The Daily Word
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As many of you will know and at the risk of boring you again, I have come to love words. Our English language is rich in words because we have collected, through history, words from a multitude of cultures and races. As we have been learning of late, the Greek language, possibly like many other languages, has very subtle nuances and shades of meaning built into it but largely with English, what you see is what you get!
The Bible was translated by Greek and Hebrew scholars into English, originally in the King James Version, and now there are many more up-to-date versions which have been taken either from the KJV or from the original texts that were used to produce the KJV.
Yet the Bible retains its cohesiveness, and the newer versions only seek to bring it home to us in our times. As we are looking at Romans 12 and the instruction Paul gave there, having considered love as the key characteristic of the church he then uses some strong and vivid words for his next exhortation, “Hate that which is evil, cling to what is good”.
‘Hate’ is a very strong word. It has the thought of being revulsed by evil, almost physically backing off from any contact with it. There is no room here to define evil. Different cultures will have a different view of it but we do intrinsically know what is evil and even if we are doubtful about whether something is evil, it is better and more in keeping with our Christian walk and life, to regard it as evil and back away. The Bible says: “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin”. If it is specifically defined in the Bible as sin then it is sin. If it doesn’t feel right with us, then it is evil and we should hate it. If we have the slightest doubt, then we should avoid it in either thought, word or deed!
Article written by Brian Preston, Elder @SFGH Church

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