Proof (prove character, ordeal) (1382) dokime

Proven character (1382) (dokime) (Click for in depth study of the related verb dokimazo) can describe a trial, test or ordeal (2Co 8:2). More commonly in the NT it describes the quality of having stood the test. BDAG says that "enduring something amounts to a test that promotes and validates the character of the one undergoing it." Dokime in secular Greek was used to describe metals that had been tested and been determined to be pure. The idea of dokime is that when you put the metal through a fiery test and if it comes out on the other side "persevering and enduring", you call the metal proven, authentic or genuine. That is the sense of dokime in Romans 5:3,4. When you go through tribulation, and your faith is tested, and if you persevere, what you get is a wonderful sense of authenticity. You have "proof" that your faith is real for it has been tested and has stood the test. Vine comments that Dokime, when used in an active sense, denotes “a proving,” “a trial” (as in 2 Cor. 8:2); but here (Ro 5:4) it has its other meaning, of approval, as a result of proving (see also 2Cor 2:9; 9:13; Php 2:22), the condition of one who is conscious of having endured tribulations effectually, the spiritual state that results being in accordance with God’s designs. (Vine, W. Collected writings of W. E. Vine. Nashville: Thomas Nelson) Barclay... Dokime is used of metal which has been passed through the fire so that everything base has been purged out of it. It is used of coinage as we use the word sterling. When affliction is met with fortitude, out of the battle a man emerges stronger, and purer, and better, and nearer God. Richards... The word group from which dokime comes draws our attention to testing as a means of determining genuineness and thus as a grounds for giving approval. Dokime is the quality of being approved and thus of having a demonstrated character... Words in this family (dokimazo, dokime, dokimos, or adokimos) emphasize that the test is designed to display the genuineness of that which is tried. Dokime refers to a person who has successfully sustained the fiery test (eg, Timothy - Php 2:22-note). He has learned that by God's grace he can endure. "I have trusted God in the middle of the trouble and found that God is faithful!" In short, afflictions borne patiently show a Christian what he or she really is "made of". And so in the present context dokime refers to tried integrity or a state of mind which has stood the test. The related verb dokimazo means “to put to the test for the purpose of approving, and finding that the person tested meets the specifications, to put one’s approval upon him.” This approved character produces in turn and increasing degree of hope, of absolute certainty that the Lord will do good to us in the future! (see index below to in depth study of this "blessed hope") Dokime - 7x in 6v - NAS = ordeal(1), proof(2), proven character(2), proven worth(1), test(1). Romans 5:4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 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. 2Corinthians 8:2 that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. 2Corinthians 9:13 Because of the proof given by this ministry, they will glorify God for your obedience to your confession of the gospel of Christ and for the liberality of your contribution to them and to all, 2Corinthians 13:3 since you are seeking for proof of the Christ who speaks in me, and who is not weak toward you, but mighty in you. Philippians 2:22-note But you know of his [Timothy's] proven worth, that he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father. Amy Carmichael in Candles in the Dark -- The best training is to learn to accept everything as it comes, as from Him whom our soul loves. The tests are always unexpected things, not great things that can be written up, but the common little rubs of life, silly little nothings, things you are ashamed of minding (at all) (Ed: As I disciple men and women, I refer to these as "Pop Tests", for most people have experienced these in school. The sovereign God allows and/or sends "Pop tests" perfectly calculated by Him to "test" our character. Will we yield and submit to the Spirit ["Act" based on truth] or will we "react" from our natural inclinations, our old flesh nature?) Yet they can knock a strong man over and lay him very low. Wayne Barber explains proven character noting that... The verb (katergazomai [word study]) is still implied (and can be paraphrased0 "brings out, works out" proven character. Suffering is a part of every believer’s life, just like it’s a part of anybody else in this world, except that we have persecution thrown in. The difference is we have the ability to endure. When we are able to bear up under in the power God gives us to bear up under, that proves something, not only to us but also to the world of what we really are. It proves the fact that we’ve been justified by our faith. I’ve always said, "Put a Christian under pressure, and you’ll find out what they’re made of." Pressure is God’s classroom. The whole world suffers, but to us it becomes a classroom. The term "proven character" is really the word dokime. It means to prove something, approve something. It’s the word Paul used in Philippians 2:22 when Paul spoke about Timothy. He said, "But you know of his proven worth that he served me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father." He’s been proven. It’s the same word. It’s also used in James 1:12-note; when James says, "Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him." It’s a proving of something. When you depend upon the Lord you find something out about yourself, but you also find out something about Him that you could have known in no other way. Peter says in 1Peter 1:6 (note), "In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, that the proof [same word] of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." We need to understand how important suffering is to us so we don’t start shaking our fist in God’s face the next time something difficult happens in our life. It’s like a refiner’s fire. Do you know what a refiner’s fire was? When a silversmith melted silver he would put it into a pot and heat that pot and heat that pot. It would get hotter and hotter and hotter, and finally the dross that’s in that silver would come to the surface. He would take a ladle and throw it off. When the silversmith could look into the pot and see himself, then he would cool the fire. Somebody said, "Having gone through the fire, it has become silver." I disagree. It was silver before it ever went in the fire, but it was the fire that burned off all the things that had been hiding what it really was. When Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego went through the fiery furnace in the book of Daniel, the only things that burned on them were the things that bound them. It didn’t singe a hair on their heads. They didn’t even have the smell of smoke on them. When we go through these things it proves what we are. How many Christians are fighting against the very thing God is trying to use to prove Himself, who you are and what He has given you in the Holy Spirit of God? This is a tremendous truth of this brand new relationship that we have with God. It is no wonder James could say, "Count it all joy, brethren, when you encounter various trials." If you read that without knowing Romans, you would think he had lost his mind. Who wants to thank God for trials? This is why Paul said in 1Th 5:18 (note), "in everything give thanks." He also wrote in Ep 5:20 (note), "always giving thanks for all things." It’s not only IN it but FOR it, because he knows something. Whatever goes on in your life or in my life, God is using it as a refiner’s fire to prove what we are, to prove to us who He is, and to show us how much He loves us. Suffering (affliction) is the classroom the believer goes through. Everyone in the world suffers, but Ro 8:17 (note) says we suffer with Christ. That’s the difference. We are not suffering alone. I’ve been justified by faith; therefore, He lives in me (Col 1:27, Gal 2:20). He goes through it with me (cp Heb 2:18). That’s the difference between a person in the world and a person who knows Jesus Christ. If we could see suffering from God’s point of view, we would stand up and rejoice in our suffering. We would begin to understand that we talk about things we have, but we don’t have a clue what that means in our life. Why? Because we fight Him through the valleys. We say, "God, why did You do this?" God’s looking back at you and saying, "Wait a minute. Don’t you eternally stand in My favor? It is for your good that I am doing this. I’m using it to shape you into the image of My Son, Jesus Christ. That’s the most incredible message in Romans 5 for the believer that you can find. The world would stand up and defy everything I am saying. "Ah! God must be a cruel god to make us live like we live." God is the greatest god you can ever be around. The problem is they are looking at it from their perspective, not from His. So, it proves us; it proves Him to us, us to ourselves and gives us a witness to people who are all around us. Suffering, persecution, you name it. All of that has to do with God’s loving us in this life. If you didn’t go through it, you would have nothing to say on the other end of it. Barnes explains this process writing that dokime refers to... "that thorough examination by which we ascertain the quality or nature of a thing, as when we test a metal by fire, or in any other way, to ascertain that it is genuine. It also means approbation, or the result of such a trial; the being approved, and accepted as the effect of a trying process. The meaning is, that long afflictions borne patiently show a Christian what he is; they test his religion, and prove that it is genuine. Afflictions are often sent for this purpose, and patience in the midst of them shows that the religion which can sustain them is from God... (Afflictions) show that religion is genuine; that it is from God; and not only so, but they direct the mind onward to another world (exult in the hope), and sustain the soul by the prospect of a glorious immortality there." (Romans 5) James writes a similar motivating truth... "Blessed is a man who perseveres (hupomone - present tense = continually, habitually) under trial (peirasmos); for once he has been approved (dokimos), he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him." (James 1:12-note) In a parallel truth, Peter encourages his suffering readers... In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if (since it is) necessary (to prepare us for glory), you have been distressed by various ("sized and shaped" - same word in 1Pe 4:10 describes "manifold grace" - right size and shape of grace for every trial!) trials (peirasmos), that the proof (dokimon) of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1Pe 1:6, 7-see notes 1Pe 1:6; 1:7). In short, Christians can boast and rejoice in tribulations (Acts 5:41, cf Acts 14:22) fully confident of what those tribulations are guaranteed to produce. This truth is another facet of the diamond called the Good News or the Gospel. Let us stand firm therefore and gird our minds for action (1Pe 1:13-note), disciplining ourselves for godliness (1Ti 4:7-note), for such discipline is profitable not only for the present age but for that to come! (1Ti 4:8-note) And so for a believer, trials work FOR and NOT AGAINST us. No amount of suffering can separate us from the Lord, for as Paul asks Who (or what) shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? (Ro 8:35-note) In point of truth, trials actually bring us closer to our Lord and make us more like Him. Suffering builds Christ-like character, a character that has been tested and received God's seal of approval! When you put metal through a fiery testing and it comes out on the other side persevering and enduring, what you call that metal is "proven" or "authentic" or "genuine" and that is the idea of this section. When you go through tribulation, and your faith is tested, and it bears up under the load of the difficult circumstance and results in the finished product, a wonderful sense of authenticity. You know beyond doubt that your faith is genuine for it has been tested and has stood the test with perseverance. Your faith is therefore real, authentic, proven, genuine. Cranfield adds that... "the quality of provedness which is possessed by faith when it has stood up to testing, like the precious metal which is left when the base metals have been refined away” The idea is that sufferings are like a test which, when endured by the strength which God supplies (the enabling power of the indwelling Spirit), results in a quality of life and character that has been tempered and purified and demonstrated to be pleasing to God. Paul is probably drawing on a well established theme of Jewish wisdom—the idea of testing, particularly that of proving gold by testing it with fire. In Proverbs 17:3 Solomon writes that... "The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests hearts." The Septuagint (Greek of the Hebrew) reads "As silver and gold are continuously tried (dokimazo) in a furnace, so are choice hearts with the Lord." Ray Stedman: We have all seen the tire advertisements on television. A car is equipped with four tires and is put through horrendous tests -- driven through desert sands, bogs, swamps, and marshes, driven over rough, hard, cobblestone roads, over roads with holes and chuck-holes, over boards studded with nails. The tire is twisted and pulled and stretched in every direction, and you are amazed at what that tire can take! After the test is over, they hold the tire up and it looks like it's never been out of its wrapping! Then the ad comes: "Buy Sock'em Tires! They're tested, proven!" Now that is what this word character means. God is building you up so he can hold you up and say, "He's approved, he's tested." God is in the process of making veterans. I have always liked that word. A veteran has been through something and has been tested and proven. (Read full text of Rejoicing in Suffering) AND PROVEN CHARACTER, HOPE: e de dokime elpida: (See detailed chart discussion on hope) STUDY ON THE BLESSED HOPE (click links below) The Blessed Hope: Part 1 The Blessed Hope: Definition The Blessed Hope: Source of The Blessed Hope: Part 2 The Blessed Hope: Stabilizing Effect The Blessed Hope: Sanctifying Effect Other resources on the Blessed Hope That hope does not put the believer to shame (NAS = "disappoint" in Ro 5:5) suggests that, on the contrary, being freed from illusion and despair, he is able to go boldly on his course through this life, knowing that he will not be disappointed. How does "proven character" bring about hope? Isn't the answer that when your faith has been tried in affliction, and persevered, and thus proven genuine and authentic you know you are real and not a fake Christian and that undergirds you hope (certainty) that you really are a child of God and will inherit God's glory. In other words, one of the great obstacles to a full and strong hope in the glory of God is the fear that we are hypocrites - that our faith is not real and that we just inherited it from our parents and have been motivated by things that are not honoring to God. One of the purposes of suffering and affliction is to give us victory over those fears and make us full of stable hope and confidence as the children of God. Hendriksen writes that... It is immediately clear that consciousness, on their part, of the fact that they have sustained the test, so that God’s approval rests on them, will strengthen their hope. (Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. NT Commentary Set. Baker Book or Logos) Morris adds that... the Christian who has been tested has proved God’s faithfulness and will surely hope the more confidently. (Morris, L. The Epistle to the Romans. W. B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press) Cranfield explained that... To have one's faith proved by God in the fires of tribulation and sustained by Him so as to stand the test is to have one's hope in Him and in the fulfilment of His promises, one's hope of His glory (Ro 5:2), strengthened and confirmed. MacArthur adds that... The more a believer pursues holiness, the more he is persecuted and troubled and the greater will be his hope as he is sustained through it all by God’s powerful grace. (MacArthur, J: Romans 1-8. Chicago: Moody Press or Logos) Denney comments that... The experience of what God can do, or rather of what He does, for the justified amid the tribulations of this life, animates into new vigor the hope with which the life of faith begins. Ray Stedman writes: "Suffering produces character. Character (gradually growing into true manhood and womanhood) makes us hope, for we see that the job is being done, and we know that God is at work and that we need not stand at last ashamed and disappointed before Jesus Christ when he comes. All this, Paul says, is because God loves us -- so, when suffering comes, it is not a mark of God's anger; it is a mark of his love. That is what Hebrews 12:5ff says, doesn't it? Every son whom God receives, he chastens because he loves him -- not because he hates him -- but because he loves him {cf, Heb12:6}. Therefore, there is no necessity to cry out, and say, "Oh, what have I done? What have I done, that God should treat me like this?" We think that God is interested in getting a certain amount of work done in this world, and we think that the work is the important thing to God, but it is not so. God doesn't need us to do the work that he wants done in the world. He can do that with a rock, or a stone, or a child, or a tree -- it makes no difference. Did not Jesus say, when the Pharisees rebuked the crowds for praising him as he rode into the city of Jerusalem on the triumphal entry -- did not he say to them, "Look, if these should hold their peace, the very stones would cry out," {cf, Lk19:40}. That is, God can use anything to do his work. This isn't what he is interested in. He is interested in our lives -- it is what the work does to us, it is what life is doing to us. It is our character that God is after, and this is why (in love) he introduces suffering, tribulation, trials, disappointments, and anguish into our lives. These are an indispensable part of the process. Oh, I wish we could see that! These things come because he loves us, and because he has given the Holy Spirit to us to do this very work in our lives. Let me share with you a brief word from Amy Carmichael; some of you know of her great work out in India. She was a woman who suffered greatly through her life, but accomplished tremendous things for God in southern India. She writes this under the title, The Shadowed Way: He said, "I will forget the dying faces; The empty places -- They shall be filled again. O voices mourning deep within me, cease." But vain the word; vain, vain: Not in forgetting lieth peace. He said, "I will crowd action upon action, The strife of faction Shall stir me and sustain; Oh, tears that drown the fire of manhood, cease." But vain the word; vain, vain: Not in endeavor lieth peace. He said, "I will withdraw me and be quiet, Why meddle in life's riot? Shut be my door to pain. Desire, thou doest befool me, thou shalt cease." But vain the word; vain, vain: Not in aloofness lieth peace. He said, "I will submit; I am defeated, God hath depleted My life of its rich gain. Oh futile murmurings, why will ye not cease?" But vain the word; vain, vain: Not in submission lieth peace. He said, "I will accept the breaking sorrow Which God tomorrow Will to his son explain." Then did the turmoil deep with him cease. Not vain the word, not vain, For in acceptance lieth peace. Do you know what that means? It means that the mark of a Christian who has grown to maturity, the mark of a spiritual Christian, is that he accepts everything that happens to him, without exception, as coming from the hand of the Lord into his life, and rejoices in what it is doing to him. (1Th 5:18-note). So, if you are a Christian, NO CIRCUMSTANCE OF YOUR LIFE happens to you EXCEPT that it comes BY THE CHOICE OF GOD. Now, it is true that HE may use Satan, and Satan does attack us, but NEVER without the permission of Christ. Once Peter came to the Lord, trying, in his blindness, to defend Christ, and Christ said to him, ""Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers" {cf, Lk 22:31,32}. This is what God brings us to. This is the mark of the spiritual Christian. "Well," you say, "I know that I can't do it. I have tried this. I can endure, but I can't rejoice. And, I get awfully upset by these pious Christians who go around with a smile screwed on their faces and pretend like they are enjoying suffering." I don't blame you! I get upset at this too. But this isn't any pretense. When Paul speaks about rejoicing in suffering, he is speaking about GENUINELY REJOICING IN SUFFERING. You see, the problem is that perhaps you don't see, yet, what is behind this -- what will make it possible -- and this is what we need to see. This answer is briefly stated for us in these next verses as the two sources of our hope [Ro 5:6-11]: In Ro 5:2, Paul spoke of "rejoicing in hope," the hope of sharing the glory of God, a hope for the future beyond death. But here is hope that we will share the glory of God, which is God's character, right now. We have the hope that God is producing the image of Christ in us right now. That's a great thing! And this hope is a certainty, not just a possibility. We are being changed. We see ourselves changing. We are becoming more like Jesus. We can see that we are more thoughtful, more compassionate, more loving. We are being mellowed. We are becoming like Christ -- stronger, wiser, purer, more patient. To our amazement, a certainty grows in our hearts that God is doing his work just as he promised. He is transforming us into the image of his Son. (Click Faith Faces Life for complete sermon) Romans 5:5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (NASB: Lockman) Greek: e de elpis ou kataischunei, (3SPAI) hoti e agape tou theou ekkechutai (3SRPI) en tais kardiais hemon dia pneumatos hagiou tou dothentos (APPNSG) hemin Amplified: Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us. (Amplified Bible - Lockman) Barclay: and hope does not prove an illusion, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given unto us. (Westminster Press) NLT: And this expectation will not disappoint us. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. (NLT - Tyndale House) Phillips: a hope that will never disappoint us. Already we have some experience of the love of God flooding through our hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us. (Phillips: Touchstone) Wuest: And this hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts and still floods them through the agency of the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Eerdmans) Young's Literal: and the hope doth not make ashamed, because the love of God hath been poured forth in our hearts through the Holy Spirit that hath been given to us. AND (biblical) HOPE DOES NOT (never, ever) DISAPPOINT (ashamed): e de elpis ou kataischunei (3SPAI): (Job 27:8; Ps 22:4,5; Isa 28:15, 16, 17, 18; 45:16,17; 49:23; Jer 17:5, 6, 7, 8; Phil 1:20; 2Th 2:16; 2Ti 1:12; Heb 6:18,19) Jeremiah writes... Blessed is the man that trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD. (Why?) For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, that spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat comes, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be anxious in the year of drought, nor cease from yielding fruit. (Jer 17:7-8) Paul prayed on the basis of the assurance of this hope... Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word. (2Th 2:16,17) John Piper writes that that Paul addresses two threats to the assurance of our salvation... One was that our faith might be fake, and the fire of tribulation is a gift to prove us and show us to ourselves that we are real. The other is that the object of our faith might be fake. What if we make it through tribulation with proven faith and growing hope, and in the end that hope proves to have been built on sand? We thought God loved us, but it turns out he didn't? That is what Paul addresses in verse 5. He says that God has provided a remedy for this kind of doubt and fretting. He calls it the pouring out of the love of God within our hearts. I take the phrase "love of God" in verse 5 ("the love of God has been poured out within our hearts") to refer mainly to God's love for us, not our love for God... Whatever else we say about this experience, let this be said: it is not decisively the work of man, but the work of God. It is supernatural. It is not finally in our power. It is not the product of mere circumstances. It is not owing to a good family of origin. It is owing to the Holy Spirit. You don't make it happen. The Holy Spirit makes it happen. It's his work. There is something deeply wrong when we have become so naturalistic and so psychologized that we think a person with a traumatic, abusive background cannot know the love of God experientially. We give the impression that knowing the love of God is really a matter of good upbringing. But when we take this so far that we obscure the main and glorious truth that knowing the love of God experientially is the sovereign, supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, we have taken it too far. To balance things out, consider this: is it not also likely that many healthy, well-adjusted, productive adults from self-assured families mistake their own natural sense of well-being for the love of God, and are therefore worse off spiritually than the broken person who, beyond all expectation, has tasted the love of God by the power of the Holy Spirit? (Click Romans 5:3-8 for full sermon) "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/romans_54-5.htm#c

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Proof (prove character, ordeal) (1382) dokime

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