Seeds For Thinking

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

Scripture: Malachi wrote, “Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our fathers by breaking faith with one another.”
Malachi 2:10, NIV

“Father” is one of those generic words that we all understand to mean our male parent. Sometimes known as “Daddy,” sometimes as “Pop.” These days, we may have to qualify that by inserting “biological” or “adoptive,” but familial relationship is probably first in our thoughts, that is, a man who has begotten a child.
Actually, there are numerous ways the word “Father” can be used, including as a noun, or as a verb. One who is the founder, producer, or author is said to “father” that product or cause, especially if that person cares for or looks after something as a father might.
Father is an often used term in the Bible, as one might expect in a paternalistic society representative of Biblical times. Adam, of course, is noted as the first father. But, quickly, now, who is the most famous father in the Bible?
My pick is found in Matthew 6:9, and affirmed in Malachi 2:10. Surely you have heard the first reference, if not the second.
There is no doubt that He qualifies as the “founder, producer, or author” in the fullest sense. Isaiah 64:8 proclaims, “Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.”
Jesus taught extensively of the Fatherhood of God. The Lord’s model Prayer begins, “Our Father . . .” (Mt. 6:9-13) The Latin reference to The Lord’s Prayer is “Pater Noster,” Our Father . . . (See language note.) Even at twelve years of age, Jesus referred to the Temple in Jerusalem as “My Father’s house. (Luke 2:49)
Jesus, The Son, reveals the Father to those whom He chooses. He tells the woman at the well, “true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. (John 4:23)
How do we get we get words like “paternal” when our word is Father? Some of our ancestors took the “p” sound of Greek and Roman “pater,” and shifted it to the “f” sound. In German it became “fater.” Middle English “fader” eventually changed to “father.” We go back to our linguistic roots and say, “paternalistic” rather than “fathernalistic.” (My spell checker does not like that word!) By the way, “mother” derived from “mater” so we also get “maternalistic” on the feminine side.

When a male child is born, they ask, “How is the mother?”
When a man is married, they ask, “What did the bride wear?”
When a man dies, they ask, “How much did he leave the widow?”
And they say it is a man’s world?
Author Unknown

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

Scripture: Paul wrote, “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.”
(Romans 13:8)
“and if there is any other commandment, all are summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
(Romans 13:9b) NKJV

Love! Oh, how we love to use the word love. We have ‘love’ nouns; we have ‘love verbs. My Merriam-Webster’s© lists entries for:
calf-love; courtly love; free love; light-o’-love; love affair; love apple; love beads; love child; love feast; love grass; love handles; love-in; love-in-a-mist; love knot; love seat; make[1, verb] platonic love; puppy love; self-love.
Definitions include, but are not limited to:
(1) : strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties; ‘maternal love for a child.’
(2) : attraction based on sexual desire : affection and tenderness felt by lovers.
(3) : affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests.
(4): an assurance of love “give her my love”
2 : warm attachment, enthusiasm, or devotion “love of the sea.”
(5) : the object of attachment, devotion, or admiration *baseball was his first love.*
(6) : a beloved person : DARLING - often used as a term of endearment.
(7) British - used as an informal term of address.
(8) : an amorous episode.
(9 ): a god or personification of love.
etc. . . . . ad ifinitum.

So - what does it mean when we read the word “love” in the Bible? Some raise the question of what kind of ‘love’ Jesus really had for the “Beloved Disciple” and for Lazarus.
Rest assured that it wasn’t erotic love, because the Greek language has specific words, four of them, that we English speakers all lump under the common word, love. The original New Testament uses only two of the four words - philia - brotherly, (love) unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another concern for others, and; agape;
The fatherly concern of God for humankind; a person's adoration of God.
This is a partial listing of quotes from the New Testament that use a form of agape in every instance:

* God is Love.
* Love never fails.
* Love one another.
* Love your neighbor.
* Peter, lovest thou me?
* See how he loved him.
* For God so loved the world . . . .
* Love suffers long, and is kind.
* If I have not love, I am nothing.
* He who loves another has fulfilled the law.
* Now abide faith, hope, love,
* But the greatest of these is love.

March 4, 2007