Tag Archives: bible

Word Study – “Sick”

September 27, 2013 faithfulwon 1 Comment

¹³Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. ¹⁴Is anyone among you ill? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. ¹⁶Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.

James 5:13-16a

The Greek word for sick – ασθενει – in this context is transliterated: Astheneo

Strong’s number: 770

It is used 33 times in the NT:

Sick (19 times): Matthew 10:8, 25:36, 39; Mark 6:56; Luke 4:40; John 4:46, 5:3, 7, 11:1-3, 6; Acts 9:37, 19:12, 20:35; Phil. 2:26-27; 2 Timothy 4:20; James 5:14
Weak (14 times): Romans 4:19, 8:3, 14:1-2; 1 Cor. 8:11-12; 2 Cor. 11:21, 29, 12:10, 13:3-4,9;

From the contexts in other passages it would appear that this word could as easily be translated “weak” as “sick”. In English these two words are quite related but our understanding of the microbes that cause sickness make us more inclined to separate the meanings than would have been the case for people in James’ time. If we use “weak” instead of “sick” in James 5:14 we have:

“Is anyone among you weak? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord;”

When we take the overall context of James 5:13 -16 we can see there is a connection between being weak, or sick, and sin. The effect of the elders anointing is not just to make the person well physically but also spiritually – his sins will be forgiven. In verse 16 the key to healing is that you confess your sins to each other and pray for each other.

In verse 15 the word translated “sick” is actually a very different word (κάμνοντα) which is only used one other time, in Hebrews 12:3, and there it is translated “weary”. So if you feel weary confess your sins to each other and pray for each other and you will be healed.

Nowadays we are inclined to view disease and sickness differently from James. For us there is only a tenuous connection, if any, between our personal actions and sickness. Sickness is caused often by viruses or bacteria which seem separated from our moral actions. As a Christian in the 21^st Century the connection between sin and sickness is less personal, more related to the general fallen condition of the world than anything that we personally may have done. But if you think in terms of sickness being weakness and put yourself in the context of a 1^st Century Christian who knows nothing about viruses and bacteria then you might see the connection between personal sin and weakness or sickness more easily. This also explains Paul’s warning about taking communion in an unworthy fashion (see Thoughts on Communion: Healing and The consequences of communion).

Things can come around though. The bible’s wisdom does not seem so archaic in this regard if you are into holistic medicine. Lifestyle and a tendency to sickness go together. If your lifestyle is one of abusing the body through excessive alcohol or smoking or immorality then it is easy to see how those sins can affect your health also. Other sins such as worry and anger also have physical effects causing illness or weakness or both.

In this passage though the emphasis is not on the sin causing the illness. The Lord is gracious and he heals first and, then, forgives your sins also. He doesn’t place the emphasis on the sin but rather on the healing of the sickness or weakness.

Which is just like Him, isn’t it?

Autobiographical, Creation

Dream – Lessons in Creativity from the Creator

August 23, 2013 faithfulwon 1 Comment

Knock, knock, knock! I had heard that sharp sound before in middle of the night, and it had woken me up before, on at least two occasions. The last two times I initially thought it was someone knocking on the door downstairs but then realised it had just been a dream, turned over and went back to sleep. But a bit like the young Samuel in the bible, this third time I realised that this was actually God trying to get my attention.

“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me.” (Rev. 3:20).

So I went to open the door and there Jesus was, all white and shining and making the inside of my head house look positively disgraceful. I stood awkwardly at the door, saying that the place wasn’t tidy and, actually, it was quite dirty in places and I didn’t think it was ready for him to come in.

But he countered by saying that he was friends with sinners and quite used to that kind of condition and could he come in anyway?

He came in and sat down on the other side of the rough wooden table that seemed to be the main piece of furniture in my head room. It was no great shakes, in fact all the artefacts that I had in the room looked rough and unfinished.

I had “stumbled upon” a site on creativity before I went to bed. In it Scott Berkun makes the profound observation that “an idea is a combination of other ideas”.

Jesus sat at the table and I talked to him about that. He said to make him a meal, it seemed that he had a cake in mind in particular. I went to my cupboards and started looking for ingredients. I was quite happy because I seemed to have some really good ingredients in the cupboards.

And then the dream stopped or I woke up or something.

By “God-incidence” my daughter was making a cake the next morning.

Now a cake is not an intuitive thing. Mixing a combination of raw eggs, sugar, flour and butter together in a bowl (in the right order) and then putting it into an oven for a certain time at the right temperature is not something that is easy to think up. It is hard to imagine that those ingredients put together would make something that, in combination, is so different from its constituent parts.

But of course that is what God does all the time. He is the only original thinker. He came up with the basic building blocks and put them together in different combinations so that we would get the idea. A soft metal (sodium) combined in the right way with a poisonous gas (chloride) give us a flavour enhancer and preserver (common table salt). Two gases combined together in the right way give us water. And so it goes on. God has about 90 ingredients that he combines in the most creative ways imaginable. His favourite ingredient is carbon and his favourite combination is water. Its another study altogether to look into why that might be so.

So now I’m going to bring out my ingredients and ask God for a recipe that pleases him.

Creation, General Principles

The Heavens declare the glory of God

January 9, 2013 faithfulwon Leave a comment

The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.
²Day unto day utters speech,
And night unto night reveals knowledge.
³There is no speech nor language
Where their voice is not heard.
⁴Their line has gone out through all the earth,
And their words to the end of the world.

In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun,
⁵Which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
And rejoices like a strong man to run its race.
⁶Its rising is from one end of heaven,
And its circuit to the other end;
And there is nothing hidden from its heat.

Psalm 19:1-6

There is so much to be learnt from a study of the physical heavens that everyone can see. A wonderful example is the true story about the Star of Bethlehem which is quite astonishing and easily verifiable by anyone with a program that shows planetary positions 2 millennia ago.

Even simpler examples of what God wants to say to man abound in the way He created the heavens. We have a song that we sing in Open Arms which says “Jesus at the centre of it all” and indeed He is. And as a picture in this physical world He has put a representation of God, i.e. the Sun, at the centre of all the planets which revolve around it.

These planets include our own. Before Copernicus said otherwise people used to think that the earth was the centre of the universe and that everything revolved around us. But God had made it so that the centre would represent Him not us and in fact everything revolves around Him. Jesus at the centre.

Another similar example is to be found in the rotation of the earth. As the earth turns on its axis we revolve towards the sun and then away from it and so night comes followed by day.

It is a daily reminder that if we turn away from God we will be in darkness, as we turn towards him we are in the light.

Similarly the moon often is seen as representing the devil. It is barren and lifeless, but even it can reflect the glory of God when turned to His purposes. Its courses are set and sometimes it even obscures the sun, sometimes partially, more rarely totally and only ever to a limited number of observers. Likewise evil can sometimes arise and seem to obscure all that is good but that is a rare event. Even in a total eclipse there is light around the edges, the moon can never completely shut out the light of the sun and neither can evil ever completely block out all good. Even at its worse it is actually just an illusion, the sun still shines as strong as ever behind the moon, just as God’s power and glory is not lessened in any degree by the worst evil of men.

Some people say that before the Old Testament began to be written by Moses that some of the descendants of Shem, Noah’s son, could tell you the story of redemption from the patterns God wrote into the stars. This may have been what David meant when he said: “Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge.” Then again it doesn’t have to, there is enough out there that reveals knowledge without having to dig very deeply at all.

Today must have been one of the most gloriously bright days I have experienced out here in the countryside of Kildare. It was all light without much heat…hmm.. I’m sure there is more knowledge to be revealed in there somewhere.

A Christian in a relationship