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THE PRACTICAL RESPONSE, `WORTHY'
21
The Practical Response.
Axios `Worthy'.
In following out the usage of the many precious lines of thought which the inspired vocabulary of acceptance
contains, we have occasionally been obliged to draw attention to the practical reflection in life and conduct that such
acceptance in the Beloved calls for. Our main quest has been the pursuit of all that the Scripture has said that
explains how and what and in Whom, such acceptance is found.
We do not pretend that we have in any sense exhausted such an inexhaustible theme, neither have we examined
every possible term or word, but in the main the reader can feel assured that the material already exhibited covers
the ground of our acceptance Godward. We now turn our attention to the passages and terms which look to the
believer, his life, his walk and his service, for some manifestation of the fact that such a glorious acceptance is really
his.
Let us commence with the well-known exhortations that include the word `worthy'. With one exception,
namely, that of Acts 24:2 the New Testament translation `worthy' represents the Greek words axios, axiωs, axioo,
kataxioomai, anaxion, anaxios and hikanos, a word already studied.
Ago `to lead' is the root from which a most wonderful group of words arise, words like angel, evangel, promise,
synagogue, access, &c. One of the meanings attached to ago by the Greeks was the idea of `weighing' as agein
menan, `to weigh a mina, where the accusative is the weight which the thing "weighs" or "draws down"'.
Axios means strictly `weighing as much', and so comes to mean `of the value', `worth as much as', &c, This
suggested to us the figure of a pair of balances, as a means of demonstrating the perfect balance of truth found in the
epistle to the Ephesians. This figure is given in `The Testimony of the Lord's Prisoner', and forms the basis of a
series of articles in The Berean Expositor vols. 33, 34, 36, entitled `Truth in the Balance'. Axios occurs forty-one
times in the New Testament and is translated `worthy' thirty-five times and `meet' four times, `due reward' and with
the negative `unworthy'. Axios occurs five times in the Roman reports upon the apostle, that he had committed
nothing `worthy of death or of bonds'.
The underlying idea of comparison is seen in such a statement as `I reckon that the sufferings of the present time
are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us' (Rom.8:18), and the figure of weighing in
a balance that axios conveys here, is augmented by the parallel passage of 2 Corinthians 4:17, where the apostle
actually takes the balance of the sanctuary, and speaks of `light' affliction as compared with a `weight' of glory. The
apostle exhorted the Ephesians, whose high and holy calling has been much before us, `to walk worthy'; he exhorted
the Philippians to conduct themselves `as becometh' the gospel of Christ and he exhorted the Colossians, who had
been made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, `to walk worthy' of the Lord.
The walk that `balances' the calling of Ephesians will be marked with lowliness, meekness, longsuffering and
forbearance in love (Eph. 4:1,2); and it will actively `endeavour' to keep the sacred unity of the Spirit.
The `conversation' that balanced `the gospel of Christ', would include a standing fast with one mind, striving
together for the faith of the gospel, in nothing terrified by adversaries (Phil. 1:27,28), while the walk that was in any
sense `worthy of the Lord' was associated with knowledge and acknowledgment, with fruit, good works and increase
*
(Col. 1:9,10).
This worthy walk represents one of the many practical responses to the purpose of God Who hath made us
`accepted in the Beloved'. We have several other passages to consider before we conclude, and we trust that the
reader is so convinced of the essential element of `balance' in the Scriptures, that he will desire to learn as much
about the practical outworking of truth as about the privilege that goes before it.
*
For fuller consideration of this passage and for light upon the word `knowledge' the reader is directed to a series
in The Berean Expositor vol. 36, entitled `Acknowledgment'.