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`Made meet' (Col. 1:12).
The sufficiency that reaches heaven's highest standard.
One of the features of our acceptance in the Beloved, for which the apostle calls for thanksgiving, is the fact that
`He hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light'.
Hikanoo, the Greek verb `to make meet' is particularly interesting in its derivation and associations. We must go
back as far as the verb hiko `to come', a word in use in the classics, but not found in the New Testament. From hiko
we get the lengthened form hikano which means not only `to come' but `to come to', `to arrive', `to reach', and from
this word comes the New Testament hikanoo `to make meet, to make fit, to make sufficient, to qualify'. From
hikanoo comes hikanos which is translated `sufficient', `worthy', `enough', and by an easy transition `much', `many',
`great' and `long'. The word is found in combination with various prefixes, in the following ways :
Aphikneomai `Your obedience is come abroad' (Rom. 16:19).
Aphixis `I know this, that after my departing' (Acts 20:29).
Diikneomai `Piercing even to the dividing asunder' (Heb. 4:12).
Ephikneomai `To reach ` as though we reached' (2 Cor. 10:13,14).
There are other variations but the above will suffice. In every case, one can sense the root meaning `to reach'.
We return with this idea which has been confirmed to us, to the simpler words hikanos, hikanotes, and hikanoo.
The number of times any particular Greek word is translated .by any particular English word, does not provide a
gauge that is at all scientific, but it serves to give a general indication, which is all we seek at the moment.
Hikanos is translated by a surprisingly great number of single words, like `able', `enough', which are used but
once. Apart from the word `many' by which hikanos is translated ten times, and `much' six times, the two words that
best express the meaning of hikanos, are `worthy' and `sufficient'. We therefore give the occurrence of these.
Hikanos `worthy'. `Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear' (Matt. 3:11; Mk. 1:7; Luke 3:16); `I am not worthy
that Thou shouldest come' (Matt. 8:8; Luke 7:6).
Hikanos `sufficient'. `Sufficient to such a man is this punishment' (2 Cor. 2:6); `And who is sufficient for these
things' (2 Cor. 2:16); `Not that we are sufficient of ourselves' (2 Cor. 3:5).
Hikanotes `sufficiency'. `Our sufficiency is of God' (2 Cor. 3:5).
Hikanoo. `Who also hath made us able ministers' (2 Cor. 3:6); `The Father, which hath made us meet'
(Col. 1:12).
Sufficient! It is said of all men that by nature they have `come short'. We can but slightly estimate the high
demands that must he made before any soul shall be accounted `worthy' to stand in the presence of the Holy God,
yet we are assured that whatever claim holiness or righteousness, or truth or love may demand, this will be met, and
all by grace, and all by the sacrifice of the Son of God. We shall `reach' the standard, even though it be the despair
of angels. We shall not be `found wanting', for our sufficiency is not of ourselves but of God. To intensify the
consciousness of need and at the same time magnify the blessed provision, Colossians 1:12 tells us that we have
been made meet or sufficient, or that we shall reach the standard demanded, `to be partakers of the inheritance of the
saints in light'.
The term `of the saints' we leave for a fuller enquiry, we focus our adoring attention on the words `in light'. We
were `sometimes' darkness, and produced as do others the `unfruitful works of the darkness of this world'. But God
Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has repeated the miracle of Genesis 1, `and hath shined in our
hearts' to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We therefore who were
once darkness, are now `light in the Lord' and are called `the children of light' down here, a faint reflection of the
transcendent brightness of that glory in whose light we shall stand `holy, unblameable, unreproveable', `not having
spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing', but `accepted in the Beloved'.