Feb 23, 2007 09:56
(NIV) “We are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”
“loved”?
“d,” not “s”?
That single letter made my fingers, which had been typing so confidently, pause in doubt. I had wanted to encourage someone of God’s unfailing love through trials, yet this verse didn’t really work as well as I thought it would; at least not the English translation, anyways.
Swiveling my chair to face my end table, I extricated my Greek New Testament from a mass of books. Thumbing the pages, my brow slightly scrunched in frustration, I turned to a few verses before and began to read, trying to see if I’d missed something in the context.
As I went along, I made certain to note the different tenses and moods. When I arrived at the word of my confusion I set the Bible down and tried to digest what I’d read, thoughts just as unsettled as when I began. My eyes sought the familiar purple binding of the Greek grammar on my shelf. Opening it, I hoped to find a solution within its well worn pages. I eagerly refreshed my memory on gnomics and constatives, and then checked myself. My Greek professor had once jokingly called me a legalist who tried to make everything line up with the categories listed in “the purple book.” I didn’t want to make that same mistake again. What was God really saying? Not what I wanted His words to mean, or what neatly fit with the grammar book, or the translation; I wanted to know how to accurately express, in my language, the encouragement God meant to give when His Holy Spirit first put those words to parchment.
As I mulled all the information over in my head, praying for the same Spirit to give me understanding; the answer came. I knew that this verse, like a key thread in a beautifully woven tapestry, was meant to convey a simple, timeless truth for those that are His; He loves us, and through Him we are more than conquerors.
greek,
love,
encouragement