Votto
Diamond Member
- Oct 31, 2012
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The motivation for this thread was me rereading the account where God gives himself the name, "I am that I am". Perhaps a better verb is saying that God simply "IS".
It is an interesting conundrum, and that is how does one define the most basic building blocks of existence?
For example, how does one define what a quirk is made up of within an atom? The quirk is made up of a quirk. It almost becomes a tautology. In fact, perhaps this is why most of what God is all about it seen as a tautology.
But the opposite is true, which is words can also be too complex to define.
Biblically, God is defined as love. But as we all know, love is a complex term, so much so that in the Greek language they created a number of words to try and describe the term "love"
Paul gave defining the term in 1 Corinthians 13, taking him a full chapter to try and do so.
13 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
It is an interesting conundrum, and that is how does one define the most basic building blocks of existence?
For example, how does one define what a quirk is made up of within an atom? The quirk is made up of a quirk. It almost becomes a tautology. In fact, perhaps this is why most of what God is all about it seen as a tautology.
But the opposite is true, which is words can also be too complex to define.
Biblically, God is defined as love. But as we all know, love is a complex term, so much so that in the Greek language they created a number of words to try and describe the term "love"
Paul gave defining the term in 1 Corinthians 13, taking him a full chapter to try and do so.
13 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
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