I want to study today about honesty, for honesty is one of the things we talked about yesterday at the UCAP conference. I’m grateful for honesty. One of the speakers said that honesty is true intimacy in a marriage. Honesty is what connects Becky and I emotionally. Honesty is the first step in the addiction recovery program and for good reason: without honesty nothing else will really matter or help.
Step 1 says:
Admit that you, of yourself, are powerless to overcome your addictions and that your life has become unmanageable.”
I am powerless on my own. I can only recovery as I surrender my life and will over to God and then do his will.
2 Timothy: 2:2
For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.”
I like one of the cross-references regarding peace because I feel that with honesty comes true peace, peace of conscience, peace of mind, and peace within our home.
Psalms 29:11
The Lord will give strength unto his people; the Lord will bless his people with peace.
I really like that scripture too. With peace comes strength. With strength comes peace.
Psalms 34:14
Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.
Departing from evil and doing good are the predecessors of seeking and pursuing peace. They are the ingredients.
I really like this scripture too:
Psalms 37:37
Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.
I learned yesterday that “perfect” in Hebrew doesn’t mean what we interpret it to mean in English. Perfect means “complete.” Other words that relate to “perfect” in Hebrew: blameless (22), blamelessly (1), complete (1), entire (1), full (1), intact (1), integrity (4), perfect (5), sincerity (1), unblemished (2), uprightly (1), who is perfect (1), whole (2), without blemish (12), without defect (36).
I looked more into “perfect” and found this:
Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (NKJV). But in Job 1:1, the man from Uz named Job was described as a man who “was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and turned away from evil.” Forcing the word “perfect” in Job 1:1 to mean what most twenty-first-century Americans take it to mean, Barker insists that a person cannot be “perfect” (defining the word as sinless, morally without error) and at the same time be sinful.
“But a brief study of the original word quickly shows that the Hebrew and Greek words that frequently are translated “perfect” in our English Bibles do not always mean sinlessness.
“…the word translated as “perfect” can mean “integrity of mind” or “innocence.” He further commented that the word is used of “simplicity of mind, which is opposed to mischief and ill design” (1979, p. 866). Obviously, then, the Hebrew word in Job 1:1 that is translated “perfect” did not mean “sinlessness,” but was used instead to describe a person who was attempting to follow God’s commandments to the best of his or her ability.”
This is such good information and helps me understand more about who Job and other prophets were – they were doing their best to submit their will to God and keep His commandments. They were submitting their will to His and being honest.
This was a good study!
Hasta luego!
Nate
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