Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
Leaders lead others in finding purpose in life. Our purpose is not about ourselves. Our purpose is to bring God’s life to our world by revealing God’s love to others in our world. We are sons and daughters of God, and we reveal the testimony of God in all that we are and do.
When we were in the world, we were absent of an understanding of our true purpose in life. Even those of the law lacked an understanding of God’s purpose for mankind. They thought they understood God’s written word, but they didn’t understand God’s heart. The Old Covenant way of law and conscience left mankind bound to aimless conduct in life. Not knowing who they were, left them unable to find their true focus in life. Jesus ended our aimless conduct by empowering us to be born again into a living hope. The shed blood of Christ ended our old lives of flesh and invited us all to live our lives empowered by God’s Spirit within our hearts.
1 Peter 1:17 And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; 18 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 20 He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you 21 who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. 22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, 23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word (logos) of God which lives and abides forever, 24 because “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, 25 But the word (rhema) of the LORD endures forever.” Now this is the word (rhema) which by the gospel was preached to you.
Jesus is the word of God by which we have been born again. A literal translation of verses 22 & 23 of these verses would be:
Having purified your souls in the obedience of the truth through the Spirit to unhypocritical brotherly love, love one another earnestly out of a pure heart, being begotten again, not out of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, through a word of God—living and remaining—continually.
Our scripture reads that we were born again through the word of God which lives and abides forever. The word which is not in the original Greek text. It is added because the translators are attaching the word logos (word) to being Scripture. Scripture is a what and Jesus is a who. Scripture is logos (word that has been expressed), but Jesus was the brightness of the Father’s glory and the express image of His person in our world (Heb. 1:3). He was the word (logos) made flesh. We were not born again by the Scriptures; we were born again through a living relationship with Jesus in our hearts. The One who lives and remains continually in our lives is Jesus. He is the expression (logos word) of God to us and He speaks to us (rhema word) in our hearts. It is Christ in us that is the hope of glory. We are born again into a living hope by Jesus speaking to our hearts. He speaks, and He continues to speak. As we grow in knowing Him in our hearts, we grow in becoming like Him in our character, nature, way, power, and authority, in our world.
1 Peter 2:1 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, 2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word (logikos), that you may grow thereby, 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
Our tasting is not a tasting of God’s written word. It is a tasting of Jesus in our lives. It is having a personal experience with Jesus as Lord of our hearts and minds. He gives us desires that empower life-giving changes from within. An internal experience with Jesus in our hearts empowers us to desire to be expressions of Him to our world. The word for word in verse two is the Greek word logikos. It is to be logical, rational. reasonable. sensible (acting with or showing good sense; able to make good judgements based on reason). A relationship with Christ in us will empower us to be life-givers to others in our world. Our relationship with Jesus as sons and daughters of God in Christ empowers us to be expressions of Him to others in the substance of who we are. This is the kind of logic, rational, reason, and sense that we seek to express. This is the pure milk that we desire. It is a milk of babes. It is a milk of innocence. It is a diet of being innocent to evil and wise to good for the sake of giving life to others in our world. It is the place of becoming like children who see Jesus as the center of everything in life.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
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House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728
