What Does The New Testament Tell Us About How We Can Love God?
Introduction
Over the course of this series we shall aim to build what we will refer to as the ‘One Page New Testament’ - #onepagenewtestament. This will be a pictorial summary of the main messages for disciples of Jesus in a systematically derived, structured form. We will try to keep the descriptive text to a minimum and share with you the different ‘Themes’ that are being created. We will consider the scriptures on their own merit, Theme by Theme, without introducing much in the way of theology. Within each Theme, we will let the scriptures speak for themselves - hopefully in a way that demonstrates the validity of the analysis.
This article is the second in a series that will unpack some of the analysis work currently being undertaken to draw out the main teachings from the New Testament from a personal discipleship perspective. The previous article can be found at Note [1] and focused upon the New Testament’s teaching that corresponds to the challenge of what we have called ‘Kingdom Fundamental 1 [KF1]’ to ‘Love God’, and more specifically the scriptures that encourage Jesus’ followers to ‘Listen to (Obey) God’ (that we called ‘Kingdom Practice 1 [KP1]’).
We saw last time that there were two Kingdom Practices under KF1 and in this Faith Article we will focus on the second Theme - Kingdom Practice 2 [KP2] - to ‘Talk (Pray) to God’ - and the related ‘Kingdom Actions’ that support this. The Themes that we will introduce, and describe briefly here, are shown in light blue in Figure 1.
If readers take away nothing else from these articles than the sense, logic, and directives in the Figures - for disciples to put in to practice in the strength God gives - we will hopefully have achieved our initial objective.
Figure 1 - New Testament Themes that teach us how to ‘Talk (Pray) to God’
Kingdom Practice 2 [KP2] - ‘Talk (Pray) to God’
As we read the New Testament scriptures we find a number of instances where Jesus is recorded as going to a synagogue or the temple on the Sabbath. We are also told that He would go off by himself to pray to the Father, as well as praying as He ministered to others.
From the analysis we have undertaken we can draw out two principal Themes that relate to this KP2:
Kingdom Action 3 [KA3] - Worship / praise God
Kingdom Action 4 [KA4] - Pray in faith to the Father (in Jesus’ name and the Spirit’s power).
As we saw last time, two sources have been used to identify Greek words that underpin the analysis work and the different Themes we will be considering - Louw and Nida’s ‘Greek English Lexicon’ [2] and ‘Mounce’s Expository Dictionary’ [3]. These have provided the basis for identifying verses in the New Testament that will help us get some insight about what disciples of Jesus should understand about the Themes we are creating.
Kingdom Action 3 [KA3] - Worship / praise God
As the analysis work has developed it has revealed that scriptures that fall within the subject area can be grouped into four Topics as follows:
Kingdom Action 3.1 [KA3.1] - Worship / glorify God / Jesus
Kingdom Action 3.2 [KA3.2] - Praise, thank, & bless God / Jesus
Kingdom Action 3.3 [KA3.3] - Let the Holy Spirit assist us to worship
Kingdom Action 3.4 [KA3.4] - Do not be an idolator (worship / praise other things).
We’ll look at each one of these in more detail below.
Kingdom Action 3.1 [KA3.1] - Worship / glorify God / Jesus
There are a wide number of Greek words that we can identify that collectively cover the words ‘worship’ and ‘glorify’. Four have been drawn out because of their relevance to discipleship.
Proskunétés (Strong’s reference 4353) defined as ‘a worshipper’ and used in that context. It is only used once in the New Testament [4]
Proskuneó (Strong’s 4352) is defined as ‘to do reverence to’ and used as ‘I go down on my knees to, do obeisance to, worship’. This word is used 60 times in the New Testament.
Latreuó (Strong’s 3000) defined as ‘to serve’ and used to reflect the sense of ‘I serve, especially God, perhaps simply: I worship’. There are 21 instances of this word in the New Testament.
Doxazó (Strong’s 1392) defined as ‘to render or esteem glorious’ and is used to reflect the following meaning ‘I glorify, honor, bestow glory on’. This word appears 62 times.
Here are some verses that highlight our need to worship or glorify God (and Jesus):
Matthew 14:33 - Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” [5]
John 4:23 - Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
Hebrews 12:38 - Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.
1 Peter 2:12 - Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
Some further examples could include: Matthew 2:2, Matthew 8:2, Luke 5:25, Acts 4:31, Hebrews 9:13 and Revelation 14:7.
There are something in the region of 110 instances where these, and related, Greek words have relevance to discipleship.
Kingdom Action 3.2 [KA3.2] - Praise, thank, & bless God / Jesus
There are a number of Greek words that semantically relate to the word ‘Praise’. Each word has a slightly different definition and most of them only appear a small number of times.
Epainos (Strong’s 1868) defined as ‘praise’ and is used in the context of ‘commendation, praise, approval’. It is used 11 times in the New Testament.
Epaineó (Strong’s 1867) meaning ‘to praise’ and its usage relates to ‘I praise, commend, applaud’. It appears 6 times.
Eulogeó (Strong’s 2127) is defined as ‘to speak well of, praise’ and its application is ‘I speak well of, I bless, or I am blessed’. The word occurs 43 times.
Eulogétos (Strong’s 2128) is translated as ‘well spoken of, blessed’ and is ‘used only of God, blessed (as entitled to receive blessing from man), worthy of praise’ and appears 8 times in the New Testament.
Ainesis (Strong’s 133) is defined as ‘praise’ and is translated as ‘praise, commendation’. This word only appears once.
Aineó (Strong’s 134) means ‘to praise’ and is used in the sense ‘I praise’. This terms only appears 8 times.
Ainos (Strong’s 136) can be explained as ‘praise (a noun)’ and is translated as ‘praise’. It occurs twice.
Kamptó (Strong’s 2578) which has the sense of ‘to bend’ and is used in way that means ‘I bend, bow’ and is found 4 times in the New Testament.
Exomologeó (Strong’s 1843) is defined as ‘to agree, confess’ and is translated in a number of contexts - ‘(a) I consent fully, agree out and out, (b) I confess, admit, acknowledge, (c) I give thanks, praise’. The word is used 10 times.
We can consider a number of examples that give weight to the sense that we should praising God and Jesus as part of our discipleship.
Luke 2:28 - Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:
Luke 19:37 - When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:
Luke 24:53 - And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.
Romans 14:11 - It is written: “ ‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.’ ”
2 Corinthians 11:31 - The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying.
Ephesians 1:12 - in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.
Hebrews 13:15 - Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.
Luke 18:43 - Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God.
Philippians 2:11 - and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Other examples we can consider include: Matthew 14:19, Luke 1:64, Acts 3:8, 2 Corinthians 1:3 and Ephesians 1:6.
We can identify around 50 verses where these Greek words have applicability to praise within our discipleship.
Kingdom Action 3.3 [KA3.3] - Let the Holy Spirit assist us to worship
There are only 3 verses where we can draw the sense of this Theme and all (not unexpectedly) uses the Greek word ‘Pneuma’ (Strong’s 4151) meaning ‘wind’ and are used in the context of ‘wind, breath and spirit’. This word appears 40 times in the New Testament and we looked at it in more detail in two previous Faith Articles [6]. Our verse examples are:
John 4:23 - Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
John 4:24 - God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.
Philippians 3:3 - For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh. The NASB translates this verse slightly differently as: for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and take pride in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh’.
Kingdom Action 3.4 [KA3.4] - Do not be an idolator (worship / praise other things)
Lastly in the context of the Kingdom Action to ‘Worship / glorify God / Jesus’ we can draw out a number of verses that warn us against creating and worshipping idols - that’s things and people. The relevant Greek words that appear in these verses are below:
Eidólolatria (Strong’s1495) meaning ‘image worship’ and translated in a way that expresses ‘service (worship) of an image (an idol)’. It appears only 4 times in the New Testament.
Eidólolatrés (Strong’s 1496) is defined as ‘an image worshiper’ and is used in terms of ‘a server (worshipper) of an image (an idol)’. It is only used 7 times.
Eidólon (Strong’s 1497) which is ‘an image (for worship), by implication a false god’ and is translated as ‘an idol, false god’. This occurs 11 times,
Eikón (Strong’s 1504) which equates to ‘an image, statue, representation’ and means ‘an image, likeness, bust’. This is seen 23 times in the New Testament.
Verse references that warn us against worshipping idols include the following:
Romans 1:23 - and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
1 Corinthians 10:7 - Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.”
1 Corinthians 10:14 - Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.
1 Corinthians 12:2 - You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols.
Galatians 5:20 - idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions
Colossians 3:5 - Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
1 Peter 4:3 - For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.
Other example verses we can reference are: 1 Corinthians 5:10, 1 Thessalonians 1:9, Revelation 9:20, and Revelation 21:8.
Also we find the examples of words related to worship which we identified above: Proskuneó (Strong’s 4352) and Latreuó (Strong’s 3000) used in a different context, and other Greek words that give us further warnings about idolatry:
Phulassó (Strong’s 5442) which describes ‘to guard, watch’ and is used in the contexts of ‘(a) I guard, protect; I am on my guard, (b) act of customs and regulations: I keep, observe’. This is found 31 times.
Pheugó (Strong’s 5343) meaning ‘to flee’ and used to describe situations where ‘I flee, escape, shun’. It is seen 29 times.
Verses that help to explain the warning about holding things above our love for God / Jesus include these examples:
Luke 4:7 - If you worship me, it will all be yours.”
Acts 7:42 - But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the sun,
Romans 1:27 - They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
1 Corinthians 10:14 - Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.
1 John 5:21 - Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.
We could also include a number of other verses such as: Matthew 4:9, Revelation 13:8, Revelation 19:20, and Revelation 21:8.
There are some 40 verse references that can be linked to this Theme.
Kingdom Action 4 [KA4] - Pray in faith to the Father in Jesus' name & the Spirit's power
As we are all probably aware, the subject of prayer is massive and probably never ending in terms of the things we could say about it. Here though, we have drawn out four Themes that might summarise some sense of what the New Testament teaches us.
Kingdom Action 4.1 [KA4.1] - Understand the NT teaching on prayer
Kingdom Action 4.2 [KA4.2] - Know that God hears our prayers
Kingdom Action 4.3 [KA4.3] - Pray to God (in Jesus' name)
Kingdom Action 4.4 [KA4.4] - Let the Holy Spirit assist us in prayer.
Let’s look at each of these using some of the Greek words that have been investigated, and the verses they appear in.
Kingdom Action 4.1 [KA4.1] - Understand the NT teaching on prayer
The New Testament talks about prayer in a variety of contexts and we can identify six specific Greek words which are found in verses that relate to this Theme.
Euché (Strong’s 2171) meaning ‘a prayer’ and translated in the context of ‘a prayer comprising a vow; a prayer, vow’. It only occurs 3 times in the New Testament.
Proseuché (Strong’s 4335) is understood in English as ‘prayer’ and can be translated in more than one context ‘(a) prayer (to God), (b) a place for prayer (used by Jews, perhaps where there was no synagogue)’. There are 37 instances.
Proseuchomai (Strong’s 4336) is defined as ‘to pray’ and is expressed in verses as ‘I pray, pray for, offer prayer’. It is found 86 times.
Deésis (Strong’s 1162) refers to ‘a need, entreaty’ and can used to mean ‘supplication, prayer, entreaty’ and appears 18 times.
Enteuxis (Strong’s 1783) means ‘a petition, supplication’ translating into the following senses ‘literally approaching the king, hence a technical term, a petition, prayer, intercession’ and is found twice only.
Huperentugchanó (Strong’s 5241) is defined as ‘to intercede, to make petition for’ and the sense in verse translations relates to ‘I intercede for, make petition for’, occurring once in the New Testament.
Example scriptures we can highlight include:
Matthew 5:44 - But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
Mathew 6:6 - But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Matthew 6:9-13 - “This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, ….’ ”
Mark 11:25 - And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”
Ephesians 6:18(2) - And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people.
1 Thessalonians 5:17 - pray continually,
1 Peter 3:7 - Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.
1 Peter 4:7 - The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray.
We could also consider: Romans 8:26, 1 Corinthians 14:15, 1 Timothy 2:1, James 5:16 and Jude 1:20. There are something like 50 verses that apply here.
Kingdom Action 4.2 [KA4.2] - Know that God hears our prayers
We can identify five Greek words that draw out teaching in the context of this Theme.
Ous (Strong’s 3775) which is defined as ‘the ear’ and translated as ‘(a) the ear, (b) the faculty of perception’. It is used 37 times in Greek NT texts.
Parakouó (Strong’s 3878) means ‘to overhear, to hear amiss, to take no heed’ and can be used in the contexts of ‘(a) I hear carelessly or incidentally, or I pretend not to hear, (b) I refuse to hear; I disobey, disregard’. It appears 3 times.
Epakouó (Strong’s 1873) occurs only once and means ‘to listen to, to hearken to’ and is translated as ‘I listen to, hear favorably’. It only occurs once.
Eisakouó (Strong’s 1522) meaning ‘to listen, to obey’ and used in the contexts of ‘I hear, listen to, heed.’ It appears 5 times.
Akouó (Strong’s 191) is defined as 'to hear, listen' and can be translated in a variety of ways ‘I hear, listen, comprehend by hearing; pass: is heard, reported’. This is found 430 times in the New Testament.
Verses we can identify which support this Theme of understanding that God hears our prayers include the following:
Luke 1:13 - But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John.
John 9:31 - We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will.
James 5:4 - Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.
1 Peter 3:12 - For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
1 John 5:14 - This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
1 John 5:15 - And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
Further verses we have identified include: Matthew 6:7, Acts 10:31, Corinthians 6:7 and Hebrews 5:7. There are in the order of 14 verses which convey this sense of God listening to our prayers.
Kingdom Action 4.3 [KA4.3] - Pray to God (in Jesus' name)
Perhaps most, if not all, of us pray to the Father when we pray. Jesus in a number of scriptures tells us to ask in His name (it’s not universally described in the new Testament but, then again, it doesn’t have to be to still be important for us to take on board and put into practice). However, the underlying assumption in this analysis is that when we pray we are praying to God the Father (or possibly Jesus - even though we are never encouraged to do that) and not to some other (i.e. false) deity or idol.
The six Greek words we identified in KA4.2 above are also applicable here. In addition, we can also consider the following Greek words used in conjunction with Euché (Strong’s 2171 - a prayer) or Proseuché (Strong’s 4335 - prayer):
Pisteuó (Strong’s 4100) defined as ‘to believe, entrust’ and used to reflect the sense of ‘I believe, have faith in, trust in; I am entrusted with’. It is found 244 times in the New Testament.
Pistis (Strong’s 4102) meaning ‘faith, faithfulness’ and translated as ‘faith, belief, trust, confidence; fidelity, faithfulness’. It occurs 243 times in the Greek.
Verses which reflect these words in the context we are now looking at include:
Matthew 6:8 - Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
Romans 15:30 - I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.
John 14:13 - And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
Ephesians 6:18(2) - And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people.
John 15:16 - You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.
Philippians 4:6 - Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
1 Timothy 5:5 - The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help.
Other verses we can reference are: Acts 1:14, Acts 12:5, Acts 26:29, Romans 15:30, 2 Corinthians 13:7 and Revelation 8:3. There are something in the order of 100 verses that support this Theme.
Kingdom Action 4.4 [KA4.4] - Let the Holy Spirit assist us in prayer
In this Theme we can identify a small number of verses (8 in total) that refer to the Holy Spirit assisting us to pray. These each use the Greek word ‘Pneuma’ (Strong’s 4151 - wind, spirit) - as we saw in KA3.3 above - sometimes used with the word Hagios (Strong’s 40) meaning ‘Holy / sacred’ (i.e. Holy Spirit). The verses are:
Romans 8:26 - In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.
Romans 8:27 - And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
Romans 15:30 - I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.
1 Corinthians 14:14 - For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.
Galatians 4:6 - Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”
Ephesians 2:18 - For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Ephesians 6:18 - And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
Jude 1:20 - But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit.
Summary
This is the second Systematic Discipleship Faith Article, where we have introduced Kingdom Practice 2 [KP2] - ‘Talk (Pray) to God’. At levels 4 and 5 in our structure we have also set out the Kingdom Actions that we can derive by grouping related Greek words we find in the New Testament into discipleship related Themes.
This, together with the previous Faith Article [1], covers the extent of our analysis on what the command to ‘Love God’ (Kingdom Fundamental 1 [KF1]) implies. As we have seen, this has drawn upon a number of relevant and related Greek words and the verses that they are found in - to explain what that might mean in practice for us as disciples.
Ultimately, these groupings are subjective, as will be the inclusion (or exclusion) of many verses within each Theme. This is especially so, as some verses have a much stronger relevance to the derived Themes than others. Hopefully, showing the number or relevant verses within each Theme gives some indication of the strength of their validity.
During this analysis, the aim has been to restrict the number of Themes that can be associated with any specific Greek word to eight or less - as any more implies poor analysis technique and the wrong choice / naming process.
In the next Faith Article we shall consider the Themes and scriptures that we can derive under the second Kingdom Fundamental [KF2] ‘Follow Jesus’. The material under this area is extensive so this (God willing) will be covered under a number of separate articles as time progresses.
Any constructive thoughts on this Article, the process being undertaken, and related feedback are welcome.
Notes:
[2] - “Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, based upon Semantic Domains” Volumes 1 and 2 - Louw and Nida - Published by and © United Bible Societies - 1988
[3] - “Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words” - © William D Mounce, 2006 - Published by Zondervan
[4] - biblehub - https://biblehub.com/greek/
[5] - Unless otherwise stated, all scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.TM Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.TM.
The Bible references presented are illustrative rather than aiming to be ‘proof texts’. They are examples only as there are, generally, many more we could look at.
The number of instances of specific Greek words can vary considerably depending upon the Greek manuscript(s) that is/are referenced by the data underpinning a particular program or website.
Please note that when looking at any Bible verse references, you should ideally consider more than one translation / respected version to get a more rounded view, and also look at the wider context for each verse too. In particular, when Greek words are translated, Bible scholars do not always use the same English word every time it appears in the Greek. This is why it is useful to look at more than one Bible version.
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