In this enlightening episode, host Rick Hughes delves into the intricate meanings behind words like ‘love’ in the Koine Greek, the language of the New Testament. Discover how different Greek terms encapsulate various dimensions of love, from the divine agapao to the affectionate phileo. Rick emphasizes the importance of understanding the original language to fully grasp the biblical teachings on love and how it influences our relationship with God. Further exploring the theme of authentic biblical teachings, Rick warns against false prophets who drift from true scripture. Through references to Jeremiah and the pitfalls of modern-day pulpits, he encourages
Welcome to the Flatline with your host, Rick Hughes. For the next 30 minutes, you’ll be inspired, motivated, educated, but never manipulated. Now, your host, Rick Hughes.
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Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. I’m your host, Rick Hughes, and for the next few minutes, please stay with me. It won’t be long, only about 30 minutes of motivation, some inspiration, a whole lot of education, a whole lot of education. That’s right, a whole lot of education, but absolutely no manipulation. That’s right, no clowning around, no asking for money, not trying to sell you a product, not trying to get you to join anything. We just want to give you information. Hopefully that information will help you verify and identify God’s plan for your life. And if I’m able to do that, and the Holy Spirit would use that, then you can orient and adjust to the plan. That’s really up to you. My job is to get it to you accurately and on time, and your job is to either believe it or not believe it, listen or not listen. It’s up to you. But whenever somebody teaches their scripture, the Bible, the Word of God, that’s what this show’s about, we have to remember that those words were not written in the English language. So that King James Bible you have or the NIV or the RSV or the NASB or whatever you may have, those words were not written in the English language. Rather, God the Holy Spirit chose to record the words and teachings of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, the words that are in the New Testament, in the Greek language, which mostly is Koine Greek dialect, K-O-I-N-E, Koine Greek dialect. And that was the language of the common man. Koine Greek became the lingua franca of the Hellenistic Roman world. It was the language of everyday people, including merchants and soldiers and even those in the upper class who needed to communicate with a wider audience. So the New Testament was written in the Koine Greek, making it a crucial language for biblical scholars and anybody interested in the historical context of the early Christian scriptures. On this particular radio show, you will hear me refer to the Greek language when I discuss a particular word with you. Why do I do that? Well, it’s so that the word is critical, and it’s critical that we get the correct meaning of that particular word. For example, if I take the word love, L-O-V-E, You may hear that a lot every day, I love you, I love you, I love you. Well, there are several different Greek words for what we Americans simply call love. The Greeks could use the word agapao, that’s one verb. It’s one of several Greek verbs meaning to love. They could also use the word eros, meaning erotic love or eroticism. Or phileo, which is a general term for love. Agapao is used in 1 John 4, 8, where it says God is agapao, God is love. It’s also in John 3, 16, God so loved the world, agapao, that he gave his only begotten son. This is where God’s love is manifested to the whole world. And we, in turn, are commanded to love God with all of our hearts, like in Mark 12, 30. And we’re also commanded to love one another in Romans 13, 8. All of these passages and many other uses of the word agapao is used. And our love for Christ is demonstrated by our obedience to him. Listen to John 14, 21. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me. the one who loves me. And he goes on to say, the one who loves me will be loved by my father and I too will love them and show myself to them. You know, what’s funny is we’re even commanded to love our enemies. In Matthew 5, 44, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. I promise you that’s very critical you understand that statement because if you don’t understand what impersonal love is, then it would be impossible for you to obey this mandate. Another word translated love in the New Testament is the word phileo, meaning affection or hospitality. And we see that translated in the word Philadelphia, which is known as the city of brotherly love. Phileo denotes love between friends, a bond of affection and camaraderie. There’s another Greek word in the Bible used for love. All these words are translated love, L-O-V-E, in the Bible. If you don’t know what they are, you don’t know what they’re referring to. This word is storge, S-T-O-R-G-E, storge. In the Greek, storge is the word for familial love, a familial love, a natural affection, or a bond, especially between parents and children. It also encompasses the love among siblings and other close relatives, used in Romans 1.31 and in 2 Timothy 3.3. In our case, We use only one word, I love you, but we express it in different ways. For example, you may tell your spouse you love them and express it with affection. You may say it very romantically, I love you, baby. Okay. And you may have a friend, you may tell them, hey, I love you, buddy. That’s something entirely different. And the only way to understand it is how the tone of our voice and the affections that we demonstrate. This is one reason why you absolutely, without a doubt, must have a well-qualified pastor who understands the languages. If he doesn’t speak them, he needs to know how to look them up and use them. For example, in the Old Testament, all of that was written in Hebrew. And in the Greek New Testament, we have the Koine Greek language of the New Testament. That pastor that I’m talking about, that well-qualified pastor, is called a poimen kai didaskalos. Poimen kai didaskalos. You say, where did I get that? Ephesians 4.11 talks about pastors and teachers. It’s one person. It doesn’t say the pastor and the teacher. It says pastor and teacher. Technically, he’s a shepherd, a teacher. And their job is found in the very next verse in Ephesians 4.12. What’s their job? For the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the statue of the fullness of Jesus Christ. That’s the job of the pastor, to help us grow up, teach us the Word of God so that we can learn it and apply it and live it in our lives. That’s not too hard to understand, is it? Unfortunately, not all pastors do that. There are many people in pulpits that don’t need to be there. Their messages are sometimes political, sometimes social, and most of the time showmanship. Listen to the Word of God through the prophet Jeremiah and what he had to say about people like this in his day. thus says the lord of hosts jeremiah 23 16 hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you they make you vain they speak a vision of their own heart and not out of the mouth of the lord and then in jeremiah 23 21 and 22 i have not sent these prophets yet they ran i have not spoken to them and yet they prophesy but if they had stood in my council and had caused my people to hear my words Then they should have turned them from their evil ways and from the evil of their doings. Wow, what a tremendous statement. If they had taught my word, they would have changed the population’s mindset. They would have turned the people away from their evil ways. And that’s what’s happening today. The word of God is not being taught. Christians are not being taught the scripture. And you know, unfortunately, they don’t want to be taught the scripture. I’ve seen many churches where if you try to teach the scripture, people get bored and they don’t want that. They want the pastor to love them and Hug them and come visit with them, drink tea or coffee with them, call on them. But if a pastor tries to teach the Word of God for more than an hour a week, they freak out about that. Well, what exactly were these false prophets prophesying? What were they saying? Jeremiah 23, 27 tells you what they were saying. They cause my people to forget my name by their dreams, which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers had forgotten my name for Baal. Jeremiah went on to say, The prophet that has a dream, let him tell his dream. But he that has my word, let him speak my word faithfully. And that’s the key word, faithfully. So what is the chaff to the wheat, saith the Lord? Is not my word like as a fire, saith the Lord, like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? There you go. The only thing that’s going to profit you And your local church is a well-qualified pastor that is teaching the scriptures, not talking about, I have a dream and this could change the nation. Follow my dream. You may wonder what Jeremiah was referring to in these passages. I’ll tell you what he was referring to. Jeremiah’s words were a warning to the southern kingdom of Judah. for their unfaithfulness and their rejection of God’s law. The chapter that I read to you identifies the widespread deceit and sinfulness of the people with Jeremiah’s call to acknowledge their sin and be humble before God. And those false prophets that he spoke of in that passage were dreamers. Deluded by their own minds, their own human viewpoint thinking, and their sermons were designed to make the people of Judah forget God’s name through the worship of Baal. And you know it’s unfortunate, but organized religion in America today is full of false prophets like this. Many of these so-called pastors don’t have the spiritual gift necessary to shepherd a flock of believers. And not only that, but many are untrained in the languages, and as a result are not capable of rightly dividing the Word of God. We know there are only two communication gifts active today, according to the Bible, and one of them is a pastor teacher, and the other is an evangelist. Yours truly, that’s me. The gift of apostleship is no longer active, since the apostle had to have seen the resurrected Christ, or the living Christ, and the gift of prophecy has been eliminated with the distribution of the canon of scripture. So now let’s look at something confusing. I’ll show you why it’s so important, why words are so important. In Romans 8, verse 1, I’m going to read to you what’s in the King James Bible. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, now hang on, who walk not after the flesh but according to the Spirit. That seems to indicate that if I follow the flesh, I’m still condemned. But if I follow the Spirit, I’m not condemned. That’s Romans 8-1 in the King James. However, let’s go to the original and I’ll read it to you. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, period. And what technically is there is that I am not condemned because of my relationship with Christ, not according to what I do or don’t do. That’s works, which is correct. In the original text, we find no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus, period. It says nothing about walking in the flesh. If that was true, it would indicate we had to work for our salvation. Another point to consider is that every Greek verb has a mood, a tense, and a voice. For example, in 2 Timothy 2.15, I find these words. Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the truth. The verb study is the Greek word spoudazo, which means to be diligent or to exhort yourself and to endeavor yourself. And this verb is an aorist active imperative. The aorist tense is used by the writer and indicates there’s something they have to do in the past with a point of time. And keep on doing it. The emphasis on keep on, keep on, keep on doing it. And the active voice says they produce the actions of the verb. And the mood is imperative mood, which is a command from God. So the aorist active imperative, where the verb says study, study, study. Spoudazo, study to show yourself to prove unto God. This tells us that if we fail to diligently study God’s word, then we are directly disobeying a command from God and committing a sin by neglecting our responsibility. The pastor-teacher, on the other hand, is to instruct you as to the sense of the passage. It’s very critical for you in your application because your job is to apply the information by faith and the Holy Spirit’s job is to assist you in understanding it and then actually to test you to see if you will apply what you claim you learned. When we get away from the original text, we lose accuracy of the passage. That’s why words matter. And the one who gives the message puts his own spin on it. This makes it easier for liars in the pulpit to lie since they spin the words and meaning to suit their values. You’ll find this in the prosperity gospel where many preachers have gotten extremely rich and justified saying it’s okay to ask people for money. It’s not okay to ask people for money. It’s not okay to sell books. It’s not okay to promote yourself, try to make money off being in the ministry. That’s why on our website we sell nothing. We don’t ask for money. We don’t solicit money. We don’t sell you anything. It’s all free. And the spiritual life is essential to establish an internal system of virtue. And that has to be built on what I call the logos, L-O-G-O-S, the logos in your soul. In 1 John 2, verse 5, listen carefully. But whoever follows his word, the logos, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in him. So how do I know I’m a mature believer? That I have the word of God in my soul. I follow the Logos. In Revelation 3.10, because you guarded the word, the Logos of mine, Logos, I will guard you in the hour of testing that’s about to come upon the whole world. The Christian who guards the words of Jesus Christ, the New Testament doctrine, will be guarded by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. What a great promise to you. The logos is what I call divine viewpoint. Divine viewpoint. That divine viewpoint is the mind of Christ or the thinking of Christ, and it’s been recorded by God the Holy Spirit for future generations to come. In 1 Corinthians 2, 16, for who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. What is the mind of Christ? It’s the recorded scriptures. So in order for the Christian to establish a logos in his soul, he must make a radical change in how he thinks. Listen to Romans 12, 2. Stop thinking of yourself in terms of arrogance beyond what you should think, and think in terms of sanity as God has assigned to each one of us a standard of thinking from his word. So human viewpoint must be replaced with divine viewpoint in order for us to have some humility in our souls. You hear that? Human viewpoint is thinking of yourself in terms of arrogance. Divine viewpoint is thinking of yourself in terms of humility. Where did I get that? In Philippians 2, 5 through 7. Let this mind, let this thinking, this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. In other words, he wants you to think like Christ thought. Now he tells you how he thought in verse six, Philippians 2, six, who being in a form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon himself the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. Remember this, we have the hypostatic union talked about here. Hypostatic union, this is God and man in one body forever. We call it undiminished deity and true humanity in the same body. And he voluntarily set aside his own deity, operated in humanity while he was on this planet. Thus he demonstrated for us how to live the Christian life. And that required humility. You remember the song he could have called 10,000 angels and destroyed the world and set him free, but he died alone for you and me? That was God on that cross, and that was man on that cross. As God, he could have freed himself. He could have sent everybody at that moment into smithereens, but he didn’t. He humbled himself and assumed the death that was placed upon him because it was for forgiveness of my sin and your sin. That’s amazing. That’s amazing. So James 4.10 tells us this, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up. Humility is simply respect for authority along with obedience without bitterness. It’s the total opposite of arrogance which is no respect for authority along with self-justification. So the middle transformation that you need can be accomplished only by means of the filling of the Holy Spirit. That’s problem-solving device number two on the flatline of your soul. Only by the filling of the Holy Spirit. And then by the teaching and the mechanics of the Christian life. And that’s another problem-solving device called doctrinal orientation. So it’s the Holy Spirit’s job to fill you and control you. It’s your pastor’s job to teach you and feed you. not by singing praise songs or any other emotional appeal, going bowling, going to play baseball, whatever it is, kind of keep people fired up, but by listening to a well-qualified pastor explain the scriptures in your local church. The mandate to pastors is found in 1 Peter 5 too. Feed the flock of God which is among you. Take the oversight thereof, not by constraint but willingly and not for filthy lucre but of ready mind. Don’t do it for the money. Do it because you love the Lord and you’re called to do it. Our mandate is found, and your mandate and mine is found in 2 Peter 3.18, where it says, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever. Amen. The verb grow, a very important word. It’s pronounced oxano in the Koine Greek New Testament. It means to increase, and it is a present active imperative. That simply means there never is a time when you’re not to grow. The present tense means today, tomorrow, the next day. There never is a time when you’re not to grow. The active voice says this requires positive volition on your part, and the imperative mood is the mood of command. Lack of effort on your part to grow in grace is definitely a sin of omission, not doing what you were told to do, in other words. If you get distracted or disinterested, either one leads to defeat or failure to acknowledge and perform the task God assigned to you. The question is, are you growing in grace? Are you becoming a mature believer? Are you becoming the person God wants you to be? Or are you still the same individual you were a few years ago, spiritually speaking? How’s your spiritual life going? That’s why we wrote a new book called The Christian Spiritual Life. so that you’ll understand what it means to live the spiritual life. Someone asks you, how’s your spiritual life? What would you tell them? I don’t know, I go to church and I tithe and I sing in the choir and I go visitation and I do mission trips. Well, that’s not your spiritual life. Spiritual life is in your mind, it’s what you think. That’s why the Bible says, let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. You gotta learn to think right. That’s where the spiritual life is lived, in your thoughts. I hope you’re listening. I hope you’re paying attention. I’d like to… So much more I’d love to say about this, but I don’t have time right now. There’s a whole lot of stuff that you need to understand about these words. Why words matter. They’re critical. And why it must be taught in the New Testament from the Koine Greek language. That’s why you’ve got to find a pastor that’s well qualified. A pastor that can teach you these things. A pastor that can help you understand what this means. Not someone who puts a spin on it and changes it to what he wants it to say. It’s critical you understand that. I’m glad you’re listening today. I hope you’ll keep listening. We’re usually on this same radio show every Sunday morning. Same channel, same place. And you may have questions. You can always contact us through our website, rickhughesministries.org. That’s rickhughesministries.org. Or you can give us a call at 831-0718. 831-0718. If you do that, that’s 800-831-0718. If you do call and get an answering machine, be sure that you speak very slowly, very distinctly, and leave your name, address, and phone number so we can get back in touch with you. But if you just rattle it off really fast, then we might not be able to understand what you said. Slowly, distinctly, accurately, leave your name, phone number, address. We’ll get back with you if we wind up getting to you on the answering machine, okay? There’s a lot of things I’d like to tell you today. We’re just running out of time. But it’s my privilege and my joy to give you this information. We’ve been doing this for 20 years now, going on year 21 as I speak. This is show 1040. That’s 1040 Sundays we’ve been on the air. 1,040 Sundays, God has given me the honor and the privilege to have this radio show. And I cannot thank him enough. I can think of nothing greater in my life to be able to do than to bring you this information. I’m so grateful God has let me do it. And I’m grateful that you’d give me a few minutes of your time just to listen and to learn. So where are you? Have you accepted Christ as your Savior? Do you know for sure you’d go into heaven? Do you know for sure if you died today that you’d spend eternity in heaven? Because if you don’t, you can know for sure. That’s why the Bible says these things are written so that you may know that you have eternal life. If you don’t know it for sure, then you don’t understand it. Because the Bible says he that has a son has life. and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. And how do you get the Son? Well, the Bible says, whosoever is to call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Very clearly, for by grace are you saved, Paul wrote. It’s an act of faith, not by works, unless anyone would brag about it. It’s just simply you bow your head and you offer up a simple prayer like, Heavenly Father, I believe Christ died for me and I’m willing to accept him as my Savior. The wonderful thing is that he didn’t stay dead. He walked out of the grave alive, and he’s alive today. What’s even more wonderful is he will come and live inside of you like he lives in me. What a wonderful thing. The Lord Jesus Christ, who loved you, died for you, resurrected for you, ascended into heaven and will come to get you eventually, take you to heaven with him. What a wonderful day that will be. So I hope you’ll keep listening every week, same time, same place. It’s my honor to give you this information. It’s my honor to challenge you with this information. I hope I can ignite a spark in you. I hope I can give a hunger in you so that you’ll say, where can I find one of these well-qualified pastors? Where can I find somebody that teaches from the original language? Or maybe you’re just too distracted and too disinterested to grow. I don’t know. That’s up to you. My job is to get it right and get it accurate and give it to you. Your job is to do what the Bible says, study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, but rightly dividing the word of truth. Again, grow in the grace and knowledge of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That’s clear. The Lord Jesus Christ even said, take my yoke upon you and learn of me. My yoke is easy. My mandates are easy. So we have study, learn, grow. All these are mandates in the Scripture for the Christian. Once you accept Christ as your Savior, you’re not just supposed to stay static. You’re supposed to move forward. You’re supposed to grow in grace. You’re supposed to become the person God wants you to be, which is a reflection of Jesus Christ, that you become Christ-like, that you represent Jesus Christ through your life, through your words, through your thoughts, through your testimony. It’s a wonderful privilege you have to do that because God could have taken you on to heaven after he saved you. He could have said, okay, come on home, that’s it. Nobody left you here for a reason. And that is so that you can lead other people to Christ. That’s why the Lord Jesus Christ said, if I be lifted up, then I will draw them to me. Lift him up in your life. Lift him up by the way you live. Lift him up by the things that you say. And you will glorify God to the maximum in your life. You have an opportunity to be a Christ-like individual. As the Bible says, it’s no longer me, but Christ in me. That’s what you want to become. You want to become Christ-like. You want to represent Christ and reflect Christ in your thinking, in your words, in your thoughts, in the things that you do. There’s so much more to say about this. I’m running out of time quickly, but gee, I hope you’ll come back next week. Same time, same place, same station. And until then, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Flatline.
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Thank you for listening to The Floodline with your host, Rick Hughes. If you’d like to contact Rick, please write to him at P.O. Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama, 35054, or online at www.rickhughesministries.org.
