, the Saints, and the exceeding greatness of His power towards us who believe.  May we understand that He is light and life.  In Him, we have eternal life and we have it right now.

To be continued…

References

Understanding Cessationism from a… | Zondervan Academic

Greek Tenses Explained – Ezra Project

Hellenistic Greek: Lesson 9: The First Aorist

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

He Loves the World

22 Monday May 2023

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Hello Readers!  Welcome to the start of a new week and a new post on Renaissance Woman.  I am continuing my study of the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares and Jesus’ explanation of said Parable.  Both are found in the 13th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel. 

There are two mainstream interpretations of this Parable and the Explanation.  These interpretations say the Wheat and the Tares represent Believers and Unbelievers who are left to grow together until Jesus returns.  Then the Wheat People/Believers will go to heaven and the Tare People/Unbelievers will go to hell where they will experience eternal torment.  These two interpretations differ from each other only in the respect that some say the Wheat and Tares are side by side in the church pews every Sunday while others say the Wheat and Tares grow together in the world.

I’ve shared in previous posts why I don’t think the wheat and tares in the parable do represent two different groups of people.  My main point has been that the wheat and tares never convert each other.  It is not possible for the wheat to become tares nor for the tares to become wheat.  Since the call of both of John the Baptist and Jesus was to Metanoia! Change your mind!, I agree with a third interpretation of this parable and its explanation.  Rather than two different groups of people, the wheat and the tares represent thoughts planted in our minds through spiritual influence meaning they are inspired by God Himself or the enemy.  The reason I am inclined to this third interpretation is because, as I studied both the parable and the explanation, I found the clincher in Jesus words: “The field is the world.”

Reading Jesus’ explanation in the King James Version can be confusing as Matthew 13:38-40 says; “The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.  As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.”

I’ve already shared how the Greek word translated “world” in verses 39 and 40-the harvest at the end of the world and so it shall be in the end of this world-is aion which means “age”.  The Greek word translated “world” in verse 38-the field is the world-is kosmos.  Without knowing the different Greek words and their meanings, I can understand how the interpretations of wheat and tares growing together in the world until the world ends arose.  It’s obvious to any thinking mind the world has not come to an end so Jesus must be talking about some far off future date.  Other translations have chosen to use “age” in place of world in these passages but I don’t find it’s had much of an effect on how this parable and Jesus’ explanation is interpreted.  I find understanding the difference between aion and kosmos is crucial to understanding this parable and its explanation.  Again, I’ve covered aion in previous posts so encourage anyone interested to read those.  This week, let us look at kosmos.

The Strong’s Concordance defines kosmos (G2889) as “orderly arrangement, decoration, the world (in a wide or narrow sense including its inhabitants) adorning, world.  Kosmos is related to the verb kosmeo (G2885) which means “to put in proper order, decorate, adorn, trim (to snuff a wick)”.  The Greek-English Lexicon defines kosmeo as “to put in order so as to appear neat or well organized” and “to cause something to have an attractive appearance through decoration, adorn, decorate”.  Indeed, kosmos is translated as “adornment” in 1 Peter 3:3.  The word kosmos has a variety of nuances, especially when translated as “world” and the context in which kosmos appears must be carefully considered.

Let us consider a few such passages and substitute back in the Greek. 1 Corinthians 11:32 says, “But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the kosmos.”  Galatians 4:3 says, “Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the kosmos.”  1 John 5:19 says, “We know we are of God and the whole kosmos lies under the sway of the wicked one.”  Reading these passages does not give one a positive sense of the world/kosmos and this is reinforced by 1 John 5:4 where those who are born of God are described as those who “overcome the kosmos.”  Kosmos does not seem like a very good thing at all and, bearing this in mind, I can understand why the parable and explanation are interpreted the way they are.  If the field is the world/kosmos then it is condemned along with the tares and the wheat people are thus plucked from the field and safely gathered into the barn.  I understand the why of the interpretation but I don’t agree with it because kosmos appears in so many more passages.

John 3:16-17: “For God so loved the kosmos that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting (aionios) life.  For God did not send His Son into the kosmos to condemn the kosmos, but that the kosmos through Him might be saved.”  John 4:42: “…we know this this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the kosmos.”  John 6:33: “For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the kosmos.”  2 Corinthians 5:19: “…God was in Christ reconciling the kosmos to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them…” and finally 1 John 2:2: “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole kosmos.”

There are so many other passages containing kosmos and I don’t have the space to quote them all.  I encourage everyone to get a good reference and look up the passages for yourself.  I have the New Koine Greek Textbook because it lists every instance of a Greek word, regardless of how it has been translated in English.  I find the Strong’s Concordance to be invaluable but it is tied to the King James Version of the Bible so only those passages where kosmos was translated “world” were easily searchable.  I do hope the few passages I have shared reveal to you, as they did to me, that when we return to the parable and its explanation, it is obvious the wheat and the tares are not describing people in the sense that the Wheat represent believers and the Tares unbelievers. The field is the kosmos.  Jesus did not give Himself for wheat and tares: He gave Himself for the field. 

Now, I do accept the wheat and tares represent people in the sense that who and what we allow to influence our minds i.e. planting seeds which grow to fruition, do determine what sort of people we are because, paraphrasing Proverbs 23:7; as we think in our hearts, so are we.  Yet I do believe the wheat and the tares are describing the thoughts of God and the thoughts sown by the devil.  Mark 8:33 records Jesus saying to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”  The New English Bible renders this as, “‘Away with you, Satan,’ he said; ‘you think as men think, not as God thinks.”  This is just one passage but it shows our minds are capable of hosting thoughts that stem from different sources.

Our thoughts are so important.  It is crucial that we are vigilant and take great care just who we are allowing to sow into the fields of our minds.  However, just because we have had moments where the fruit of our lives have been tares mixed with the wheat does not mean we are condemned to have both continue to grow inside of us until some far off future time when Jesus comes back to earth.  The word Paul uses is aion but his message in Romans 12:2 is the same: we ought not to be conformed to this world but are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.  Jesus Christ is the consummation of the ages and, because we are in Him, we are being transformed into His image.  We undergo several “harvests” and each one is an opportunity to recognize any tares that might have grown and just who sowed them.

 The fire is already kindled in the earth and we can consign our tares to it and trust our fields will only yield wheat.  Perhaps the occasional tare sneaks in from time to time but that does not change that Jesus is the savior of the world and, “For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14).  The 10th Chapter of Hebrews goes on to quote Jeremiah 31:33: “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them.”  This echoes the promise given in Ezekiel 36:24-28.  His Spirit is in us.  The day of a new heart and mind, a healthy field, good ground, is now. 

I do not say there is not an experience of processing.  There is and this transformation into His image is from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18).  The truth remains we are being transformed and His image is clearer every day.  Let us not look at other people as wheat or tares but let us look at them as a precious field for which Jesus shed His blood and has sown the good seeds of His life.  Let us not look at ourselves as those with no other option but to have wheat and tares growing together in the fields of our lives.  Let us not stagnate.  Let us instead, keep our hearts with all diligence and trust His word is true: We are those who are born of God therefore we do not sin but we keep ourselves and the wicked one does not touch us (1 John 5:18).

What a glorious promise!  Believe it!

Amen.

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

References

World – Kosmos (Greek Word Study) | Precept Austin 

Matthew 13 – Barclay’s Daily Study Bible – Bible Commentaries – StudyLight.org

KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES: THE FIRSTFRUITS, THE HARVEST, AND THE VINTAGE by J. Preston Eby (godfire.net)

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

The New Testament in Four Versions, Christianity Today Edition, The Iversen-Ford Associates, New York, New York, 1963

Danker, Frederick William, Walter Bauer’s A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Early Christian Literature, Third Edition, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1957, 2000

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

Alive in the Fire

15 Monday May 2023

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Hello and welcome to another post on Renaissance Woman!

This week I am continuing my study of the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares and Jesus’ explanation thereof.  The Parable is found in Matthew Chapter 13 verses 24-30 and the explanation is found in verses 36-43 of the same chapter.  There are two mainstream interpretations of both the parable and the explanation.  Both say the wheat and the tares represent believers and unbelievers, the end of the age is whenever Jesus comes again, the angels who reap the harvest are angelic beings, the believers are gathered into the barn which represents heaven, and the unbelievers are taken away to be burned which represents the eternal torment that awaits in hell.  The only respect in which these two interpretations differ is a belief as to where the wheat people and tare people are located.  One group say the wheat and the tares are the people within the Church.  They sit side by side with each other and it’s impossible to tell them apart until the time comes to reap the harvest.  The second group says the wheat people and tare people are believers and unbelievers in the world.

There is a third interpretation which is not as widely accepted.  I first came across it in an article by J. Preston Eby where he was quoting Dora Van Assen.  As I went looking, I found echoes of it in a few Bible Commentaries (there’s a link to Barclay’s Study Bible below) but there are very few lending this interpretation any weight.  Even so, the more I study this parable and Jesus’ explanation, it is the interpretation I believe is true.  The wheat and tares are not separate groups of people but are rather thoughts planted in our minds.  The good seed is sown by the Son of God and the bad seed sown by the Enemy.  Both grow together and come to fruition in the same field.  I have written in depth on this interpretation in previous studies so won’t repeat myself here but did want to share at least this much so you know where I’m coming from in this week’s post.

I do want to devote a post to the meaning of Jesus’ words “the field is the world” and why this statement is a major reason why I believe the seeds as thoughts rather than people interpretation is correct: I plan to do that next week.  I have already written posts on why I don’t think there is any reason to insist “the end of the age” Jesus speaks of in His interpretation has to be pushed into some far-off future.  I have also written on why there is also no need to think of the “angels” in this passage as heavenly beings when Jesus tells His followers many times to pray for laborers to go into the field and even calls His disciples reapers (See John 4:35-38).  In this week’s post, I want to show why there is no reason to think of the tares being burned in the furnace of fire as a symbol for eternal torment in hell.

For one thing, the Greek word translated as “eternal” or “everlasting”, as in “eternal life” or “everlasting fire” or “everlasting punishment” is aionios.  It is the adjective form of the word aion and doesn’t appear anywhere in this passage.  Aion does and the more accurate translations have the English word “age” as the translation for it: “the harvest is the end of the age (aion)” and “so it will be at the end of this age (aion).  The argument can be made that, because the terms “everlasting fire” do appear in passages like Matthew 18:8 and 25:41, it’s what Jesus meant in His explanation.  I agree: the word aionios is used to describe fire in these two passages.  It does not appear in the parable or the explanation of it. My argument is let us look at all of the many other passages describing “fire” before attempting to determine what Jesus meant in His explanation of the parable.  There are many mentions of “fire” in the New Testament and it is obvious none of these passages mean “fire” to be in any way negative.

John the Baptizer is speaking of Jesus and describes Him as the One who will “baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:1, Luke 3:16).  Luke’s gospel records Jesus saying, “I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” (Luke 12:49).  This cannot possibly be referencing eternal torment in hell because firstly, it is a fire that burns on the earth; and secondly, it is a fire that Jesus is excited about.  I cannot see the same Jesus who loved each one of us so deeply He chose the cross being thrilled with the idea of certain people burning in Hell for all eternity (see Hebrews 12:2).  No, these passages have to mean something else and I am convinced they are speaking of a fire which none of us is exempt from passing through.

The 9th Chapter of Mark is fascinating as a great deal happens in it.  Jesus is transfigured before Peter, James, and John, He casts out the mute spirit, makes His eye-opening statement about little children, and then speaks of the fire that will not be quenched.  Verse 49 is the last verse in the chapter and it begins with Jesus saying, “For everyone will be seasoned with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt.”

This same concept is found later in the New Testament.  Paul writes to the Corinthians that, “each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.  If anyone’s work which he has built on it (the foundation of Jesus Christ, see verse 11) endures, he will receive a reward.  If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire” (Verses 13-15).  Revelation 21:8 says, “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

“That’s hell” some insist but I don’t see how the lake which burns with fire and brimstone can possibly be hell because both death and hell are cast into it as related in Revelation 20:14.  And, Revelation 21:8 says this lake which burns with fire and brimstone is the second death.  Revelation 2:11 records Jesus saying, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.  He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.”  There are great promises to the overcomers in these letters to the churches but, even so, they are not spared the second death which is later revealed to be the lake which burns with fire and brimstone.  Rather, they are not hurt by it.

Fire is used to describe God Himself.  Hebrews 12:29 states, “Our God is a consuming fire.”  Jesus’ eyes are described like a flame of fire in Revelation 1:14, 2:18, and 19:12.  Revelation 19:13 says “His name is called the Word of God” and Jeremiah 23:29 records God saying, “Is not My word like fire…”  Malachi 3:3 describes Jesus as the One who “is like a refiner’s fire and like launderers’ soap.  He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver.”  When the Holy Spirit was poured out He appeared as tongues of fire (Acts 2:3).  Oftentimes, when the New Testament is speaking of fire, it is speaking of the living fire that is the presence of God in our lives now testing, purifying, and refining each one of us.  His fire burns away the dross and we can say like Job that, “when He has tried me, I will come forth as gold” (Job 23:10).

There will, of course, be those who remain unconvinced.  That’s okay, it’s the Holy Spirit’s job to convince each one of us of the truth.  I do hope that I have shown there are enough passages of scripture that give reason to doubt the mainstream interpretation of this parable and its explanation.  Question whether the meaning you’ve been given is in fact true.  Look up the scriptures that speak of fire for yourself.  Dare to believe this parable is speaking of the Kingdom within us and that which burns is everything in us that is not of Him.  Dare to believe that the Bible we read is telling us the truth.  Believe that God made Jesus “who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).  Let us remember that the Chapters and verses were put in by the translators and, if we just read a bit further, we find Paul writing, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2b).  Let us realize that now is when “as he is so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17).  Let us dare to believe that we don’t have to wait for some far off future date but, even as the fire of His life burns in us now, we are the righteous who will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of our Father (Matthew 13:43).

Behold, we are the light of the world! (Matthew 5:14). 

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

Matthew 13 – Barclay’s Daily Study Bible – Bible Commentaries – StudyLight.org

KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES: THE FIRSTFRUITS, THE HARVEST, AND THE VINTAGE by J. Preston Eby (godfire.net)

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