I will need to preface this 12 Days Til Christmas with Philippians 4:7-9 because it all of this started with verse 7. Here it is in full from the Message version:
”It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.“
In verse seven as I looked at the Greek words they gave more context, depth and meaning for me. Let me share them with you: the Greek words for
- “surpasses” means superior
- “all” means of any kind
- “understanding” means the God given ability reason.
The peace of God is superior to any kind of our ability (which God has given us) to reason.
Right after this statement the author of the letter to the Philipians, Paul (who is currently imprisoned in Rome, starts the next statement with the word “Finally”. The Greek word here gives more context/meaning/depth to the word “Finally’, it means
- from now on, henceforth.
Come back tomorrow for the next Greek word and be ready to dig into more.
May God fill you with his peace and help you to understand his grace in the New Covenant he sent his son for,
Darlene
(All Greek definitions come from the Interlinear section of biblehub.com)
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