Subject: clean body natural and spiritual |
Bible Note: Well, Mark, I can shed no further light on Doc's "white on rice" symbolism, because my wife feeds me only whole-grain, unprocessed brown rice. She says brown rice is good for Septuagenarians although she knows perfectly well that I'm a Baptist. ...... Now let's look at that superb verse of Scripture, Hebrews 4:12. The writer says that "the Word of God is living and powerful...." What an apt description! The Bible is alive because it is God-breathed! Moreover, it is powerful because He wrote it! It is His eternal word, not the ephemeral works of man. It is the good news, the gospel of Christ, which is God's power to salvation for everyone who believes (Romans 1:16). ..... Moreover, the word of God is "sharper than any two-edged sword..." What an analogy! A two-edged sword doesn't have any dull sides; its thrust cuts both ways; it doesn't miss a thing; it probes all the way down, piercing everything with which it comes in contact, "piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." ...... There are two Greek words, _psuche_ and _pneuma_ which underlie the two English words _soul_ and _spirit_, respectively, in this passage. But these two terms do not describe two separate entities any more than "thoughts and intents of the heart" do in the same passage. They are used in much the same way as, say, "heart and soul" are used in such an expression as "I love you with my heart and soul" when we are expressing fullness. A lawyer in referring to the provisions of Levitical law used a similar expression to denote fullness in Luke 10:27. In answer to Jesus' question, "What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?" the lawyer answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and will all your mind..." Elsewhere in Scripture, as Doc has already pointed out, these two terms, _soul_ and _spirit_ are used interchangeably to describe man's immaterial self, his eternal inner person, different and distinct from his flesh, that is, his body. Mark, please critique me. Have I helped to clear the water or merely stirred up more mud? --Hank |