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If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness 1 John 1:9 |
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| Archived Manna: | |
Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Thursday, April 9, 2026
Today's Passage : Today's Passage :You Know Perfectly Well What I Mean Bible Verse: Galatians 5:19-21 "So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, but they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread." Message:
We are using our Verbatim Bible again today, because it is interesting to discuss several of the differences between the Greek literal definition and more modern translations that are more accurate to his meaning.
First we must decide, is Paul giving us a complete list of “works of the flesh,” or are these just illustrative examples? Here, an English reader must trust the translator. Greek tenses operate very differently from English tenses. Although the verb Paul uses the verb “is” in “the works of the flesh, which is fornication, . . .”, the tense he uses changes the meaning to “which include fornication . . . .”
angry faces
Next, what does Paul mean by “evident”? It was certainly not evident to the Romans that fornication was somehow improper, much less such things as “rivalry” or “anger.” Slavery was a given in Rome, and sex with a slave girl, or the angry beating of a slave boy, had no more moral significance than scratching a mosquito bite. And it never even occurred to the Greeks that homosexuality was immoral; just the opposite! Plato, in fact, wrote a Symposium that sought to explain why a grown man should prefer sex with young boys to sex with women.
At its most basic level, the Greek word for “evident” means “revealed” or “visible,” as opposed to secret or hidden. In fact, one might translate the passage, “It's no secret what I mean by indulging the desires of the flesh.” So what gives?
The sinful nature of such actions was “evident,” not to the Greeks or Romans, but to the Jews, because the Jews had the Law. The Law was, in this sense, a secret to the universe that had been revealed. Much of the Law disappeared with the coming of Christ, and much more with His death and resurrection. But the morality of the Old Testament — the dividing line between moral and immoral conduct — remained largely intact. As we have seen, morality cannot justify us before God because we are too sinful to follow it perfectly, not because God changed His mind about right and wrong.
Eve-Serpent-German
The specific examples given by Paul in Galatians are interesting, and we will spend a few days examining them. First on the list is porneias, the word from which we get “pornography.” In truth, nobody knows exactly how to translate porneias into English. It might be read as narrowly as “engaging in prostitution,” but generally in the New Testament it refers to any act of sex between two people who are not husband and wife. In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul uses porneias to describe a man sleeping with his father’s wife (an act not tolerated by the Greeks, but sometimes by the Romans).
At any rate, taken in context, either “fornication” or “sexual immorality” seems pretty close to what Paul meant here. He is not specifying what sexual acts are immoral; rather, he is stating that sexual immorality/fornication is an example of what he means by indulging the desires of the flesh. The readers are expected to already know what he is talking about; and if we do not, all we have to do is read the Bible with an open mind to find out.
Meditation : Prayer : May it please you, my good Lord, that there may come a day when I can repay a little of my great debt to you. O Jesus, strengthen my soul, you who are good above all good; and since you have inclined my soul in this way, show me how I may act for you, whatever it may cost, O Lord. Here is my life, my honor and my will; I have given them all to you and they are yours: use me to do whatever you want. Amen. |
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