Hendiadys or not Hendiadys

It’s the first mother’s day where my mom get’s to celebrate with our Lord Jesus Christ. I get it if today, mother’s day is difficult for you. I really do and you get permission to share your feelings with the Lord.

Those of us who have been reading through the Bible together in the Bible recap reading plan, that Bible study EJ is leading, we have been reading parts of Psalms these last two weeks which are filled with a huge range of emotions. Our God created us and can handle a day of grief, day of gratitude or generosity.

On this mother’s day, I have a bit of all three. My wife is an incredible mom. She goes the extra mile for each one of the kids all the time. She gets things done for them at school, always thinking of them with vacations. She makes their lives great.

My mom, reminded me most of today’s scripture and so I have both grief and gratitude. See we are going through the vision for our church, phrase by phrase. We say that vision every week and just got done saying it.

We looked at just the first verse for the first couple of weeks

Philippians 2:1 HCSB

1 If then there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy,

Today, on this mother’s day, I think many of you will see immediately why I picked this phrase for today, we come to the last part of this verse

if any affection and mercy,

When my mom was learning that there wasn’t much more medicine could do to extend her life, that God was taking her home soon, she and I had a kitchen counter conversation. You never know when memorable conversations are going to happen but this was it.

Just standing in the kitchen, she just started talking and the conversation got real serious real quick. Standing by each other we talked about the end coming. She told me with total clarity, looking me in the eye how proud she was of me and how happy she was with the man I have become and we hugged a long time. It was full of affection from a lifetime of mercy.

We all need affection and mercy. Sometimes people were blessed with a mom who gave it like my mom. Everybody hungers for it. On this side of heaven we will do just about anything to get it. But no child can give it, because it isn’t just affection. It is affection and mercy.

A child can give affection, but a mother can give affection and care for a hurt, change a belt out for a time-out, plead before a principal or a judge for another chance.

When I was growing up, my mother was a nurse. A very good nurse. But when I hurt myself, mercy was rare. It was more like don’t do that again. When mercy did come, that’s when I knew I was genuinely sick. Once I had an infection that had become very bad, and my mother said, “oh Bill.” That’s when I knew I needed real help. That’s when I got the mercy.

Mom held back some intense anger to give time for change. She took care to be patient.

But these verses are not really about mom’s at all.

Mom wasn’t perfect, no mother is. And all of us, no matter are gender or whether we have reproduced are capable of affection and mercy. We need it from each. Much of the sin in this world is taking ways that God tells us not to in order to get some kind of affection and mercy.

But God gives us a way beyond genetics, beyond those who are part of our family tree, for all of us to give proper, good, wonderful affection and mercy.

We already stated that theses verses are the vision for our church and really any church. That we will find Jesus Christ who will do this in our lives.

Philippians 2:1 HCSB

1 If then there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy,

You might miss something in our vision because you aren’t from Bible times and you don’t speak Greek but a guy who read this 200 years after it was written immediately noticed a truth.

Back in the late 300’s AD John Chrysostom, who spoke a similar style of Greek, was amazed that Paul, the writer of this part of the Bible, was speaking to the first readers and us like anyone in John’s day would, when they make a request. The style was to first remind a person of what they are to them by questioning how they relate to them. Instead of “remember that time I helped you mow the lawn,” would become, “if you think I am a friend who will be there for you when you need me, than do this.” Since you know your friend was there helping you mow the lawn you will agree that this same friend is the type of person who will be there when you need them next time.

So when Paul is writing “if any affection and mercy” he is reminding the people that they have received the affection and mercy of God but let’s look deeper at what is meant by this phrase,

The Greek looks like this

Nestle Aland 26th Edition Greek New Testament Morphological Edition Chapter 2

εἴ τις σπλάγχνα καὶ οἰκτιρμοί,

Eh tis “splanch - na” Kai Hoik-tear-moi

Remember how I told you in previous sermons that words don’t always mean the same thing in each language, and this is really clear for this part of the scripture. It’s funny on mother’s day to get a little gross but this literally means,

Philippians 2:1 (CSB)

εἴ τις σπλάγχνα καὶ οἰκτιρμοί

if any intestines and mercy,

That’s right, intestines, an older word for it, “bowels,” although one scholar said it could be lungs and heart but I disagree, it’s really speaking of that are feelings are often reflected in our body. From the butterflies of happy nervousness to the diarrhea of anxiety, the ancient Greeks feel

Splanchna

is where deep compassion comes from. So the positive would be translated as compassion or affection but there is an opposite for this word which is created by an idiom in Greek,

an idiom is a short couple words that create a meaning that isn’t literal.

like we have the idiom “hard hearted” meaning someone closed off to people’s feelings , the ancient Greeks would use splanchna with another word to say they

“shut their bowels” that is their way of saying hard hearted.

Here we have the open hearted way, the compassionate way.

εἴ τις σπλάγχνα - if any intestines (meaning affection or compassion)

So while fun to talk about the differences between English and Greek. Why does it matter to you?

Because when we read this we need to remember that Paul didn’t mean this as a genuine question, he was saying in his culture’s way, remember how this is true of God. Remember his compassion for you but then you have to think of the intensity of the Greek word compassion over the intensity of our English word. A funeral director can show compassion in English. But it is going to be very rare that a paid professional will be moved in their body, moved to butterflies in their stomach about your sorrow. Rare that a psychologist gets so nervous that you won’t follow through that they have to spend hours in the bathroom.

But a mother, father, great friend can’t sleep, runs to the bathroom at the airport because they are so anxious about your return, each to his own way there body reacts but the compassion is that kind of body response of love.

God’s affectionate compassion for you is intense. The only way we can relate to it is to think of what are body does when it experiences intense emotions. You might try to put on a tough face but your body will tell.

So if you think God doesn’t care about you look at this verse:

God’s “bowels” are for you.

But the phrase doesn’t stop there. We have just covered three words,

We have covered

“if any affection”

but remember the phrase is

εἴ τις σπλάγχνα καὶ οἰκτιρμοί

if any affection and mercy

The next word Kai is simple it means “And” but Eek-ter-moi now that is powerful. It is usually translated mercies but the full definition is

οἰκτιρμοί - expression of deep feelings in compassionate yearnings and actions.

In the word mercy you get the idea of not getting all the punishment that is deserved. It can also mean the person who stops what they are doing and goes helps another in distress. We learn that God is the father of these mercies in

2 Corinthians 1:3 CSB

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort.

The God who came to die for your sins so that you could be rescued from eternal punishment. The God who goes after you making a way where you could accept the free gift of this salvation. The God who gives us a purpose and shows the way to live in this world. Oh year, mercy is what our God is.

Eektermoi is similar to the previous word Splanchna. We translate it mercies and it is so close to the same kind of word as Spalanchna that some think of this as a

Hendiadys

Hen-die-ah-dis, that’s right I said it some scholars think this is a Hendiadys. I was suprised they felt this way mostly because I had no idea what this word was. I have never, ever heard of this word in my life but I learned some grammar stuff and so like later when you are at work or with friends and want to sound super smart, you can use this. So I was going to share it with you and it actually does make a little difference about how awesome God is,

A Hendiadis is the expression of a single idea by two words connected with “and,” e.g., nice and warm, when one could be used to modify the other, as in nicely warm.

Are we getting nerdy or what? Does it really matter or is it one of those things where we can start a conversation like they do by saying, “fun fact” completely out of the blue.

Who cares and why does it matter. It may or it may not but I think it does. If the words just go together to mean one thing it means that God gives us “Tender-hearted compassion” but one scholar went further by saying that it is not a hendiadis. it doesn’t mean one thing but two separate things.

The first one is God’s character, and the second his action.

God has a deep compassionate love, the only way to say is it is the kind of love that affects our physical bodies in ways we can’t control but God can. And then because of this intense compassion God has for us in his character there is action, the action of kindness, tenderness, mercy. God doesn’t just feel, he responds to that feeling with actions that impact our lives.

Remember that I don’t have to prove that. When this verse began it was written “ If then” which is the way the Greek language worked then, whenever you were asking for something you reminded people in a passive way of how you actually are.

I could say, “If I ever taught you anything,” because we know that you learned a trival fact today, and then I could make a request of you. “If I ever taught you anything, teach what you learned to someone else.”

So the Bible is saying, this is true, those who follow Jesus know that God has a deep love for them and acts of the love with great forgiveness and blessing. So the writer is about to make a powerful request.

Everything up to this point has just been truth about God. His love for us is like the love we feel in our stomach. His mercies are overwhelmingly kind. Because of that, we are asked to

come back next week and I will tell you.

Just kidding

Philippians 2:2 CSB

2 make my joy complete by thinking the same way, having the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.

Because God is this way to you behave this way to each other. Do what God does for you with other people.

Be intensely loving with your fellow people of New Day. Love them with the kind of love God has for you. Wouldn’t it be nice to be loved by others like that? A love that not only is a feeling but inspires action. It doesn’t have anything to do with romance or sexuality but a great love like God has for you.

Love others as you want to be loved.

Matthew Henry back in the early 1700’s said it this way

“If you expect the benefit of God’s compassions to yourselves, be you compassionate one to another. If there is such a thing as mercy to be found among the followers of Christ, if all who are sanctified have a (desire for Jesus in their life), make it appear this way.” How (clear) are these (points)! One would think them enough to tame the most fierce, and (soften the anger of) the hardest, heart.”

But we aren’t there yet. This is our focus. This isn’t a real request. This is a directive, an order, a command. We have to love each other intensely. We are to love as Christ loves us.

Ask yourself today, how do I need to live to love the people here like Jesus loves me?

If you think of yourself as an outsider please don’t. Because even if we didn’t know you but you follow Jesus the command to love your fellow follower of Jesus, a person you don’t even know that well still stands.

It’s a lot but imagine that many people loving you, like a great mother loves their child. With their whole selves.

Marius Victorinus back in the mid 300s said this upon teaching this verse, as I am doing today 1700 years later, he said

The church becomes one body when those who have been called are bound to one another in the love of Christ, when they are bound also in the Spirit and have the same affection and sympathy. The affection corresponds to the calling in Christ and the fellowship of the Spirit, the sympathy to the consolation of love.

Today, thank God for your mom, but more that God loves you more than your mom possibly could and then follow his example and love others like God loves you.