The Gospel is a Verb
Kerry A. Shirts
I am currently reading Rabbi David Cooper’s very good text God is a Verb, which in essence is saying and showing that God is action. God is not just a noun, a thing, glorious though it be, out there somewhere. The Hebrew Kabbalists knew God was action. God lived in history, worked in people’s lives, taught them, made covenants with them, shared His mysteries with them in knowledge, light, love, and counsel sessions, etc. It is action as well as event, that showed Israel God was with them. This gave me the idea as a takeoff for the title of this paper.
As I am studying Greek and Hebrew, among other languages, I run across items every now and again which make the scriptures come alive. Things I see in the ancient languages that just do not make it through to the English translations of the Bible, enjoyable though they are to read as well. I’d like to share just a couple items that I believe are part and parcel of the Gospel.
The New Testament is such a rich deposit of material to wonder about and think and even act upon. The story of Jesus healing the crippled man’s hand on the Sabbath is worth looking at yet again. The people were gathered round Jesus to see if they could catch him in the extra-legal silliness, doing something wrong. He asked them if it was lawful to do good (agaqopoihsai). This word "agathopoieo" means to do good. There is something about action here that Jesus insists on using. We see this again at 1 Peter 4:19 where we read
paratiqesqwson tav yuxav eautwn en agaqopoiia
paratithesthosan tas psuchas heauton en agathopoiia
"let them commit the souls of themselves in well-doing."
Notice the verb here, paratithesthosan is the third person plural present imperative middle of paratithemi, which is to present or trust as a deposit in relation to the suffering of a person. Through it all, we build character.
There is a character to man and woman in the Gospel. Jesus sums it up beautifully in the Sermon on the Mount. Here we see him repeat many times the word (using the German Bible) "Selig sind…" "Blessed are…" This is marvelous! He is telling people as they act, as they use themselves and the Gospel as a Verb, not a Noun, they and others are "blessed." Selig means "blissful"! It is a joy to have character to bless, to do unto others and enjoy. Selig means "incredibly fortunate." Selig is to be overjoyed. The Elysian Fields were called Selig, as they were paradise, total joy, eternal happiness, bliss and content, honorable and delightful, playful, fun, enjoyable. Everything good, true and beautiful, this is Selig. It is intensity, not just a pontificating blessing on someone as a duty needed to be done. It involves the heart.
What if everyday were Christmas in the world? I remember thinking when I was rather in my younger days how delightful it would be if everyday we would have Christmas. This is the idea of the Sermon on the Mount. In fact, looking at his summing up of the many compact self-contained ideas Jesus gave us in that magnificent Sermon, notice what he says in verse 12.
xairete kai agalliosqe
chairete kai agalliosthe
"Rejoice and be very glad."
The German reads "Seid fröhlich und getrost…" Fröhlich is merry-making, to be happy, dancing, merry. We are literally at the party right now. The party is our life!
Die Fröhlichkeit is cheerfulness and even gaity. Getrost is to take heart or to be confident. In other words, the Gospel and this life is one long shout of Halleluia as far as that goes. This is the idea. To have joy in life is the principle, even as life occurs in ways we wish it would not sometimes.
Psalms 34 is the mirror for Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount I believe. Here we see the concepts of doing good, speaking not evil, the righteous being delivered (notice the verb!) from evil by the Lord, the afflictions to be healed, etc. When we read in verse 12 he that loveth life and desires to see good, it is rather surprising that the Hebrew word for loving life in this verse is bha)a ‘ahav, meaning an intense love, such as a sexual love! It uses sexual love with the idea of the most intense, most pleasurable kind of love. Gesenius Lexicon notes that it is the intense delight in doing anything (p. 16). The German says und gerne gute Tage… the word gerne meaning an intense joy, a preference, a fondness of doing something. Gerne is a pleasure, a desire for something special or preferable.
In the Sermon on the Mount, notice that Jesus says "Let your light shine..." (vs. 16) and be more "righteous" than the Pharisees, (vs 20) etc. The "righteousness" here is dixaiosunh dikaiosune which is the righteousness of conduct in life. Paul uses this word in just this sense more times than all the usage in all four of the Gospels. It is a verb, not a noun, meaning there is action, usage, conduct involved in righteousness, especially of that to others. This is the idea of being a Tzaddik, a worker of righteousness, as was Abraham and Noah before him. We are to be doing the works of Abraham. One of his most intense works was making sure that everyone else was comfortable. He was called the friend (filov)of God because he was the friend of man. (James 2:23)
Life is a Verb! So get going with it and be happy doing it. The Greek word used in the New Testament of certain persons to best express this idea is agaqwsunh agathosune, meaning the disposition and character was more than happy, but was actually energized, expressing benevolence, which is doing good. Being active in doing good is the idea here, so others can be blessed and also have joy. It is having a zeal for goodness.
The Gospel is not merely a noun, but a verb. Being Christian is not a noun either, but a verb. Make our lives Verbs. It gets exciting when we do so. Men and women are that they might have joy. One sure way to have joy is be thankful. This changes your entire approach to life. It’s a delight to be thankful. It’s a greater delight to show others all they have to be thankful for as well.