“Through his own glory and goodness he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature having escaped the corruption of the world caused by evil desires” (2 Peter 1:3-4).
I’ve been thinking about this verse a lot lately. I feel like my life is epitomizing it right now. ESCAPED is the very word that describes what I’m feeling! And looking up the Greek and Hebrew words in all this has enriched my understanding of it all so much!
The choices I was making were not at all evil by the overall standards of our society. In fact, they were above social standards. Most considered me admirable. I could argue myself out of almost everything from a Biblical standard and was working hard on overcoming those things that I knew definitively crossed the line. I don’t know anyone in any church I’ve gone to that would have called my choices evil. Unwise would have been the word.
But I was making choices that were keeping me in a darkness that I didn’t even know was there. My life was corrupted. It was damaged. It was so much less than what it could be. I ignored some of the passages in the Bible that weren’t on the list of ungodly behavior or wrongdoers, like dissociation.
But now I have stepped away from all of it and I feel like I have truly escaped! I have escaped something that was dragging me down and hurting me in ways that I didn’t realize. And the sense of freedom is indescribable! I was in a prison of my own making. I had so many justifications, reasons and excuses but the fact is that although my life looked as if I had a lot of peace and benefit, it was all transitory and fleeting.
My life is in many ways harder now. From the outside, it looks like I’ve lost almost everything. It looks like I walked away from things that were good and happy. But the truth is, the foundation inside me is better and stronger in ways that make everything I had a pale shadow to what I have now. A shadow that wasn’t even a lasting shadow.
The grief I am going through right now makes a part of my heart feel like it’s in a constant state of living death. The only part of that which has to do with my choices is the part where I chose to walk away from all of it so that I am not filling any part of me with a bandaid that makes me feel better but causes me more pain by letting what is underneath hide and fester.
I say that to emphasize how powerful this joy and peace is. It’s more powerful than my grief. It’s indescribable. I truly am participating in the divine nature which is a bright and brilliant light that is bringing me into a lasting benefit that has positively and dramatically changed my life for the better in this life and the next.
<> Greek & Hebrew <>
Here is a breakdown of the Greek and Hebrew words that have been helping to illuminate the new concepts and thoughts I’ve been exploring lately.
The Greek word translated “evil desire” here is epithymia. In this context it “stresses the lust, craving, longing or desire for what is usually forbidden.” These desires are “not necessarily base and immoral, they may be refined in character, but are evil if consistent with the will of God.” The interesting thing is that part of what is encompassed in this word includes things that are “foolish and hurtful.”
“Corruption,” sometimes translated as “decay,” is the Greek word Phthora. It means “being brought into an inferior or worse condition.” It is a “‘corruption being antithetic to ‘eternal life’” and includes “that which is naturally short-lived and transient,” and things that are of a “moral significance.”
What I was fascinated to learn recently is that one Greek word for evil, kalamos, is not just bad behavior that is “injurious, destructive, baneful or pernicious.” A common conception in our culture of evil is something that crosses the line into true depravity. Something that destroys. But it’s not just that in Greek. It’s also something that is not advisable, beneficial or useful.
Along the same vein, the Greek word poneros is also used for evil. It’s even more intimately related to our common conception: “bad, grievous, harm, lewd, malicious, wickedness.” But it also indicates “labor and toil,” and can mean worthless.
To further look into this concept of an evil having to do with a lesser life we can go to the Hebrew word from Genesis 3, ra. Again, it includes wickedness but goes even farther into the other meanings. Trouble, affliction, illness, adversity and distress are all part of it. The “word combines together the wicked deed and its consequences.” It is something that results in a “breach of harmony, and as a breaking up of what is good and desirable in man and society.”
Ra doesn’t just have to do with moral choices but any choices that are “an injury both to” the person making the choice “and to everyone around him” in any way. It includes “something of poor or inferior quality.” It is the antithesis of shalom, which is peace, welfare and well-being.”
Strong’s Greek and Hebrew Dictionaries:
Epithymia, 1939.
Phthora, 5356
Kalamos, 2556
Poneros, 4190
Ra, 7450
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