Ephesians 5 is definitely a “What Would Jesus Do?” chapter. Several times Paul writes that we are to think and act like Christ. Here are some examples:
“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.” v 1
“And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” v 2
“Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is” v 17
“Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.” vs 8-10
“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” v 25
“In the same way [as Christ loved the church] husbands should love their wives as their own bodies….just as Christ does the church….” vs 28-29
There is a lot in Ephesians 5 and it would do us all well to reflect on that chapter. The chapter’s focus is applying all we know about what Jesus would do in our situations. In a nutshell, we are commanded to be like Christ.
To be imitators of God is to imitate His behavior. We are to understand His will. We are to do what is pleasing to Him.
The section specifically singles out husbands. The verse tells Husbands to love their wives in the same manner that Christ loved the Church. How is that? Husbands are to exemplify for the world the love that Christ has for these who belong to Him. How did Christ love the Church, His bride, whom He bought by the price of His death on the cross? He came down from the highest place to become a servant. He loved and prayed and served and washed feet. He walked the narrow way to the cross. He did not hold on to His rights. Likewise, husbands are commanded to show the world the love of Christ toward the church by the way they love their wives.
And what is this love like? In Philippians 2: 1-8 beautifully describes Jesus’ love for the church:
“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
We are all to live out this to the best of our ability—male, female, husbands, wives, children, parents—with the full aid of the Holy Spirit. We must bring ourselves to the cross of Christ daily to submit to His will and His ways, so that in full measure, we are showing the world who Jesus is and how He is alive in His people. Begin today by praying and starting to dig deeply into His word to learn of Him and His ways.
His word to all of us is: “Be imitators of God, as beloved children.”
“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
Colossians 3:17
What’s in a Name?
When Paul asks that our words and deeds be said and done in the Name of Jesus, what does he mean? What would it mean if you gave someone permission to say or do things in your name?
Today we actually do that all the time. Whenever we sign contracts, checks, tax forms, loans, and a host of other documents, we put the integrity and promise of our “name” behind the legal requirements we are committing to. In this case, “in our name” means “appeal to, reference to, or representative of an authority.”* The signature, words, and name represent the person, promise, and entirety of the person with authority: the person called by that name.
When given the authority to use the name of another person, we are their representative. It is as if they themselves are saying, signing, or doing the thing promised. If your boss sends you to get office supplies at a store in his name you are signing or paying for something on the boss’s behalf. The boss’s authorization to use his name puts your signature within the boss’s authority. If I authorize you to act for me “in my name,” you are fully able to act “as me” as I would. We actually understand this idea quite well and do it all the time without a thought.
What doesn’t it mean?
To sign in someone’s name doesn’t mean that the signer can perform, pay, or complete the requirements of the contract or proposition. The authorizing authority alone has those abilities and qualifications. The signer requires 1) authorization by the authority, and 2) permission to request or promise something within the authorizing authority’s desired expectations. In other words, the person whose name you are acting in must want you to do the thing and have given you permission to do it.
This is very pertinent to the verses that talk about Christ-followers praying, speaking, or doing things in the name of Jesus. There are many verses, many right out of the mouth of Jesus in the gospels, telling Christ-followers that they are within the authorized group to pray, to speak, or to act in His name. Those who are within His fold, His flock, His sheep, i.e., those who believe in Him, are the ones He has authorized to act and pray in His name and to see answers to prayer.
Some verses that relate:
“If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” John 14:14
“And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” 1 Corinthians 6:11
“The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.” Proverbs 18:10
“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” John 3:18
“So that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Phil 2:10-11
“For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” Matthew 18:20
However, the other part of this question is that signers must represent the authorizing authority and only sign for what the authority authorizes. In other words, the signer will not be authorized to request things not according to or even against the will of the authority. You don’t go to the office store to buy supplies for work and your boss and then decide, “Oh, I like that computer, I think I’d like one of those, too” and then sign for as if it were authorized. Obviously, doing that would be unlawful.
We need to realize that the same principle works for prayers and actions done in Jesus’ name. We can’t expect Him to answer prayers that are outside of what He would want or authorize just because we can speak as if we were saying a magic word. To expect Him to have to hear us if we say things in a certain way (or any other trick like that) is not understanding what it means to be under His authority. (See the post, “Naming Names“).
Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice and they follow Me.” (John 10:27) As Jesus’ followers, we need to be listening to Him closely, learning of Him deeply, meditating, studying, hearing, reading, memorizing His words, so that we understand what He is saying to us. We want to live in His word, in His name. As we grow to hear Him better, we will be better at discerning between what He is saying to us and what we just want to hear. We will be better at living out lives that reflect His purposes for us.
Apparently there are people who are having controversy over what name to call Jesus. Some are saying you must use the transliterated Hebrew word, <Yeshua> or maybe <Yehoshua> or some other version of it (like, <Yeshua Hamashiach> which would mean, “Jesus the Messiah” or actually, “Jesus Christ”). Do we need to use or pronounce a particular form of Jesus’ name in order for Him to hear us? Does it need to be pronounced a certain way for it to “work”? Do we, who don’t know ancient Hebrew or Greek, need to use those tongues to say His name?
Put that way it sounds as silly as it actually is. We know the character of God from reading the Bible and we know what Jesus was like from the New Testament. Does the above worry about correct pronunciation fit with what we know about God’s character as shown through what Jesus did and taught in the New Testament? In a word, no it does not.
Naming the Name of Jesus in the Original
The Bible was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. The New Testament was written in Greek. Yeshua is a Hebrew name.
The Hebrew alphabet doesn’t have the vowels, so it would be יֵשׁוּעַ, and יְהוֹשֻׁעַ, in a later period (<Yehoshua> or Joshua, more so when Jesus was walking the earth). The reason that the word “Jesus” is used, is because we read the New Testament to learn about Him, and that was written in Greek. You would read in the original Greek of the New Testament that Jesus’ name was clearly “Jesus” or the Greek, /Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν/ which is pronounced ‘Ee-su’ or ‘Ye-su’. Historically, in the English language, which we speak here and in English-speaking countries, there were some shifts over time in which the vowels and the ‘y’ sound shifted to a ‘j’ sound and that accounts for our pronunciation today, in a nutshell.
Nerd alert:
And no, Americans had nothing to do with this at all, as I have seen some accuse. Changes in Old English happened when a ‘y’ sound or the Lateral Approximant, /ʎ/ shifted to the ‘j’ sound or a Voiced post-alveolar affricate, /d͡ʒ/; in other words, when the initial sound of “Yeshua” changed to the initial sound of “Jesus.” You can see why this may have happened if you say the first syllable of both words “Ye” and “Je” over and over a few times and pay attention to where the back of your tongue is placed to say the consonants with the following vowels.
In time, changes like that happen in languages to make the consonant closer to the vowel and easier to say. A big change like that happened in English and some other Germanic languages (i.e., English is a Germanic language) regarding those sounds and that is why the change happened to pronounce basically a ‘y’-sounding Greek word to an English ‘j’- (or /d͡ʒ/-) sounding word.
Naming the Name of Jesus Today
Remember, the Jesus we know was told about to us in the New Testament Greek. God chose to use the Greek to write the New Testament in. We know about Him specifically from the Greek language, not the Hebrew. Not to say that it isn’t important to read the Hebrew and Old Testament. Jesus was foreshadowed often in the words of the Old Testament Hebrew. He actually spoke the common tongue, Aramaic to His disciples. But again, I say (and for many good reasons) the New Testament we have today was written in Greek.
So, when people are making claims about what to call Jesus—as if we should go by what the Hebrew use was in the Old Testament—they are adding something to the Bible that has not got any evidence to back it.
Naming Names: What Matters?
Beyond all that, this website and Facebook page (“Whatever Happened to WWJD?”) is about how we can get more deeply into what the Bible has to teach us about following Jesus. To be picky and self-righteous about the linguistics of the name or the way someone says it has nothing to do with–and actually distracts us from–applying Jesus’ words to our life and growing in the knowledge of Him. We all would do well to focus more on that, rather than inaccurate views of pronunciation and made up controversies.
We speak English and so use the name Jesus. If we spoke another language, we would use whatever way the name is translated from Greek to that language. Simple as that. I think probably only English-speaking people would be making a big deal about a letter ‘Y’ or a ‘J’ in Jesus’ name. It is another distraction from actually living out the Kingdom lives that Jesus calls us to live.
Which is the main point with being a Christ-follower: Knowing who it is we call upon. Jesus.
We all know that the Bible was not originally written in English. The Old Testament text is in Hebrew with small bits in Aramaic (i.e., some short quotes in Daniel, Ezra, and Jeremiah). The New Testament text is in Koine Greek. Unless you are able to read the Bible in those original languages, you are reading a translation into English (or whatever other language you read). Because of this, an important issue is finding an accurate and trustworthy translated version in which to read the Bible.
Often people have a favorite version. Sometimes people have even said that their favorite is the “only” or “best” version of the Bible to read. The truth is that there are many very good translations (and a few that are bad, like those sponsored by cults), plus some that are paraphrases, i.e., with easier to understand language, that aims to be understood by non-scholars. Such paraphrases (e.g., The Living Bible, The Message) might be less accurate for word-study, but are fine for general reading or especially for certain individuals. The difference within translations has to do with the aim and audience for the text.
Bible Translations: Exact Translation
For example, if you are translating something—anything—and your goal is to replicate an exact one-for-one transfer of meaning from one language to the other, you will need to use more words to capture the nuance and all the intention of the original into the second language. However, there is no end to how detailed you would need to be in order to capture all the meaning into the second language. You might need to use a whole sentence to capture the meaning of one word or a grammatical aspect of the original that doesn’t easily translate. A translation with that level of detail might be much more difficult to follow and actually might be too difficult for new believers to understand unless they had a high degree of theological and or background knowledge. Such a translation actually might not be a good-fit read for some people.
An example of a more detailed attempt at translation would be the New American Standard Bible (NASB) or even more so, the Amplified Bible, in which phrases are used to define some of the words in the original. However, a lot of people find reading versions with that level of nuance and detail more difficult, specifically, if they are doing devotional reading (i.e., a chapter or book at a time), since, usually such translations are wordier and have more complex sentence structure. Readers can get lost in the details of the translated text and find it difficult to follow. They might give up altogether and say the Bible is hard to understand or archaic.
Bible Translations: Simpler Translations
On the other hand, if you are translating and your goal is to make it easy for people to follow the thread of the text, to read for the big picture and to understand the concepts in a more general way, or to help people of all levels of education and experience with the Bible, you would be better off to be less complex in the sentence structure, to make word choices that would be understandable to that audience, and to simplify the vocabulary.
Reading these simpler versions is accessible for more people. Simpler versions includes the aforementioned paraphrases and also some of the “modern” translations, like “Good News for Modern Man” / “Good News Bible” (a translation, not a paraphrase). Such translations aim to be easier to understand and they use everyday language and simpler structures. These simpler versions have the advantage of opening the doorway for people of all ages and backgrounds to begin reading the Bible. They have helped many people develop a life-long habit of Bible reading that starts them on the path of true discipleship. For more info on Reading the Bible, check out the previous blog post, “Read the Word”
But as sources for verse study, easy-read versions are not necessarily the best way to dig deeply into the “What does it say?” part of a Bible Study practice. Simpler translations are somewhat distanced from the most accurate word-for-word translation you would expect in something like the English Standard Version or many other translations that don’t have the goal of being easy-to-read. For more info on studying the Bible, check the previous blog post, “Study the Word.”
Bible Translations: Finding a Translation
For reading then, pick a version that you feel comfortable reading and for study, pick a version that will represent for you in English, text that is as close as possible to what it says in the original language.
Another point about this is that it is very helpful to look up verses in your study time in a variety of versions. There are even “Parallel Bibles” that will show by column a comparison of a verse or a chapter or a book of the Bible in more than one version so that you can gain a deeper understanding of what it says in the original. Remember it is the original words of the text that are what we need to study and understand, not just what it says in our own language. Most of us need translations, unless we want to study the original languages and read the Bible in Hebrew or Greek; however, there are ways to dig in more deeply to learn and know and understand what the Bible says and it is a rich and worthwhile investment of time to do it.
In this day and age, particularly as English speakers and readers, we are highly blessed with the availability of excellent translations, both in physical Bibles and in the online sort. We can really learn what God is saying to us by studying and reading. We can make use of all these resources to grow in our knowledge of the Word of God so that we can ask what it says, what it means, and how it applies to our own life. The area of Bible translations has to do with the “What it says” part. We have to actually read it, but we have so many options available today! For a refresher on hearing, reading, studying, memorizing, and meditating on the Bible, check out this previous blog post, “Five Ways to Get the Bible into Your Life.”
Bible Translations: Some Resources:
There are probably many others, but these three websites are a great place to start for finding Bible texts in a variety of versions and even other languages. The sites also have access to some Bible study resources like Bible Dictionaries and Concordances. You can start on each of these for free. Some of them might also offer additional resources that have a charge, but you can click any of these and get access to multiple versions to get started in studying, reading, and comparing the meaning expressed in the different translations.
BibleHub: “Bible Hub Online Parallel Bible, search and study tools including parallel texts, cross references, Treasury of Scripture, and commentaries. This site provides quick access to topical studies, interlinears, sermons, Strong’s concordance, and many more resources. Our mission is best summarized as follows: 1) Increase the visibility and accessibility of the Scriptures online. 2) Provide free access to Bible study tools in many languages. 3) Promote the Gospel of Christ through the learning, study and application of God’s word.” Free
Bible Gateway: “Bible Gateway is a searchable online Bible tool hosting more than 200 versions of the Bible in over 70 languages that you can freely read, research, and reference anywhere. Including a library of audio Bibles, mobile apps, devotionals, email newsletters, and other free resources, Bible Gateway equips you not only to read the Bible, but to understand it.” In 2008 Bible Gateway became a division of Zondervan, and is, today, a member of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. Free
YouBible: “The original Bible App offers multi-media experiences, and houses the largest digital library of Christian content. Zero ads, always free.” Has a “lite” version that works for people in areas where their internet connection is weaker or they have data restrictions, as well as a Bible app for kids. Free
