Obedient (5255) hupekoos by Greek Word Studies

Obedient (5255) (hupekoos/hypekoos is from hupo = under, frequently meant not simply to be beneath but to be totally under the power, authority, control of something or someone + akouo = hear and apprehend with the mind, gives us our English word "acoustic") is an adjective which means giving ear to, hearkening, attentively listening and thus describes one who is obedient. Obedient describes a person who obeys based on the fact that they have paid attention to what was commanded or instructed. In other words, what they heard did not just (as the saying goes) "go in one ear and out the other!" We have all seen the child who, when they are being instructed by their parents, responds by putting their hands over their ears so as to not hear their parent's words! That is a picture of not "giving ear to" (i.e., they are disobedient - I'm sure this doesn't describe your child dear reader!). Hupekoos also conveys the sense of subject or submissive to (another). J I Packer in the New Bible Dictionary writes that... The idea of obedience which this vocabulary suggests is of a hearing that takes place under the authority or influence of the speaker, and that leads into compliance with his requests. For obedience to be due to a person, he must: (a) have a right to command, and (b) be able to make known his requirements. Man’s duty to obey his Maker thus presupposes: (a) God’s Lordship, and (b) His revelation. The OT habitually describes obedience to God as obeying (hearing) either His voice (accentuating [b]) or His commandments (assuming [b] and accentuating [a]). Disobedience it describes as not hearing God’s voice when He speaks (Ps. 81:11; Je 7:24,25,26-27,28).... The disobedience of Adam, the first representative man, and the perfect obedience of the second, Jesus Christ, are decisive factors in the destiny of everyone. Adam’s lapse from obedience plunged mankind into guilt, condemnation and death (Ro 5:19; 1Cor 15:22). Christ’s unfailing obedience ‘unto death’ (Phil. 2:8; cf. Heb. 10:5-10) won righteousness (acceptance with God) and life (fellowship with God) for all who believe on him (Ro 5:15-19). (New Bible Dictionary I. Howard Marshall, A.R. Millard, J.I. Packer, D.J. Wiseman or Wordsearch or Logos) (Bolding added) Webster says "obedient" describes the attitude of being submissive to the restraint or command of authority; i.e., willing to obey. The obedient individual is submissive to the will, guidance or control of another, implying compliance with the commands or instructions of the one who is in authority, performing what is required, or abstaining from what is forbidden. Words related to obedient = acquiescent, compliant, sheeplike, submissive, yielding; duteous, dutiful, loyal; law-abiding; obeisant, subservient. Words contrasted with obedient = insubordinate, rebellious; contrary, froward, perverse, wayward, willful; headstrong, intractable, recalcitrant, refractory, uncontrollable, ungovernable, unruly. Which group of synonyms best describes your Christian walk? Beloved, as Christ followers we are called to "follow in His steps" (1Peter 2:21-note), "to walk in the same manner as He walked." (1Jn 2:6), and it follows that obedience to the guiding and leading of the Holy Spirit (Ezek 36:27, Ro 8:14-note, Gal 5:16-note, Gal 5:18-note, Gal 5:25-note) should be our continual desire and practice (You might consider praying Ps 25:4,5, 143:10). This study of hupekoos begs the question - Are you being obedient to the will of your Father, surrendering your will to His Spirit's leading and enabling power? This is the "Jesus way", the way to "walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory." (1Thes 2:12-note) J C Ryle exhorts us to make Jesus' example our chief standard of holy living... If we would look rightly to Jesus—we must look daily at His example, as our chief standard of holy living. We must all feel, I suspect, and often feel—how hard it is to live a Christian life, by mere rules and regulations. Scores of circumstances will continually cross our path, in which we find it difficult to see the line of duty, and we become perplexed. Prayer for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and attention to the practical part of the Epistles, are, undoubtedly, primary resources. But surely it would cut many a knot, and solve many a problem—if we would cultivate the habit of studying the daily behavior of our Lord Jesus, as recorded in the four Gospels, and strive to shape our own behavior by His pattern! This must have been what our Lord meant when He said, "I have given you an example—that you should do as I have done to you." (John 13:15). And this is what Peter meant, when he wrote, "Leaving you an example, so that you should follow in His steps." (1Peter 2:21). And this is what John meant when he said, "The one who says he abides in Him, should walk just as He walked." (1John 2:6). Our "look" to Jesus is very imperfect—if we do not look at His example, and strive to follow it. Let us cultivate the daily habit of "looking to Christ as our pattern," as well as our salvation. We can never look too steadily at Christ's death and intercession. But we may easily look too little at the blessed steps of His most holy life. Let all men see that we love to follow Him whom we profess to love. "How would my Master have behaved in my position?" should be our constant concern. (From Looking Unto Jesus!) (See also Anne Ortlund's Fix Your Eyes On Jesus - 44 excellent meditations) As A W Tozer said... The secret of successful Christians has been that they had a sweet madness for Jesus about them. See study of other words in this "family"... Verb hupakouo - of believers in Acts 6:7, Ro 6:12-note, Ro 6:17-note, Php 2:12-note. Noun hupakoe - of Jesus in Heb 5:8-note and believers in 1Pe 1:14-note, 1Pe 1:22-note The other two uses of hupekoos in the NT... Acts 7:39 "Our fathers were unwilling to be obedient to him, but repudiated him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt Comment: The Israelites under Moses refused to listen to and submit to the will of God given through His servant Moses. In this passage notice that to not be obedient is an issue of one's heart (their hearts turned back), which is why God is always working in our lives to cause us to love Him with our whole heart (cp Mk 12:30:, 2Chr 16:9) 2Corinthians 2:9 For to this end also I wrote, so that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things. MacDonald explains this passage: In writing the First Epistle to the Corinthians, Paul had put the saints to the test. Here was an opportunity for them to show whether they were obedient to the word of the Lord, as ministered to them by the Apostle Paul. He had suggested at that time that they should put the man out of the fellowship of the church. That is exactly what they did, thus proving themselves to be truly obedient. Now Paul would have them go one step further, that is, to receive the man back. (MacDonald, W & Farstad, A. Believer's Bible Commentary: Thomas Nelson or Logos) Hupekoos is found 5 times in the Septuagint - Deut 20:11; Josh 17:13; Pr 4:3; 13:1; 21:28 Proverbs 13:1 (Brenton's English translation of the Septuagint) A wise son is obedient (hupekoos) to his father: but a disobedient (anekoos = not hearing and thus disobedience) son will be destroyed. Proverbs 21:28 A false witness will perish, But the man who listens (hupekoos) to the truth will speak forever. As discussed obedient describes an attitude and willingness to be submissive to the will of another and to comply with the demands or requests of the one in authority (contrast Acts 7:39). And here again we see the perfect example of Jesus who declared... I always do the things that are pleasing to Him (God the Father) (John 8:29) David foretold of Jesus' obedience to His Father when he wrote... Sacrifice and meal offering Thou hast not desired. My ears Thou hast opened. Burnt offering and sin offering Thou hast not required. Then I said, "Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me; I delight to do Thy will, O my God; Thy Law is within my heart." (Psalm 40:6, 7, 8-note) Isaiah records the prophetic words of Jesus... The Lord GOD has opened My ear; and I was not disobedient, Nor did I turn back. I gave My back to those who strike Me, and My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard; I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting. (Isa 50:5,6) We see His obedience in the Garden of Gethsemane as the sinless Son anticipated the cup of suffering in which He took upon Himself all the sins of mankind including the humanly unfathomable mystery of His temporary separation from His Father (Mt 27:45, 46). Jesus naturally shrank from this separation, but was obedient and willingly submitted, Matthew recording... And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as Thou wilt."... He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, "My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Thy will be done." (Mt 26:39,42) In fact Jesus entire life purpose was to live in humble submission to the Father's will, John recording Jesus' words to His disciples that... My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work. (John 4:34, compare Jesus' statement in Jn 17:4) Paul speaks of Jesus' perfect obedience, an obedience which took H im to the "nth" degree, to death itself... For as through the one man’s disobedience (Adam) the many were made sinners (cp Ro 5:12), even so through the obedience (hupakoe) of the One (Jesus) the many will be made righteous. (Ro 5:19-note) The writer of Hebrews explains that... Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered (What Jesus knew by omniscience, He "learned" by experience - true obedience can only be tested if it involved suffering). And having been made perfect (not as God (for as God He was eternally perfect, by definition), but as man), He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation (Hebrews 5:8-note, He 5:9-note) (Later the writer of Hebrews records another affirmation of Christ's obedience to His Father) Then He said, “BEHOLD, I HAVE COME TO DO THY WILL.” He takes away the first (covenant) in order to establish the second (covenant = New Covenant). (Heb 10:9-note) Expositor's Greek Testament... As obedient, He gave Himself wholly up to His Father’s will. And the course of following that will led as far as death itself, no ordinary death..., but a death of shame and suffering. Muller writes that... Obedience unto God and surrender and submission to the will of God was maintained by Him unto the end, and the profoundest degree of humiliation was reached in that His death was not to be a natural or an honourable one, but was the painful and accursed death of the cross (cf. Deut. 21:23; Gal. 3:13). (The Epistles of Paul to the Philippians and to Philemon) TO THE POINT OF DEATH EVEN DEATH ON A CROSS: mechri thanatou thanatou de staurou: (Dt 21:23; Ps 22:16; Jn 10:18; 12:28, 29, 30, 32" class="scriptRef">32, 32; 14:31; Gal 3:13; Titus 2:14; Heb 12:2; 1Pet 2:24; 3:18) As we read these words, it is good for us to remember that Jesus was perfectly obedient to the point of death in our place, as our substitute. Jerry Bridges writes that... The obedient death of Christ is the very apex of the righteousness of Christ. Let’s not miss the implications of this. At the Cross, Jesus paid the penalty we should have paid, by enduring the wrath of God we should have endured. And this required Him to do something unprecedented. It required Him to provide the ultimate level of obedience—one that we’ll never be asked to emulate. It required Him to give up his relationship with the Father so that we could have one instead. The very thought of being torn away from the Father caused Him to sweat great drops of blood (Luke 22:44). And at the crescendo of His obedience, He screamed, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Mark 15:34). The physical pain He endured was nothing compared to the agony of being separated from the Father. In all of history, Jesus is the only Human Being Who was truly righteous... Just as God charged our sin to Christ, so he credits the perfect obedience of Jesus to all who trust in him. In what is often called the Great Exchange, God exchanges our sin for Christ’s righteousness. As a result, all who have trusted in Christ as Savior stand before God not with a clean-but-empty ledger, but one filled with the very righteousness of Christ! (The Bookends of the Christian Life- Jerry Bridges, Bob Bevington - I highly recommend this book) Death (2288) (thanatos from thnesko = to die) refers physically to the separation of soul from the body (physical) death and was a legal technical term for capital punishment. In the NT thanatos is treated as a destroying power related to sin and its consequences. The act of voluntary humiliation did not stop with the Incarnation but continued to the ignominious depths of death by crucifixion. Kenneth Wuest clarifies... He became obedient unto death. But this does not mean that He became obedient to death. He was always the Master of death. He died as no other individual ever died or ever will die. He died of His own volition. He dismissed His human spirit. The word “unto” is the translation of a Greek word which means “up to the point of.” Our Lord was obedient to the Father up to the point of dying. He said, “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God” (Heb. 10:9). Albert Barnes writes... He obeyed even when obedience terminated in death. The point of this expression is this: One may readily and cheerfully obey another where there is no particular peril. But the case is different where obedience is attended with danger. The child shows a spirit of true obedience when he yields to the commands of a father, though it should expose him to hazard; the servant who obeys his master, when obedience is attended with risk of life; the soldier, when he is morally certain that to obey will be followed by death. Thus many a company or platoon has been ordered into the “deadly breach,” or directed to storm a redoubt, or to scale a wall, or to face a cannon, when it was morally certain that death would be the consequence. No profounder spirit of obedience can be evinced than this. It should be said, however, that the obedience of the soldier is in many cases scarcely voluntary, since, if he did not obey, death would be the penalty. But in the case of the Redeemer, it was wholly voluntary. He placed himself in the condition of a servant to do the will of God, and then never shrank from what that condition involved. "Copy and paste the address below into your web browser in order to go to the original page which will allow you to access live links related to the material on this page - these links include Scriptures (which can be read in context), Scripture pop-ups on mouse over, and a variety of related resources such as Bible dictionary articles, commentaries, sermon notes and theological journal articles related to the topic under discussion." http://www.preceptaustin.org/philippians_28-11.htm#o

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Obedient (5255) hupekoos

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