By Marvin Duncan
UNDERSTANDING BIBLE WORDS
I have often received questions from individuals who are concerned about a Bible term or word they are having trouble with. We often read words in the Scriptures that were perfectly clear when used by the translators, but have changed their meaning or fallen from common use in our modern day English. It is usually words such as “suffer” or “charity” that cause problems, yet, there are other words that become confused in our minds because they are similar or they are used in the same way. To help us better understand the words we read in the Scriptures, let us take time this morning to look at some Bible words and see if we can give them their proper meaning so they trill no longer be a problem when we find them in our Scripture reading.
There are three pairs of words I’d like for us to look at and see if we can feel more comfortable with them after this study.
Wage And Reward
Two words that are often confused or misunderstood are reward and wage. Let us look first at the word, wage. A wage is something received for work or service rendered. A wage is an obligation that must be paid for services rendered. A wage is paid in direct response to what we do. When thinking of the word, wage, as used in the Scriptures, we most often think of Romans 6:23. Here the apostle Paul speaks of a wage that is earned by the efforts put forth by the natural man. Paul says, “the wages of sin is death; but the gift of god is eternal life.”
In this text, wage is contrasted with gift. The contrast between wage and gift is seen most often in the Scriptures when the subject of salvation is presented. Salvation is not the result of man’s religious works. Salvation is not a wage that God must pay for services rendered. Rather, salvation is a free gift that God gives out of His love. Salvation is God’s gift given to those who believe God’s Word. This thought is clearly seen in Romans 4:5 where Paul tells these Roman Saints: “But to Him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”
No one can work for God’s gift of salvation. But, the activities of the natural man are gaining him a wage. He is earning God’s wrath and the eternal separation from his Creator.
My dictionary says that a REWARD is something given or received in return or recompense for service, merit or achievement. A reward is a voluntary recognition of an achievement and is given to recognize some outstanding merit. There is no obligation involved in the giving of a reward, such as there is in paying a wage.
When someone works for a wage that which was promised must be paid. But, when a person, in his normal course of living, achieves some outstanding goal and this achievement is such that it should be recognized, and someone, out of love, gives a reward to this individual.
In the scriptures, we find that God, out of His heart of love, has said He will give the Christians a reward (1 Cor. 3:14) when that Christian has lived his life according to God’s instructions for this dispensation of Grace. God is not obligated to give such a reward. But, Ho has promised to do so because He wants to recognize the achievements of His Saints who live their Christian lives in conformity to His Word as given through the Apostle Paul.
Souls And Spirits
Another pair of words that sometimes give the Bible reader some problems are souls and spirits when used to identify some of God’s creation. One section of Scripture that has caused such confusion for some Bible students and whose answer is an understanding of the different ways the words, souls and spirits are used, is First Peter 3:18-22.
There are several problems in this portion of Scripture, but confining our thoughts to the words, souls and spirits, we will try to clear up part of the problems often found in this text. We notice the word spirits is used in First Peter 3:19 where Peter said that Christ went and preached unto the “spirits in prison.” It has been taught that after Christ’s death, He went into Hell and preached to the unsaved who were waiting for their resurrection and final judgment at the Great White Throne where they will be cast into the Lake of Fire (Rev. 20:11-15). No one has satisfactorily shown from Scripture what Christ might have said to such an unsaved audience but this teaching still, persists.
In this same First Peter three section, in verse 20, we find the word, souls used. Here, the subject is Noah, his sons and their wives who were delivered through the flood. No one will question that this verse is speaking about human beings and that they are called souls. Whenever God speaks of man in this way, he is always spoken of as a soul. Only the angels are ever called spirits (Heb. 1:7).
Christ never went anywhere after His death to speak to any of His creation. Verses 18-19 speaks of an activity that took place during Noah’s day. It was Jehovah (before He became a man in the person of Jesus Christ) who preached to the angels during the time the Ark was being built (verse 20) because these angels were disobedient at that time. Since the flood, these “spirits” who had been ministered to in Noah’s day, have been in prison. It is the angels of Jude 6 who are spoken of in First Peter 3:19. The reason these angels are now in prison is because of what they did before the flood. Their activity is described in Jude 7. These angels left their own habitation (which was in the heavenlies) to came to earth and did the same thing Sodom and Gomorrah were guilty of – “going after strange flesh.” That is, desiring something God had not intended them to be seeking after. The angels took the daughters of Adam (this is the meaning of the word, “men” in Genesis 6:1) and cohabited with them (Ge. 6:2). The term, “sons of God” in the Old Testament always refers to angels. We sec this term used again in Job 2:1 and it is evident this verse speaks of the angels coming to present themselves before God.
It was this union of the angels with the daughters of Adam that produced an offspring that was of gigantic size. Some men have taught that the Sons of God of Genesis six were the offspring of Seth, while the Daughters of Men were the offspring of Cain. Seldom will you find a complete family where all members are redeemed of God, but never will you find a complete line of descendants who are all redeemed of God. Also, what possible connection does the Spiritual condition of the parents have with the size of their offspring? This family of Seth and of Cain teaching is not the answer to Genesis six. Rather, Genesis six is showing one of the attempts Satan made to corrupt the human race so there would be no true “woman” from whom the promised “Seed” would come who would crush Satan’s head (Gen. 3:15).
(When Satan knew God had given the land of Canaan to Abraham and had promised Abraham that through his seed all the families of the earth would be blessed (Gen. 12:2-3), he sent another group of angels to cohabit with the women of Canaan so Abraham’s sons would have no true women to marry and thus could not produce the promised “seed.” This is why God commanded Abraham not to allow his sons to marry the women of the land of Canaan—Genesis 24:3).
Simply recognizing the way God’s Word uses the word souls for humans and spirits for angels will answer many questions about First Peter three and it will also help whenever these terms are used to speak of some part of God’s creation.
Revelation And Inspiration
Another area that has caused some confusion in the minds of some Bible students is the difference between revelation and inspiration. Second Timothy 3:16 is clear that “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God.” Yet, what does this statement really mean? The word, Inspiration, could be thought of as God’s overseeing those who recorded the Scriptures to make sure everything recorded was accurate. This does not mean that everything recorded in the Scriptures is true, but everything is truthfully recorded. For example, Genesis 3:4 is a lie told by Satan. But, God made sure this lie was recorded accurately. Because of God’s inspiration, we can be assured that every word in the original text was accurately recorded and every activity happened as the Scriptures said it happened. Thus, we can place our complete trust in what God’s Word says.
The word, revelation, refers to information given to man by God to inform him of things he would have no way of knowing or finding out through natural means or through study. The Bible contains the revelation of God, but not all of the Scripture is revelation. By this statement I mean there are many things recorded in the Scriptures that is history and needed no revelation from God. The writer experienced these events and wrote about them. The Inspiration of God made sure the writer had his facts straight and recorded the events as they actually happened. Luke wrote the Book of Acts and did not need any revelation from God to know what happened during those years covered by this Book. Luke was there. He took part in much of the travels and ministry recorded in this account. God’s inspiration made sure Luke’s memory was accurate and that he had the events in their proper order, but God did not have to reveal to Luke what he already knew.
The same is true of other portions of the Bible. Much of the Bible is history or it is a record of what some individual said or thought. The Books written by Solomon (Proverbs and Ecclesiastes) are not revelation. These books are a record of Solomon’s wisdom as the wisest man to have ever lived. Solomon didn’t need God to reveal to him what he said or what he thought. He just recorded what he told his sons and what he observed as a wise human being.
If we understand this fact about Solomon’s writings, that he was speaking from the standpoint of human wisdom, we will have no problems when we read such statement by Solomon as Ecclesiastes 9:5 where he says, “The dead know not anything, neither have they any more a reward.”
The same is true of Solomon’s statement in Ecclesiastes 9:10 where we read: “There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave.”
Solomon, with all his human wisdom, could see no further than the grave. To him, and to all natural men, death and the grave was the end of all hope and all activity. Everything ends at death. But, by revelation, God made known to Job, a man not known for his wisdom, that there is something to look forward to after death. This knowledge had to be given to Job by revelation because there was no other way for him (nor any other man) to gain this knowledge. Because of God’s revelation, Job knew much more about what happens after death than Solomon knew with all his human wisdom. Job had the assurance that he would see his Redeemer and would live and stand upon the earth once again even after his physical body had decayed in the grave. Notice the insight Job had about life after death because of the revelation of God. In Job 19:25-27, Job says: “I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after worms destroy my body yet in my own flesh shall I see God.”
If we keep in mind the difference between inspiration and revelation we will have no problem recognizing what God has made known and what is recorded as history or as personal experiences.