Re-Listening to Living The Biblical Worldview

Thanks for the reminder, Patrick. The Greek preposition eis is used in a special way in John. It’s what I call “moving house.” Yochanan (John’s real name in Hebrew) gives us a very Hebraic view of “belief.” It isn’t what I say. It’s what I do. I have to MOVE from one way of looking at the world (and one way of acting in the world) to another way of perceiving and acting in the world. I often say that people say what they believe but they do what they value. John is all about what we value. In this regard, he sounds the same note as James and Paul. Faith is not faith unless it is accompanied by the evidence of the operation of the Spirit in a person’s life. Without the evidence (works), a claim of faith is just dead men’s bones. For John, and the rest of the apostles, faith is a verb. It must be LIVING, that is, active, exhibited manifestation of the character of the Father by copying the example of the Son.
We would all agree, I’m sure, until we understand that exhibiting the character of the Father means living the kind of life that pleases Him – a life that is described in detail in Torah. Then we want to throw up our hands and say, “Well, I’m not moving to that house.” Funny, isn’t it? What house do you suppose John had in mind when he used the preposition eis? The Bible tells us. At the first Jerusalem council, James describes the impact of “moving house” on the first community of believers. He says that there are thousands who believe that Yeshua in the Messiah and “they are all zealous for Torah.” I wonder how we missed that?
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