Pondering Life : Pursuing God

My Pondering

In Christianity, “logos” refers to the Word of God as found in the Bible, and also to the divine reason or wisdom that created the universe. “Rhema” on the other hand, refers to a specific word or message that is revealed by the Holy Spirit to an individual for a particular situation or circumstance. Logos is the MACRO general and overall message of the Bible, while rhema is a MICRO specific message for a particular moment.

Logos helps us with our designed general purpose; the overarching will of God. An good example is God’s top two commands which are to love God and love people, as Jesus said.

Rhema therefore would then a specific guidance of who, what and how to love a specific person or do something unique or special for God.

LOGOS

logos:
Original Word: λόγος, ου, ὁ
Part of Speech: Noun, Masculine
Transliteration: logos
Phonetic Spelling: (log’-os)
Definition: a word (as embodying an idea), a statement, a speech
Usage: a word, speech, divine utterance, analogy.

From lego;
something said (including the thought);
by implication, a topic (subject of discourse), also reasoning (the mental faculty) or motive; by extension, a computation; specially, (with the article in John) the Divine Expression (i.e. Christ) — account, cause, communication, X concerning, doctrine, fame, X have to do, intent, matter, mouth, preaching, question, reason, + reckon, remove, say(-ing), shew, X speaker, speech, talk, thing, + none of these things move me, tidings, treatise, utterance, word, work.

Strong’s Concordance

HELPS Word-studies re LOGOS

Lógos (from légō, “speaking to a conclusion”) – a word, being the expression of a thought; a saying.

lógos (“word”) is preeminently used of Christ (Jn 1:1), expressing the thoughts of the Father through the Spirit.

lógos is a common term (used 330 times in the NT) with regards to a person sharing a message (discourse, “communication-speech”). Logos is a broad term meaning “reasoning expressed by words.”]

Hebrews 4:12: For the word (logos) of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, even penetrating as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

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RHEMA

rhéma:
Original Word: ῥῆμα, ατος, τό
Part of Speech: Noun, Neuter
Transliteration: rhéma
Phonetic Spelling: (hray’-mah)
Definition: a word, by implication a matter
Usage: a thing spoken, (a) a word or saying of any kind, as command, report, promise, (b) a thing, matter, business.

saying, word.
From rheo; an utterance (individually, collectively or specially),; by implication, a matter or topic (especially of narration, command or dispute); with a negative naught whatever — + evil, + nothing, saying, word.

Strong’s Concordance

HELPS Word-studies re Rhema

rhḗma (from 4483 /rhéō, “to speak”) – a spoken word, made “by the living voice” (J. Thayer).

Rhema is the (“spoken-word”) is commonly used in the NT for the Lord speaking His dynamic, living word in a believer to inbirth faith (“His inwrought persuasion”).

Romans 10:17: “So faith proceeds from (spiritual) hearing; moreover this hearing (is consummated) through a rhēma-word from Christ” – Greek text

[See also Gal 3:2,5 which refers to “the hearing of faith” (Gk text) – i.e. a spiritual hearing that goes with the divine inbirthing of faith.]

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Summary

Logos and Rhema are similar yet different, they are a wonderful dichotomy of the Word of God, which is the will of God. The Word of God is the essence of God. One of Jesus’s glorious and many names is the Word of God as He is the expression of the Father, the exact representation of God. Understanding logos and rhema help us understand God but as always, let us not get overwhelmed by human words and be underwhelmed by the wonder and magnitude of God’s awesome splendor no two words nor no two trillion words could fully describe our Creator.