Rollie's Love Connection

My good friend Rollin called me the other day and we had an in depth conversation about Scriptural stuff. We talked about:

1. How the Hebrew letters are really pictographs (picture characters), much like chinese or hieroglyphics
2. How we have used arabic script to write and Greek conceptual definition to describe these Hebrew pictures (example: the word for father is actually the construction of two characters, aleph = strength and beth=house; therefore, "father" is the strength of the house; hmmmmmm)
3. The difference in nuance of the two Grk words used for will (of God) in NT; thelema and boole. Rollin suggested that the thelema of God is a desire that expects and waits for our response or action on it, while boole is the will of God that he will act upon himself. That gives some interesting discussion and thought on some key passages! Words mean something and there are no true synonyms!
4. Rollin talked about some work that he had done on the prepostion phrases beginning with "according to" in NT Greek. He suggested again that there was a two part formual implied. One part was the need or requirement and the other part was the resource or the answer for the request. The resource of God is always enough, with some left-over! This has some cool implications to a group of phrases that I was chasing down in Psalm 119; "according to your promise", "according to your word", "according to your love". Thanks God -- cool timing! :)
5. He recommended a website (www.ancient_hebrew.org) and a book (Men Are Like Waffles, Women Are Like Spaghetti).

All that was incredibly enriching and we talked about some of the ramifications on some key texts in 1 John and in 1 Peter. I love talking with my friend Rollie. But then he made another reflection on a huge area that just boggled my mind. I want to share it with you for your discussion and comment. So here is the set-up:

• Again, remember that words mean something and there are no real synonyms in language
• Inspiration means that God (the HS) superintended the selection of words for a purpose without mechanically dictating these words; the message was clearly communicated!
• There are four spearate words translated "love" in the NT: storge, philo, agape, eros; each of course has a separate nuance or field of meaning
• storge = the traditions or mechanics of loving; philo = the being in fellowship or friendship with one another love; agape = the self-sacrificing, compassion love; eros = the ecstatic experience love
• The statement: In the book of Ephesians, and in the whole of the NT, eros is never used in connection with the normal Christian life or the description of the love of the body of Christ.
• The impact: Epehesus was into Diana worship. They uderstood the climax of sex to be the ultimate human experience and thought that during that moment they could actually touch God. Thus it made "sense" to employ thousands of temple prostitutes for the worship of Diana.
• In order to avoid this pagan connection, Paul used every other word for love to describe Christianity.
• YET, in our modern church, we have intorduced ecstatic experience back into our services through the "worship experience". This is especially true of the church growth movement and charismatic groups.
• While Rollin was not saying he had direct evidence to the conclusion, he suggested that perhap sthat is the reason why we have so much sexual immorality adultery and divorce running amock in our Christian communities.

Whow! (combination of wow and whoa) That will make you think twice about leading worship towards experiential goose-bumping. Caution. Do not lead towards a fabricated "frenetic" worship lest you exchange worship of God for worship of experience. Some of our worship choruses are just packed with that intimacy language. Hmmmmmm.

Let's engage in a careful dialogue about this topic.

I look forward to your insights,

Mike