February 14, 2023
James 1:25 (NIV) But whoever LOOKS INTENTLY into the perfect law that gives freedom, and CONTINUES in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
The word “looks intently” on the verse above is written with a Greek word “parakupto”
which means high curiosity, full of interest, desire to give more weight.
Grow an interest and desire on His Word for us to meditate until His Word sets us free,
gives us satisfaction and revelation of the secrets of eternal truth that makes us know
God more and love His word.
Next the word continues is written with a Greek word “parameno” which means : to
remain, on stay, in other words there is a time needs to be spared, how we invest our
time to persevere meditating the word, internalize it in our life until the word becomes
our life, and when we do it God promises that we will be happy or in the English Bible
translation is mentioned as a person who is blessed.
As a blessed person, we suppose to be used by God to bring impact of the Kingdom
that is more evident in our daily life. If we find why that hasn’t happened yet in our life
then we need to evaluate our life again, perhaps we have been classified as a
congregation that is SLOW TO LISTEN.
In the book of Hebrews 5:11-14, Paul illustrate the word into 2 types, which are “milk”
and “solid food”. Milk, as we know is food for babies and small children whereas solid
food is for adults. So, the question is, do we still need “milk” type of word for our spiritual growth?
1 Peter 2:1-3 (TLB) So, get rid of your feelings of hatred. Don’t just pretend to be good! Be done with dishonesty and jealousy and talking about others behind their backs. 2-3 Now that you realize how kind the Lord has been to you, put away all evil, deception, envy, and fraud. Long to grow up into the fullness of your salvation; cry for this as a baby cries for his milk.As a new creation that has been born again (become a “spiritual baby”), obviously we need “word of milk” as our food which is pure truth for our spiritual growth, that talks about basic principles or basic truths about connectedness and dependence with God as our Father.
“Milk” type word will rebuild every thinking concept, emotion and attitude of the heart, to be able to see God’s existence as an essential thing that we really need to live our life
so our life will get a full salvation (soteria: having full recovery or become whole).
It is further said in the translation of the Word of the Living God that the word of “milk”
should make us grow and become strong.
The word “milk” itself (Hebrew 5:12-13) is written with the Greek word “gala” (read: gal’ -ah) that contains a figurative meaning (metaphor) that states about the truths of the
word that are not too difficult or do not have many demands.
Then the next question is what makes the congregation lose their desire to enjoy the
word ‘milk’, which is clearly needed to make the congregation grow strong and
experience salvation or wholeness of life?
In the Living Bible translation, it is explained easier for us to understand that the cause
is partly because the congregation still likes to harbor hatred, likes to pretend
(hypocrite), is dishonest, resentful, likes to gossip and slander others. These things
make the congregation “slow in hearing” so they don’t experience the growth they
should.
Every word of milk that is received should make us grow and prepare us to be able to
receive solid food that will lead us to grow to be more mature.
So, either way, the word of “milk” is an important and foundational thing that we need to grow and become strong. But the problem is, God doesn’t want us to simply grow to
become ‘a spiritual baby’ forever, but God wants our spiritual growth to continue to
experience progressivity until we become ‘children who are of age and mature’,
reaching the level of the fullness of Christ.
Therefore, we also really need ‘solid food’ to make us grown and mature.
This message will still continue tomorrow.
Ps. Steven Agustinus
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