Being Greekish… (1 Timothy 1:6-7) 120608
6 w-n tinej avstoch,santej evxetra,phsan eivj mataiologi,an 7 qe,lontej ei=nai nomodida,skaloi( mh. noou/ntej mh,te a] le,gousin mh,te peri. ti,nwn diabebaiou/ntaiÅ
But some, who have missed the mark, are being turned away into empty talks; desiring to be teachers of the law, having no understanding neither what they are saying nor about what they speak confidently.
To read Greek again is really tough. As I am going at the rate of one to two verses of First Timothy, I am already struggling with all the vocabularies, grammars, parsing and translating to meaningful English or Singlish language. My translation is not the best, but I am glad that I try picking up my Greek. After all, I have spend one good year in Bible College to learn Greek and even another year of using it in Greek Exegesis; I better not to lose my ability to read and understand this language which I have labored many hours.
I have tried to keep my Greek in the first semester of my third year by reading First John. Though I did not finish reading the entire book, at least I keep my Greek alive. When that semester ended, I stopped reading in Greek and it took only slightly more than half a year for me to forget most of my Greek. I am so ashamed of it.
I know that if I am not going to do something about it, my labor in the Bible College will be labored in vain. I am even more determined to brush up my Greek when I heard a seasoned preacher recently who had obviously forgotten his Greek and try to flaunt it before my church. I do not want to be judgmental, after all that preacher had left his Bible College for decades. But I want to be a genuine teacher and student of the Word of God, I want to be able to teach or preach with understanding, knowing what I am talking about (v7). How can I teach something that I do not even understand myself?
Today’s verses remind me to be faithful handler of the Word of God. I do not want to miss the mark and give empty talks (v6). How sad will it be if I begin to teach with no preparation and anyhow tell stories and keep my listeners entertain? I do not want to be an entertainer; if I want, I will have done long time ago. I do not want to merely to hype up the emotion of my listener for them to do what I want or the church want them to do; I could have done so when I was still a school teacher, when I gave numerous of talks to encourage and inspire my students to study hard or be a exemplary student leader. I want to be a faithful student of His Words and a humble servant to serve my listeners the best feast of God’s truth.
I am still struggling with my Greek, but I pray that I can persevere to keep on learning this language. I am not trying to show off that I am better than my church members because I can read Greek. My motive is to be able to bring out the beauty of the original language whereby the Bible was written so that we can all share the goodness of the nutrients which the Word of God can bring to us. God helps me to remain humble and not be proud to show off my ability to read Greek, as Biblical Greek is not the “Holy Spirit Language” which God used to communicate His truth to us. Instead, the Greek in the Bible was day to day language which we will find them on blogs, smses, post-it notes and emails, if any of these exist during the first century when the New Testament was written. My desire is to bring about the practical and daily application of the Word of God in our day to day living, not only in church on Sunday.
May God help me.
HHS…
Abel…
