series: kairos
title: time
date: January 7, 2018
teacher: Jacob Bender
scriptures: Galatians 6:9, Matthew 4:3, Romans 11:29, Matthew 26, 1 Timothy 6:15
The Courage Church verse for 2018 is Galatians 6:9
There are two Greek words that are translated as "time" - and they could not be any more different from each other. The two words are "chronos" (where we get the word chronological from) and "kairos" - both were considered Greek gods, and had many statues and paintings characterizing them that give us significant details into the way that the Greeks saw these two words. (Remember, the majority of the New Testament is written in Greek)
Chronos
in any painting or statue depicting the word “chronos” you will find an OLD man with a scythe (it is a tool meant for reaping crops and trimming grass, but the imagery implies it to be used as a weapon, similar to that of the Grim Reaper…) chronos always had the scythe AND HE ALWAYS HAD AN HOUR GLASS… it carried with it this idea that TIME IS TICKING… that each moment lived is a moment closer to death… closer to the end. it had this implication that time was coming for you.
Because time was, to an extent, considered the enemy.
Tomorrow wasn’t better than today… tomorrow was another day closer to death.
kairos
but “kairos” was different.
“Kairos” was depicted as a much younger man, but the man has a lot of hair on the front of his head, but is bald in the back of his head. He had a blade in his right hand, and he had WINGS on his back AND wings on his feet. It personified the ability to go anywhere… the ability to fly. To me, when I see it, I think “the ability to change my circumstances, no matter where I find myself today”
and the idea behind the hair in the front, but bald in the back is this… it was said that kairos is “a favourable opportunity opposing the fate of man”
so when it feels like your life is controlled by chronos… like the walls are closing in on you, and time is slipping away, kairos will be that moment that can redeem time, that one thing that can make it all okay…
So let's look at "kairos" - because there is a reason that Paul chose this word in this passage, Galatians 6:9, our verse for 2018.
When we sow into the Kingdom of God, we do it not for what we will get in return, but because of the eternal value of the impact that seed will make is so much bigger than this world or this life.