Faith and Faithfulness

I'm continuing my study of the fruit of the Spirit.  Monday was faith, but the writers chose faithfulness instead.  Now you may be wondering why I am continuing with this study since I don't seem to agree with it.  It's actually really making me think!  I don't want my reading to just be an automatic thing that I do without it challenging me.

The first thing I looked at was the Greek definition of the word faith in this verse:

persuasion, that is, credence; moral conviction (of religious truth, or the truthfulness of God or a religious teacher), especially reliance upon Christ for salvation; abstractly constancy in such profession; by extension the system of religious (Gospel) truth itself: - assurance, belief, believe, faith, fidelity.

 

The word faithfulness is not found in the New Testament, but the word faithful is.  The Greek definition of faithful is: trustful: - believe (-ing, -r), faithful (-ly), sure, true.

 

Faithfulness is found in the Old Testament.  The Hebrew definition is: literally firmness; figuratively security; moral fidelity: - faith (-ful, -ly, -ness, [man]), set office, stability, steady, truly, truth, verily.

 

The word faith is only found twice in the Old Testament.  The Hebrew definition of the word faith is: firmness; figuratively security; moral fidelity: - faith (-ful, -ly, -ness, [man]), set office, stability, steady, truly, truth, verily.

 

The Greek word for faith in Galatians is the same one used repeatedly in Hebrews chapter 11.  Verse 6 of that chapter says, "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."  This is definitely not the same as faithfulness.

I believe a person can demonstrate faithfulness without having faith.  A person can be faithful to their job and have no faith.  NFL quarterback, Tom Brady, who just won his seventh Super Bowl, has been faithful to football.  He attended a football camp as a child and has spent his life committed to playing his best.  High school, college and now 21 years as a professional, he's been committed to the game.  He follows a strict diet and exercise regime.  All these things make him a great football player, but not a man of faith.  Wikipedia had this quote, "I don't know what I believe. I think there's a belief system, I'm just not sure what it is."

 

On the other hand, I do believe someone with faith will be faithful.  Take another look at those great heroes of faith in Hebrews.  Their faith, their persuasion and moral conviction, took them on journeys and led them to do great exploits.  Noah built an ark when it had never had rained before.  His faith in God and his faithfulness to the task went hand in hand.

 

Repeatedly, Jesus said, "thy faith."   Faith made people whole.  The woman with the issue of blood faithfully went to doctors for 12 years, but it was her faith, put into action, that finally brought her to Jesus.  Then she was made whole.

 

Walk in faith and faithfulness will follow.

Patience and Long-Suffering, Part 2

My Bible reading today was about kindness.  One of the passages was Colossians 1:9-10.  I read the entire chapter and verse 11 says, "Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness."  Well that certainly caught my attention!  I turned to e-Sword and some of my favorite commentaries to see what they had to say about the use of these two words in the same verse.

John Wesley's Notes on the Bible:

Strengthened unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness - This is the highest point: not only to know, to do, to suffer, the whole will of God; but to suffer it to the end, not barely with patience, but with thankful joy.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible:

Unto all patience - So that you may be enabled to bear all your trials without complaining. It is only the power of God that can enable us to do that.
And long-suffering - slowness to anger or passion; longsuffering, patient endurance, forbearance. It is opposed to haste; to passionate expressions and thoughts, and to irritability. It denotes the state of mind which can bear long when oppressed, provoked, calumniated, and when one seeks to injure us.

David Guzik's Enduring Word Commentary:

As we walk worthy of the Lord, His strength is there to help us meet all of life’s challenges, and to endure and overcome problems with circumstances (patience) and people (longsuffering) with joy.

 

John Gill's Exposition of the Bible:

unto all patience; to bring forth fruit with patience; to run with patience the race set before them; to bear patiently all afflictions and tribulations; to wait patiently for the things promised by God, and for the coming and appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the heavenly glory or hope laid up for them in heaven:
and longsuffering; to be slow to anger, and not easily provoked to wrath; to be ready to forgive injuries; and to bear long, and with patience, all reproaches and persecutions for the sake of Christ, and his Gospel; all which require daily fresh supplies of grace and strength, especially to endure all.

 

To be able to be patient and long-suffering, we need God's strength and glorious power.  When we have that, we can endure with joy.

Long-Suffering

I mentioned on January 1st that I would be doing a variety of Bible studies this year.  This week I started "Fresh Fruit," a study of the fruit of the Spirit.  Each day has contained a short devotion and several scriptures pertaining to that day's fruit - love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.  Reading in the app, I can read the verses that are included, but I've found that is not quite enough, so I then read the entire chapters.

I thought today's topic fell short.  The fruit for today is long-suffering.  The version of the Bible used by the writers used the word patience instead.  I don't feel that those two words are 100% interchangeable so I wanted to look at long-suffering a little more.

The Greek definition of long-suffering is longanimity, that is, (objectively) forbearance or (subjectively) fortitude: - longsuffering, patience.  Longanimity, according to Merriam-Webster is, "a disposition to bear injuries patiently, forbearance."

The Greek definition of patience is cheerful (or hopeful) endurance, constancy: - enduring, patience, patient continuance (waiting).  *I believe many of us have learned to wait, but cheerfully waiting is still a work in progress.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible says about long-suffering, "Long-mindedness, bearing with the frailties and provocations of others, from the consideration that God has borne long with ours; and that, if He had not, we should have been speedily consumed: bearing up also through all the troubles and difficulties of life without murmuring or repining; submitting cheerfully to every dispensation of God’s providence, and thus deriving benefit from every occurrence."

Each time the word long-suffering is used in the Old Testament, it talks about God's long-suffering.  Interestingly, the word patience is not found in the Old Testament. The Hebrew definition of long-suffering is a combination of two words:

'ârêk - long: - long [-suffering, -winged], patient, slow [to anger].

'aph - properly the nose or nostril; hence the face, and occasionally a person; also (from the rapid breathing in passion) ire: - anger (-gry), + before, countenance, face, + forbearing, forehead, + [long-] suffering, nose, nostril, snout,  worthy, wrath.

When combined, it means "long of nose" (or "breathing"), and, as anger was indicated by rapid, violent breathing through the nostrils, "long of anger," or "slow to wrath." It is associated with "great kindness" and "plenteous in mercy."  Have you ever been SO angry, but instead of responding, you concentrated on your breathing, trying to calm yourself down?  Maybe you counted to 10, or even 100.  I think God's long-suffering is like that, but He probably has to count to one million, then start over, when dealing with some of us.

1 Corinthians chapter 13 is the well known "love" chapter.  One of the characteristics of charity is that it suffers long.  We can't patiently endure or be slow to anger without love.  Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible says about 1 Corinthians 13:4, "It can endure evil, injury, and provocation, without being filled with resentment, indignation, or revenge. It makes the mind firm, gives it power over the angry passions, and furnishes it with a persevering patience, that shall rather wait and wish for the reformation of a brother than fly out in resentment of his conduct. It will put up with many slights and neglects from the person it loves, and wait long to see the kindly effects of such patience on him."

Long-suffering is taking patience to the next level.  It's not just waiting.  It's waiting without being filled with resentment.  It's enduring without seeking revenge.  It's a mind that is firm, that doesn't give in to angry passions.  It takes God's love in our hearts to be long-suffering.

The Superpower for the All of Us

Twenty five years ago this week Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were murdered.  I have a ton of emotions when I think about that case.  Not because of the actual murder, although it was horrible, but because it reminds me of the last conversation I had with my dear brother, Rod.  I wrote about it ten years ago:

On June 12, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were brutally murdered. Nicole's former husband, O.J. Simpson, was charged with the murders. On Friday, June 17th, instead of turning himself in, O.J. became the object of a low-speed pursuit in a white Ford Bronco SUV.

The next day, Rod and I talked about this on the phone. It seemed many were in shock that someone "so great" could commit such a horrible crime. Rod told me, "Kathy, that's why you have to be careful who you make your heroes. You can't choose athletes as heroes. They might do great things on the field, but that doesn't make them great people. True heroes are people of God."

That was the last conversation we had, as Rod passed away the following Wednesday. Those words resonate in me still. We have to be so careful whom we choose to admire.  I have thought about those words so many times through the years and was thinking about them again this week.

I believe the desire for heroes has made the superhero movie craze what it is today.  More than 100 movies have been made about men and women who defy the odds to beat the bad guys.  Many have a "superpower."  The original superhero movie came out in 1920 - The Mark of Zorro.  Zorro was simply a man with a mask, fighting the mistreatment of the peons by rich landowners and the oppressive colonial government.  Advengers: Endgame, the superhero movie playing in theaters right now has already grossed over $2.7 Billion.  People flood to watch good triumph over evil.

I read an insightful article from the New York Times written last June.  "Why Are We Obsessed with Superhero Movies?" by Mark Bowden takes a deep look at the subject.  About a third of the way into the article he talks about the Cult of Self:

If heroes are idealized humans, then today’s reflect an exaggerated Cult of Self. They are unique, supremely talented beings who transcend laws, even those of nature. Hollywood has always cherished mavericks, but these are, literally, cartoons — computer-generated.

They celebrate exceptionalism and vigilantism. The old American ideal of succeeding through cleverness, virtue and grit is absent, as is the notion of ordinary folk banding together to overcome a threat. Gone is respect for the rule of law and the importance of tradition and community. Institutions and human knowledge are useless. Religion is irrelevant. Governments are corrupt and/or inept, when not downright evil. The empowered individual is all.

Normal humans are mere bystanders, when they are not being crushed or vaporized. The average person is powerless and depends for survival on the good will of the gods.

The articles goes on to compare various superheroes to Greek and Roman mythical gods. "Superheroes just have one or more extraordinary physical traits. In comic book movies, villains just want to conquer and kill. They are not looking to slake their lust, amass great riches, build monuments to themselves, create utopian societies or engage in sadistic torments. They just want to win."

So what about the rest of us?

In the past 25 years, I've continued with Rod's sage advice in where I find my heroes.  Mine don't come from comic books, TV shows, or movies.  They don't play in stadiums or on stages.  My heroes continue to be family members, friends, preachers, teachers and missionaries.  My heroes have a superpower, it's one available to all.   Galatians 5:22-23 tells us about it, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."  Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible gave an excellent breakdown of these superpowers:

Love -  An intense desire to please God, and to do good to mankind.  The very soul and spirit of all true religion; the fulfilling of the law, and what gives energy to faith itself.

Joy -  The exultation that arises from a sense of God’s mercy communicated to the soul in the pardon of its iniquities, and the prospect of that eternal glory of which it has the foretaste in the pardon of sin.

Peace -  The calm, quiet, and order, which take place in the justified soul. Peace is the first sensible fruit of the pardon of sin.

Long-suffering - Long-mindedness, bearing with the frailties and provocations of others, from the consideration that God has borne long with ours.

Gentleness - Benignity, affability; a very rare grace, often wanting in many who have a considerable share of Christian excellence. A good education and polished manners, when brought under the influence of the grace of God, will bring out this grace with great effect.

Goodness - The perpetual desire and sincere study, not only to abstain from every appearance of evil, but to do good to the bodies and souls of men to the utmost of our ability.

Faith -  here used for fidelity - punctuality in performing promises, conscientious carefulness in preserving what is committed to our trust, in restoring it to its proper owner, in transacting the business confided to us, neither betraying the secret of our friend, nor disappointing the confidence of our employer.

Meekness - Mildness, indulgence toward the weak and erring, patient suffering of injuries without feeling a spirit of revenge, an even balance of all tempers and passions, the entire opposite to anger.

Temperance - Continence, self-government, or moderation, principally with regard to sensual or animal appetites. Moderation in eating, drinking, sleeping, etc.

Against such there is no law - Those, whose lives are adorned by the above virtues, cannot be condemned by any law, for the whole purpose and design of the moral law of God is fulfilled in those who have the Spirit of God, producing in their hearts and lives the preceding fruits.

The New York Times article stated, "They are unique, supremely talented beings who transcend laws."  Those of us who exhibit the fruit of the Spirit can truly transcend laws. 

I'm still cheering when good triumphs over evil, but it's the real life good, not the Hollywood version.  Jesus showed us that on the cross - He triumphed over all.  When we live according to His Word, we have all the superpower we need.  No cape or mask required!

Repost: Book Review ~ Evicting Jezebel

Pastor White briefly mentioned Jezebel during his Bible study on Wednesday night.  I was reminded of this post, originally posted on September 6, 2013.

I downloaded a free book for my Kindle the other day ~ "Evicting Jezebel: The Rising Trend of Aggressive Women."  The book description says this:

Jezebel may float like a butterfly but she stings like a bee!

Case studies are starting to emerge that women and teen girls are becoming more assertive, aggressive and violent. In biblical history, these were all of the tactics and techniques of the queen Jezebel. The contrast of the new creation of the butterfly, Jezebel stings anyone who threatens her ability to control and manipulate others.

Evicting Jezebel sheds light on the alarming trend in aggressive women in our families, communities and churches and searches the Bible for answers by comparing the traits and technique of boxing to the traits and techniques of Jezebel. It also gets to the root so that you can serve her with an eviction notice.

It's only 70 pages, so this was a very quick read, but gave me much to think about. I'm sure I'll be going back and re-reading much of it. Just a few of the highlights:

Chapter 1: Our Decay by the Decade
This is a review of how our society, especially women, has changed since the Sexual Revolution. Television programming has introduced a new breed of women - those who became the head of household while dads stayed home. The women were dominant and assertive. Thirty years after the sexual revolution, Sex & the City made airwaves. Four women who regularly met at bars and talked endlessly about men. The women were successful in their careers, but broken in their personal lives. Of course there are also Desperate Housewives and cougars, women who prey on younger men.

Chapter 2: Who Was She? The Ancient Jezebel
Jezebel's name translated in Hebrew is "without cohabitation; an island" which literally means that she will not live in one accord with anyone. She was a master manipulator who surrounded herself with enablers. She despised men of strength and anointing, they weren't easily manipulated or intimidated.

Chapter 3: Who is She? The Modern Jezebel
The modern day Jezebel is the exact same spirit of the ancient queen of Israel, using the same tactics. This is a comparison of the two Jezebels:



Chapter 4: She Floats like a Butterfly, Stings like a Bee
This chapter is devoted to different types of boxing techniques that Jezebel uses to manipulate those around her. The Jab, the Cross, the Hook, and the Uppercut.  Of course her hits are usually verbal, not physical. She also uses False Innocence, the Blame Game, Victim Mentality, Deflection and Escape. 

Chapter 7: Jezebel in Men.
The goal of the spirit of Jezebel is control, which is found in men when they use strength and violence to obtain control and domination. This is most often seen in domestic violence, rape, and human trafficking.

The Jezebel spirit is found in relationships, friendships, and in the workplace. It is dangerous and destructive.  Jezebel is all about herself.  A godly woman will build up and nurture those around her.  The Biblical example of the contrast of the Jezebel spirit is Ruth:



The Jezebel spirit is found in the home, in the community and even in the church. The only answer is to evict that spirit. Jesus said, "No man can serve two masters," so if the Jezebel spirit is found in someone's heart, His Spirit is not.

The fruit of the Jezebel spirit is found in Proverbs 6:16-19: "These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren."

In contrast, the Fruit of His Spirit is found in Galatians 5:22-23: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."

I didn't mean to write such a lengthy review, but I do highly recommend this book (currently $2.99 on Amazon for Kindle.)  There were more than the usual amount of grammatical errors (missing commas, sentences that didn't make sense, etc.) but it was worth it to keep reading. 

Make the Mind Take Over!

Today's Quote of the Day from Runner's World magazine is a good one!

Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired. When you were younger the mind could make you dance all night, and the body was never tired...You've always got to make the mind take over and keep going.

~ George S. Patton, U.S. Army General and 1912 Olympian

The question is - who's in charge here? Is your mind stronger than your body? I was reading about the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians yesterday:

Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.

None of these come naturally. They must be cultivated. Our mind must take over the flesh and make it love others. It's much easier to be down in the dumps, harsh, and faithless. Paul understood that, he tells us in 1 Corinthians 9:27 "But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway."

Just as it's a battle to maintain a healthy body, so must we work daily to maintain a healthy spirit. But the prize is worth it!