Perfect Obedience

This morning our Tuesday study was in Hebrews 7.  One of the men spent some time talking about the Greek behind the word perfection in 7:11.  The word deals with the end state of something, the idea is that the process has been completed to its desired conclusion.  As a result of the conversation I spent some time this afternoon chasing the word down through the rest of Hebrews.  By the way that is one of the advantages of doing study with a group that pushes you.  They see things that I miss.  My friend’s observation opened up a whole line of inquiry that I had missed in my study.

The term or derivatives of the term shows up 17 times in the text (Hebrews 2:10; 5:9, 14; 6:1; 7:11, 19, 28; 8:5; 9:9, 11, 26; 10:1, 14; 11:22, 40; 12:2, 23).  It is an interesting study to see how the term is used and how the author uses it to state his argument.

For example.  Look at 2:10 and 5:9 – 10.  There is a logic that is built around the use of that word that I missed the first several times through the book.  It is a logic that I am still testing, but it highlights the value of looking for repetition of the use of terms throughout a book.

Trace the argument through those verses and you get:

• Author of our salvation is made perfect through suffering
• The son learned obedience through suffering
• The son was made perfect as a result
• Does that suggest that perfection has something to do with obedience…  i.e. a syllogistic construction

Perhaps…

The point is, careful observation is key to unpacking what the Bible is saying.  The Holy Spirit inspired the grammar and the vocabulary.  We can learn much through making these types of observations.