Jesus' Words Only

John 3:16 - Is this about obeying Jesus? Or about believing Jesus is Lord?

Jun 27, 2022

Video Description

When the English translations of the Greek New Testament were made in the 1526-1611 period, the “difficult Greek in which the New Testament is written...still held mysteries for” English scholars. (Nicolson: 224.) One of those mysteries was the Greek word pisteuo in John 3:16. In over 200 instances of pisteuo in the New Testament, not once did the King James Bible render it as obey. (See Strong’s Concordance.) However, scholars now realize obey was a common meaning of pisteuo in ancient Greek. Obey certainly was the meaning of pisteuo in John 3:36. Yet, this obedience-salvation formula is identically repeated in John 3:16.

Besides John 3:36 helping, one can more easily accept pisteuo means obeys in John 3:16 when one looks at Apostle John’s many quotes of Jesus about obedience. Jesus in John 8:51 says “whoever keeps on obeying (tereo) My Teaching should never ever die.”1 In John 15:1-10, Jesus says a “branch in me” that does not “bear fruit” is “taken away,” “cut off from the vine,” thrown “outside and burned.” 2

John likewise quoted Jesus saying in total accord:

Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good [things], unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil [things], unto the resurrection of damnation. (John 5:28-29 KJV).

We saw again that Apostle John was told that those who obey the commandments (plural) have the right to the tree of life. (Rev. 22:14.) John writes:

Happy [are] the ones doing His commandments, so that their right will be to the tree of life, and they shall enter by the gates into the city. (Rev 22:14)(ALT)(GSB)

We also saw Apostle John writing Jesus’ words to the Sardisian Christians. They are dead due to having “incomplete works.” They can prevent the Spirit leaving by repenting and obeying. Through John’s pen, Jesus tells them:

[1]And to the angel of the assembly in Sardis write: ‘These [things] says the One having the seven spirits of God and the seven stars [i.e., Jesus is speaking]: I know your works, that you have a name that you live, and you are dead.

(2) ‘Become watching [fig., Wake up], and strengthen the rest which you were about to be throwing out, for I have not found your works having been completed before My God. (3) Therefore, be remembering how you have received, and be keeping [tereo, obey] it, and repent. Therefore, if you will not watch, I will come upon you like a thief, and you shall by no means know what hour I will come upon you.” (Rev 3:1-3 ALT)(Wycliff "works...full")

John another time relays Jesus as saying that lukewarm works by Christians at Laodicea will cause Jesus to spew them out of His mouth.

I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. (16) So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. (Rev 3:15-16 KJV.)

Finally, we saw among the many verses that tied eternal life (zoe ainon) to obedience and works was the following words of Jesus recorded by Apostle John:

He that loveth his life loseth it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. (26) If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will the Father honor. (John 12:25-26 ASV.)

These passages from the writings of John quoting Jesus are but echoes of what we find in Matthew, Luke and Mark. John is repeatedly emphasizing themes of obedience.

There are six meanings offered in Liddell-Scott’s Lexicon of the Greek verb pisteuo at issue in John 3:16.7

One meaning in Liddell-Scott for the verb pisteuo is comply. A synonym is obey.

The NIV Theological Dictionary of New Testament Words (Zondervan: 2000) at 1027 -- scan page viewable at this link -- https://airtable.com/appR0lxE0z2oU8KNq/shrxOOQF46Q2Tv0EM/tblXcz7Mbmm8erVzY

This says of pisteuo:

Similarly, pisteuo means to trust something or someone; it can refer to and confirm legendary tales and mythical ideas. With reference to people, pisteuo means to obey (Soph. OT 625) [i.e., Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus, 625]; the pass[ive] Means to enjoy trust....

Grimm's 1894 A Greek-English Lexicon at 511 states that "pisteuo" when used about Jesus meant two co-existing things: trust that Jesus was Messiah "conjoined with obedience to Christ."

Importantly, later on page 512 within the same definition-usage list, Grimm contrasts specifically how "Paul's conception" uses the verb to be "predominantly about grace" by laying one's faith in Jesus, particularly in "his death and resurrection [cites omitted] but in John's conception, it is the metaphysical relationship of Christ with God and close ethical intimacy with him, as well as the true life to be derived from Christ as its source. [Cites omitted.]"'

 

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