Spoude!
Peter said, (2 Peter 1:5-9)
“…make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.”
When examining the Greek (I don’t know Greek, but I can spend 5 minutes clicking around a website with the best of ‘em), we learn Peter uses the word, spoude (spoo-day’).
Spoude means get on it.
I wonder if spoude is the same kind of powerful exclamation that the late Freddie Mercury had in mind when he screamed, “Get on your bikes and ride!” at the end of an especially catchy Queen song…
Go after goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love with: (definition of spoude)
- haste, with haste
- earnestness, diligence
- earnestness in accomplishing, promoting, or striving after anything
- to give all diligence, interest one’s self most earnestly
So, the question is, what does it practically look like for us to “make every effort” with those virtues?
This entry was posted on Sunday, October 18th, 2009 at 8:24 pm and is filed under scripture, theology/philosophy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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on November 2nd, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Words after “make every effort” means nothing more than a Law – a New Testament Law like many other texts of epistles. Not the Grace. Many NT passages like “do this” “do not do this” are just a Letter, a Law, a Mirror of how we are to look like and how we are not to look like. We need the Life of God in us, a daily Bread for every day, to live in Him – be connected to Him as branch to the Vine – to bring the fruits.
Meditating this passage gives material to The Holy Spirit to produce in us what is mentioned in the scripture.
The command “make every effort” in Greek root comes from speed –> be quick to…, be motivated, mean it, take it seriously.
Pastors know there are many people who do some superficial, formal, no passionate, religious deeds of attitude wishing to take from God passively.
Words “make every effort” versus>
No heart involved
No human spirit involved in what we say, what we do
Dreams without determination
Works without motivation
BA12bbc azet.sk – post
on November 6th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Jan,
I don’t follow. I’m not sure where you’re coming from on this, could you please clarify? Can you tell me what your point is, perhaps in a different way?