Unity in the Body of Messiah

As with almost every dive into a particular theme or idea being presented in Scripture, I always want to be sure to first understand what words mean according to God. This is a crucial part of the "renewing of our Minds." We have to come to a place of humility where we can accept that before we had begun to walk with Messiah - before the Spirit of Truth is given to us, we had our own ideas and understanding that the world has shaped.

My experience has so far been, that nearly every concept, idea and word used in Scripture is defined in Scripture and that definition is almost always different if not in direct opposition to how we have understood the meaning of the word to be.

So as the Spirit of Truth reveals Truth, it will show us every day how our understanding, and the definitions and ideas of what words mean, are much different than their meanings and definitions as used when written in Scripture. This is the "renewing of our mind" that Paul speaks about in Romans 12.

First, let's dig into the word Unity and see what Scripture can teach us.

Unity • ἑνότης in the Greek, from the root εἷς meaning "One".

How do we define God's intention of the meaning of this word? We go and seek it out and see where the word is first used, and then how it is primarily (most often) used in Scripture. The first place we see this used is Genesis 1:9 “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place (εἷς), and let the dry land appear.”

The first time this root word is used is to describe joining something together in one place. Another interesting place we find the Greek Word Unity/One εἷς is in Genesis 1:14 where it mentions how the lights in the heavens (Sun, Moon, Stars) are there to mark Times, Days, and Years. The Greek word One/Unity is used instead of For -

"These will be One Times, One Days and One Years" doesn't make much sense, however, "These will be the Unity of Times, Unity of Days and Unity of Years" is a much better and more direct use of that Greek in the Septuagint.

Echad • אֶחָ֔ד is the Hebrew Equivalent based on the Septuagint translation. This is how we use Scripture to define scripture. Our Messiah and His apostles used the Greek Septuagint often, this is a translated Greek text of what Christians refer to as "The Old Testament", the Hebrew Bible. This is an incredible tool God provided for us to take the Greek terms used in the writings of the Apostles and seek out how God defines these terms and phrases. God's language, the language of Angels that Paul refers to in 1 Corinthians, is Hebrew. This is where we go to seek out a definitive understanding of God's language and His worldview.

How do we define the term Unity used by Paul in Romans?

We seek the definition given by God in the context and usage of His Word.

Genesis 1:5 Evening and Morning being put together is how God created and defined One or Echad or Unity of a Day.

Genesis 2:24 Echad is used to describe how man and woman will become One Flesh.

Deuteronomy 6 In the Shema "The Lord our God is One (Echad)."

When mankind wants to define One (אֶחָ֔ד) or be in Unity (ἑνότης) in their own way, destruction, violence, and rescinding of God's favor is what occurs.

Genesis 11:16 - Mankind had become Echad or (In Unity) in rebellion against God at the Tower of Babel, the very act that caused God to scatter man all over the earth and remove Himself from all with the exception of a man named Abram and ultimately his descendants.

Genesis 34:22 - The sons of Sheckem propose to intermarry with the sons of Jacob and become Echad (united/one) as a people, against the instruction to remain Set Apart from foreign people with foreign gods and customs. The result of this interaction is bloody and forfeits the inheritance of the sons who used that proposition for violence.

Whenever I hear non-believers or Christians utilize Ephesians 4:3 as an appeal to not discuss the critical truth of repentance, obedience, and God's perfect instructions, it is like nails on a chalkboard. It is the exact opposite of what Paul is exhorting in this letter.

Let's look at the entire phrase "Bond of Peace" -

Bond • συνδέσμῳ appears in the Greek Septuagint in Daniel 5:12 this word Things Bonded Together or Enigmas קְטַר (Kehtar) is the Aramaic equivalent of this word found in the book of Daniel. This word is translated in Old Testament English to Joint or Difficulties or Problems. This word is derived from the Hebrew word קָטַר (Qatar), which translates directly to "Offer a Sacrifice or Burn Incense."

Peace • εἰρήνης or the Hebrew שָׁל֑וֹם is a word that has such deep meaning I don't believe we will ever fully grasp it until we are in the fullness of the presence of Our God. What we can glean from its vast usage in Scripture is that it embodies completeness, it is what it means to be whole, as God intended.

So what can we piece together in this word study in an attempt to better understand Paul's instruction to the believing body in Messiah?

That "Unity" does not mean to shrink back, go along, or tolerate a denominational or even and individual's statement of faith, belief system, or a modern interpretation of the gospel message. It does not mean to encourage support or quietly allow those among us to claim we can walk out how we feel "led" by the Spirit unless that "leading" can be confirmed and tested against ALL of scripture.

Scripture is written in context, and defined by that context and that language. We don't get to place our own understanding on the Word of God. His Word is meant to Transform Us out of our Understanding and into His. The Renewing of Our Minds is just that, to birth and grow in us a New Creation.

My takeaway on how to interpret this verse using Scripture and Spirit is below :

Make Every Effort to Keep the Oneness of The Spirit of Truth, which is the fullness of God's Word exemplified by Messiah in full submission and obedience to the Will of God written in His instructions to us, through the sacrifice and prayers of completeness which is trusting His promises. Therefore we should walk together in the oneness of the Covenants & Commandments, which bond us together in that oneness under Messiah and His leadership as the Head.

How is it possible for mankind to be United as One if we all walk around with our own definitions for words and concepts? We toss our definitions and we adopt His.

Genesis 1:14 uses the word UNITY to describe the appointed times marked in the heavens is a major revelation of how we are meant to unify around God's calendar, not man's.

Christmas & Easter & Sundays have become so mixed with worldly culture that believers, atheists, and pagans alike are all to be found around a table, a tree, sitting in a pew for tradition's sake and sharing a meal of unclean foods and pagan rituals sprinkled in for "fun." That is becoming Echad or One with the World.

Meeting together with those who are firm in the faith of Messiah, devoted to obedience, and Set Apart from the World on the days given by God: Sabbath, Rosh Chodesh, HIS Biblical Feasts, and Festivals that ALL Point to Yeshua's death, resurrection, and His coming - That is how we become Unified or Echad with each other in Him.

Bereshit/Genesis 2 • Breathing & Ceasing

"And so the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their heavenly lights. By the seventh day, God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because on it He rested from all His work which God had created and made." Genesis 2:1-3

This week we dove into Genesis 2 and some of our group's takeaways included:

Sabbath • The 7th Day

The realization that the change of the Sabbath day originated unofficially in the Church of Laodicea and then officially instituted by Constantine in the 4th Century.

Although many Protestant congregations will deny this or attempt to point to vague scriptures that use circular reasoning to define "The Lord's Day" as Sunday, the Catholic Church is quite proud of this change and we have to thank them for their careful and consistent documentation throughout the centuries.

This also led to a discussion around what paganism is, and why does it matter?

The definition of the word today is quite different than the origin of the term. The contextual definition in the scriptures simply meant belief in any other god than the God of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob. Since the God of Israel was a single religion that worshipped only one God, the default opposite would also mean polytheism.

These pagan gods and their holy days were incorporated and "mixed" with the Appointed Times being observed by the early followers of Yeshua. Those who refused to observe these changes in the calendar and appointed times were either cut off from the community, persecuted, or killed for failing to renounce them. Sunday itself is named for the worship of The Sun god, for example, Thursday, Thor's Day, etc.

שבת

Looking deeper at the word Shabbat  (To Cease), as opposed to Noach (To Rest), helps us to further understand the purpose of this commandment. Although much more of what Sabbath is intended to be and give to humanity will be revealed later, in Genesis we are meant to understand that this is the first thing on record being called Holy, or Set Apart by God.

Shabbat is sanctified and deemed Holy at the creation of the world to All of Creation, not just Jewish people. It is also a specific day of the week (the 7th) and the only one given a name (Shabbat) by God Himself.

We also noticed that The Garden of Eden and Eden itself are two different things and that the concept of "The East" is also a concept that holds a Holy or Set Apart symbolism.

The First Commandment

What is the first recorded sin of humanity? Eating that which was forbidden.

How was it done? The Serpent twisted the Word given to Hava (Eve) as she was not the one given it first-hand. She was given the word from Adam. The serpent took existing instruction and sowed doubt and deception. I plan to revisit this topic more in Genesis 3 next week. There is a clear pattern here where the enemy will always go after one who has received the Word second-hand, and always when the person who received it directly is removed. The twisting of scripture to get mankind to believe they can eat things that God has forbidden is something we have yet to overcome.

Why have Christians spent so much time trying to understand the symbolism of the fruit and what it represents?

My answer: Because it keeps us from the simplicity of the literal lesson:

God is the ruler and authority over us, he is the author of our bodies.

Therefore, He knows what is and what is not suitable for food and consumption.

We must believe and obey Him at the literal, which preserves and protects us, gives us life, and reveals that we are trustworthy enough to have the deeper meaning revealed to us.

If we are not willing to allow the author of our bodies to have sovereignty over what those bodies should and should not consume, then we simply are not ready to submit to God as authority and ruler over our heart, mind, and soul.

Bereshit/Genesis 1 / Psalm 119

Week two we bathed in 119 and began our jouney at the beginning, in Genesis 1:1.

We discussed the significance of Psalm 119 being the central and longest chapter in Scripture. John mentioned the repetitive nature of the text, we noticed the Hebraic Aleph-Bet (alphabet) which we discussed is a long acrostic poem. We discussed how the Scripture repetition was the Ancient way to Highlight, Underline, or Bold a point that required attention. The more repetition, the more God's intention is that we pay attention.

Psalm 119 is by far the longest chapter in the Bible and it is where we see what "A Man after God's own Heart" looks like. Desirous to please God through devoted obedience and love of God's wisdom and instruction as the authority over our lives.

Take a moment below to view this graphic created to give a visual depiction of the over 63,000 cross references in our Bible. When we think about how God's word was penned over 1500 years by over 40 authors, the volume and frequency of these seamless references are beyond simple human explanation. What stood out to me when viewing this graphic was the central signal of Psalm 119. Along the bottom of the graphic are represented in vertical lines each chapter in our Bible, Psalm 119 certainly stands out as an intentional "Read Me" that I believe God placed central and prominent for a reason.

We then talked about Genesis 1 and how God chose to reveal Himself progressively to mankind and progressively in His written word. Only when we stay in the word and continue going back over passages after more revelation is given along the way do we see how He wants us to piece together a story by consistently chewing on it rather than having it spoon-fed or sipped through a straw.

We see the evidence of the Torah well before Moses at Sinai, glimpses of the instruction of sacrifices in Adam and Eve as they left the garden, Cain and Abel and their offerings, Noah being told to distinguish and categorize clean and unclean offerings, etc.

We examined the genealogy of Adam to Noah, realizing that Adam was a contemporary of Lamech Noah's father which helps us understand how "Torah" could have been consistently passed down through the generations. When you have all of your generations still living 9 forefathers back, it seems much more realistic than what we experience as memory loss today to keep the integrity of passing along oral instruction.

Another interesting thing to note is that it only took one generation outside of living memory of creation (Adam passed just before Noah's birth), for the world to become so despicably wicked that it had to be purged. We will see as we go on, that is the unfortunate pattern of mankind. This pattern seems to continue even into the millenium after Messiah returns as revealed by John in Revelation.

My takeaway on the first chapter of the Bible:

This sets the tone of exactly how we are to read the Word of God, the pattern of the text of Genesis is simple:

"And God Said ..... And it happened so."

We are to read God's Word and understand that it happened and will happen exactly the way He says, and not attempt to take our far-removed, limited worldview and understanding and place it over His text. Don't water it down, try to make it fit the modern sensibility or devolution of our day. We are to take Him at His Word.

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