One of our writers, Bill Stowe, recently shared some helpful working definitions of common biblical terms and was kind enough to make them a resource available for us all.
Working definitions of some Bible words (put together from a variety of sources through the years).
Wisdom: skill for living.
Grace: Audrey (my wife of 37+ years — and now with the Lord since November 23, 1987) found an interesting and helpful definition of grace in an article by D. G. Kehl entitled “Where Has the Charisma Gone?” in the August 30, 1974 issue of Christianity Today. Along with a delightful three-page examination of the various uses of the word “charis” (grace) in the New Testament, the writer had this: “Grace can be defined as the gratuitous, abounding provision–initiated by the Father, made personally available by the Son, and supernaturally applied by the Holy Spirit–of the divine influence and benignant endowment that transforms an actual or potential unpleasing circumstance into a pleasing one.”
Humility: a lowly estimate of one’s self, evidenced by dependence on God for each undertaking, and by the immediacy with which gratitude is felt when something worthwhile appears to have been achieved.
Meekness: that temper of spirit in which we accept God’s treatment of us as good without argument and man’s mistreatment of us as “for good” without resentment. Meekness has become gentleness when the mistreat-er is treated with mildness and sweet reasonableness.
1 John 2:15-16 “Love not the world….
— the lust of the flesh: preoccupied with pleasure. Sensual-ism. Feel good!
— the lust of the eyes: preoccupied with possessions. Materialism. Have goods!
— the pride of life: preoccupied with position. Egoism. Look good!
….the world passes away and the lust thereof, but he who does the will of God abides forever.”
Titus 2:1 “Aged men must be…..
— sober: clear-minded (unlike an intoxicated man).
— grave: serious-minded (unlike a clown or comedian).
— temperate: calm-minded (unlike a mad man) and self-controlled, handling inward urges in a restrained, Christ-like manner.
— sound in faith: possessing a healthy and vigorous confidence in the existence of the intangible realities clearly taught in Scripture, and a robust trust God-ward that He has actually done, is actually doing, and will actually do the things Scripture clearly ascribe to Him. (By “faith” the apostle may also have in mind a lack of scruples against doing legitimate things — as the word is used in Romans 14:21-23, and/or a full assurance regarding the veracity of the truth as it is in Jesus — as the word is used in Colossians 2:7).
— sound in charity: others-centered, sincerely loving God and man, deeply committed to pleasing God and to promoting the temporal and eternal well-being of fellow-humans.
— sound in patience: willing to wait, able to quietly persevere in adverse circumstances.
Worship: The embracing, appreciatively, of Biblically-taught truths about deity and giving verbal expression (in the form of praise, thanksgiving, etc.–Psalm 100) and/or non-verbal expression (in the form of kneeling–Psalm 95:6, dancing–Psalm 150:4, or yielding one’s body to God for suffering or for service–Romans 12:1).
