What will separate us from the love of Christ, tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Truth to Learn
No matter what happens to you, remember that God loves you!
Behind the Words
“What” is from the Greek interrogative pronoun tis, meaning “who, which, or what.” In light of the remainder of this verse, I think the best translation here is “what.”
The verb “separate” is translated from the Greek word chōridzō, which is based on the adverb chōris, which means “separately, by itself, apart from.” Hence, chōridzō means “to put distance between” or “to make things separate from one another.”
“Love” is from the Greek word agapē, which refers to a self-sacrificing love in which the lover is focused on the ultimate goodness and benefit of the loved one.
Paul now gives us a number of descriptions of things that can’t separate us from the love of Christ. They are:
- thlipsis, meaning “pressure, anguish, tribulation, trouble, or affliction.” It refers to troubles pressing from the outside.
- stenochōria, literally meaning “narrow space.” It is different from thlipsis in that it refers to internal distress or “anguish.”
- diōgmos, which is derived from the verb diōkō, meaning “to relentlessly pursue or persecute.”
- limos refers to “a scarcity of food.” It is most often translated as “hunger or famine.”
- gumnotēs, meaning “nudity or nakedness.”
- kindunos, meaning “peril or danger.” It refers to someone who is constantly moving because of imminent danger.
- machaira, meaning “a sword used for warfare and slaughter.”
Meaning Explained
Paul has already made several declarations about those of us who are the chosen ones of God including:
- If God is for us, who can possibly be against us.
- He who gave His Son for our salvation will freely give us all things that we need for life and peace.
- No one can get away with charging us with any wrong, and if they do (that is, when Satan does) we have Christ as our defense attorney interceding for us.
Now Paul begins the final declaration of this chapter (although it will take several verses to finish the idea). He starts this verse off with, “What will separate us from the love of Christ?”
The answer to this question doesn’t appear until verses thirty-eight and thirty-nine, but a number of candidates are offered by Paul in this verse. Though he never does directly answer this question, the ultimate answer is, “None of these things can separate us from the love of Christ.”
He will go on to provide an ever greater example of how strong Christ’s love for us is in a few verses.
Application
No matter what happens to us, God will always love us as His children (those whom He has chosen, redeemed, and justified).
Always!
In God's service, for His glory,
Copyright © 2018 Will Krause. All rights reserved
