Roots

I could use a bit of prayer this Sunday morning. I’m teaching the Junior/Senior High Girls while their teacher is on vacation. And, I got to pick the lesson – actually, write the lesson – since they will be starting a new 13-week course the following Sunday.

Part of what I’ll be teaching has to do with etymology. I want them to know the roots, the sources, of specific words as well as learn why those words are important. I want them to know whether or not the meaning of specific words have remained the same – or not.

Many words I used as a child have entirely different meanings today. Some words have changed as they applied to places, too.  I learned of Peking – our students know of Beijing. I could point out Bombay on a world map. I would hope our girls could locate Mumbai. I memorized a list of mission nations that included Northern Rhodesia, which is no longer on a map – which is true of many nations.

Constantinople was named for the Emperor Constantine, but you would know that visiting Istanbul. Traces of New Amsterdam is in the history book, not in the replacement name of New York.

Yet the history that includes those names is important in understanding today’s world, just as the history of words are important in understand their use today. They come to us through different languages, too.

One we’ll be looking into isn’t found in the Bible – apostate. But the thought behind the word is and I hope to teach what the Bible has to say about the meaning of that word and how it is applied today.

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; (2 Thessalonians 2:3 KJV)

To do so means studying the Greek, with Strong’s definition G646:

ἀποστασία  apostasia
ap-os-tas-ee'-ah
Feminine of the same as G647; defection from truth (properly the state), (“apostasy”): - falling away, forsake.

Which also means discussing why the New Testament is in Greek and the Old Testament in Hebrew. I also want to cover:

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15 KJV)

Which these girls have memorized – I know. I also know it most likely was presented as a memory verse, absent the surrounding (in context) passage:

Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers. Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness. And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; (2 Timothy 2:14-17 KJV)

I want to include this about not striving – arguing – over words to the point that those listening cease to listen. Be purposeful in studying and presenting God’s word, don’t get caught up in empty, fruitless discussions.

Know the roots of faith, too. Discern those who are open to receiving God’s word, to know the difference between Bereans and Thessalonians:

These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. (Acts 17:11 KJV)