The Pleasures of Patient Plodding

One of the reasons using the original languages is so helpful in sermon preparation is that it forces the preacher to slow down and read the text carefully. It requires patient plodding, which is far from glamorous but it is rewarding.

I found this to be true yet again this week as I was studying to preach John 14:27-31. As I was working my way through the Greek text, I suddenly realized something that I hadn't realized while reading the English. It's not that what I found wasn't also evident in the English translation (though that is often the case); it was the fact that I had read through the English too quickly and with too much familiarity. Patiently laboring with the Greek text forced my mind to be more alert and more watchful. As a result, I picked up on a significant statement Jesus made at the end of the passage - the meaning of which I may have missed had I not taken the time to do some plodding through the Greek text.

Several different times in the previous passage, Jesus called his disciples to demonstrate their love for him by obedience to his commands: "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15), "Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me..." (John 14:21), "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word..." (John 14:23), and "Whoever does not love me does not keep my words" (John 14:24). The connection between love and obedience is crystal clear.

But when you come to the end of John 14, you hear Jesus making this same connection between love and obedience, but in a different context. He makes the connection in the context of his relationship to the Father. He says that he will endure the cross out of loving obedience to the Father: "but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father" (John 14:31). In other words, Jesus is not asking us to do something that he himself will not do. What he has just called his disciples to do in verses 15, 21, 23, and 24, he himself offers an example of in verse 31. He models loving obedience for us in going to the cross.

Admittedly, that's not all that verse 31 means. There is much truth to be communicated in what Jesus says there. But it is something worth noticing...and pointing out. And had I not taken the time to patiently plod through the Greek text of John 14, I might have missed that connection. And worse, my people might have missed it come Sunday.

Monday with Mounce

Since I have Greek on the brain (see my previous post below), I thought I would direct your attention to today's edition of Monday with Mounce, Bill Mounce's weekly blog posts about Greek. It is a discussion of Romans 8:13, but especially helpful are his last few paragraphs on how to use BDAG.

A.T. Robertson on Preachers and their Greek New Testament

A preacher with college and seminary training can hardly keep his self-respect if he does not have upon his study table a Greek Testament, a Greek lexicon, a Greek grammar, and several modern commentaries on the book that he is studying. He will have many other books, of course, but these are prime necessities if he plans to do serious work upon a page in the New Testament before he preaches upon it. Only thus can he be sure of his ground. Only thus can he be relatively as original as he ought to be. The contact of his mind with the Greek Testament is a fresh experience of first importance. The mind of the Spirit literally opens to his mind in a new and wonderful fashion.

-- A.T. Robertson, taken from The Minister and His Greek New Testament

If you don't have a copy of Robertson's little classic, buy one! If you do, get it out and re-read Chapter 9, "John Brown of Haddington, Or Learning Greek without a Teacher." That chapter alone ought to re-kindle the fires of learning and drive you to your Greek New Testament!

And if you are looking for a helpful Greek New Testament, I would recommend the UBS Greek New Testament: A Reader's Edition. It contains the vocabulary for all words occuring 30 times or less in the New Testament at the bottom of each page, a dictionary in the back for all words occuring 30 times or more in the New Testament, grammatical help for difficult verbs, and a much better font and layout than Zondervan's Reader's Greek New Testament. You can purchase the UBS version here.