A 52 Word Journey for Bible Study in 2014:Words 5 and 6: Humility and Compassion

In January, I began a series of blog posts summarizing what I'm calling my 52 word journey of Bible study. I'm taking one word from Scripture a week and studying it as part of my personal Bible study. As a means of helping to organize my jumbled notes (and often equally jumbled mind!), I'm sharing my journey of study on my blog. Over the last two weeks, I've studied the words humility and compassion.

Humility (or Humble/Humbly)

Humility, in my humble opinion (pun intended), is an often misunderstood concept. Too often humility is perceived to be an attitude of self-debasement. The Scriptures seem to indicate, however, that humility really is recognizing our need for powerful, benevolent God and acting in such a way that we put others before ourselves. C.S. Lewis, I think, summarized it well when he said, "humility is not thinking less of yourself'; it is think of yourself less".

In the Old Testament, it is amazing to me how the Psalmists and Solomon in the book of Proverbs indicate what God does for those who humbly recognize who they are in comparison to God:

• Psalm 18:27-"You [God] save the humble"
• Psalm 25:9-"He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them His way"
• Psalm 147:6- "The Lord sustains the humble"
• Psalm 149:4-"He crowns the humble with salvation"
• Proverbs 3:34-"He mocks the proud mockers but gives grace to the humble"
• Proverbs 11:2- "When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom"

Although I did not share the complete verses in each of the above, most of them describe the contrast between pride and humility, which is important. God spiritually provides for those who yield to Him.

In the New Testament, the use of the words humility or humble is often a translation of the Greek word tapeinophrosynē or some variant of that word which provides a better picture of the concept of humility than simply the word humility. In Strong's Concordance,  this Greek word is defined as a "deep sense of one's [moral] littleness". If we are able to understand this and make this our attitude, it will influence how we  treat others.

While many of the verses in the Old Testament about humility note what God does for the humble, many of the verse in the New Testament about humility note how we live out humility in our own lives. In two verses, Colossians 3:12 and 1 Peter 5:5,  Paul and Peter both note how we are to clothe ourselves with humility--making that attitude part of our identity in Christ. The most challenging verse on humility to me, though, comes from Philippians 2, when Paul gives the ultimate example of humility-- Christ lowering himself to live life as a man and die on the cross for our sins. Christ has no littleness; He is the Son of God. He was willing, though, to take on that "littleness" because of His love for us. What a challenge to us to take on our own littleness and live humbly.

Compassion

One of the most striking things about the word compassion in Scripture is that during the time in history when Scripture was written, people thought that such attitude/emotion-fueled action emanated from one's bowels or womb. One words in Hebrew translated to compassion in the Old Testament is "racham", meaning "womb" or "compassion", and one of the words in Greek is "splagchnizomai" meaning "to be moved as to one's bowels, hence to be moved with compassion, have compassion (for the bowels were thought to be the seat of love and pity)". Perhaps this sounds a bit gross and ignorant in light of today's understanding of biology and emotion, but at the same time, it is indicative of how deep our compassion should be.

In Psalm 103, David  beautifully describes God's compassion for us throughout the Psalm. In verse 4, David not only notes how God saves us from the pit, He crowns us with compassion. He not only saves us from destruction, he treats us as royalty.  In verse 8, David ties God's compassion to His grace, love, and patience. In verse 13, David writes of God's compassion for us in the context of a father's compassion.

In the book of Matthew, he notes multiple times that Jesus "had compassion" on the crowds and the sick. Compassion was not just an emotion. Jesus lived it. When He had compassion on the crowds who came to hear Him speak He fed them (Matthew 14:13-21). When He had compassion on the sick; He healed them (Matthew 20:29-34). This is the same kind of compassion we are to clothe ourselves (Colossians 3:12) with and live out in our lives (Ephesians 4:32).

Previous posts:

 Introduction to the 52 Word Journey

 Words 1 and 2: Confidence and Peace

Words 3 and 4: Perseverance and Works

A 52 Word Journey for Bible Study in 2014: Words 1 and 2: Confidence and Peace

As I noted two weeks ago, my Bible study plan this year is a weekly focus on one word found in Scripture. This is an endeavor I've entered prayerfully, and as I write these summaries every two weeks, I want to share what the Spirit has shown me as humbly as I can. I don't presume to be a Biblical scholar or a hermeneutical expert, and my summaries will not be exhaustive, simply brief summaries. I simply want to share what the Scripture has shown me.

The words that I have studied during these first two weeks of January are confidence and peace. The secular world portrays these attitudes or ideas differently than the Scriptures, so I have feared that I have not understood them as correctly as I should. This is why I chose these two words to kickoff this 2014 journey.

Confidence 

In the New International Version of the Bible, the word "confidence", or some variation of it, is used 18 times in the Old Testament and 19 times in the New Testament. There are multiple Hebrew words that are translated as "confidence", most intriguing to me were "batach" and "mibtach". Naturally, they both have similar meanings, batach focusing more on the aspect of trust while mibtach focusing more on seeing God, someone, or something as a refuge. The Old Testament use of the word "confidence" spans from Israel's or other nation's confidence in political or military leaders to a husband's confidence in the "woman of noble character" in Proverbs to David's confidence in God in the Psalms. However, the use of confidence in the Old Testament that spoke to my heart most were found in Isaiah. Perhaps it is due to my Midwestern roots, but Biblical agricultural analogies have always resonated with me. Isaiah 32:16-17 reads:

The LORD’s justice will dwell in the desert, his righteousness live in the fertile field. 

The fruit of that righteousness will be peace; its effect will be quietness and confidence forever.

What a message. A fertile field of God's righteousness will produce peaceful fruit leading to both quietness and confidence. I've always thought of confidence as loud, but it seems it is not. Isaiah is using the word "betach". There is a trust that comes from righteousness and peace.

In the New Testament, there are multiple Greek words that are translated as "confidence" in English. The word "parresia" was the most intriguing to me, meaning cheerful courage. Interestingly, it is also often used in reference to people speaking plainly, without ambiguity, but with boldness. Perhaps a little bit like Sara Bareilles's song "Brave", which was stuck in my head the whole week I was studying this word:



However, the use of word confidence in the New Testament is more often about being confident before God (I John 3:21) --coming before His throne--and in the face of persecution (Hebrews 10:32-35) than it is about trying to verbally right a wrong. So often the world attaches to the idea of confidence to self, when, in Scripture, the only use of the phrase "self-confidence" is in Nehemiah when the an enemy of Israel lost "self-confidence" when defeated by an Israel that put its trust in God. The Scriptures point to confidence as something we can have in coming before God and in being bold in this world because of Him.

Peace

For the word "peace", I used the English Standard Version. With the prevalence of the word (273 times in the Old Testament and 94 times in the New Testament) throughout the Bible it was easier to follow using the Lexiconc resource on BlueletterBible.org. During this week, I decided to focus on the peace in relation to God or a sense of personal peace, rather than to look at the verses that discuss peace surrounding the relationships between nations.

In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word "shalowm" is generally translated as peace, meaning tranquility, prosperity, quietness. A large portion of the verses that use the word peace are in reference to "peace offerings" sacrificed to God, but there are other uses as well--especially in the Psalms. What intrigued me most is the verbs associated with peace:

Psalm 4:8- sleep/dwell in peace
Psalm 34:14-seek/pursue peace
Psalm 37:11- delight in peace

As I studied the Psalm 37 verse, it was especially interesting to look at what Hebrew word was translated into "delight"-the word is "anag" which means to be delicate or to be pampered. What a concept! To pamper yourself in peace because of God. I know it's certainly not something I do very well. It has given me a new view of peace. God's peace is a glass of red wine, a bubble bath, or a manicure for your spirit!

In the New Testament, the Greek word "eirene" (tranquility, harmony, security) is usually what is translated as peace. There are many interesting tidbits about the use of peace in the New Testament that I discovered during this week's journey:

• Jesus told His disciples "peace be with you" three times in John 20 following His resurrection
• There is an interesting thread in Romans connecting the Trinity and peace. Romans 5:1 which notes that we can have peace with God through Christ, and Romans 8:6 which notes that the mind of the Spirit is life and peace
• There are over a dozen references to peace in the greetings and closings of Paul's letters to various churches

This is my Scripture word journey so far. Thank you for letting me share it with you.

A 52 Word Journey for Bible Study in 2014

Over the years I've tried a variety of approaches to Bible study. I've studied the Hebrew names of God, gone through programs where you read the whole Bible in a year, and studied books intermixed with Scripture from authors like John Piper and Beth Moore. This year I've decided to do something different. Sadly, when I've gone through a "Bible in a year"program, I've made it simply a reading that I can check off my "To Do" list rather than an in depth study where I can learn and apply to my life. Using books have been spiritually challenging, but I also wonder if  I've become somewhat lazy--letting someone else guide my personal study, rather than putting in the spiritual elbow grease needed to gain a better understanding of the Scripture so that I can strive to walk more closely in Christ's footsteps.

This year I have decided to do a word study of 52 words (one a week) to gain a better understanding of the God-breathed Scripture. I've always been fascinated by language, and often the meaning of words used by Biblical authors get lost in translation of the Scripture from Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek into English. As an example, in John 21 after Christ's resurrection, Christ asked Peter if he loved Him. Peter replied that yes, he did love Christ. Jesus asked Peter three times, and Peter said yes three times. Christ had the ability to know Peter's sincerity, but lost in the English translation is the fact that Jesus and Peter were using two different Greek words for love. Jesus was using agape, meaning unconditional love, while Peter was using philos, meaning a friendly or brotherly love. Jesus was indicating a deeper, stronger kind of love, but this isn't as clear in the English translation.

Several months ago during a Wednesday night Bible study, one of the ministers at the congregation I'm a part of suggested a website that was extremely helpful for Bible study on multiple levels--the Blue Letter Bible (there is also a very nice app available for iphones). One of the nice features available on both the site and app is a the "LexiConc" a hybrid lexicon concordance that notes the word used in the original Scriptural language, its meaning, and Scriptures where that same word is used. I hope to use this excellent resource throughout 2014 to help me gain a better understanding of Scripture and apply it to my life. Here are the 52 words that I intend to study, in no particular order. They are simply words (or phrases) that I want to understand more completely:

confidence, peace, perseverance, works, humility, compassion, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, pride, self-control, self-discipline, joy, gluttony, sexual immorality, submit, persecution, hospitality, perfect, eager, sincere, fear, justice,purity, worry, wisdom, servant, repent, confess,authority, temptation, disciples, fellowship, character, hope, zeal, gentleness, rights, freedom, generosity, encourage, unity, ambition, contentment, greed, patience, thankful, devotion, jealousy, complain, mercy, and ministry. 

I intend, Lord willing, to write up a summary blog post every two weeks throughout 2014 about the words I've studied over the previous weeks. I certainly do not presume to have the deepest knowledge of Scripture, nor the most discerning mind, but I embark on this journey as prayerfully and humbly as I can. I want to ensure that I am open to the full truth of God's Word and that anything I share--be it face-to-face or in cyberspace-- is in line with the Scripture.

God bless!