Issue 1465 – Primordial – June 4, 2024
If you have been reading Gleanings for a while or know me personally, you will see that I can sometimes be a bit of a “word geek.” Or should I say a “word nerd?” The terms geek and nerd have changed quite a bit over the years, becoming more interchangeable and having a more positive connotation.
According to one online source
“Nerd and geek have similar etymologies, with neither originally having much positive association. According to Benjamin Nugent, author of American Nerd: The Story of My People, the word nerd first appeared in the Dr. Seuss book If I Ran the Zoo, in which one of the zoo creatures, an angry little old man, was called a “nerd.” Nugent also notes a 1951 Newsweek article using the word nerd to refer to “a drip or a square,” which gets closer to modern stereotypes regarding nerds.
Geek was originally an early 20th-century term for a carnival worker who was so unskilled that the only thing the worker could do at the carnival to entice an audience was to bite off the heads of live animals. Essentially, a geek was a socially undesirable person who lacked any skill or ability.”
Both terms have come to have much more positive meaning in the past few decades. Not knowing whether I am a nerd or a geek, my point is that words fascinate me. Let us take the word primordial as an example. We tend to take it to mean something from prehistory, e.g., the “primordial soup” from which all life evolved.
Sometimes, the word primordial can mean happening first or most important. I don’t get to use it often, but I did last night in our community group. We were studying in 2 John.
The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth, because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever: Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father’s Son, in truth and love. I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father. And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it. 2 John 1-6
As we read and discussed the passage, I was struck by the fact that ‘to love” is the primordial basis of Christianity.
Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:36-40
Christians are to love God and their neighbour. It doesn’t get any more basic or difficult than that. We can’t do it alone.
Fortunately, the Lord empowers us.
We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19
He calls us to love.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35
Our faith is a primordial call to and response to love. That’s neither new nor shocking, but I know I can sometimes forget it. I suspect you are no different.
Being a Christian is the way of truth and love. Let’s try to live that way.
Be blessed
Hallelu Yah / Praise God
Kevin
Gleanings From The Word
Experience an extraordinary God in ordinary life.
Soli Deo Gloria (For the glory of God alone)
Never let the enemy tell you that you are worthless or insignificant. Your value in God’s eyes is so great that it was worth dying for. You are a blessing to the world. You are so precious to God that his plan for heaven will not be complete without you.
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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are from the English Standard Version (ESV)