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Truth That Transforms

10 Monday Jun 2024

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Welcome, Readers, to Renaissance Woman and another installment in my study on the Whole Armor of God.

I am still firmly planted in the first part of verse 14 of Ephesians Chapter 6: “Stand, therefore, having girded your waist with truth…”  I had intended to see what all I could glean from studying “having girded your waist” but, as I continued to read the entry for “truth” in the Dictionary of New Testament Theology, I read a few things that struck me:

“Paul believes in the power of truth…To encounter the truth as it in in Jesus leads on to transformation of life, in which the believer turns away from old deceits (Eph. 4:21, 22)”…Paul’s statement in [2 Corinthians] 13:8, ‘We cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth’ may just possibly refer to truth as a synonym for the gospel, as R. Bultmann maintains, but more probably conveys the idea that the power of truth is such that openness to truth, whatever its consequences, can only further the cause of Christ and the gospel.  Truth is demanded of the Christian as a corollary of his union with Christ and status as a new creation.  In 1 Cor. 5:8 the Christian celebrates the festival of the new life with sincerity and truth, banishing all impurity and deception or dishonesty, just as the Jews banished the old leaven from their houses at Passover time…The new life is to be untarnished; free from anything that spreads corrupting influences by virtue of its impurity or duplicity” (Brown, Pg. 886)

I have only quoted bits from the entry but I think the point the writer is making is clear: we who know we are in Christ are to live differently.  I don’t know of any believer who would disagree with that.  I don’t disagree with that.  However, as I read through this entry, I found something important was missing.  Further down on page 886 I did read “because the believer has put on the new nature” but that was the only reference I found that remotely referred to what Paul expressed when he wrote, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).  This got me thinking: what do we mean when we speak of a transformed life? 

I think every believer is in agreement that Jesus Christ is the absolute truth.  I do find there are two ways in which believers relate to the truth that is Jesus.  These can be summed up as those who live from and those who live to.  “From” and “to” affect how one defines living a transformed life.  As I read through the entry for truth in my dictionary, I find letter c: “the quality of being in accordance with experience, facts, or reality; conformity with fact.”  For those living “to”, a transformed life is one where we have done our best to align ourselves with the teachings of Jesus and the way the Bible says to live.  Those living “to” are living for the day when they will either die and go to heaven to be with Jesus or receive their reward when He returns to establish His kingdom here on earth. 

I use to live “to”.  I can only speak for myself but I found it be a life-draining struggle of attempting to modify my behavior to be acceptable to God.  Not Jesus, because He died for me so I was already accepted by Him.  The Father was iffy though and there was always a chance I wouldn’t behave well enough nor put on enough of the new man that I’d escape the Father’s wrath.  Perhaps I’d squeak my way into heaven but my garments would be smoking.  There was no definitive answer given to the question “can a person lose his/her salvation” and so I lived with the sneaking suspicion I could blow it bad enough that not even Jesus would speak for me. 

This time of my life was spent with no understanding of the Holy Spirit.  Lip service was paid to this…entity but there was no understanding of who He was, how He was at work in my life, and I had no idea how beloved I was.  I can still remember the day when I sought out my mother and said how much I desired to learn about the Holy Spirit.  She replied, “me too!”  Of course, neither of us had any idea how to go about it other than to start reading passages about the Holy Spirit in the Bible but our ignorance was no deterrent.  Everything Jesus said about the Holy Spirit in John 14:16-17 & 26 and John 16: 7 & 13-14 is absolutely true: the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, the Helper, the Comforter, the Teacher, the Guide, and the One who abides with us forever. 

Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthians, “do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you have from God and you are not your own?” (1 Cor. 6:19).  The Holy Spirit witnesses from inside of us this is so.  The Holy Spirit is our constant companion.  There is no separating ourselves from the Holy Spirit and therefore there is no circumstance or situation we can experience where we do so alone.  The Holy Spirit is our teacher and Jesus’ words are the truth: the Holy Spirit does not speak of Himself or on His own authority but teaches us who Jesus is, glorifies Jesus, and shows us the truth that everything that belongs to Jesus is also ours.  The Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the Oneness that is our God and is also ours in Jesus Christ.  The Holy Spirit teaches us to live “from”: from the life of Jesus Christ within us because, to quote Paul again, we are joined to the Lord and one spirit with Him. 

That is how I define living a transformed life.  It is not behavior modification but is rather a life transformed as the Holy Spirit continues to open my eyes to all that Jesus is in me and I in Him.  This is the meaning of a transformed life I find in the Bible:

Romans 8:29: “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be confirmed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”

1 Corinthians 15:49: “And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.”

2 Corinthians 3:18: “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

Galatians 4:19: “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.”

Ephesians 4:13-15: “till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head-Christ”

Ephesians 4:20-24: “But you have no so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”

Colossians 3:9-10: “Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.”

I agree with the statement “To encounter the truth as it in in Jesus leads on to transformation of life, in which the believer turns away from old deceits” but would rephrase it like so: Encountering the truth which is Jesus Himself revealed to us and in us by the Holy Spirit results to a transformation of life as our lives are conformed to His.  Perhaps some of you reading this have spent your Christian lives living “to” something that will happen at some future date and have never thought of living “from”.  Perhaps you are like my mother and me and have no idea about the Holy Spirit.  No matter.  Ask and the Holy Spirit will teach you.  You may find the Holy Spirit has already been teaching you: you simply haven’t recognized it. 

There’s a scripture in James I love: “or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, ‘The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously?’” (James 4:5).  The truth of Jesus-risen, ascended, and dwelling is us-is not something reserved for special people who have made some sort of commitment or are extra holy in some way.  This truth is for you.  The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously for us to know the Father is in Jesus, we are also in Jesus, and we have been brought to complete unity.

Until next time, may the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Jesus Christ open the eyes of our understanding-flood us with light-that we may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in us and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe.

May we live transformed!

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

References                         

Brown, Colin, The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Volume 3, Regency Reference Library, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1967, 1971, Page 886

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

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

Walker, Allen G., Koine Greek Textbook, Volume II/III, 2014-2018

Knowing Him for Myself

20 Monday May 2024

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“Stand, therefore, having girded your waist with truth…”

The Greek word translated as “truth” in Ephesians 6:14 is aletheia.  This word is defined in the Strong’s Concordance as “truth, verity” and is a noun in the dative feminine singular.  According to the Interlinear Greek on Bible Hub, it is Strong’s number 225.  I point this out because, as I looked up “truth” in the Strong’s, I found number 226 which is aletheuo: the verb form of the word meaning “to speak the truth.”

Was the Strong’s incorrect?  I looked Ephesians 6:14 in Alfred Marshall’s The NIV Interlinear Greek-English New Testament and The Interlinear Greek-English New Testament: the Nestle Greek text with a new Literal English Translation.  I also checked Jay P. Green’s The Interlinear Bible: Hebrew English Greek as well as the Young’s and NIV Exhaustive Concordance.  Each of these references verified the Greek aletheia instead of aletheuo.  The answer was yes: the Strong’s Concordance was incorrect.  I wondered if it wasn’t perhaps a typo in my NEW Strong’s Concordance so I checked the oldest copy to which I have access. 

I am not certain how old these copies are.  One has “Copyright 1890 James Strong” on the copyright page but also has a note stating the thirty-fourth printing occurred in 1976.  The other has no copyright date at all but there is an inscription dated 1971 so, older than that.  In the end, finding an older copy of the Concordance made no never mind as each copy referenced aletheuo 226 for Ephesians 6:14.  The Strong’s was indeed incorrect.  

Welcome Readers to Renaissance Woman where, this week, my focus is still on truth.  What is truth? Previous posts have already addressed whether truth is subjective and relative to the Individual so I won’t repeat those points.  The truth is a person and that person is Jesus Christ.  If it isn’t Jesus, it isn’t the truth.  But then, I have to ask: is every Believer talking about Jesus really speaking the truth about who He is?  What is the foundation for our belief?  A reference book?  The Bible?  A pastor, reverend, or priest?  Most believers would answer, “The Person of Jesus Christ” which would be correct, but how do you know Jesus?  Again, through a reference book?  The Bible?  A pastor, reverend, or priest?

Reference books can contain mistakes.  I know this is a distinct possibility which is why I collect as many different reference books as I can so I can verify and re-verify what I am studying.  I agree with those who state the Bible is the inspired word of God.  I wholeheartedly concur that the writers were indeed inspired by the Holy Spirit.  I do not wholeheartedly concur with those who claim the Bible is inerrant without some explanation on just what they mean by “inerrant”.  I possess multiple translations of the Bible but that’s what they are: translations.  I don’t want to accuse the translators of being deliberately misleading but study has shown the translations don’t always follow what the original language intended to convey.  An example of this is tou.  This is a pronoun in the Greek and it means “his, of this person.”  Different passages translate it as “in”, “of”, or “the” rather than “his” which I find does subtly alter the meaning. 

My Bibles are among the most precious books I own and I want to say I do not ever take it for granted that I am privileged to have as many Bibles in as many translations as I want.  There are many fellow believers who do not have this privilege and in fact put their lives on the line to possess any Bible.  Therefore, I am not saying reading and/or studying the Bible is a waste of time.  What I am saying is take care.  Listen to what people are saying when they claim the Bible is inerrant.  I have often found it is the interpretation of their denomination and/or the tenets that have come down to them through their traditions that are considered inerrant.

Take care who you are listening to.  What message is coming to you from the pulpit?  Is the message being delivered to you Jesus Christ?  Are you being encouraged to know Him for yourself?  Are you being told your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and the same mind which is in Christ Jesus is also in you?  Again, Jesus Christ alone is the truth.  Listen to what is being taught.  Test the spirits to see whether they be of God.

“Test all things,” the Apostle Paul writes in his first epistle to the Thessalonians; “hold fast what is good.”  These words mean more to me today than ever before.  What if I hadn’t checked?  What if I’d only used the Strong’s and written an entire post on it being the verb aletheuo with which we gird our waists?  BibleHub defines aletheuo as “literally ‘to truth’, includes Spirit-led confrontation where it is vital to tell the truth so others can live in God’s reality rather than personal illusion.”  I like this: I want to study it a bit more and I have no doubt I could have produced an eloquent post on how our waists are girded with a divine directive to confront those who do not know the truth.  I could have backed it up with other scriptures like Ephesians 4:15 which where aletheuo does appear: “but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head-Christ-”.  It may have been eloquent but it would not have been true. 

The truth is not subjective or relative or abstract.  It is vitally alive as the person Jesus Christ.  Revelation 19:13 states His name is called the Word of God and that little Greek word tou appears here translated “of”.  It also appears in Ephesians 6:14: “putting on the breastplate of righteousness”.  “The” in this passage ought to be “His”.  When I quote these passages out loud with “His” in place of “of” and “the” I feel as if I’ve discovered a treasure trove.  I can’t say the translations are wrong but there is a depth of meaning that is lost.  “Of” and “the” are impersonal whereas “his” is not.  One message I’ve been hearing a great deal lately is “separation.”  God is separated.  The Father cannot wait to pour His wrath on all of us sinning humans and its Jesus alone who prevents Him.  This teaching is in direct conflict with my knowledge and experience of God tested by the Bible.  Again, Revelation 19:13 says Jesus’ name is called “The Word of God.”  Everything the Father has to say to us, He says in Jesus (see Hebrews 1:1-4).  John 1:18: “No one has seen God at any time.  The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.”  The Father and the Son are not in opposition to each other.    

All of my study on the Whole Armor of God so far shows me that the Armor describes a facet of the Life of Christ and that Life not as something we put on in that it is external to us-separate from us-but the Life that is in us.  The Whole Armor of God is describing the New Covenant Life of us in Jesus Christ and He in us.  And not Jesus only for “he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also” (1 John 2:23).  There is no separation in the heart of God.  We cannot claim our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit and thus the Spirit of God lives in us without also claiming the Son of God and God the Father also live in us.  I think it is easier to think in terms of separation when we read passages where tou is translated as “of” or “the” rather than “His”.  It’s true for me at least.  Using “His” whenever I encounter tou makes the scriptures so much more personal.

The truth is personal.  The truth is Jesus Christ and truth Himself changes not but our knowing Him and experiencing Him is personal.  You must know Him for yourself.  The only way to know Him is by the Holy Spirit.  1 John 2:27 says, “But the anointing you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.”    

The Holy Spirit is the only teacher you need.  Reference books and the Bible and teachers/pastors/preachers/priests are all wonderful and eminently useful as we strive to be workers who do not need to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth (See 2 Timothy 2:15) but not one of them are fit substitutes for knowing Him and hearing His voice for yourself.

Every one of our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.  We are filled with the fullness of God and we have only begun to understand all that means.  You do not need anyone to be a mediator between you and God.  There is only one mediator between God and man, Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5).  He is the way, the truth, and the life.  My prayer for all of us over the upcoming days is that our heart’s desire would echo the words of the Apostle Paul: “that I may know Him”! 

Amen.

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

References

Ephesians 6:14 Interlinear: Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about in truth, and having put on the breastplate of the righteousness, (biblehub.com)

pronouns.pdf (greekgrammar.eu)

Green, Jay P., The Interlinear Bible: Hebrew, Greek English, Volume IV, Authors for Christ, Lafayette, Indiana, 1985, 2000

Goodrick, Edward W. & John R. Kohlenberger III, The NIV Exhaustive Concordance, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1990

Marshall, Alfred, The Interlinear Greek-English New Testament: The Nestle Greek text with a new Literal English Translation, Second Edition, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1958

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

Strong, James, Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Associated Publishers and Authors, Inc., Grand Rapids, Michigan

Strong, James, Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Abingdon, Nashville, Tennessee, Thirty-fourth Printing, 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, Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts

Plumbing the Depths

13 Monday May 2024

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Hello Readers!  Welcome to Renaissance Woman and to a new installment in my study on the Whole Armor of God.

In his description of the Whole Armor of God in his letter to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul tells us to “Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth…” “What is truth?” Pontius Pilate asks as he questions Jesus.  Jesus had already answered that question while in the Upper Room with His disciples: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”  Here then, is our answer.  The truth is not some abstract thought.  It is not a malleable thing subject to shifts in emotions or culture nor is it changeable as knowledge increases.  The Truth is a person.  He has a name. 

There is intense pressure among some to use His proper name.  A great number of us have grown up calling Him Jesus.  There are others who insist it is only right and proper to use His Hebrew name, Yeshua.  We only say “Jesus” as His name has undergone a series of transliterations and pronunciation as the letter “J” came into use therefore it is right and proper to refer to Him as “Yeshua.”  After all, that is the name Gabriel gave to Mary so it is His true name.

The Bible does stress the importance of His name.  Perhaps some of the best known passages are:

Matthew 18:20: “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”

John 20:30-31: “And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”

Acts 4:8-12: “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, ‘Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole.  This is the “stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone”.  Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Philippians 2:9-11: “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Truly, just considering these few passages, the Name of Jesus is of utmost importance. 

However, I find the proper name for our Lord and Savior to be far more complicated than using a Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Anglicized, or any other pronunciation of His name.  The Book of Revelation describes Jesus this way: “Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse.  And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war.  His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns.  He had a name written that no one knew except Himself.  He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God” (Rev. 19:11-13).

This passage is one I meditate on as I consider the meaning of “name”.  Names in the Bible were not labels pasted on people in order to differentiate one from another.  Names represented a calling or destiny and it was the meaning that was important and not so much the pronunciation.  Consider the lists of Kings in the Old Testament.  Joash is also referred to as Jehoash and Azariah is also called Uzziah.  Joash means “fire of Yahweh” and Jehoash means “Yahweh has bestowed”.  Azariah means “helped by God” while Uzziah means “my strength is Yah”.  Reading the stories of these Kings in the Books of Kings and Chronicles shows how apt the meanings of these names are.  They were not just names but were descriptions of who these men were and how they lived.

The meaning of both the Hebrew and Greek words translated as “name” reflect this.  The Hebrew word is shem (H8034) and, while the Strong’s does define it as “position, appellation, mark or memorial of individuality” it also defines it as “honor, authority, character, fame, named, renown, report.”  The Greek word onoma (G3686) has an almost identical definition.  The Strong’s defines onoma as “a name, authority, character”.  This is an important distinction to grasp because “having a good name” in the Biblical sense does not mean having a name that sounds nice: one’s name was the summation of one’s character.

That the name of Jesus has to mean more than correct pronunciation is made clear by two passages in the New Testament.  The first is found in Luke 9:49-50 where: “Now John answered and said, ‘Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow with us’.  But Jesus said to him, ‘Do not forbid him for he who is not against us is on our side.’”

The second is found in Acts 19:13-15: “Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, ‘We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.’  Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so.  And the evil spirit answered and said “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?’”

The difference is obvious.  The first person was operating in the authority and character of Jesus while those described in the second were using the name of Jesus like a talisman. The name which is above every other name is not a magic word dependent on correct pronunciation.  His name describes who He is and what He does.  His name means “rescue, deliver, save,” and our salvation is found in His person.  It is the honor, authority, character, and renown of the One who bears that name which bows every knee and elicits the confession “Jesus Christ is Lord!” to the Glory of God the Father.

The Strong’s Concordance says something interesting in the entry for onoma.  The entry states the word is from a presumed derivative of the base of 1097.  The Greek word found under the number 1097 is ginosko which we’ve already looked at in previous posts.  It means “to know absolutely”, “to know by experience.” It’s been said in previous posts but it must be said again: ginosko is the verb form of the noun gnosis and The Bible Hub definition of gnosis includes “Gnosis (applied-knowledge) is only as accurate (reliable) as the relationship it derives from.” 

It is knowing Him that is of paramount importance.  We know the Truth and the Truth makes us free.  We are free to not be afraid of mispronouncing His name.  We are free to call Him by other names as the need arises: Faithful and True, Word of God, Healer, Savior, Brother, Friend.  We are free to have such union and intimacy with Him that the words spoken by our God through the prophet Hosea are made our reality: ““’And it shall be, in that day,’ Says the Lord, ‘That you will call Me “My Husband” and no longer call Me “My Master” (Hos. 2:16).

Our union with the Lord Jesus Christ is so intimate we are called His Bride.  The vitality of this relationship is what is important.  The Apostle Paul writes to Timothy: “But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife” (2 Tim. 2:23).  I see a trend of argumentation among Believers.  If we can win the argument, prove that we are right and the other person wrong, then we have proved that we know the truth.  But, the truth is not the result of an argument: the truth is a person and His Name is called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, Emmanuel-God with us.  English being my native language, I call Him Jesus.

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

Just for fun: this link has a chart showing how the name of our Lord and Savior is pronounced in different languages:

Jesus (name) – Wikipedia

References

Those Confusing Kings – Reflections (kencarlson.org)

Strong’s Greek: 1108. γνῶσις (gnósis) — a knowing, knowledge (biblehub.com)

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

The Whole Truth and Nothing But

06 Monday May 2024

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“Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth…”

“Pilate said to Him, ‘what is truth?’”

What is truth?  We can go to dictionaries and find truth’s definition.  The world will tell us truth is art or something of the like.  We will hear others speak of “your truth” and “my truth” which makes truth subjective.  But then, if it is based on feelings, opinions, or emotions which are variable from day to day and even moment to moment, it cannot possibly be truth.  There has to be an absolute.  We may have different experiences of this absolute therefore our understanding and perspective may differ but there must be that thing that is unchangeable underpinning it all: truth.

Hello Readers and welcome back to Renaissance Woman where, this week, I return to my study on the Whole Armor of God as described in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians with my specific focus on girding our waists with truth and/or the belt of truth.  And, what is this truth with which we gird our waists?  Standing before Pontius Pilate, Jesus says, “For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth.  Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”  Pilate then asks, “What is truth?”  The band Acapella answers this question in their song Standing Right in Front of You: “Pilate asks, ‘what is truth?’ Truth was standing right in front of Him.”  Jesus Himself is the truth: the absolute that underpins as well as fills and defines all that is.

What I have just written is the absolute truth.  But then, there are many Jesuses taught, just as Jesus Himself warned (See Matthew 24:24).  It seems every denomination has their own version of Jesus so how can we know the One we follow and worship is indeed truth?  How can we know for certain there even is a real live Jesus Christ and we haven’t merely chosen to follow a truth we have created for ourselves in attempt to make sense of all the chaos?  The passage from 1 John 2:27 (which I’ve quoted in previous posts) resonates the answer in my heart: “But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.”  We know Jesus Christ who is truth by the Holy Spirit.

In my post Knowledge, Superimposed I shared Bible Hub’s definition of gnosis (knowing).  The definition includes the words “Gnosis (applied-knowledge) is only as accurate (reliable) as the relationship it derives from.”  That has stuck with me: knowledge, in this case of the Truth that is Jesus Christ, is only as accurate and reliable as the relationship it derives from.

As I meditated on this, I had to concede there is some validity to the idea of the subjective “your truth” verses “my truth”.  The Sophist philosopher Protagoras would have said personal experience defines truth.  The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology cites Protagoras’ dictum of “man is the measure of all things” and relates his illustration of a wind seeming warm to one person and cool to another.  “It is not necessary to say that one view is true and the other false.  Each may be true for the person concerned” (Vol 3, pg. 876) which is a statement with which I can wholeheartedly agree.  Just because someone else’s experience differs from mine does not make me right and them wrong.

Plato disagreed with Protagoras on the nature of truth and asserted that truth could not be relative to the individual thinker.  He came down on the side of the philosopher Parmenides in his belief that what has the ability to change cannot be the truth.  There is the way of truth and the way of seeming or appearance.  Change belongs to the material realm-that of mere appearance-and there can be no change in what really exists.  Therefore, truth stands in contrast to appearance and to change.  This is a Biblical concept: “I am the Lord,” our God says in Malachi 3:6, “I change not.”

The Greeks loved a good debate.  I don’t think I would be a good debater because I don’t come down on either side of this argument.  I believe both are true and that any seeming dichotomy is reconciled within relationship.  There is an absolute truth: Jesus Himself.  I, along with every other individual, only understand and express the truth which He is in proportion to the extent, depth, and richness of my/our relationship with Him.

The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology describes the place truth held in the Qumran community.  “Entrance into the Qumran community is a conversion to truth and the initiates bind themselves to the precepts of truth by oath.  They are now within the sphere of influence of the spirit of truth…’This is the crucial point, for it is in proportion as a man is dominated by this spirit that he loves truth’” (Vol 3, pg. 882).

I considered whether or not to share the above quote because I don’t wish to infer I am in agreement with ones “entrance” into any community.  I don’t agree with the idea that any community or denomination or tradition understands truth better than another.  And, perhaps “dominated” is a bit harsh.  “Relationship” is a better word.  It is in proportion as a man or woman has been taught of the Holy Spirit, submitted to His guidance, and entered into relationship with Jesus Christ in and by this same Spirit that he or she loves truth.  This is the inheritance of every individual believer and does not belong to any one community or denomination.

I was fascinated to learn that the argument being hashed over in my day-that of truth being relative to the individual-is one that has been hashed over for over 2,000 years now.  My Mom quoted Ecclesiastes 1:9 when I was telling her this and I agree: “…there is nothing new under the sun.”  The world has nothing new.  All of its ways are reiterations of what has come before.  We only experience new when we realize we are new creations in Christ.

Jesus Christ is the Truth.  And, while our knowing Him does grow, it doesn’t change how much of Him, and In Him the Father, we possess.  We are filled with the fullness of God.  He does not parcel Himself out to us a bit at a time.  We do not earn more of Him by long prayer times and lengthy scripture readings.  It is our understanding, experience, and knowledge of Him that grows but His fullness is present to us each moment. 

The Truth with which we gird our waists is whole and complete.  I hope to look at this in more depth in the upcoming weeks but this the reality I will cling to in the upcoming days.  Everything Jesus is and has is mine because of His Spirit dwelling within me.  The same is true for each one of you. 

May the Spirit of Truth open our eyes for us all to see this is so! 

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

References

Strong’s Greek: 1108. γνῶσις (gnósis) — a knowing, knowledge (biblehub.com)

ARGUABLY GREAT BEGUN IN ANCIENT GREECE, THE RICH TRADITION OF DEBATE THRIVES IN TODAY’S SCHOOLS AND THE REALM OF POLITICS – The Morning Call (mcall.com)

Brown, Colin, The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Volume 3, Regency Reference Library, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1978, 1986, Pages 876, 882

Knowledge, Superimposed

22 Monday Apr 2024

Posted by in Studies, Whole Armor of God

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Greetings!  Welcome to Renaissance Woman and another post in my current Bible study on the Whole Armor of God as described in Ephesians 6.

I’ve been focusing on the Helmet of Salvation and, while I have by no means exhausted the subject of salvation, I have decided to let all I’ve learned frizzle (one of my new favorite words) for a bit and move on to another aspect of the Armor.  In last week’s post, I quoted 1 John 2:17; “But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.”  With this passage in mind, I determined that the Belt of Truth would be my next focus.

I write “Belt of Truth” but the Literal Translation has “girded your loins about with truth”.  The King James has “having your loins girt about with truth”.  The Amplified has “having tightened the belt of truth around your loins” and the New International has “with the belt of truth buckled around your waist”.  My Greek Interlinear Bibles have the word perizosamenoi.  This word means “to gird all around” and “to fasten one’s belt” according to the Strong’s Concordance.  The word is a verb (in the aorist tense which fascinates me [more on that in later posts]) so the passage is describing an action rather than referring to an object e.g. an actual “belt”. 

Perhaps there is nothing to be gleaned by this but it’s something I’m allowing to frizzle as I prepare for further study on this subject.  For the sake of this and future posts, I refer to the “Belt of Truth” but am keeping in mind Jesus says of Himself: “I am the way, the truth, and the life…” (John 14:6).  This is just another brick in the foundation of my belief that the Whole Armor of God is a description of Jesus Christ Himself and each aspect of the Armor is painting a picture of our covenant life in Him.  We gird our waists with the truth that is Jesus Himself.  Earlier in this same gospel Jesus is speaking to Jews who have believed Him and He says: “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.  And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32).  As I began to think about what it means to gird ourselves with truth who is Jesus Christ, I needed to take some time to think about knowing the truth who is Jesus Christ.

There is a passage in Ephesians I keep going back to as I study.  It’s found in Ephesians 3 and I will begin quoting in verse 14: “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height-to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

I have been meditating on the words “filled with all the fullness of God” but, as I began to think about knowing the truth who is Jesus Christ, I began to wonder about the word “knowledge.”  During the course of this entire study, I have looked at many passages which contain the word “knowledge”.  I’ll cite two examples.  The first is in Ephesians 4:13: “…till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ…”  The second is in 2 Corinthians 10:5: “…casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God…”  What I wanted to know is, was our English word “knowledge” being used to translate one Greek word or many?  I think “to know, understand, grasp with the mind” whenever I read the word “knowledge” but, if my previous studies have shown me anything, it’s that I am often missing facets of meaning in the scriptures because the same English word is often used to translate different Greek words.

I more than halfway expected it so felt hardly any surprise at all when I looked up the word “knowledge” in the Strong’s Concordance and found it was used to translate four distinct Greek.  Incidentally, it’s the Greek sunesis (G4907), defined as “a mental putting together, the intellect, knowledge, understanding” which most matches my personal definition of knowledge.  I mention this because sunesis doesn’t appear in any of the passages I’ve quoted which means I have already got to question my previous understanding of these passages.

What are these passages saying?  The three I have quoted in this post don’t contain different Greek words per se.  Both Ephesians 3:19 and 2 Corinthians 10:5 have the Greek word gnosis (G1108) which the Strong’s defines as “knowledge, science”. Ephesians 4:13 has epignosis which the Strong’s defines as “recognition, full discernment, acknowledgment.” 

Gnosis is the noun derived from the verb ginosko which means to “experientially know”.  The definition for gnosis in the Strong’s Concordance isn’t extensive but the definition found on Bible Hub helps to add some detail to my mental picture.  The entry on Bible Hub defines gnosis as “functional (working) knowledge gleaned from first-hand (personal) experience, connecting theory to application; ‘application-knowledge’ gained in (by) a direct relationship.  Gnosis (applied-knowledge) is only as accurate (reliable) as the relationship it derives from.”

The prefix epi means on, upon, above, and/or over when used with other words and the Strong’s Concordance also has “superimposition” which means “to put, lay, or stack on top of something else.”  Epignosis then is referring to an experiential knowing that is far and over and above what we can manage on our own and this experiential knowing is sourced in the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the anointing spoken of in the 1 John 2 passage and is the One who teaches us concerning all things.  Jesus describes the Holy Spirit as “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:17).  I’ve only begun this portion of my study have already seen something in this passage I have never seen before because the Greek word translated as “knows” (neither sees Him nor knows Him) is ginosko-experientially know-but the Greek word translated “know” (but you know Him) is eido which means “be aware, behold, consider, perceive.”  It is seeing that becomes knowing and I find that so beautiful.

We experientially know the Holy Spirit but we are aware of and perceive Him because He dwells within us.  Jesus again says of Him, “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.”

The Holy Spirit is also the Spirit of Revelation so our gnosis of Jesus is sourced in the Holy Spirit.  However, there appears to be an epignosis-a superimposed experiential knowing-which, while it also is sourced in the Holy Spirit, is deeper than gnosis.  I hope to delve deeper into this in the upcoming weeks but, until then, may we each one know we are filled with the Spirit.  May we be aware of His dwelling within us and may our epignosis of Son of God increase moment by moment.  May we clearly see and know Jesus Christ who is the truth that girds us as we face the day.  

Hallelujah!  Amen.

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

References

Ephesians 6:14 Interlinear: Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about in truth, and having put on the breastplate of the righteousness, (biblehub.com)

Strong’s Greek: 1108. γνῶσις (gnósis) — a knowing, knowledge (biblehub.com)

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

Green, Jay P., The Interlinear Bible: Hebrew, Greek, English, 1st Printing of Larger Print Edition, Authors for Christ, Lafayette, Indiana, 2007

Guralnik, David B., Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, Second College Edition, William Collins+World Publishing Co., Inc., Cleveland • New York, 1974, 1976

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

Rodale, J.I. The Synonym Finder, Warner Books, Rodale Press Inc., Emmaus, Pennsylvania, 1978

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