Such similar words could be uttered by lovers in this month of hearts. But such words were not uttered by one lover to another, rather these words were uttered by our Lord Jesus Christ as recorded in John chapter 21 verses 15 to 17. The story is quite a familiar one among Christians, but I believe we cannot fully grasp the full meaning of the chapter if we do not closely investigate the meanings of the words that Jesus used. The story goes like this as Jesus and Peter were having dinner, Jesus asked Peter if he loved him to which Peter replied “Yes” and then Jesus told him to “feed my lambs.” Afterwards Jesus again asked Peter the same question to which he replied in the affirmative and then Jesus told him again to “Feed my sheep.” Jesus asked Peter again the third time the same question. However the verse says that “Peter was grieved” and instead of replying in the affirmative, he simply told him “Lord thou knowest.” To which Jesus replied, “Feed my sheep.” Most people … [Read more...]
Love . . . it’s all Greek to me
As the world celebrates valentines day today, love no doubt fills the air. It is but fitting that we talk about this word love in the days to come. Let is therefore explore the meaning and the depth of the word itself and in order to fully understand it we have to go to the source of love which is God himself as expressed in his Word. The New Testament was written in the Greek language. Unlike English wherein we only have one word for love the Greeks have 5 different words for love. In the English language the context of the sentence conveys what we mean. However in New Testament Greek or “koine Greek” the word itself conveys the full meaning. To illustrate, in English when we say we love our dog, we love our country, we love our parents and we love our wife, we obviously do not refer to the same kind of love. But in Koine greek different words for the word love is used for different purposes. I do not claim to be a Koine greek scholar or an expert in languages. But the semantics of … [Read more...]