Here's another short
blog to help those of us who study the Bible, to do it with a level of
precision that we are not in danger of being ashamed. Previously I cautioned about doing "word
studies". In that Blog
I mentioned that we need to confirm the meaning of word with how it is used
contextually. We can't always rely on
the etymological origins.
Along the same line, I
want to caution you to be careful in applying the same meaning for a word,
throughout the Bible. Stated otherwise,
the same word can be used differently in different passages. I ran into an example
of that recently in 1 Corinthians 7.
Note:
“If any woman has a husband who is an
unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For
the unbelieving husband is made holy
because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her
husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.” (1
Corinthians 7:13–14, ESV)
In the ESV the word
translated "holy" is the Greek word hagiazo [pronounced: hag·ee·ad·zo]. The KJV translates the word
"sanctified". It is often
understood as "separated unto God" or "pure". We know that marriage to a Christian or birth
in a Christian family does not make someone pure before God. The word is used
in a different sense here.
In Paul's letter to Rome we read, “Therefore,
since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1, ESV). But
when James wrote his epistle he said, “You see that a person is justified by
works and not by faith alone” (James 2:24, ESV). That word justified, although the same word,
is used in two different ways. There is
a justification [a declaration of righteousness] by faith alone whereby God
imputes the perfection of His Son upon believing sinners, as free grace. But
there is a declaration of validity that confirms that a person, indeed is saved
or justified. Or stated better:
Faith
without works cannot save; it takes faith that proves itself in the deeds it
produces. James is not speaking of deeds performed to earn merit before God (as
Paul uses the term in Rom 3:20). Genuine faith is a concomitant of regeneration
and therefore affects the believer's behavior. Faith that does not issue in
regenerate actions is superficial and spurious.[1]
This is not bizarre (even if you don't know
Greek). The English language is full of
such anomalies. If I say that my wife is
not home, but at a shower, you know that I don't mean she is bathing
elsewhere. She is perhaps at a baby
shower or a wedding shower. Likewise you
will err if you think the same word in the Bible always means the same
things. Once again context umpires the
call.
[1] Expositor's
Bible Commentary, The, Pradis
CD-ROM:James/Exposition of James/V. The Relation of Faith and Action (2:14-26),
Book Version: 4.0.2
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