Welcome back!
Recently, I was inspired to begin a short series on word studies. If you aren’t familiar with the term, a word study is when you trace a specific word throughout the Bible to learn more about it. This word could be a characteristic, person, place, or anything else. The reason we do these studies is to learn about a specific topic, which is especially useful if you know there is a certain struggle you are having, or if a word keeps popping up in your Scripture reading that you are not familiar with. In word studies, you trace all the mentions of this word in the Bible, and use it to piece together the meaning of this word through context, and figure out how you can devotionally apply it to your life.I have done it with a few words in the past, including discipline and anger, because they were concepts that I wanted to learn more about.
Since this is the introductory post for this series, I want to start off by sharing with you the “rules” of word study. This is less of a rulebook, though, as much as a list of helpful guidelines to give you an effective study.
Rules for Word Study
1.) Remember the synonyms
For some word studies, you will use a word that is often used in Scripture. Other times, you will not find that exact word anywhere in the Bible. No matter which happens, using synonyms will help broaden your search and give you a more extensive study. There are instances in the BIble where the specific word that was used is unique to that passage, and substituting another word would change the meaning of the verse. Times where synonyms are useful is when that verse can mean the same thing using a synonym compared to the actual word you are doing the study on. Make sure that you are analyzing context to see when this rule is applicable. In addition, using antonyms can also be very helpful. Often, it is just as important to know what is wrong than what is right. (e.g. doing a study on “love” and searching for verses including “hate”).
2.) First mention
There is an idea in Bible study known as the Principles of First Mention. This idea states that the first time a word is mentioned in Scripture is significant because it establishes a precedent or pattern for this word throughout the rest of the Bible. In addition, the first mention will often be the description of the word.
The most common example of this “first mention” principle is the first mention of the word “worship” in Genesis 22. “Then Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.’” (Genesis 22:5). In this passage, God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son, which reflects on the definition of the word “worship”. While most people think of worshiping through song, this passage helps show us that worship involves sacrifice.
If the word that you are studying appears in the Bible multiple times, study out the passage where the word is found first. Use context to figure out what the meaning of that word is, and use that definition as a starting point for your word study.
3.) Study the original language
One thing that I forget way too often is that we are not reading the original manuscripts of the Bible. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, and the New Testament is written in Greek, which means that our Bible had to be translated into English for us to be able to read it. Because of this, the words we see on the page can sometimes not be an exact translation to what it originally meant. Don’t worry, this is not on purpose: this is because Hebrew and Greek will not always translate word-for-word to English. For example, a word that is used in the Old Testament might not have an English word that is the exact same, so the translators will find a way to most accurately portray that word, whether in another word or phrase.
Therefore, when doing a word study, looking at whatever language it was originally written in will help give you the most accurate idea of what that word means. Many translators have written different works on the occurrences where translation cannot be word-to-word, and have written these to help give us the fullest understanding of what the original word meant. Even just taking a few minutes to look at the original language on a website or book will be a great aid in your word study.
Authentic…
Today, I want to do a word study over a word that anyone who has read this blog is familiar with: “authentic!” I figured that since this blog is named after this word, it is important to understand what exactly it means and why I chose to have it in the title.
This is going to look a little different, because the word “authentic” actually doesn’t appear in the Bible. However, many words just like it are found all over the Old and New Testaments. These words include “genuine”, “real”, “true”, and “rightful”.
When we use those words, there are countless times in the Bible where they are used. In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, he encourages them to give generously by saying this: “But as you excel in everything - in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you - see that you excel in this act of grace also. I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine” (2 Corinthians 8:7-8). To provide some context, Paul was talking about giving of your money generously, in what we know at tithing. However, this “act of grace” can translate to many other parts of our lives. As we grow as believers, we should be “excelling” in all that we do, to show that our love for the Lord is genuine, or authentic. This connects to the idea of the fruits of the Spirit.
In addition, there are many other times in the Bible where the word “genuine” is applied to love. “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.” (Romans 12:9). This is something that I believe is lacking in the world a lot lately. Everybody knows at least one person that is considered “fake”. Whether it is pretending to be kind to someone, then talking bad about them behind their back, or acting differently when they are around different people, everybody knows these people. You might even find yourself as one of these people sometimes. This occurs when your actions do not line up with your heart attitude behind these actions. “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” (Matthew 7:15). There will be people in your life that appear to be friendly, and maybe even look to be Christians, but their heart attitude will come out eventually, and it will not match the front that they have been showing you.
…V.s. Inauthentic
That leads me into the second part of this word study, which is studying the opposite of the word. While it is great to study the meaning of the word, studying its antonym, especially when the word you are studying is a describing word, is where people can be convicted, and realize that they are not in the right for this particular scenario. A good opposite of authentic is “fake” or “false”, and that appears a lot in the Bible, especially in the New Testament. False prophets appear a lot around the time Jesus came, and have been very commonly found since then. A false prophet is described as anyone that preaches something that is not true, and the Bible gives the example of anyone teaching that Jesus Christ is not who he says he is.
“And what I am doing I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.” (2 Corinthians 11:12-15).
As you can see from this verse, the origin of being false, or “inauthentic” came from Satan himself. Since God is truth, Satan counters that with being fake, and deceiving people. If we are practicing being inauthentic, we are practicing the ways of the devil. This can practically look like a lot of different things in our everyday life: being a “fake friend”, showing others a false front, and lying are just a few ways that we can be inauthentic. Examine your life to see which side of the spectrum you are on, and look at how that affects your living testimony.
What about pruning?
A thought that came to me while researching the word “authentic” is the idea of pruning branches. We are called to be authentic, yet the Bible tells us to change ourselves. In fact, if we are not changed after salvation, then the Word says that something is wrong! Our life should look drastically different, and people should see that we have changed.
This reminded me that being authentic isn’t just doing what you like and being honest, it is learning who God made you to be, and working in your life to reach that point. Some points of us are not our authentic selves, but are instead sins that we have let come into our lives. When we prune ourselves as we are commanded to do in John 15:1-6, we are not becoming inauthentic, but are instead casting out the sinful parts of ourselves to become our authentic self in God. The more you allow God to prune those selfish branches of your life, the more you will see yourself living authentically.
Comentarios