Devotionals

Hey, Reader A Word 003

by Samuel Dumas 
09/24/19
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John 3:16 KJV

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, 
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

…so loved

To have a preference for, wish well to, regard the welfare of...Of the benevolence which God exhibited in giving his son…—Thayer’s Lexicon.

Besides the above… the following definition stands out with intensified expressions of this love feast:

That is, to take pleasure in the thing, prize it above other things, be unwilling to abandon it, or do without it. –Thayer’s Lexicon.

…the world

An apt and harmonious arrangement or constitution, order  —Thayer’s Lexicon.

So it was the arrangement of the ‘world’ that God was unwilling to do without. Surely, man is included in this arrangement. For man exists as the crowning act of creation. When man found himself dying and surely died, the other arrangements also surely changed and died.

Young’s concordance (Greek word: kozmos, beauty) adds the word beauty to Thayer’s list of definitions. Beauty = that which exalts.

…gave his…

To give one to some one to care for his interests.  –Thayer’s Lexicon.

As a blessing, as one who could take care of all man’s interests. Fulfill him. The usual discussion  of this phrase focuses on the magnanimous sufferings , but Thayer’s definition tells of a more comprehensive thought, and from Thayer's we get meanings of the total needs of man being met in the giving—before the cross and after. For, after man’s needs were met, the giver would be with those who believe until the end of time.

He (the given) was a servant…a teacher…and He was a friend…and He was a lamb.

…only begotten Son

His only natural-spirited son, and with it the idea that he would entrust this servant task to no one else in the universe. And that the father would be ‘inside’ or ‘with’ His Son to make sure the interests and needs of man and the universe were fully met…and that the ‘reconciling’ was exactly accomplished. And that the ‘beauty’, the crowning act of creation, the arrangement, that first—in his image— man and woman, would even be exalted to the Throne of the universe and there be a joining of heirs.

…believeth

To think to be true, to be persuaded of, place confidence in  

 Used especially of the faith by which a man embraces Jesus, i.e. a conviction, full of joyful trust, that Jesus is the Messiah —the divinely appointed author of eternal salvation in the kingdom of God, con-joined with obedience to Christ…   —Thayer’s Lexicon.

…but have

To have (hold) in the hand, in the sense of wearing, to have (hold) possession of the mind (refers to alarm, agitating emotions, etc.), to hold fast keep, to have or comprise or involve, to regard or consider or hold as…

External things such as pertain to property or riches or furniture or utensils or goods or food etc. …used of those joined to any one by the bonds of natural blood or marriage or friendship or duty or law etc, of attendance or companionship       —Thayer’s Lexicon.

(Also, an interesting Greek word echo here, means to have.)

And they have and hold and are married to the nature of God…and become heirs and joint heirs…and participate in the judgments of their God. 

…everlasting…

Without beginning and end, that which always has been and always will be…

Without end, never to cease, everlasting… —Thayer’s Lexicon.

Also, joined to thee forever as a sharer of the same eternal life.              –Thayer’s Lexicon.

…Life.
 
Of the absolute fullness of life, both essential and ethical, which belongs to God, and through him both to the hypostatic "logos" and to Christ in whom the "logos" put on human nature…

'Life, real and genuine, a life active and vigorous, devoted to God, blessed, is the portion even in this world of those who put their trust in Christ, but after the resurrection to be consummated by new accessions (among them a more perfect body), and to last for ever….'   —Thayer’s Lexicon.
 
—Dumas fils